Recently, American film director Robert Rodriguez appeared on The Tim Ferriss Show and explained why and how he journals.

This piqued my interest.

Like many people, I’ve always wanted to journal daily, but like most people, I’ve struggled with consistency.

This wasn’t because I lacked the self-discipline to write; it’s because I didn’t know what to write about. I wasn’t a fan of writing stream-of-conscious thought; I wanted consistency in my writing…

I wanted a template.

So, I did what most people do: I turned to Google. I varied my search terms, but my results left me less than satisfied.

When I wasn’t met with “listicles” like, “7 Ways to Keep a Journal”, or encouraged to, “Just try it”, I was left with little to go on in terms of journaling templates.

I was left with one option: to draft my own journaling template.

Here’s what I came up with.

Free Download: so you never miss a day again. Get immediate access to my free Evernote journaling templates so you never miss a day again.

I currently journal once in the morning and once in the evening, and since using a journaling template, I’ve been consistent. I use Evernote to record my entries and use two tags: “Planner” for my morning journal and “Journal” for my evening Journal.

This is what my morning journal looks like:

Note: “TK” stands for “to come”. [1]

Every morning, I copy and paste the above template into a new note, date it and answer the following three questions:

1. “I am grateful for…” According to Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage, writing down three new things that you’re grateful for, for 21 days in a row, can actually rewire your brain, allowing your brain to work more optimistically and more successfully. [2]

2. “What would make today great?” I “borrowed” this from The Five-Minute Journal. Here, I write my five most important tasks for the day. This helps me distinguish the vital few tasks from the trivial many, and reminds me that only a few things really matter and I can’t do everything. [3]

3. “What’s ONE Thing I must accomplish today?” This is my focusing question. This, as Gary Keller argues in his book, The ONE Thing, is the best approach to getting what you want. If you want to achieve extraordinary results, you need to narrow your focus and allow what matters most to drive your day.

In the evening, my journal is more thorough:

This is an opportunity to review my day and improve what is already working. I have an alarm on my phone to trigger my journaling habit, and every evening, at 21:00, before shutting down my laptop for the day, I answer seven questions:

1. “What did I achieve today?” This question helps me identify whether I actually achieved what I set out to accomplish in the morning, or if I got sidetracked. One lesson I’ve learned from answering this question is it’s easy to overestimate what you think you can achieve in a day, but I remind myself it’s not what you achieve in a day, it’s what you achieve eventually. This is what really matters.

2. “What lessons did I learn?” This is my favourite question to answer. This is where you journal your “Aha!” moments. Answers can range from personal, “I learned how to say no to dessert”, to skill-based, “I learned how to remove plosives in an audio recording using Audacity”. The more thorough you are, here, the more you can return to it again and again and learn from it.

3. “What am I thankful for right now?” This is similar to Question #1 in my morning journal but with a rather unorthodox twist: I thank my problems and ask myself what’s great about them. This is an exercise I learned from Anthony Robbins in his book, Awaken the Giant Within and it’s called “The Problem Solving Question”.

Last week, for example, I accidently deleted an audio recording I had made. “What is great about this problem?” I asked myself. “Nothing!” I replied. But when I meditated on it, when I really thought about it, I realised my problem was great because I could make an improvement on the original. As Laura Ingalls Wilder writes, “There is good in everything, if only we look for it.”

4. “How am I feeling right now?” This is an opportunity for me to be vulnerable, to let my guard down, to be open without censoring myself. I’m generally pretty happy, but if I’m feeling a negative emotion, I’ll identify the cause by using a why drill. I’ll ask myself why I’m feeling the emotion, in question, five times. This helps me be at the cause, rather than the effect of my concern.

5. “What did I read today?” This pertains to any blog posts I clipped and/or books I’m reading. This helps me track my weekly goal of reading a book a week. [4]

6.“What are 3 amazing things that happened today?” I think it’s important to bookend your day by focusing on your “small wins.” “I said no to a dessert.” “I resisted the urge to give into temptation.” “I didn’t sleep in.” “I achieved my most important task.” … These tiny advantages build forward momentum and remind us that bigger achievements are within reach.

7. “How could I have made today better?” Many of us, when dissatisfied with our day, prefer to write it off, to move past it as quickly and quietly as possible. But by asking yourself how you could have made the day better, you’re forcing your brain to look for improvements. Your day may have been stressful, but don’t write it off until you’ve learned something from it. Look for ONE Thing you can do, either prevent it from happening again or to help you deal with it more effectively.

Conclusion

This has been a departure from my usual writing style, but I wanted to write something personal, and give you an insight into how I journal and what I’m learning from it.

I consider it to be one of the best approaches to understanding your own psychology and documenting the changes you’re making in your life.

You might argue it’s not for you, but I invite you to try, using my template as a model, before disregarding it completely.

Free Download: so you never miss a day again. Get immediate access to my free Evernote journaling templates so you never miss a day again.

Footnotes