• Ludwig van Beethoven was rarely seen without his notebook. Even when he was enjoying a beer with friends, he might suddenly pull out his notebook to jot down an idea that just occurred to him, creating a treasure of ideas.
• Pliny the Younger wrote that even on a hun...

Marcus Aurelius seems to have done his journaling first thing in the morning. He would note what he was likely to face in the day ahead.

Putting his own thinking down on paper let him see it from a distance. It gave him objectivity amidst anxiety and frust...

Write down what strikes you, quotes that motivate you, stories that inspire you for later use in your life, business, writing, speaking, or whatever it is that you do.

Tobias Wolf wrote that he had a separate journal he called a "commonplace book" that is a collection of q...

• You can bring your problems to a journal. Journaling is you figuring things out and clearing your head.
• Leave your destructive thoughts in your journal. We all carry around destructive thoughts about the things that went wrong. Instead of holding o...

• Seneca did most of his journaling and reflection in the evening. He examined his entire day and would go back over what he said and done, hiding nothing. Then he would ask himself whether his actions had been just and what he could improve.
• Winston Churchill would...