I have kept a daily journal for nearly 14 years now. Most of what I write in my notebooks is unstructured, incoherent ranting and whining. Late night outpourings of fear and anxiety. Weird, grandiose plans for the future. Uncomfortable detailed accounts of social interactions, complete with a commentary on why I should never go near a human being again.

My notebooks aren't as much about documenting my life as about managing emotions and making plans. I'm not joking when I say that it is the main thing which keeps me sane during bad times. The time and effort I put into journaling directly correlate to how happy, calm and productive I am.

It can be intimidating to read the journals of successful people (like Samuel Pepys, Hemmingway, and Benjamin Franklin) and about complex methods for keeping a record of your life. Like all habits, the simpler you make it, the better. I prefer to have a barrage of quick and easy journaling techniques for specific situations. The criteria for each of them are as follows:

Must take under five minutes to do (or longer if I wish.)

Must require nothing more than paper and pen.

Must be something I can do anywhere, anytime.

Must have tangible, immediate benefits.

My staple notebook is the Moleskine Cahier- it's light, the paper is good quality, and it's sturdy. The only pen I will ever use is a Lamy Safari with a medium nib (indestructible and it makes my handwriting 10x better.)

Here are the three main techniques I use all the time for handling anxiety and general mood repair.

1. Concrete solutions

I have written about this basic, yet powerful technique before. It's simple and I use it all the time. A lot of people got in touch to say it worked for them too, so I'm sharing it again.

First, divide the page in two. On one side, write down everything which is on your mind as a sort of idea capture. Get it all down as quickly as possible. I like to state it in the plainest terms possible as if explaining it to someone with no understanding of my situation. Each bullet point goes something like 'I feel X because of Y and Z' or 'A is wrong and that is making me feel B and C.' It does not need to be any more complicated than that. If you feel like ranting or going into a lot of details, turn that into a separate journal entry. This page is all about creating an inventory of your current problems, no matter how big or small each one is. This stage is to let you articulate your exact situation. It's common to be anxious without any real idea of what is causing it, which is why I find this stage so cathartic.

On the other side of the page, write an equally simple list of potential solutions for each problem. Again, keep each point short and broad. I find that some of the issues become meaningless as soon as they are on paper. A few lines of self-reassurance is enough to solve them. Sometimes all I have to write is 'this is bullshit. I am doing fine. Forget this point and move on.' In fact, you would not believe how often that is the real answer. For others, I write down an idea for a more thorough resolution.

This next part is optional, although usually necessary. Once the first page is full, take another to write a detailed, step by step plan for each of the biggest problems. This part is what makes this technique practical, not just satisfying. Writing down problems does not eradicate them. There are always ways to solve (or at least reduce or handle) them.

Anxiety can leave us feeling helpless. When I get overwhelmed, I easily fall into a downwards spiral and start thinking there is nothing I can do to improve things. That's almost never true. There are always steps we can take to solve problems and start feeling better.

Although I haven't shown filled in examples in the video, here's a page from January: