A month of journaling: What did I learn?
My earlier title to this post was ‘A month of journaling daily’ but I missed some days so it won’t be apt. I don’t have any regrets about missed days as I forgot about it or was too tired to write anything about my day. Its ok. I always thought about daily journaling before but I feel forceful to write on a paper. Hence, was never able to pick up a diary or a journal & write about my day or what I feel.
To start this habit, I thought why not write it on laptop itself. Someday in future, If I am confident of sticking to daily journaling, I will pick up a physical journal and write. The result? I ended up writing for 23 out of the 30 days especially when I started on 3rd of the month.
I still can’t say if this has led to any profound change in my day but It definitely gives me perspective about things & life. These are the things I learned from my mini writing experiment of 23 days:
- The main thing — Sleep was the main culprit which finds mention in most of my days. As I am having trouble sleeping & deal with irregular sleep & insomnia, this is the first thing I crib/write about daily. As I write about it, I tend to take this seriously & hopefully sleep better next month
- Start with minus, end with plus — I tend to start with the most fuck all part of the day & always end it with a happy note coz I am optimistic about tomorrow the future if not today
- Gratitude — I tend to thank myself for smallest of work done, smallest of wins & the day itself feels great esp in my journal. A walk a day is also to be thanked for in the journal
- We are not our work — I think about my work 24*7 & journaling is helping me to offload the overthinking stuff from my head to the journal. This is an effort in right direction wherein I achieve this mantra of “we are not our work”. Also will help me prioritise better in future I hope
- Rereading — Some days before I start writing for the day, I re read some notes & think on why I wrote that & what was I even thinking? It feels great though coz that person was me & this person is also me. Rereading also helps me think on good things which I am missing today
I have tried to be 90% genuine when it comes to journaling. 10% is still calculative as I worry on what might happen if somebody goes through these notes so I haven’t exposed myself completely in words. Hopefully, I continue this next month as well & build this into a small habit to do daily. Fin.
