How to Journal for a Better Life

The simple five minute journal you can actually stick to

Writing. . . It’s kind of like getting a colonoscopy. You know you need to do it. You really need to do it as you get older or you start to forget pretty much fucking everything. After you have done it you feel a lot better. . . But not right after. Your ass kind of hurts for a while and you feel a little violated, kind of like writing.

Actually sitting with your thoughts long enough to string together coherent complex sentences that really help you sort through the noise can be painfully revealing. While at the same time also being wildly insightful yet crushing.

For all of these reasons I find myself not writing nearly as much as I really should. Part of me is scared to write because of what might come out or what I won’t be able to ignore about myself any longer.

Half filled journals fill a box in my closet that I can’t bring myself to throw away much less actually crack the journals and reflect on my thoughts from years past. I routinely make a commitment to myself that I will write more, and I usually stick with it for a while.

But eventually. . .

Life catches up. I skip a day, then two, then four months. It is too easy not to write and it is too easy to forget after it fails to be habitual.

So what am I doing to remedy this situation and actually stick to a writing ritual?

I made it painfully simple. I have a theory about the gym. It goes like this. The gym you are most likely to go to is the one that is closest to your house. The closer the better. Furthermore, if the gym is more than 10 minutes away or involves potential traffic or chaos you will not go. I have made my writing the garage gym.

I heard the idea of the five minute journal discussed several places and I googled around for a while but didn’t actually find the prompts, so I made up my own. Here goes.

What went well?

3 Items – More if you want but not too many

What didn’t go so well and why?

3 Items – Don’t dwell or complain, just recognize.

What am I thankful for?

Three items – Get creative, some days it’s deep others it’s the little things.

What do I need to get done tomorrow?

You guessed it, 3 things and not more in this case.

That’s it!!! Often times it doesn’t even take 5 minutes. Even if I forget and do it right before I go to bed it doesn’t really disrupt anything or cut into sleep. I am never confronted with a blank page and no idea what to write. I don’t feel the obligation to go deep unless I am so inspired.

I started with a trusty Moleskin which I still love and have used for years but I found that keeping track of a journal was a barrier that sometimes prevented me from keeping that habit. I have clung to the analog idea that my thoughts would somehow resonate better with me if I wrote things by hand. Well fuck it. I give up. I figured it was better to write consistently than cling to outdated beliefs.

Gotta Love Google Docs

I decided to give docs a little test on the five minute journal. What did I have to lose. After approximately two days of journaling in Docs I was a convert. I made a template. Filled in the questions. It looks a whole lot neater than my damn 2^nd grade handwriting. I can access it from any computer or my phone whenever I want. It is basically impossible to lose. Once again it is the garage gym that I have no excuse not to use.

One little side effect I noticed from using Docs is that I tend to write more. With the moleskin I felt confined to a single page. With Docs the words just seem to flow a little more freely. So, do I feel as connected with the words as when I hand scrawl? Who the hell knows. What I do know, is that I get immensely more benefit from writing than I don’t, so anything that makes it easier is worth it.