Journaling

In its simplest form, journaling is keeping a record of our thoughts, emotions, and reactions to our circumstances. It gives us a history to revisit, reference material that would otherwise get lost in unreachable corners of our memory. I've gone back to pages from 4 or 5 years ago and been surprised to realize that I'd already lived through situations similar to current events I considered new.

There are many ways to keep a journal. The simplest is just writing about what happened today, how you felt, and what you think about it. It can be as detailed as you want: a single sentence, a paragraph, a page, several pages.

In my experience, the main impediment to start journaling is the feeling that it's too late. "I should've started a long time ago", and yes, we're always right on that. But there's a phrase that's as cliché as it is true: "the best time to start a journal was 20 years ago, the next best time is now."

I would encourage you to start a journal today. It doesn't matter what type, or how long your entries are. The single most important thing early on is being constant. Write a sentence or two every day, and soon the muscle will start to develop, the mind will be in the correct state as soon as you open the book and pick up the pen.

I struggled a lot to start. I tried notebooks, then digital tools, and at the end I came back to notebooks. At first I wrote some days of the week, sometimes I forgot to do it for months, but I kept returning to it. Now I find pen and paper help me think more clearly. I pause less to think and I'm able to unload my brain more efficiently than on a keyboard. It doesn't have to be like that for you, maybe typing suits you better. Constancy matters way more than the medium.

Types of journals

There are an infinity of types of journals. these are the ones I use or have used:

Clarity Journal

You just dump everything that's in your mind right now to the journal. It doesn't have to be in a certain format, or have any structure. I sometimes write long-form, other times I just do bullet points. The important thing here is to get it all out.

This is especially useful for anxiety. Sometimes just by writing something you find that it doesn't make sense. Sometimes you connect some dots. Sometimes dumping all your thoughts into the journal gives you answers you didn't think you had.

Over time, I've found that this practice also gives more structure to my thinking. As if I'm pre-formatting thoughts to put them on paper. I start organizing things into mental "tabs" and sometimes seeing connections between seemingly unrelated things.

I recommend starting with this one.

Daily Reflections

This one is very useful to help break out of depressive thought loops. Gratitude journaling is an excellent example of this type of journal.

At the end of the day, you answer at least one question. For depressive thoughts, I've used What am I grateful for?, and What excited me today?. When I've felt out of the water at work, What did I learn today? and What questions, if answered, would help me move forward?

They do sound corny. They also work.

Ephemeral

A quick brain dump for when you feel overwhelmed. If it's emotional, just take any paper and write down whatever you're feeling right now. If work feels like too much, list what's under control, what's not, and what questions you need answered. If it's loss, write down what you're grateful for having had before the loss and how you're feeling right now. In any case, be as thorough as possible.

After writing it, read it. If you find something that will be useful in the future, copy it to your journal (the unanswered questions, for example). If not, just toss it. The goal is to give some order to our mental chaos, and putting it in words, is usually enough.

Note taking

Yes, note-taking and journaling are different, but for me the lines are blurred. I have ADHD, and my brain is usually jumping from one thought to another, and that's why I'm always writting down things I need to remember, and they can be superfluos things like the price of something I need for dinner, or a very important idea I had for a project.

This has become almost a reflex in my day-to-day, so I've found myself making micro journal entries in my notebook. Sometimes they become a whole extended thing in my "regular" journal, sometimes they stop mattering and I scratch them, but again, they also help giving structure to my thinking.

What I do

I do 2 things:

I keep a "regular" journal. It's a pocket hardcover notebook so I can bring it anywhere without hassle. I write in it 3-5 days a week. Some entries are half a page, some are several pages. I like to start entries at the top of a page, with the date and the location, so if i don't fill one of them, I "cancel" the rest of the space with a line. But that's just me.

I also carry a notebook with me. I take note of anything I might need to remember, and that includes things that are relevant for my journaling. This is an ephemeral notebook. A couple of times a week I review its contents, and scratch out anything that's no longer relevant or I've already taken action on. I sometimes transcribe thoughts to my journal, or extend on them.

When the notebook is full, I usually throw it away after a final review. I call it "the chaos book" and it's usually beat up, with torn pages and scribbles all over it.

Advice

Things that I've learned:

1. Don't let anybody read your journal. This is not a privacy thing (though it might be for you). The moment I consider that somebody might read what I'm writing, I start writing for an audience. I start caring about how it might look, how I may look. And that affects how and what I write. It's important to keep things raw and unedited.

2. Disrespect the tools. There are few things as useless as a notebook you're afraid of ruining. I recommend ruining it right away. As soon as you unwrap it, scribble all over the first page, put a crooked sticker on it, or write with Sharpie on the cover. Then you're free to make mistakes, and mistakes are a part of the process.

3. Don’t limit yourself to a system. At least not at first. There are a lot of journaling and note-taking systems out there that will seem perfect, but end up being too limiting or needing too much maintenance, and that’s likely to throw off your journaling motivation. For now, my recommendation is to start simple and once you have the habit, start looking into a system if you feel like you need it.

4. Keep going. Write at least a sentence if today you don't feel like it. Write "I don't feel like it" if you want, but keep on writing until it's simply something you do, like eating or sleeping.

That's it. I hope you start journaling today. Thanks for reading.