A few years ago I wrote a blog post titled How five minute journaling improved my life, in which I described how I started the habit of journaling and what benefits I’ve experienced. I won’t repeat what I wrote in my earlier post, but I still think five minute journaling is the second best life hack I've discovered so far (and yes, the best one is still guided meditation for ten minutes twice a day).
Since the original post there have been periods when I haven’t been able to keep up with the habit and sometimes the breaks have lasted even for a few months. Afterwards I’ve tried to analyze those periods and discovered that they’ve typically been marked by elevated levels of stress or some other underlying anxiety. Needless to say, it’s precisely in those types of circumstances that journaling would be of great help, but … the mind works in mysterious ways.
This year I’ve had a nice uninterrupted streak of journaling and I must say it’s been immensely helpful for dealing with worries caused by the COVID-19 crisis and other potentially anxiety inducing events. I’ve also noticed certain recurring issues and thoughts, both good ones and bad ones, and that’s of course valuable information that can also be actionable.
When I tell someone of my five minute journaling, occasionally I’m asked how I do it and if there’s some specific form to it. I am in fact using a template, which I keep in Evernote, and each day in the journal is saved as a new note. I guess it doesn’t matter what tool one is using – someone might for example prefer a physical notebook – I just happen to think that Evernote is super convenient, as I can access it from whichever device happens to be closest to me (typically my iPhone).
My template is based on The Five Minute Journal by Intelligent Change and it consists of a 3 minute morning section and a 2 minute evening section. This is how the template looks like and I sincerely hope it could be of some value for you too:
2020-06-21 Sunday
I am grateful for…
X
Y
Z
What would make today great?
X
Y
Z
Daily affirmations. I am…
X
Three amazing things that happened today…
X
Y
Z
How could I have made today even better?
X