Make It a Regular Practice

• When you keep a journal, you can look back on important life events to read about how you felt at the time. You may also be able to learn from these past experiences.
• Writing about traumatic events results in physical and psychological health benefits. Journaling focuses on understanding traumatic events and makes people see these events with an extra level of clarity.

Start your daily journal off on the right foot by scheduling your writing for a set time every day.

• If you find your mind is most active in the morning, wake up 15 to 20 minutes earlier and jot down your thoughts then.
• If you prefer to record everything after the day is over, then make it an evening activity before you go to bed.

Make a public commitment, to people who will hold you accountable. You don’t need to publish your writing each day, but just write at least 5 minutes a day.

It can be any type of writing and it doesn’t have to be good, so let go of your desire for perfection.

Setting your writing time during the morning is ideal as you haven’t gotten busy yet. But find what works for you and treat this appointment as unmissable.

The reason why we don’t do anything useful with our time is that we lack self-discipline.

But when you write every day, you strengthen your discipline. And you can transfer that better self-discipline to achieve anything in life.

Nothing will help you to get to know yourself more than translating your thoughts into words.

When you force yourself to write every day, you automatically become more aware of your thoughts. And self-awareness is one of the most important skills that predict career success.

We tend to underestimate incremental progress. Successful people have a willingness to set micro goals and focus on the process instead of the end goal. It is natural for many to miss this as they cannot see the immediate progress.

Writing daily can help in improving our mental health.

• It lowers anxiety
• It makes us feel present for that time
• A good habit that we enjoy makes us look forward to it
• It heals our painful experiences by making us see them objectively.

Professional writers rarely write for more than five or so hours a day because writing is mentally exhausting. This means you can get a lot done in a short amount of time.

You might not have five hours to write, but almost everyone has fifteen minutes. To keep yourself focused as you write, consider writing with a timer.

Many use email as a to-do list, which leaves them reacting to life instead of living it according to goals.

It’s difficult to write when you’re checking email every five minutes. Don’t check emails during your daily writing time.

Most people do not stick to their New Year's resolutions because they focus on the entire task.

By just focusing on the daily small steps, one is able to create a successful daily routine.

Dial back your goal for the New Year to be a more practical, pragmatic one, and your chances of success will rise dramatically.

Don't be too hard on yourself.

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.

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.

• Results come when you work at your craft consistently every day.
• It’s good to write first thing in the morning, as you are more creative upon waking.
• If you have a job, your writing should take place outside your work time. 
• Choose a “writing spot” and keep it consistent.

Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to follow advanced techniques early on. There is endless advice on writing, but in the beginning, all that matters is getting words onto the page every day.

Set small, easy to accomplish goals and build upon it. Focus not on the end result, but on the process. 

Break the project you don't want to start into smaller pieces.

Breaking it down into small tasks and adding those to your to-do list isn't exactly fun, but it is less overwhelming than working. And it's also useful: When you finally do get around to starting, you've got a strategy.

Clean something every time you don't want to get started on a work project. Don't listen to a podcast or turn on the radio. Just clean. Make it as boring as possible, so that your mind wanders.

This does two things: it delays actually working on your project and it gives you time to think, possibly generating ideas that will come in handy whenever you get back to the project you're trying to put off.