To the people who are reading this, you probably write once or more times a day in work and school. For me, I value it and write multiple times a day due to me being a fiction writer and for other things which I’ll tell you in detail. Today, you’d be getting insights in one of my writing techniques, journaling!
If you knew me, you’d probably figure that this is what I’d do. Honestly, this is my favorite one to do. I enjoy writing down what I did today and write out my remaining thoughts that were major. If you journal too, write your experience in the comments.
For my experience, I write in two journals every night one hour before I go to bed.
“Trial & Error” Journal
I call it this name because this was my intention for writing in this journal. It was to point out my flaws for the day and write the ideas that come to mind in fixing them. Of course, there’s no such thing as a perfect day, so any potential day would become close to perfect.
Since I started, the layout of my process has evolved so greatly that I found a bigger impact in writing in this journal. Here are the questions I use.
1. What was great about today?
I list out all the great things that happen today, which ends up taking a quarter of the page usually. It’s really funny because the great things I write happens mostly every day, but I write it nonetheless.
2. What was bad about today?
I try to think of the bad things that happened in that day, which is usually one or two things. That seems too small for some or a lot of you, especially the people who are living hard lives right now.
If you didn’t have any bad things happen to you, leave this question out as well as the next one.
3. How could I fix that or this?
I list out the things that might fix the problem. You should answer this even though you don’t have any practical ideas. Pull out any crazy idea instead. It might work.
4. What have I given today?
This question brings the sense of generosity in helping and giving things to people to make their day. Honestly for me, I usually give one single thing to somebody because everyone else seems to be doing okay. On some days though, I give out more than one, which is when I am out of the house, of course.
If you don’t have anything for this question, just leave it out, and don’t get discouraged. Those days are real. Even I have them sometimes. Just be aware that things are well today.
That gives me an idea just now. Maybe you could add emotion that you gave to somebody, such as love, and positive things, such as attention. I don’t pay attention to those since I focus more on physical things, but maybe this could work for you.
5. How has my life improved?
This is where you’ll start to pay attention to the tiny or major improvements in your life. You may not feel it, but you are improving every time your living in some way, such as getting more aware (true experience). Although, this is a personal thought I believe.
Acknowledging this could make you feel more good about yourself too.
One Sentence of Gratitude
You write out one sentence of a thing you feel grateful for. Expressing gratitude would give you more happiness in your life as you take the time to acknowledge the things that you love. You could write more things if you’d like. Just go all out!
Remaining Thoughts
This is where you could write all the thoughts you had today that were pressing, confusing, and disturbing you. I usually fill this area. And usually for me, I dread going deep into this thought because I’d have to explain myself for my crazy thoughts.
Reminders (optional)
This one is random. I started doing this last week because usually before I go to bed, I reminisce on my day so far and realize that I have things to do tomorrow, so I write them down so I wouldn’t forget.
Adding this to my routine just makes it seem out of place, even though it’s helpful, so you don’t have to do this, unless you live for a messy schedule.
And on that note, that’ll be it for this blog post. The inspiration behind this layout is Stefan James, an entrepreneur that I watch on YouTube. I got a few of my questions from him from one of his blog posts. I recommend watching him.
Thanks for reading and please share this blog post. Please stay tuned for another one. Goodbye.
~Ibidun
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