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Journal Book

We love journaling. It’s a ritual for writing about, tracking and recording your life down in paper or in digital form.

It is not about teenagers keeping a secret diary, but a methodical and mindful practice that actively improves your life over time. We recommend everyone to have a journaling ritual because it has so many benefits. Just to name a few:

  • Recorded memory. By writing things down, you have a record of what has happened to you, daily. This is especially great if you have a leaky brain (bad memory).
  • Ability to see what you did on any given day of your life.
  • See and track progress across different areas of your life.
  • A unique opportunity to align day-to-day task with longer-term vision and goals.
  • End every single day knowing that you did well – this creates motivational momentum.
  • Helps bring other Rituals into your life through questions and reminders.
  • Capture your own personal history.

As part of our Rituals course we’ve helped thousands of people with their journaling ritual. We have a whole module on how to build a journaling ritual inside the course and now we’re going to release the main video for free on the blog. You can watch it here:

Getting started with a journaling ritual

Here’s a simple checklist to help you get started:

  • Pick your medium – pen and paper, or digital. Personal preference.
  • Work out how your journal will be structured (examples below).
  • Decide on your structure and questions (examples below).
  • Start journaling.

The most common question we get from people who want to start journaling is “what do I write about?”

Well Padawan, we’re here to help. If you’ve never made journaling a successful ritual before, then we recommend you only answer 2 questions on a daily basis:

  • What did I learn today?
  • How can I make tomorrow better?

When you have to answer too many questions it can be hard to make it a ritual. That’s why you want to keep it as simple as possible and these two questions are extremely effective in helping you grow.

If you already have a journaling ritual and you want to take it to the next level, our examples below will help you with that. Pick the ones you like and slowly add 1 or 2 new questions to your ritual over time.

Daily Template

  • What happened to you that day (events).
  • Outcomes, tasks, questions.
    • Outcomes are the big things you want to achieve for the day.
    • Tasks are the smaller steps to achieving outcomes.
  • Write down 3 accomplishments.
  • Questions (all optional, pick as you please):
  • What did I read?
  • What did I learn?
  • What did I do to help my future?
  • How did I help someone today?
  • Who do I love?
  • What am I grateful for?

Weekly Template

  • What happened to you that week (events).
  • Outcomes, tasks, questions.
  • Review of how the week went.

Monthly Template

  • What happened to you that month (events)
  • Outcomes, tasks, questions
  • Review of how the month went

Annual Template

  • What happened to you that year (events).
    • As important things happen, put them into your annual journal entry.
  • Outcomes, tasks, questions.
  • Review of how the year went.
  • Questions:
    • Where did I travel?
    • Who did I meet?
    • What is my net worth now?
    • Where did I spend most of my time?
    • Where did I spend most of my attention?
    • How did I improve at what I do?
    • How have most of my close relationships improved?
    • How has my health improved?
    • How has to my contribution to the world improved, or my charity increased?
    • How has my purpose evolved?
    • What do I want from the upcoming year?
    • What roles have Rituals played in my life this year?
    • How can I sustainably create better Rituals for next year?

Zachary’s Sample Questions #1

  • How has the resistance shown up today?
  • How is my girlfriend amazing?
  • What did I learn/read?
  • What did I do for exercise?
  • What was I focused on?
    • Morning
    • Day
    • Night

Zachary’s Sample Questions #2

  • How am I feeling right now?
  • What am I thankful for right now?
  • How much sleep did I get?
  • What did I do really well today?
  • What did I improve upon?
  • What did I learn/read?
  • What did I do for exercise?
  • How can I do things better tomorrow?
  • What value did I give away today?
  • What did I enjoy today?
  • What was I focused on?
    • Morning
    • Day
    • Night
  • What could have been delegated or automated?

Zachary’s Sample Questions #3

  • What am I grateful for?
  • Who do I love?
  • Why am I so happy?
  • What am I committed to? (health, relationships, projects)
  • How committed am I?
  • What is my intention?
  • What is my wish?
  • Why am I here? (time, place)

Did you know that we have our own productivity community and we discuss Journalling extensively?

The Productivity Academy is our exclusive members-only community that is jam-packed with trainings, courses, masterclasses, podcasts, coaching calls, action plans, and productivity-focused individuals just like you. Click here to learn about joining the Productivity Academy.


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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thanh Pham

Founder of Asian Efficiency where we help people become more productive at work and in life. I've been featured on Forbes, Fast Company, and The Globe & Mail as a productivity thought leader. At AE I'm responsible for leading teams and executing our vision to assist people all over the world live their best life possible.


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  1. Any guidance on how to choose between keeping either a physical journal or a digital journal?

    I can see how having a physical journal might make me more likely to remember using it. Because I can set that object on top of my pillow or something to remember to write in it each night.

    On the other hand, a digital journal seems easier to write (typing is faster and thus makes it easier to get thoughts out… not to mention avoiding poor legibility) and it’s searchable.

  2. Thank you, I really enjoyed listening to your video and your tips about journaling. I’ve been journaling consistently for about 6 or seven years. I’ve developed over time a hybrid digital, paper system. Usually digital for in the moment things that happen and a morning journal for deeper reflection.

    Loved the templates and the questions.

    Nick

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