Do you know what Marcus Aurelius, Ben Franklin and Mark Twain have in common? These historical figures have one thing in common. The same that 80% of people appearing on the Tim Ferriss podcast and representing the elite in their industries have.
This feature is the habit of keeping a daily diary. Why is it so important and how to start journaling?
🖊 Ability to express your thoughts
Writing Daily journaling makes you… write. This helps you organize your thoughts. Express in words what you feel, observe and learn. Just be more eloquent in communication.
💭 Self-awareness
This is the number one trait of any leader. Transferring thoughts to the cards (even virtual ones) of the diary allows you to think about them more deeply.
Why do I feel this way? What made me upset yesterday? Describing the data of the events, we can go a little deeper into ourselves.
📈 Generating good habits
Doing something every day takes time. Not only time for a given activity, but also time to form a habit. It is worth learning your own method of forming habits.
Keeping a diary helps doubly. We develop the habit of writing everyday. One of the topics we can write about is the progress (or reasons for the lack) in developing other habits.
🚀 How to start journaling?
I hope the following few tips will give you a better idea of how to start journaling and help you get into the habit.
🔔 Set reminder in app or on device where you have diary app installed.
When your reminder calls, write down what you are doing at the moment. The activity may seem uninteresting, but I guarantee you that when you come back to this record after years, you will appreciate that you can come back to this moment in your memory.
📍 Check out the so-called “Activity feed” (in the Day One app).
Allow your location to be checked (I know, I know, privacy!).
At the end of the day, review your activities and places recorded by apps captured during the day and briefly describe them.
🏞 Describe the photo
I suppose you take a lot of pictures every day.
Choose at least one of them and describe what happened there. what did you feel. what were you thinking.
If the photo was taken in the past, the Day One app will ask you to date the entire entry with that date.
⌚️ Make a so-called “check-in” from the level of the watch.
The Day One app is also available on the Apple Watch.
From here you can create a new entry. It may be empty to be completed later. It can be a quick entry, just with Emoji. And you can also dictate a few sentences.
🌐 Useful links
- Day One App for journaling
- 5 minute journal App
- 8 journaling techniques for better mental health
- Full digital journaling automation with hands-free dictation
- Michael Sliwinski: Journaling Shortcuts
- Tim Ferriss: Magic of mindfulness
- 3 practices that will help to stay sane in crisis
Thanks for reading!
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