Thread by @devnson

5 Journaling Ideas for Self-Improvement by [Jack Cao]

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Journaling has been endorsed by top performers from all fields: from the stoic sage emperor of Rome, Marcus Aurelius, to the Benjamin Franklin or the modern Tony Robbins. They have stacks and stacks of paper written with their thoughts and observations throughout their life.

Journaling helps you become a better thinker, a more productive result-maker and generally a happier person. If you have already understood how to start a journal, this article will give you 5 journaling ideas to:

• Be more productive on a daily basis.
• Manage your progress in personal development.
• Develop your mental clarity.
• Deepen self-awareness.
• Instill positivity and gratitude

📝 Productivity Planning – Journaling Idea

Through journaling, we practice visualization and reflection on a daily basis.

Each goal written down comes with a visualization of its being accomplished, which ends up a lot more compelling than just a passing thought.

At the end of each day, we reflect and study our day: what we have managed to do, how we were distracted, how we could improve on the next day.

These are all simple things yet extremely powerful practice if you implement into your everyday life.

It will serve you no good if you just do this once and stop journaling. Productivity planning must come with consistency, with repetition.

Only then you can be accountable for your goals and observe how much you can realistically accomplish in a day then gradually improve.

So how do you write a journal entry for this?

A pen, a notebook, and 15 minutes a day.

Dedicate one page for every day. Cut the page in half for 2 sections:

• Write Down your Focus of the day
• Capture Your Thoughts of the day

📝 Progress Logging – Journaling Idea

Track your personal development, your mental health or your knowledge library with a journal.

How so?

Peter Drucker famously said:

“What gets measured, gets managed.”

How can we ensure that we are actually making progress? Are we actually getting better in the gym or with our running routine?

With a journal, we can store all the progress from day 1 all the way up to where we become a master of our fields. Simply put, by observing how we do things, we know how to better perform.
So how do you write a journal entry for this?

Set up a progress log space for all of your projects
SECOND STEP: PUT IN THE LOG PROGRESS

📝 Cleaning the Mental Garden – Journaling Idea

Clean your mind space and gain mental clarity after 15 minutes of journaling.

How so?

“80 % of Thoughts Are Negative…95 % are repetitive”

This was the crucial finding published by the US’s National Science Foundation in 2005.

The quality of our existence depends on both our external and internal dialogues. And as suggested in the result, 80% of our internal dialogue is eroding our lives and they keep repeating days to weeks to months.

Writing down our thoughts onto a paper break the vicious cycle of a negative thought, as we gain a birds-eye view of our mental landscape with a strategic and logical approach.

How do you write a journal entry for this?
• Step 1: Describe the problems
• Step 2: Identify the problems
• Step 3: Write about your problems
• Step 4: Find a solution

📝 Question of the day – Journaling Idea

Expand your self-awareness and give yourself a sense of direction just by asking yourself questions in a journal.

How so?

Tony Robbins shared his wisdom:

"Quality questions create a quality life. Successful people ask better questions and as a result, they get better answers"

How many times have you done something only to be regretted later?

What are the things that you will sacrifice for in this life?

What are the things that you will not sacrifice for in this life?

What is considered success for you?

What is considered happiness for you?

One reason is that we are stuck with our busy schedules and have bills to pay. Comparing with many of our responsibilities, self-reflection is a hobby for leisure time nowadays. And most people don’t have much leisure time.

But the lack of effort put into self-reflection results in our disorientation, our aimlessness that we can feel every time the busy life has a glitch and we find ourselves with an evening not knowing what to do with 3 hours of free time.

So now, how can we use a Question-of-the-day Journal?
• First: set aside a time and a place
• Second: choose one question to ask yourself.

📝 Minute Elevation – Journaling Idea

Live a happier life and fill your life with positivity with a journal.

How so?

Journaling enhances our ability to focus on one topic at a time as we have mentioned in Idea Journal
If life were photography, journaling could be our lens through which we look at the world.

Write down what you’re thankful for.
Write down the best things that have happened in your day.
Write down the good things you have done for the day, even the tiniest achievements.

So how to write a journal entry for this?

Use these prompts to write your journal every day and see how they better your life:

• Today, I am grateful for: *write down what you are thankful for*
• Today, I have done well on: *write down your achievements*

Thanks for reading this further. I hope you were able to get something from this.

Do you write your journal? If 'Yes' how and which apps do you use?

Before I go, I have some recommendations for you. The apps, podcasts, books that helped to improve myself last month. I am recommending you, you can have a look.
Check here: bit.ly/2WY5HWX