What I learned after 30 days of journaling

Journaling is an amazing way to keep your life in check. You can use it in a variety of ways to assist you in increasing your productivity, declutter your head and make you happier. I have been writing a diary/journal on and off for almost ten years now but I thought to be more consistent with it. So I wrote a journal for 30 days and recently started bullet journaling at the start of 2020.

I am going to share my experience with you guys and leave a comprehensive guide on how to start writing a journal and a bullet journal. Don’t worry, I am as lazy you are so I will try to make things as simple as I can.

Why Journaling is important

I can go on and write paragraphs and sentences about how wonderful journaling is. So, to make things easier to spot and also to limit myself, I will write these all in bullet points and leave for you guys to decide whether it will be worth it or not.

• It helps you to arrange your thoughts: We all have trains of thoughts running around our heads without a break. They seem to overshadow our ability to infer meaningful things from the thoughts. Journal helps to put your untamed thoughts in order and derive something worth realizing. Writing slows down your process of thinking and it is a good thing when the speed of your thoughts is comparable to the speed of sound!
• It helps to calm your mind: A great number of thoughts result in anxiety and restlessness and without even realizing, you will become an addict of your thoughts and find it hard to be calm. When you pen down your thoughts, it is like giving away your tension to the papers and alleviating the pain caused by those thoughts. It is like meditating just that you are meditating with your thoughts rather than pushing them away.
• It helps you to know yourself better: I had read a poem about introspection in my high school and I have lately come to realize that the person we are least aware of is ourselves! We find it difficult to keep a company to ourselves. That is where a journal helps you to find yourself and improve the relationship that you share with yourself.
• It improves your relations: I know it sounds like I am giving more credits to journaling than it deserves but hear my case first. Relationships are often broken due to trivial issues and things that are not even worth acknowledging. We deny our frustration until it gets to an ugly fight or cold treatment. Journal helps to vent out frustration and other emotions before you say them aloud to the other person. That way, you are able to keep your arguments clear and also realize where is the frustration coming from. Win-win!

Also read: 5 things to learn from Robin Sharma to conquer 2020

Why keeping a bullet journal is so good

I came to know about bullet journal by a video posted by Pickup Limes on the eve of this new year and it impressed me a lot like a super cool method to schedule your day, week and month. I immediately bought a bullet journal and my life has been so organized. I have been juggling a lot of things in my life lately and bullet journal has acted as my personal secretary saving so many hours of my day.

• It helps you to plan your day: I had realized lately that I waste a lot of time and energy while deciding what to do, what to read, what work to do first. The result? The time which should have been invested in doing the work was being used to decide what to do next! Bullet journal helps me to plan my day in advance so I know what are the things that I have to do in a day and when.
• It helps you to keep track: I have made small trackers in my journal where I keep a tab of my workouts, newspaper reading daily, my cheat days, etc and it actually gives a happy feeling when you tick them off at the night.
• It helps you to take action: While I keep a journal to pour all my thoughts out and discuss all the problems I am facing right now, the bullet journal helps me to reach some conclusions. It helps me to take some action before I get overwhelmed by the amount of chaos. It is like an action planner.
• It helps you to tackle one day at a time: While having big goals in our minds, we stop seeing that every day makes a difference. We start imagining that “a day will come……….” but it never comes! Bullet journal helps you to live in the day and do what matters today rather than worrying about the big goal.
• It increases your productivity manifolds: For the past 20 days or so, I have felt productive like never before. There are fewer days when I feel lost and demotivated. I stare at the journal and it invited me to plan the day and implement it.

Also read: Own the day, own your life

How to start a journal

Buy a dedicated journal, do not think that your old notebook would do. It will always remind of old stuff and will demotivate you. Take a journal and set a 5-day challenge for yourself. Promise to yourself that you will write in the journal every day. You can write a line or two, doesn’t matter. Just try to write every day.

I promised that I will read every day in 2020. A page or two, or 100, I will read. You can follow this for 5 days straight and then set a 10-day challenge, then 15 and keep on increasing. If you do not feel like writing on a particular day at all, just write this in a sentence. I usually write my journal in the morning or at night. You can find and fit in the time that suits you, but be consistent.

A guide for making a bullet journal has been made by my very favorite Sadia on PickUp Limes and you can simply visit her video and follow whatever she has told there. You can modify it as per your needs any day. The purpose is to organize yourself and feel better while increasing your productivity.

Do you keep a journal?

Are you interested in Journaling?