How to use this journal
The journal isn't a system. It's a habit you'll keep.
Five minutes most days. Skip when you need to. Re-read on Sundays. That's it. The rest of this page is the ‘why' — and the small handful of things that make it work.
Principles
Five rules. Mostly the rules of skipping.
-
There's no right time. The right time is the one you'll keep.
Morning, evening, lunch break, the train. The right time isn't the optimal one - it's the one that fits the rest of your life. Pick a slot you'd be in anyway, and journal there.
-
Five minutes is enough. Most days, that's all it should be.
Long entries are not a sign you're doing it well. Most days, three or four sentences will do more than three pages would. The brevity is the practice.
-
Write what comes up, not what looks good.
If your first sentence is ‘I don't know what to write,' write that. Then write the next one. The journal is for you - there's no audience waiting to be impressed.
-
Skip days. The journal isn't a streak.
Streak apps train you to perform consistency. A journal trains you to think clearly. Two different things. Skip the day you need to skip; come back the day after.
-
Re-read on Sundays. That's where the pattern lives.
One week of entries says nothing. Eight weeks of entries shows you what you keep coming back to. Set fifteen minutes on Sunday morning to re-read the week. The pattern is the point.
A week, lightly held
Three moments. Not a routine.
Monday morning
Coffee. Two minutes of writing about the week ahead. One thing you'd like to feel by Friday. Not goals — feelings. Then close the journal and go.
Wednesday evening
The day's going to feel long by Wednesday. Write about what you actually did, not what you planned to. The gap is information.
Sunday late morning
Re-read. Underline anything that surprises you. Then a single sentence: what's the one thing this week tried to tell you?