If you have ever felt that your thoughts are spiraling out of control every day then this is a must.
Enter Journaling
We all have a thousand thoughts, ideas and self-conversation going on every day and as exciting as it can be to swim in your sea of mind sometimes it can prove to be a little challenging to get focused with that much going on.
That's when having a place to put all those ideas to rest is so valuable, giving your mind the permission to free up in knowing that your ideas are safe and that you can always read them and get back on track.
Journaling is one of those habits that you always hear and read about, and still many of us wait until too late to get on it, only when we feel burned out we realize it could have helped.
So for me it was time for saying no more, when the benefits of journaling range from better focus and clarity, boost to memory, improvement in communication, enhanced self-discipline, more creativity, more self-confidence, improvements to IQ and EQ and many other things, is something that is a must if you aspire to be productive and creative in any area of your choosing.
So to kick off the habit I started doing a small journaling experiment that I will outline here, it consists of a few minutes in the morning and a few minutes in the night answering 2 or 3 questions consistently.
Q&A Journaling
In the morning
Usually before email and everyday tasks (and after calming the kids for the parents), is a moment for preparing to thrive in the day so the questions or statements are:
Today I will: under this statement you write down 3 to 5 (only 3 are recommended in the first week) bullet points with tasks that you are going to perform during the day, and after writing repeat them to yourself so that all your senses are engaged in the process.
Important personal question following the bullet points you ask yourself a question of your choice every day (is preferred to ask the same question everyday at first) that will serve as synopsis of your reason to start the day, the answer to this should be short so that it does not take longer than a minute to write it, after done repeat it out loud, this is your mission today to accomplish what you have said to yourself .
In the night
Usually, after the work day is done (and preferably before family time so that your mind it's clear), is a moment for reflecting and acknowledging our accomplishments of the day.
Today I did: under this statement you write down 5 to 10 bullet points acknowledging all you did in the day that was of importance to you, not only your tasks of the day but things like (I was a good person, I had a great time doing X, and so on) things that fills you with gratitude and a feeling that the day mattered.
Important personal reflection here is where you ask yourself how was your day like, what could have improved and what did you learn from it once again trying to make only a small paragraph of 1 to 2 minutes of writing time.
After the 2 questions after a certain time when the mind becomes more accustomed to it, probably you would feel the need to add something and that's the time when your own experimentation begins, adding another question, putting a larger statement or even doing a larger outline of all your thoughts but that is up to you (just make sure to wait until you are experienced with this kind of journaling to avoid feeling the process as a burden)
After the daily execution of this becomes a habit and we have all that information about ourselves the everyday tasks and thoughts start feeling more organized as we start and finish the day with the mind at rest.
I hope you decide to give it a try if that was the case let me know, how you feel with it?, has it helped you to improve?
Let me know your thoughts, upvote, reestem or just shout it out if this was of any value to you.
If you know someone that might benefit from seeing this tag them in the comments.
Have a great day, see you soon.
-Flemming