100 Days of Journaling

Today is day 100 of my journaling habit.

It’s no secret that I have had mental health issues in the past, and as part of this realisation I have made several changes in my life to help me to manage the day to day stresses of life.

I made many attempts to journal; I must have spent hours reading various blogs to try and work out what I needed to do to write a good blog. I researched journaling books that prompt you with what to write that day but never managed to build a habit beyond two or three days. It couldn’t be this hard to do something which every life coach seems to say is one of the things we should all be doing daily.

Why did I want to do it? I was struggling. There were a lot of thoughts in my head which I used to ruminate about repeatedly and I was struggling for motivation. I needed to get clarity around my thoughts, find direction in my life and to find a way of thinking about all the positive things in my life.

One day I had a great opportunity to help proof-read a journaling guide called “Work in Progress” or WIP. It was written by George Anderson and Alexa Whitten. I’ve trusted George with many parts of my life in the past and jumped at the opportunity to help him as well as having an opportunity to read yet more tips on Journalling!

Work In Progress is very different from any of the other books out there. It’s clear that you don’t have to journal every day or at a set time, you don’t need to sit down and write about everything you have done or felt that day and it doesn’t need to be a chore – it gives tips on the types of things you may want to journal and examples of how they may look.

I haven’t implemented everything WIP suggests, but what works for me right now. I started very simply writing and reflecting on the things I was grateful for and it took just 5 minutes. For some people this may be “grateful for the thunderstorm watering my garden” or the “coffee bean picker helping to make my morning coffee”. I preferred real-life tangible examples:

1. Grateful to my golf pro for teaching me the techniques to improve each time I play.
2. Grateful to my new employer having faith in me when others didn’t.
3. Grateful for time on lockdown to spend time walking around the park with my family

I continued my development journey, reading other books and blogs. I listened to an incredible audible book called “Atomic Habits” by James Clear and one of the techniques he talked about was tracking habits daily that you want to implement. Guess what – tracking is in WIP, but when I read it the time wasn’t right. I now track the number of daily habits I’m trying to implement or don’t want to stop. There is something about tracking which motivates you not to break a streak – and it’s so easy. Today’s tracker will say:

1. 100 days journaling
2. 32 day meditation streak
3. 167 days Alcohol Free
4. 29 days art practice
5. 29 days handwriting practice
6. 5 days Duolingo – Spanish

The final thing that I currently journal about is a victory for each day. Again, I want this to be something tangible and this is probably the most difficult thing for me. Lots of days are the same, especially during the recent lockdown, but finding something to celebrate – no matter how small – can be incredibly powerful. A couple of examples from the last few months:

1. A day/week without arguing with my teenage son
2. A record streak of pars at golf 🙂
3. Writing and completing my first morning checklist (a habit from Productivity Ninja by Graham Allcott)

I’m trying to write intentions and when I have done them they have worked wonders. I once wrote in my intentions that “I will tidy my office’’. Within minutes of writing it I’d started – a job I had put off for weeks! And as a result, I had a workspace I was happy to work in. Maybe I should add this to my tracker 🙂

If you’re still with me… has it helped me? Yes absolutely, some days it’s a chore but most days it’s a pleasure. I typically write my intentions in the morning and my tracker, gratitudes and victories at the end of the day. It’s probably 15 minutes’ work and as a result, I end the day on a positive note with a clear head and motivated for the next day.

I’ve been using a simple work notebook for the last 100 days and though WIP does have sections to write in each day, the notebook works best for me. However, tonight I will be writing in a good quality, leather-bound notebook and with a pen that will feel great – a little treat for myself.