How keeping a journal boosted my self awareness

I’ve never kept a journal before…

But after listening to The High Performance Podcast with Matthew McConaughey , I decided it was something that I should try my hand at. Being a big user of Notability on my iPad, I decided to find a journal template that I could use. Luckily it didn’t take too long to the below template for a whole year from Paperlike.

So, I downloaded the template, dropped it into a new note, and got started.

At first, I didn’t find it the easiest task to get into. It’s part of my nighttime routine now, so I lay in bed and just simply write anything that has been important to me throughout the day. But I love it now. I know it’s the one piece of writing that no one else is going to judge me on.

A little while ago, I spent a bit of time outlining and defining my identity as recommended in the book ‘Atomic Habits‘. What do I aspire to do, and what kind person do I want to be. Each day I judge myself against these visions, and also make a note of how my mental health is to ensure that I am staying on the right track.

Writing a journal is very personal, and I recognise it won’t always work for everyone, but it really does fo me. So, without further ado….

4 reasons to keep a journal

1. I use each entry as a time to consciously review my day

When completing my journal, I look back at my day and assess what was positive & negative, what was funny, what inspired me, etc. This helps me more aware of what influenced me and what mind space I was in. My creativity process is Create / Share / Review / Repeat and without the review element I wouldn’t necessarily make any improvements at all. A daily journal is a key part of this conscious & continuous evaluation.

2. When things aren’t going well, I can look back and see what I was doing when things were better

A bit like learning, there is no point in making notes (or in this case, taking a journal) if we can’t refer back to them. This means that in those days that haven’t gone as well, I can refer back to better times and see what I was doing. The point of any review is so that we can alter any future behaviours to make improvements.

3. It’s great place to keep any revelations or key pieces of information

While I keep relatively detailed notes on a lot of subjects, my journal is a great place to keep any personal revelations. When I made the changes to my identity, I dropped a graphical representation of my identity in on the relevant day and refer back to this all the time.

4. Personal and private writing is a great (and safe) outlet for my feelings & emotions

When stuff doesn’t go to plan, I find my journal a great place to vent. You would see plenty of exclamation marks and red highlighter (red=bad in all my notes). And that’s fine, because my journal is mine. No one else reads it, or will judge me on it.