For the last year or so, I’ve been keeping a journal in one form or another, whether it’s bullet journaling in a Traveler’s Notebook, or daily notes in Obsidian.
I trawled back through all these notes, with the purpose of learning how I’ve developed over the course of the last year — what has changed and improved, and how I perceive my wins and losses now versus when they took place.
Because there were a few lessons I learned from this that can be applied to all people, I decided to write this article.
So here are some takeaways from reviewing the last year of journaling…
Making the most of journaling
In my experience, there are two major categories of benefits to journaling:
- Removing thoughts and feelings from your brain and capturing them in a form that will last. This allows you to become calmer so that you can better make sense of what’s happening in your head.
- In review, as I’ve done recently, you can see patterns of mistakes or victories, relating them to habits and events so that you can better judge what’s going to allow you to progress in the future.
I’ve always focused on the first benefit of these two, using journaling to slow down and capture the rush of thoughts in my head, so that I have more clarity about making decisions at that point in time.
However, I’ve started to realise the power of reviewing your journals retrospectively, which I will discuss here…
Appreciate how far you’ve come
A year ago, when I started journaling, I wasn’t writing online. I hadn’t made new friends at university. I hadn’t tried and conquered many new things I now have, like boxing and climbing.
My journals reminded me of this. Time and time again, I’m hard on myself because of an innate drive to improve, but reviewing your notes about the past can help you feel proud of how far you’ve come.
This is why gratitude journaling is a thing — it allows you to be grateful for things that happen recently so that your general mood is improved day-to-day. I experienced the power of this, even without writing what I’m thankful for regularly.
Simply recording what was happening and how I felt about things over a long time allowed me to look back and feel appreciation for my progress.
Write what seems right
For a while, I tried bullet journaling amongst a few other customised methods of managing tasks and events all in a single system. My notebooks are littered with different marks, bullets and tasks that never really stuck in one consistent system.
What struck me more recently was that I don’t need such a rigorous system for managing my life. I know what I should be doing to progress myself, and anything that takes attention or time away from doing those things is a distraction.
I was spending too much time worrying about tracking tasks and planning time, and not enough about creating work that was meaningful.
Write in your journal however you like, only capturing the essence of your experiences and emotions. Don’t feel obliged to capture and store everything that takes place, only what resonates with you at the current moment.
You don’t have to manage your life too closely. Go out and live it, record the highs and lows in your own way.
How do I manage my journal at the moment?
In relation to the above, I cut back as much task management and time tracking as possible in my journal.
Now, at the end of the day, I look at all the quick notes that I’ve captured throughout the day and decide whether there’s anything else I can remark about, writing a few paragraphs of whatever stands out the most, in my Traveler’s Notebook.
What will you get from looking through your own journals?
It’ll allow you to take a step back and notice the trajectory that your life is taking. Notice patterns from when you feel low, notice patterns from when life is going really well.
Try and cut out the activities that are common around when you feel down, and double down on as much of what brings you fulfilment as you can.
This is the key to using your journal retrospectively — it’s a record of what has worked in the past and what hasn’t worked, so if you pay attention to what’s written, you can take this advice and improve.
Journaling is like giving advice to your future self, but the patterns only emerge over a significant period of time (at least a few months), so the best time to start journaling is now.
Try it yourself. If you have a journal, skim through it and see how your life has ebbed and flowed. Appreciate it, and learn from it.
And if you don’t have a journal, grab a piece of paper, open a digital note and start!
I’ll even give you a prompt to get you thinking:
What would you do if you knew that you couldn’t fail? (From Ali Abdaal’s recent Sunday Snippets)
Thanks for reading!