I’m sure you have heard of journaling, and when I previously thought of doing such a thing – I thought of it as something only kids did. I had been told by a few close friends over the years that they kept a journal, and I always thought of it as a colossal waste of time that was self indulgent – at best. I thought the idea was simply stupid.
Then my icy position began to melt as I kept running into this routine as a key to success for many of the most successful in the world of business both in the corporate and small business realms. I still thought it was something that I didn’t really have the time to do. Well, I realized that this was something I had told myself on some other habits that were life altering – such as lifting.
So I decided to take a fresh look at what the fuss was all about for many of these leaders that swore by this daily habit of journaling. What I uncovered was a slew of journals that were online, offline, and app based. There were journals that were specific to tracking certain habits. There were lifting only journals. There were moleskin things that were all the rage years ago. Then there were very creepy ads that started popping up on my social media feeds given all of the searches I had done.
I basically shelved the idea as it was all overwhelming, and I started to just track a couple of habits in my Evernote as I was committed to sticking to my all digital flow. Two months later, I finally broke down and clicked on a link in my Facebook feed for this thing called the Self Journal.
I poked around their site, and signed up for their email newsletter as they offered some legit content on their site that was very real world and hardcore helpful. Not this esoteric bullshit that was self reflective and omnipresent all at once that had to be captured on paper that was not actionable or integrated into any real system. Journaling still was this mental masturbation topic for me that I wasn’t ready to take onboard.
Well after I received about three emails from these guys, and studying their online community – it clicked. These guys had a 12 week planning horizon that was goal oriented. It was daily actions oriented and it incorporated a number of habits that I was building towards – all in an integrated physical journal.
So I decided to buy one of these journals, set a new series of personal goals for a three month period and I executed their framework for those three months. I was now in a mixed mode with a digital system and a physical system in the form of this daily journal from Best Self Company.
The journal became a counterpoint for my daily and weekly rituals. The daily journaling habit eventually took hold after about 3 weeks of grinding it into practice, and I found my daily progress accelerating across my priority goals. My throughput was moving in the right direction both in terms of actual deliverables being completed and in terms of capturing my lessons learned on a daily basis. My actions were managed in my online system, and my daily progress was captured along side my digital system in my journal for later reflection either on a weekly or monthly basis.
The journal habit also took my stress levels down exponentially. This was not expected, at all. My schedule is a hectic one and one that is prone to severe multitasking – probably just like you. Well, when I began committing to my schedule on paper the night before my next day – I found that the power of pen to paper forced me to get way more focused on the schedule that I had committed to in my journal. I was no longer having to decide on the fly to take impromptu meetings or conversations that were not truly a priority. Journaling my schedule the night before has not eliminated the fire fights that erupt at work or outside of work – it has however enabled me to intentionally engage in these fire fights in a way that I have never done before.
It is worth restating – once my day and my intended ‘big 3’ to dos for the upcoming day are committed to paper in my journal – they take on a life of their own. Words on paper do have a compelling power, particularly the ones you write to yourself.
If you take 5-10 minutes to put your time budget on paper and your to do’s – I believe your mental clarity will increase. If you are clear on your priorities in concert with this journalling habit – watch out! Breakthrough progress is possible.
I strongly recommend that you take a spin of this journal for a full three months. The Best Self Co has a number of best practices outlined in the journal itself – follow those. I’ll also post some thoughts on best practices around this daily journaling habit for your consideration.
Go ahead and order the journal and give it a shot in a committed way.
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