This is part 2 of my post on journaling, if you haven’t already seen part 1, you can find it here, it’s the best place to start! 

What I Tested & My Journal Habit 

• The more research I did on the benefits of starting a journal the harder I found it to not give it a go. Despite having a fairly good idea about which type of journal would work best for me I gave each of them a go, and I’d highly recommend you do the same. 
• For me there were three specific things I was hoping to get out of / achieve from creating a journal writing habit: 
  • One of my biggest problems is not realising or appreciating the progress I have made, writing it down reminds me of all the things I’ve achieved – both small and big.  
  • As I mentioned in part 1, sometimes in stressful situations I can come across short and defensive, emotions that aren’t productive to have in such situations. Therefore, if I know that a stressful situation is likely to occur any given day journaling about this should allow me to be more conscious in the moment and address those emotions. 
  • Capturing more creative ways to solve problems and think about my future. Often, I find that I’m quite restrictive and unimaginative in my problem solving and ideation abilities, so I was keen to know if it was a case of having to unlock them or them just them not existing for me! 
• Having these key drivers defined upfront was important as it allowed me to evaluate the different journal options during my 100-day trail. The final core component for me was that I wanted to use pen and paper. I spend all day working on a computer so knew that move to a different medium would help me get out of work mode, and also reduce distractions.   
• After more than 100 days of testing different journal types I have settled on the Five-minute Journal as my daily journaling routine, with one important addition. Here are the key things I learned from the 100-day trail: 
  • I like having two touch points each day with the journal – which the five-minute journal provides – it encouraged me to actually read what I’d previously written instead of rushing to get down what I was thinking that exact second without that holistic thinking. 
  • I found the quick journal far too short, I couldn’t get down the essence of my thoughts in so few words, so the next time I looked I’d completely forgotten what I was trying to capture. 
  • For me the gratitude journal was too repetitive, it makes you feel good to think about the good things in your life each day but focusing solely on them– and feeling like you have to capture lots each time – made me uncreative and frustrated with the practice. I like how gratitude is one element of the whole in the five-minute journal. 
  • Morning pages came second to the five-minute journal in terms of my preference, I enjoyed the free form nature but found myself writing in a similar structure to the five-minute journal anyway, but without the twice daily touch points.  
  • In fact, because I enjoyed the free form nature of Morning Pages so much I’ve adapted my Five-Minute Journal to include a 6th element: Daily Conscious. The additional daily conscious element can be completed in the morning or the evening and allows a place to capture thoughts or perspectives on important things which may not have been covered in any of the other sections. 
• As I said at the start, this is just what is right for me right now, I’d highly recommend testing a few different options out before settling on one, or equally creating your own combined journal is another option! 

Ways to enhance the experience 

• Once you’ve experimented with the different journaling styles detailed above, chosen the best option(s) for you, and committed to making journaling a daily/weekly/monthly habit, the hardest part is over. However, there are a number of different things you can do to enhance the experience and ensure you are optimising your time, the 8 most effective I’ll cover now.  
  • Start with Gratitude – If you find yourself struggling to know what to say, especially common with morning pages, starting with gratitude is a great idea. I have no idea on the reasoning for why, but searching for gratitude often gets people searching through their recent memory in a more reflective and evaluating way.  
  • Write with confidence and power – Even if you struggle to show it in everyday situations, focus on bringing it through in your writing. This will help strengthen your resolve and may even help you develop it in more situations. 
  • Mediate before Journaling – For many successful people these two practices go hand-in-hand. Undertaking your daily meditation practice before journaling can help get your creative juices flowing, heighten your mental state and capture the things that would otherwise go around your mind all day. For more information on how I’ve incorporated a mediation practice into my daily routine, please see my article here. 
  • To improve relationships, write about people – By writing about the people in your life whose relationship you’d like to change or improve is a great way of making it happen. This is because by writing it down you spend time thinking about the situation more abstractly and more likely to see things from their perspective. It’s likely to throw up potential breakthroughs about how to improve those relationships. 
  • Don’t let perfect become the enemy of good – Nobodies journal is full of highly insightful and life changing prose and yours doesn’t need to be either. Fight the urge to edit and just let your conscious stream pour onto the page, whatever the quality. The only way to ‘improve’ is through practice, the same as everything else in life. 
  • Listen to music – Personally, this doesn’t work for me – although it does for writing blog posts or creating documents at work – but some people say listening to classical music helps them unlock their brains and get the words flowing.  
• Finally, because they are so important I’ll restate the points I covered earlier in the article: 
  • Be brutally honest – You have to be completely honest in your journaling, write exactly what you are thinking, not what you think is going to make you look good to you in a couple of years’ time when you look back, or if someone found your journal and started reading it. 
  • Analyse don’t Describe – Focus on your emotional state, do not simply a describe a narrative of your day or a list of things you’ve done. Focus on analysing how the things you did today made you feel.  

Conclusion 

• I started researching this piece a few months ago because I was sick of hearing about the great benefits of journaling and my lack of desire to follow through and actually give it a go. I thought this lack of desire suggested it wasn’t going to work for me, but the more I read, and then during my 100-day trial, the more I realised journaling was for me. It has definitely helped me savour the small things that make a difference every day and be more thankful for how lucky I am. 
• Specifically, I have noticed a change in all 3 of the areas I was hoping to:  
  • Not realising or appreciating the small wins/progress   
  • In stressful situations I can come across short and defensive 
  • Capture more creative ways to change my job in the future 
• More generally, I feel happier in my daily progress and haven’t found the extra time commitment a problem, in fact I look forward to opening my journal each day to capture what is whirling around in my mind.