Don't Let These 5 Journaling Myths Keep You From a Game-Changing Habit

If it's good enough for billionaires, it's worth a try

Photo by Peter Jones on Unsplash

If you cringe at the word journaling, you’re not alone.

It can conjure up images of a navel-gazing teen hiding away on a rainy day to avoid chores. Or someone with more free time than you.

So, it may surprise you to know that journaling is hot in the business and creative worlds.

Right up there with meditating.

The reason why busy people journal?

Because it gives results. In business and life.

And it’s especially important if you’re a writer.

Because your thoughts are your superpower.

It turns out that the journal has gotten an unfair rap.

So, let’s debunk a few of the common myths around it.

1. Journaling is a waste of time

When your day’s already packed, why squeeze in journaling?

Because journaling reconnects you to yourself.

It’s a claim on some quiet, personal time. To have a conversation that’s not with your family or work team.

It’s connecting with someone more vital to your well-being and progress.

When you’re faced with a blank page and your own thoughts, you tune into a private inner voice. One that can get drowned out in the demands of a full life.

That voice may whisper a reminder to be in touch with a distant friend. Or prompt you to step into a hard conversation at work you’ve been avoiding. Or budge you to act on booking the holiday you desperately need.

By capturing these thoughts, you

• see patterns of thinking

• clarify what’s important to you

• manage your stress and emotions

• identify your strengths and weaknesses

• reflect on personal and professional progress.

So rather than wasting time, journaling can help you focus on what matters most.

When you value your time, journaling is a way to ensure you use it with intention.

2. Journaling requires an expensive leather-bound book

There’s no one best way to journal. Or one type of book to call your journal.

A journal can be a kid’s exercise book. Or it can be a visual diary and look like a work of art. It can be a Google Doc on your laptop.

Some journals are obsessively structured. Some look like a hot mess.

Product designer Ryder Carroll came up with bullet journaling (BuJo). It’s a popular method that you can get creative with. (Check out the hashtags #bujo and #bulletjournal on Instagram to get lost in a sea of ideas.).

In bullet journaling, you start with a blank or dot grid book. Then you create bullet lists. And an index for sections with different purposes.

Carroll’s system is like the Swiss army knife of journals. It can morph into everything from an organizer to a habit tracker.

You find what works for you over time.

There are no hard and fast rules here. And it doesn’t have to be pretty.

3. Journaling only works for deep thinkers

You can use a journal for whatever you want.

You can plan your next dream holiday.

Or record the funny thing your grandchild did.

Or vent about how the cashier miscalculated your change.

It serves different purposes for different people.

It can:

• Create order.

• Catch insights.

• Set up your day.

• Finish your day.

• Record your day.

• Express gratitude.

• Get rid of mental clutter.

• Explore the questions that hit home.

For a writer like Virginia Woolf, journaling was preparation for her craft:

The habit of writing thus for my own eye only is good practice. It loosens the ligaments.

For Tim Ferriss, podcaster and author, journaling captures his private thoughts:

I don’t journal to “be productive.” I don’t do it to find great ideas, or to put down prose I can later publish. The pages aren’t intended for anyone but me…

Journaling is as practical, deep, private, and meaningful as you make it.

4. Journaling requires you to know what to say

You don’t have to be a writer to enjoy journaling. Or be a clear thinker. Or articulate.

We’re all pretty good about speaking out our opinions, our worries, and our plans.

Journaling is doing that on paper.

Without an audience.

Start with a prompt, a question, or a template to simplify the process and remove the fear that a blank page creates.

Some people find a few questions helpful before they start the day:

• Who in my family most needs my attention right now?

• What one thing will I do for my health today?

• What can I do to feel enough today?

Some use them at the end of the day:

• What went well today, and why?

• What do I most look forward to about tomorrow?

• What’s the one thing I need to finish so I can be less anxious?

Others follow a simple format to avoid having to think much.

You can ask, “What are 3 things I’m grateful for today?”

As with any habit, journaling becomes easier and automatic with practice.

And less time-consuming.

As you get into the rhythm, your brain gets primed for daily reflection. So thoughts flow more freely.

5. Journaling’s not for busy people

Well, let’s see.

Marcus Aurelius, who lived in the second century, wrote a journal. (Many read the book it birthed, Meditations, even today.)

And he was running the Roman Empire.

As someone who journaled without quitting his day job, he’s in the company of:

• Bill Gates

• Mark Zuckerberg

• Elon Musk

• Richard Branson

• Warren Buffett

• Benjamin Franklin

• Mark Twain

• Isaac Newton

• Winston Churchill

• Charles Darwin

• Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Henry David Thoreau

• Queen Victoria

• Thomas Edison

• Ludwig van Beethoven

• Virginia Woolf

• Anne Frank

• John Steinbeck

• Anais Nin

• Franz Kafka

• George Lucas

• Andy Warhol

Not too slack a bunch.

Remember that a journaling habit doesn’t have to take much time. Even spending 5 or 15 minutes a day can be revealing.

Or writing a short paragraph a few times a week.

Some people scale right back to make a one-line-a-day journal entry.

Busy, accomplished artists, scientists, and leaders found time to journal.

So we can too.

Are You Ready to Give Journaling a Go?

We’ve busted a few myths about journaling. You see a few of your heroes past and present are into this.

Can you see what it might do for you?

Start with a few words recorded in a simple schoolbook that you jot down when you find the time.

Even if it’s just to center yourself.

Or to check in with how prepared you are to confront the day.

Or to record a phrase you overheard at the cafe that has to make it into your next post.

It could pay off by making your day go more according to your plan.

So why not give it a go?

You’ll be in great company.