I’m not sure when I started journaling, it was probably around 2016 when a lot of change was happening in my life. Up until then, I never wrote anything down.
All the writing I’d do – if you want to call it “writing” – was in work emails. I remember observing how I enjoyed creating emails, even though the subject was somewhat dull.
I’d love crafting the email – the choice of words, the subject line, the formatting, the rallying call to action at the end lol. I enjoyed it, but these emails were always work-related, so nobody really appreciated them.
I was like a Michelin starred chef working in a cheap burger joint. Nobody cared for my exquisite compote, all they needed was ketchup.
I’d write the occasional email to a friend, and I remember putting a ton of work into those – but by 2016, lengthy email writing had dried up. Social media ruined that.
But I did enjoy writing, that much I knew.
I just didn’t have a vehicle for it. Then journaling came along.
Why Journaling is Life-Changing
Offloading
There’s probably a more eloquent name for this, but I’m going to stick with “offloading” as that’s how it feels.
90% of stuff I journal about I never read again. Especially the long form, journal stuff. The notes are vehicles to get information, thoughts, dilemmas, etc. out of my head and somewhere else.
They are not diaries. That’s not how I treat them, anyway.
They’re a form of meditation. Basically observing what you’re thinking about. It’s easy to ruin a perfectly good day by keeping something inside your head that needs airing.
Often, just airing it in a note is good enough to get past it. Then you can get on with the rest of your day.
Sometimes a journal becomes something I want to publish to the world, and that’s when I add it as an essay here. This article started out as a journal in fact.
Information Retrieval
I make a habit of making notes about anything I’d like to remember. Rather than trying to remember it, I make a quick note about it, and I know its there if I ever need it.
This could be every from a business idea to a pin code I need to remember for an AirBNB I’m staying at in Barcelona (as happened last week).
There are many times when I need something, or someone asks me about something, I’ve seen that thing, but I can’t remember what it’s called or where I saw it.
Ok, you may tell yourself you have an amazing memory and don’t need to do that. More strength to you, but its human to forget stuff.
Besides, remembering stuff is like using up computer RAM. It slows down your entire operating system (brain) I think. It’s also why I use a password manager and never remember passwords anymore, other than the one password I need to open the software.
I take notes about:
- Quotes. I love quotes, little nuggets of wisdom that often pack a lot in a few words. That’s how this website started! I have a rolling list of favorite quotes that I add to. Increasingly, I just add them here.
- Intel notes: I call these “Intel” notes. I have a few of these about things I’m interested in learning about. Some of mine are “IM Intel” (IM = internet marketing) and “YT Intel” (YT = YouTube). When I come across interesting articles, resources, nuggets in social media threads, etc. I add them to the corresponding note. Its a way of bookmarking stuff, with the added benefit that you can add plain text (not only URLs.)
- [Insert Word] I Like: When I come across something I like, I add it to one of these notes. One of my favorites is “Websites I Like”. Whenever I come across a site, or element of a site, I add them here, often with a screengrab and arrows pointing to the element I like
- And pretty much anything else.
I don’t obsess about note names. I try to give each note a name so it doesn’t get saved as “untitled,” but there are likely a good few that remain nameless in my system. Oh well.
I don’t really bother tagging them or creating folders and sticking them in there either. It’s possibly a good idea, but that’s an extra step that might become a barrier to adding a note.
The note-taking practice needs to be as frictionless as possible or you won’t do it. The most important thing is the note gets captured in the moment. If making the note becomes arduous in any way, then it might stop me from doing it.
As for what software to use, I use Evernote, but any note-taking app will do. I particularly like this one because of how it syncs effortlessly across devices. So I can be making a list while I’m walking my dog, then get home, and continue it on my desktop.
If you’ve never tried it, give it a go. It might make a huge difference to your mental wellbeing.
It did for me.
