Journaling is one of the best productivity hacks I regularly practice. I use it for my entrepreneurial life as well as for my personal life.
Journaling is the best way to process your thoughts and advance in your journey. And it works wonders as an alternative to therapy!
There are different types of journaling formats/styles (such as daily, weekly, daily logs, morning pages, etc.). And whatever the style, starting to journal is very simple. And it also has so many benefits for entrepreneurs, freelancers, and business owners.
I recall the first time I started journaling, I was very young. I wrote sporadically. I only started being consistent when I traveled around Europe for the first time.
Yet as life became more hectic, the writing stopped altogether.
Then one day, when I went through some difficult times, I bought a very simple journal. I looked back at how much peace of mind writing had given me before. To be honest, at that time I didn’t know much about the benefits of journaling.
I started writing again and this brought me so much clarity and purpose that I haven’t stopped since.
If you have never journaled before, don’t worry, it is a very easy and personal process. You can start journaling with pen and paper, it is that simple!
How to start journaling
- Get yourself a nice, but simple journal, even a notebook would do. It doesn’t have to be fancy or have the latest features many journals nowadays have. What is important is that you get one dedicated journal for your writing.
- Get some nice pens that will work well with the type of paper your journal has. It is important that the ink doesn’t go through the paper, in case you want to come back to it and read it again. If you are more on the creative side, you can use different color pens.
- Set at least 5 minutes to sit with your journal every day or every other day. It might be hard at the beginning if you are not used to this. But with time, you will see how it helps you in your life as an entrepreneur, and also in your personal life.
You can try a few different methods of journaling until you find the one you like the most. And this doesn’t have to be set in stone, you can use one method for a month and then decide you prefer another one.
If you feel blocked and don’t know how to start, you can ask yourself a question or two to get you started. Some examples would be: “How do I feel today?”, “What do I want to achieve this week?”, “What is my biggest challenge at this moment?”. Once you ask yourself a couple of questions, allow yourself to answer them freely.
Journaling has many benefits for entrepreneurs
Self-reflection:
By writing your thoughts down, you have more time to contemplate your thought process. And this learning can affect your mindset positively.
Clarity:
Journaling can help you collect and organise your thoughts, tasks, and ideas more clearly. It even helps you to understand yourself better.
Goal achievement:
Journaling can support you on staying on track and achieving your business and personal goals.
Stress reduction:
A journal is also a place for solving problems, which reduces stress and worry. Journaling can also help you when you need to make a tough decision.
Sense of accomplishment:
A journal allows for reflection on what you have done over the past day/week/month. And just like meditation and mindfulness ,this gives you a sense of accomplishment.
Focus:
Journaling helps you to stay focused on the task at hand by writing down what you want to do for the day or week.
Productivity:
Journaling helps with productivity through clarifying thoughts. And documenting ideas that will go into your business ideas or to-do list.
When you are journaling you are reaching deep inside yourself. You discover not only what you are feeling but also why those feelings are there. So journaling may help you get to the root of the problem instead of just suppressing it!
If you haven’t started journaling, what are you waiting for?
