Maybe It's Time to Pick Up a Notebook

Good morning {{first_name}},

I’ve been trying to get into the habit of journaling again.

It’s something I’ve tried a few times over the years, and for a while I thought I’d found a good way of doing it.

Last year, I had a little system. Every day, I’d fill in three sections:

Productivity: What work did I get done today?

Personal: What went well in my personal life?

Physical: What did I do for my health?

The idea was to spend a few minutes reflecting on different parts of my day.

But after a while, I started noticing that this wasn’t really benefitting me

I’d open the app on my phone, fill in the three sections and close it again. Sometimes I’d get distracted by a notification halfway through. Other times, I’d finish writing and realise I hadn’t really thought about anything.

I’d recorded what I’d done, but that was about it.

I wasn’t giving myself much time to actually think.

I also found that having three set questions made me feel like I had to come up with an answer for each one, even when I didn’t have anything particularly interesting to say.

So I decided to put the phone away and try something different.

I got myself a notebook.

At first, I found it surprisingly difficult. I’d open a blank page and just sit there.

What am I supposed to write?

Should I write about work? Something that’s been bothering me? What I want to achieve next week?

I think I’d become so used to having a set structure that I’d forgotten I could just write whatever I wanted.

Eventually, I stopped worrying about it so much.

One thing I’ve noticed is that I tend to get the most out of journaling when I don’t try to force it. Sometimes something happens during the day that I want to get off my chest. Other times, I just want to sit down and make sense of what’s going through my head.

Here are three things I’ve found helpful.

This is probably one of the simplest things I’ve started doing.

Rather than immediately trying to write a full paragraph, I’ll sometimes just write down a few words describing how I’m feeling.

Happy. Frustrated. Excited. Tired.

Then I’ll spend a little time thinking about where those feelings are coming from.

It’s easy to go through an entire day without really stopping to consider how you’re feeling. You move from one thing to another, and before you know it, the day’s over.

Writing things down gives you a reason to pause.

You don’t necessarily need to find a solution to whatever you’re feeling either. Sometimes understanding it is enough.

This one took me a little while to get comfortable with.

Sometimes, when I’m frustrated or struggling to put something into words, I’ll just scribble across a page.

Literally.

I’ll leave it for a bit and come back to it when I feel like writing.

I might then write a few lines about what was bothering me or what had happened beforehand.

It might seem like a strange thing to do, but I’ve found it useful.

I think we sometimes put too much pressure on ourselves to explain everything perfectly. Even when we’re just writing for ourselves.

Your notebook doesn’t need to make sense to anyone else.

This is probably the biggest change in how I approach journaling.

I used to care quite a lot about keeping everything organised. I’d want my handwriting to look good, my sections to be neat and my pages to follow some sort of structure.

But then I realised I was spending more time worrying about how my journal looked than what I was actually writing in it.

There’s not much point in having a beautiful notebook if you’re too worried about messing up the pages to use it.

Some of my favourite pages are the messy ones. The ones where I’ve crossed things out, written something in the wrong place or filled half a page with thoughts that probably wouldn’t make much sense to anyone else.

And that’s exactly how it should be.

Something I’ve been thinking about recently is how often we turn simple things into another task we need to get right.

We find a routine and then spend more time trying to stick to it than actually enjoying what we’re doing.

I think journaling was becoming a bit like that for me.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a routine or using prompts. If that works for you, brilliant.

But you don’t have to write every day. You don’t need to fill a certain number of pages, and you certainly don’t need to buy an expensive notebook.

Some days you might have plenty to write about. Other days, you might only manage a couple of lines.

That’s fine.

The whole point is to give yourself a little space to think, away from everything else that’s going on.

So if you’ve been meaning to start journaling, give it a go this week.

Don’t worry about how to start. Just open a page and see where your thoughts take you.

Have a lovely Sunday,

Yousaf