Writing and Labelling in a Journal

I have a monthly gathering at work with other bakers. We each bake something at home and bring it in to share. I unequivocally know this is one of the most important parts of my job. I know this because I told myself – in my journal.

Journaling is conceptually very simple: write things down. It doesn’t need to be much more complicated than that. However, there are some points to keep in mind to make the most of your journaling, ranging from how you take the notes to what you do with them once you have them. If you do it well you will be more present in your day, remember more details from your day, be more creative (with more and better ideas), and be happier. And all of that is before you ever even read your journal. Reading your journal can take those to the next level, helping you better understand the big picture of your life and improve it. 

This is the second of a two part series on journaling. This post focuses on the power of writing things down in a journal and how to do that well. The previous part focused on making the most of your journal after you have written things down, including the end to end value of journaling and reviewing your journal.

You only need a pad of paper and a pen to get started journaling.

 

The Power of Journaling

I have a monthly gathering at work with other bakers. We each bake something at home and bring it in to share. I unequivocally know this is one of the most important parts of my job. I know this because I told myself – in my journal.

Journaling is conceptually very simple: write things down, and look at it later. It doesn’t need to be much more complicated than that. However, there are some points to keep in mind to make the most of your journaling, ranging from how you take the notes, to what you do with them once you have them. If you do it well you will be more creative (with more and better ideas), be happier, and have a better understanding of and control of the big picture of your life.

This is the first of a two part series on journaling, covering how to journal and how to review your journal. We start in this post on the latter point: making the most of your journal after you have written things down. The second post returns to the writing, focusing on the power of writing things down in a journal and how to do that well.

Journaling is valuable in and off itself – you should do it. For this post, I assume you are already writing things down. Reviewing your journal enables three other useful things: seeing (and changing) the big picture of our lives, improving the important things in our lives, and making ourselves feel better. I’ll discuss each item in turn, but it starts with reviewing your journal.