On keeping a journal

def journal():
    j = ["🎈 Hot air balloon > Pajamas",
         "📺 Argued with Netflix, lost.",
         {"Career": "🚗 Stuck in traffic",
          "Next": "🛣️ Hopefully not traffic",
          "Today": "🌬️ Breathing",
          "Tomorrow": "🌍 World domination"}]
    return j or "📝 Start journaling."

print(journal())

I journal everyday. And it’s the one of the best investments I’ve ever made in my personal development and career. It formed the basis of my game plan for the future, and has helped me make decisions more times than I can remember.

If you’ve never tried it before, you might be confused as to how the task of simply writing to yourself can be life-changing. But I assure you that it is, in more ways than one.

Why Journal?

To plan

It’s easy to be busy. So busy, in fact, that every hour of your day is spent doing something, be it work, watching Netflix, enjoying time with friends or family, or anything in between. It’s not as easy to be productive. To not only place your entire focus on the task at hand, but also to be working on something truly valuable to you.

It’s harder to be productive. Harder to make your hours count instead of simply counting your hours. Reflecting in a journal can help you deal with that. It can allow you to take a look into what your current future looks like, and compare it with your ideal one. It can allow you to think past tomorrow, and think instead of 2 months from now, even 2 years from now.

It can help you put superficial tasks at the bottom of your to do list while bringing your more important (and perhaps less urgent) tasks towards the top. With life being the biggest project we’re ever going to get, it’s worth planning out how you can best live it.

To (re)focus

We all fall into an unproductive slump every now and then. It’s not a matter of if, only a matter of when. And while it’s important to build our environment to prevent such days from happening, it’s just as important to know how to get out of such slumps as well.

Choosing a journal forces you to confront yourself about what you’ve been spending your time on. It’s easy to let an unproductive hour turn into a day. Journaling interrupts that process, allowing you to accept lulls in productivity and get back into the swing of things.

To keep a record (of yourself)

Keeping a journal can help you record all the thoughts you have on a particular day. They may be irrelevant, but they also may be inspirational and even educational for you when you get older and reflect on them. Keeping a journal is like taking family photos; you don’t realize their true sentimental value until looking back on them, often years later.

When I ask people I know if they keep a journal, the answer is usually no. Of course, they follow up by saying they know they should, and that they’ll get started at some point.

Unfortunately, for most people ‘at some point’ is usually equivalent to never. So if you’re reading this write now and haven’t started journaling yet, I implore you to take a minute and just write your thoughts down on a piece of paper. It doesn’t need to be about anything in particular, or even coherent for that matter.

Write about how your career has been progressing, about where you feel you’re headed next. Write About what you’ve done today, what you’ve done yesterday, and what you expect to do tomorrow. Write about the fears lingering at the back of your mind. About the things that are stressing you out.

The beauty of a journal is that the possibilities for self-reflection are infinite. If you’re looking to improve your life, get started with a journal. I’m confident you’ll start to view your life more than just a little bit differently.