deepstash
Beta
8 Ways to Stop Thinking About Journaling and Actually Start Journaling
Do it Before You Get Out of Bed
Try grabbing your notebook as soon as your alarm goes off and writing for a few minutes before your feet even hit the ground.
This way you know it will get done, and the activity first thing in the morning may help wake your brain up.
222 SAVES
This is a professional note extracted from an online article.
Read more efficiently
Save what inspires you
Remember anything
IDEA EXTRACTED FROM:
6
Key Ideas
Do it Before You Get Out of Bed
Try grabbing your notebook as soon as your alarm goes off and writing for a few minutes before your feet even hit the ground.
This way you know it will get done, and the activity first thing in the morning may help wake your brain up.
Use an App
While many people recommend journaling in a physical notebook to give your brain a break from screens, if you’re having a hard time keeping up that practice, you can try using an app that you can whip out when you have an extra moment in the day.
Don’t Use Full Sentences
Feel free to have your journal as disjointed as you want.
Leo Babatua of ZenHabits says he only writes his journal in bullet points; just three to six per day. By making it this easy, he says it’s much more attainable for him to keep it up.
Write on a Calendar
Instead of getting a notebook to journal in, get a (large) desk calendar or date book, and then just challenge yourself to write a sentence or two every day, on that day.
This small amount of writing a day feels attainable. By writing it on a calendar, it’s very obvious when you’ve missed a day.
Make a Template
Sometimes the hardest part of journaling is staring at a blank page and not knowing what to write about.
Create a template that you follow every day. Maybe that’s writing three things you’re grateful for every day, or asking yourself a question each day, like “What can I do to make tomorrow better than today?” If it’s helpful, you can create printable journaling “worksheets” that lay out the activities you’ve promised yourself to do.
Find Fun Prompts
Find a bunch of interesting prompts that you’re excited to mull on and write about, and then spend each day journaling on a different one.
Search for “journaling prompts” and start collecting your favorites. Compile them all in a Word document or on the first page of your journal and work your way down the list.
SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
6
Key Ideas
Writing Daily
To build a habit of daily writing, try to get three pages of writing done every day. It can be about anything and it’s important that you write all without editing or censoring.
Dai...
Set Accountability Metrics
Come up with trackable goals like a number of words or pages per day. The specificity is important because being able to measure it allows you to keep track of your progress and better change your behavior.
Make It a Regular Practice
Keeping track of streaks is a very powerful tactic for developing any new habit. Knowing that you have consistently succeeded for a number of days helps you push through the days who are unmotivated.
Other ways to foster regularity: writing in a different style or genre, and doing your writing first thing in the morning.
3 more ideas
4
Key Ideas
Adjust Your Mindset
Your first notebook will be your learning notebook. Like any productivity method, it will take time to find a bullet journaling flow and structure that works for you.
Any creative en...
The first steps
- Get a Journal and Writing Utensils
- Start an Index Page: The backbone of your BuJo system, like a table of contents in a book
- Create Logs - places where you can brain-dump tasks, projects, goals
- Pick Signifiers: Many people use bullets for lists of tasks, circles for events, and dashes for notes.
- Document Items with Collections: Collections are running lists and anything you want to remember for later(like blog topics, books you want to read etc.)
The 3 common types of logs:
- A future log helps you keep track of items that aren’t yet on your immediate radar.
- Monthly logs include things like calendars and categorized goal lists for the next 30 days.
- Daily logs may includes entries of to-dos, meetings, and reminders.
one more idea
3
Key Ideas
Journaling as therapy
Labeling emotions and acknowledging traumatic events, both natural outcomes of journaling, have a known positive effect on people, and are often incorporated into traditional talk therapy.
Morning Pages
3 pages of longhand writing, strictly stream-of-conscious, done as soon as one wakes.
They are not meant to be art. Or even writing. They need not be smart, or funny, or particularly deep. It's a form of “brain drain”, a way to expel all that angry, petty stuff that spirals through our subconscious and muddies our days.
Benefits of Journaling
- Boost in mindfulness
- Better memory
- Better communication skills
- Improves mental health
- Better sleep
- A stronger immune system
- More self-confidence
- Higher I.Q.