How Journalling Can Put You Back On Track
The Problem
If you’re like me, you go through periods of productivity (and happiness) and periods of procrastination (and sadness). This is a pretty normal modus operandi. Peaks and troughs.
Although we could just stand idly by and wait for the periods of procrastination to pass by, a much better solution is to keep these periods to a minimum.
I’ve found, through trial and error, that the best way to diminish the periods of procrastination is to journal.
What is Journalling?
If you’re new to journalling it’s a relatively simple process. You find a pen and some paper and write down your thoughts.
Day after day. Month after month. You sit down at some point during the day or night and write down what thoughts you had that day. What went well? What went wrong? What could be improved?
Why Journal?
I’ve found it to be such a useful combatant at fighting procrastination as it destroys any ambiguity or worry you have in your mind. Most people live each day and internalise thoughts and feelings, constantly miring over details thinking “Oh, i could do this” or “I should have done this today”.
Journalling gets everything out in the open. By writing everything down on pen and paper it get’s everything out of your head. You can finally achieve some clarity.
This is why it’s so useful in combatting procrastination. I believe that procrastination stems from the avoidance of immediate due to you being unsure or unwilling of how to tackle them. Often, you’ll magnify and misinterpret the magnitude of the task at hand, believing it’s way more difficult than it actually is.
Journalling assist in clearing everything up. By writing thoughts down, you see them for what they are — not some big scary impossible mission, but simple, achievable tasks that can be broken down into steps.
Closing Thoughts
I remember reading the book Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harrari and in it he mentions humans inability to store vast amounts of information in a highly structured and organised fashion. Our brains are fundamentally complex and our memory fluid, thus we’re not built for storing information such as “Doctors appointment on Tuesday, Dissertation due Monday, Remember to pick up milk”.
Think about it, when you’re trying to think about something you’re not going
“File 34 in the memory subsection of the brain under important tasks, Part Z, subsection 22, retrieve file”
It’s simply madness to expect our brains to store and make sense of everything in our lives at a moment’s whim.
So there we are, there’s my argument for Journalling. Give it a shot, let me know how it goes.
As Always,
Yours Honestly,
Liam Lawson
