This Is the Journaling Template for People Who Don’t Have Time to Journal

The one-page template consists of — you guessed it — four corners: gratitude, goal commitment, and a daily review (what went well and what didn’t). Here’s what it looks like for me:

The upper left corner is where you apply The Three Good Things — a count-your-blessing practice that can improve psychological wellbeing. Simply start with “I’m thankful for…” and then list at least three things you’re grateful for that day.

The upper right corner is where you remind yourself of who you want to become or what you want to achieve. Research shows that the more you clarify and feel connected with your future self, the more you’re “willing to make choices today that may benefit [you] at some point in the years to come.” In this section, write “2021 [your name].” Then write down what you hope to become by the end of the year.

The most brilliant advice on how to manage yourself "Pause for five minutes at the end of every day and just think about what happened that day.” Every initiative could be evaluated using two columns: What worked and what didn’t work?

This framework has proved to be working intuitive and straightforward. Best of all, it required us to focus only on the things that were within our control.

Apply this framework to journaling and you’ll be forced to think about your behavior — what was it that you did that day that worked or didn’t?

For example, maybe you folded your laundry while listening in on a Zoom seminar. This kept you from scrolling through Twitter, so you successfully paid attention to the meeting and ticked off a household chore. That worked. But maybe you also intended to hit 2,000 steps after lunch. Instead, you delayed it to after your work day. Your last meeting took longer than expected, leaving you with no time to go for a walk. That did not work.

Journaling doesn’t need to be fancy, complicated, or long-winded. What’s important is that it does the job and is done regularly. Find what works for you and feel yourself becoming closer to the person you want to become, one page at a time.