Daily journaling is something that I am completely new to. This is the first time that I have ever tried to write consistently just for me. I have been consistently writing for a little over a month at the time of this writing, and I think that it has been really helpful. Like most people, I do not have the time to just write for an hour or two every day, so each of my journal entries only takes about five minutes total. A regular composition book is perfect for this since the pages are relatively small and the book itself is sturdy. I have found it helpful to write in the mornings as my morning coffee is brewing, and I am normally done writing when my coffee is done. The format for the journal that I will be describing is just a general idea and a good starting point. Some people might not find every bit of it useful and I think it is a great idea for you to change what you write and find what works for you. I am actually going to try something new and change things up in a way that I will describe later.
Morning Entry
The format that I have been using is really simple and I found it in the book Leveling up by Eric Siu. This format is meant for you to write for a few minutes first thing in the morning and right before you go to bed. In the morning entry you write 3 things that you are grateful for, 3 things that would make that day great, and an affirmation. By writing down 3 things that you are grateful for in the morning, it is supposed to help you start your day on a positive note. Now, whether or not it has that effect on you is a different story. Personally, it doesn’t have much of an effect on me, but it really depends on the person. Next is to write down 3 things that you think would make the day great. This part I do think is very helpful. I see it as having 3 goals for the specific day, and I noticed that whenever I started writing them down in the morning, I tend to actually complete them without even thinking about it. For an example, I would generally write the following: finish all of my reading for the day, get a specific section of my physics research done, and spend some quality time with my significant other at the end of the day. By writing these all down as soon as I wake up, I find that I can typically complete at least two of them without thinking of them throughout the day. This is probably the most helpful part of the journaling for me. The last part of the morning entry is the affirmation. Honestly, I rarely use this section to actually write down an affirmation. I just don’t personally find it helpful, so I usually use this section to write down a verse of stoicism or a small note to myself if I need to remind myself of something. If you are someone who enjoys affirmations, by all means, go crazy. They can really help some people. That is it for the morning entry. I normally aim for one side of a page and this usually only takes me about 2 to 3 minutes.
Evening Entry
The evening entry is basically just to wrap up the day and hopefully end it on a positive note. This is similar to the morning entry in the way that is sound only take about 2 to 3 minutes to do. For me, it normally takes noticeably less time than the morning entry since you are reflecting on what has already happened instead of kind of planning ahead for the day. This entry starts with 3 things that made your day great. These can be some of the 3 things you wrote in the morning entry if you completed them, or it can be something completely unrelated. I try to add an extra sentence of two talking a little bit about each point just so it helps me fill out the rest of the page. I aim for a little over half a page so that the second half of the evening entry fills out the page. However, it really doesn’t matter how much you write. Again, find what works for you and stick to that. The second and last part of the evening entry is to write one thing that you could improve on. Try not to completely chastise yourself all the time, but a little bit here and there can be rather constructive. I typically write about how I need to spend less time on social media just looking at memes and other activities that are a waste of time. One thing that I should mention about this and I will use social media as a example. I like to scroll through Instagram and look at memes and pictures of cute dogs. That is my vice. Now, there is not anything intrinsically wrong with that; however, like almost everything, doing it in excess is a problem. I actually went into the settings on my phone so that it locks me out of Instagram after I spend more than an hour on it in a given day. You can always go back into settings and turn it off if you need to get back in, but I use it as a way to stop myself from spending too much time. The funny thing about the limit is, as soon as I set it, I never actually reach it. I have yet to actually reach the limit since I placed it on the app. I use it as a way for a quick break or to see what some family and friends are up to while I am in line waiting to get food or whatever it is. All of this is just to give an example, take from it what is helpful to you, and find what works for you. Everyone has their own vices.
My Current Modifications to the Daily Journal
At the beginning of this post I alluded to some modifications that I am planning on making. Currently, I am not changing anything with the morning entry, since I find most of it rather helpful. I might change the name of the affirmation section to Today’s quote or something, but that is about it. The main modification is for the evening entry. I am thinking of completely getting rid of the current format for the evening and just writing down all of my goals, both long and short term. That way, all of my goals are on the back of the page, so when I write the next morning I can see all of my goals on the previous page while I plan my day. Also, people learn through repetition, so by writing down my life goals daily, they will always be in my mind and I will actively work towards them every day. I plan to try this for a couple months and see if I would like to modify anything else about how I write in my journal every day.
Conclusions
This whole exercise can be done easily in less then 5 minutes, and you can even break up the time to the morning and at night. Now this whole format is only an idea, you certainly do not have to do it explicitly to get the benefits. Actually, I would encourage you to try your own modifications and figure out what works best for you. The whole point is for you to have an idea of what you need to get done today in order to get closer to what you want out of life, so every aspect of this should be personalized. It is important to note that doing this once and then never doing it again will not have a huge effect on your life. The key to long term change and improvement is in the habits that you develop, so unless you make this one of your consistent habits, it will probably not help you very much.
To your wealth and future,
James Forsythe
For more personal development and journaling posts
https://jamesdforsythe.com/category/personaldevelopment/
For the book that made me start journaling daily
https://www.amazon.com/Leveling-Up-Master-Game-Life/dp/198960353X
