Journaling 101:

"Most folks are about as happy as they make their minds up to be"

Almost everyone is aware of the many benefits of journaling on our mental health. and how it improves overall happiness, has a positive impact on our psychological well-being, helps avoid intrusive negative ideas and cope with stress. It's like pouring your heart out, a stream of consciousness writing.

One of the main keys to writing is to actively pause and reflect on our thinking. Reflective learning can be reinforced by reflective writing such as journaling.

Journaling is a powerful tool that can help you to look back, and give your a bird view perspective on your life.

Despite this awareness, many people, myself included, tries journaling on and off every once in a while, with no consistency or a clear system, and thus finds it challenging to maintain it as a habit. You kind of keep measuring

Writing is a process of self-expression. many people embrace random journaling to make them feel better. Through writing and note-taking, you can visualize your ideas, get over your mind's internal coherence and biases. Have more momentum as you are freeing your memory and mind to have more clarity.

There are probably hundreds of guides and how-to journal around. You'll probably find many tips on what you should and should not do in your journaling journey (this post included).

but what I'll try to share here is practical points on what worked for me. It doesn't make it the right way. It might as well not be effective for you. but also .. it might be .. the one effective for you.

• Don't be hard on yourself. It's not a project. It's something you should enjoy doing.

• Decide on why you want to keep journaling? Do you have a clear goal? Are you looking to clear and analyze your thoughts? just to let off some pressure off and calm your mind? Are you trying to capture your feelings and memories for your future self?

• Make a simple flow that works for you, make sure it's frictionless as possible.

Whatever it is you intend to benefit from journaling, There is no right way to do it. There is only your way.

There are 3 types of journaling I found very useful and kind of beginner-friendly:

• One line a day journaling

• 5-minute check-in journaling

• Gratitude journaling

The main point is, just choose the one you feel you can start the habit with. I started with the one line a day journal. I thought to myself. Well, I'm sure anyone can do it.

This little elegant app, was a perfect place to help me start. along with an evening daily reminder (I hate reminders btw).

You add one line. that's all you have to do. you can attach a photo from your day as well. but you only get to add one photo. so you kinda have to mentally swift through your day, to choose the moment you want your future self to remember.

That was it, just like that .. I was actually journaling. for few months. It didn't feel like a chore. and I really enjoyed it.

but soon enough I stumbled on Roam, and I was hooked by the day.

The more you write .. the more you feel compelled to keep writing.

I came across Brandon Toner's Atomic Journaling. I mixed and matched what worked for me. in its most simple form, it looked something like this.

The Pomodoro timer was a nice touch as well. It kind of compels my perfectionist side to not leave before the timer is off. I made it 3 minutes to deceive my mind just to go ahead and start. Usually, once I start .. it just .. streams.

Also turns out, I hate blank white pages staring at me. I used Andy Henson's 191 journaling prompts.

The bedrock tool of a creative recovery is a daily practice called Morning Pages.

This article from the dailystoic really helped me. What I found helpful was combining my routine with Ryan holiday's book Daily Stoic. If you don't know the book, it is basically about all the stoic teachings and insights of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. What makes the book interesting is that its formatted in a way, you get 366 short Meditations and insights for every day of the year.

It's one of few books that I have in a hardcover form. I keep an extra few copies around to gift friends as well.

now you get the idea .. 5,4,3,2,1 .. just go ahead and start journaling.

---

Useful resources I found helpful:

• Darius Foroux | 29 Journaling tips

• Michael Korzonek | Minimalist Journaling

• Richard Rangarson | Cognitive Journaling

Few nice platforms to choose from:

• Day one

• My wonderful days ( probably not the best, but it's so intuitive and simple, its the only one I kept using on and off since 2012)