My Journaling Technique

I’ve been journaling for years now and I find it an immensely useful tool to gather & reflect on my thoughts.
Here are some tips that help me

The Process

The core process is very simple - I write about my day, every day.

Reflection

I think I heard it in one of Shane Parish’s podcast that journaling without retrospection is pointless; and I completely agree.
When I read back what’s written, it helps bring a sense of where I was and create bearings for where I want to head.

So, once a week, I go over all the past days’ entries and create 1 retrospective entry. I call it the AAR (After action report, inspired by David Goggins)

Once you have enough AARs, combine reading the past few days’ entries by also reading an AAR from, say 4-6 weeks ago, to get an added retrospective-boost.

Thought Pages

This is probably the most useful technique and can be followed independently of the daily journaling ritual. A huge thanks to Derek Sivers for telling me about this when we met.

For every major “Thought” in life (for me, usually, these are centred around big decisions), I keep 1 dedicated page.
Example: Next career move, Moving cities, Financial Independence etc.

Each time I am either overwhelmed by thoughts around that thought, or in a quiet place where I can intentionally do some deep thinking around it, I write down my thoughts along with the date on the same page.

The beauty of this is that it combines journaling & reflection all in a single page.
Each I open the thought page, I can see how my thoughts have evolved for this theme over time. Eventually, It helps me with the data I need to take a decision.

And, if it happens to be a big life step (it usually is), it gives me evidence of what I felt like before taking that call. I tend to idealise the past, so this helps me stay grounded in reality.

Example (real dates of how I took the call to quit my job)

Big Thought Page: Quit my Job

## 25th December, 2024
Location: Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh

[20 lines of blah]

## 24th October, 2024
Location: At a coffee shop in Bangalore

[60 lines of blah]

## 8th June, 2024
Location: ..

[40 lines of blah]

My Own learnings

Over time, I’ve learnt a few things that help me get more out of my journaling. For the daily entries, I make it a point to add

• Gratitude: 1 thing I’m thankful for
• Happiness: 1 moment that made me happy.

Over time, I’ve found that my mind subconcsciously looks for gratitude & happy moments during the day.
I’ve found myself walking along a route to work, suddenly gripped by a moment where I look at otherwise-ordinary flowers and stop to appreciate their beauty.

Just for fun, during my AARs, I “pick” my favourite from the Gratitude & Happiness entries from the last xx days.
It’s usually hard to pick - Was I happier spending time with my nephew or to have a heart-to-heart with my closest friend?
It helps me realise that my life is full of moments I should be grateful for.

On Getting Started

While journaling does come naturally to me, it took me time to make a habit out of it. Here’s what helped:

The 2 minute rule

This is the pro tip from James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits. It doesn’t matter if you write anything of meaning. Just “show up” and write for 2 minutes. You need to standardize before you optimize.

Reduce Friction

I’m not a person who likes to write by hand, so I started journaling on my laptop. When I realised that after a few days it was an added friction to head to my desk & open my laptop “just to write”, I invested in an iPad + Keyboard. Best decision ever.

PS: Liked reading? Hated it? Any thoughts/questions/comments? Please do mail me at [email protected]