Morning journaling changed my life. I’m so glad I started doing it years ago. Before I did, I would: * Lose many of my best ideas (e.g., “I’m sure I’ll remember this cool idea later!”). * Never set aside enough time for brainstorming and creativity to improve my life and business. * Feel stressed out because I checked my email, messages, and news first thing in the morning. Journaling is a process, a habit, and a way of thinking about yourself, your life, and the world. The time for introspection, creative thinking, and calm reflection has been among the best investments I’ve made in myself. However, I’ve never been happy with the journals I used. And, oh boy, have I purchased a lot of different kinds of journals over the years! So, I finally designed what I always wanted and recently published my creation: The Invincible Daily Journals (featuring four seasons). Note: I also have a journal specifically for business owners, The Invincible Solopreneurs Daily Journal. Benefits of Journaling I’ve talked about the power of writing and journaling before, which you can read in the article linked below. From the Harvard Business Review: A certain kind of guided, detailed writing can not only help us process what we’ve been through and assist us as we envision a path forward; it can lower our blood pressure, strengthen our immune systems, and increase our general well-being. Expressive writing can result in a reduction in stress, anxiety, and depression; improve our sleep and performance; and bring us greater focus and clarity. (source) A New Journal Design After I left the corporate world in 2010, my life no longer revolved around quarters (i.e., Q1 through Q4). Also, humans aren’t meant to behave like corporations trapped in an artificial Q1-Q4 world. We live through very different cycles influenced by: * Personal events (e.g., vacations, birthdays, weddings, birth of a child, illness, loss). * Shared events (e.g., seasonal holidays, national holidays, local events). * Seasons, weather, and daylight hours. So, I wanted a journal that recognized this instead of arbitrarily structuring the pages by quarters or even months (e.g., the experience of November in the U.S. is very different from November in Australia). I also wanted the journals to support the personal ebb and flow of life, the daily ebb and flow of creativity and energy, and the seasonal ebb and flow of what matters to you in those moments of time. You can see the seasonal design reflected in the journal covers below. As I mentioned, I tested dozens of journal styles over several years. None of them quite met my needs. * Some were too basic (e.g., blank pages with no prompts). * Others were too complex and rigid (e.g., way too much structure or structure I didn’t need). * Some were full of the author’s commentary, leaving little room for my own thoughts and sketches. So, I spent the past decade fine-tuning effective morning journaling by modifying various journals I’ve used over the years. Using my favorite new fountain pen, I created my own headings, prompts, and visual elements on the pages. Eventually, I settled into a format that I really liked. But, every morning, I had to rewrite the section headings I wanted — day after day, week after week, and month after month. Well, enough was enough. Last year, I spent several months designing the ideal journal I wanted to use. Then, I created the four versions for spring, summer, fall, and winter and published them on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Lulu. Now they are available for everyone! Each book includes 90 days of entries to kick off your mornings and much more! All the journals include this “How to” page, but let me take you through the design of the entry pages and how to get the most out of using them. I’ll go into more detail in the audio of the podcast, too. * I’ve learned that morning journaling works best if you do it before something else distracts you, saps your creativity, or ruins your mood. * Obviously, each entry page has a place to enter the date. * The circles at the top-right corner of the page let you assess how you are feeling that day on a scale of 1 to 5 (e.g., 1 = Terrible, 3 = Okay, 5 = Great). * Every day, you write down your most important goal for the season. It may or may not change throughout the 90 days, but writing it down every day reinforces how important it is for you and strengthens your commitment to accomplishing it. * More importantly, you note what you plan to do that day to continue making progress toward that goal. This process helps you hold yourself accountable. * Then, you prioritize and enter your top 3 tasks for the day. Sure, you might get more done, but this ensures you focus your energy on the most important tasks first. * The morning thoughts section is for you to capture a stream of consciousness of creative ideas, random thoughts, sketches, diagrams, or whatever pops into your head. * Finally, you can return later in the evening (or the next morning) to write down your key takeaway for the day that could improve your life going forward. What did you learn? Here is an example of a completed entry page. Over the years, I’ve created a personal note-taking system that is somewhat similar to the bullet journal notations. * I use a bullet for each new idea or thought. * Sometimes, I will nest additional bullets under a parent item using hyphens. * I use an asterisk for something I want to highlight as important. * A checkbox is for a future task. * I frequently flip through past pages to check off to-do items and remind me of things I still need to get done. * I use all kinds of boxes, circles, underlines, and arrows for additional emphasis and grouping ideas. Why Paper? So, why do I use a paper journal instead of the thousands of available digital options? I’m glad you asked! Yes, I have tried various apps and tools over the years, but nothing matches a paper journal's distraction-free focus, speed, and flexibility. * Rapidly switching between typing and drawing is still slow and clumsy in apps, even on my iPad. * Being on my iPad, phone, or laptop leaves me vulnerable to digital distractions. Notifications plague me, it is too tempting to check my email, and social media and news are a dangerous click away. * The paper pages have many subtle visual cues that make them easy to scan and search. I can dogear the corner of a really important page, insert bookmarks and tape flags, and fan the pages to browse my day assessments, notes, sketches, etc. * I can quickly and easily flip between two pages and compare the content. This is still way easier in paper books than any digital medium. * I can take my journal with me everywhere (e.g., outside on my deck, at the coffee shop, on a flight), and it never runs out of battery, gets a cracked screen, reflects the sun’s glare, or crashes. Research has shown that there is a unique value in physically writing and drawing in a paper notebook. I already do much of my daily work on my phone, iPad, and laptop. If you know my background, you know I’m not a Luddite. I spent decades of my professional career designing and shipping all kinds of software. However, spending 20 minutes writing in a paper journal while I enjoy my coffee is a rare treat every morning. I love the break from the digital world! I love sketching concepts, creating diagrams, and writing notes by hand. It feels different, and my brain appreciates it. What to Write About I actually started journaling a long time ago. I was about 16 years old and wanted to capture my thoughts and dreams. Even then, I realized that doing it first thing in the morning was essential. I kept a notebook on my nightstand to jot down my dreams when I woke up — before they faded away. I’ve always been a vivid dreamer, so I wanted to use that to help me write fiction. I wish I had kept journaling, but I stopped when I went off to college. Thanks to a reminder about it from people like Tim Ferris, Ryan Holiday, and James Altucher, I returned to journaling several years ago. You might be asking, what in the heck can you find to write about every day? Well, the idea is to just let your mind go wild. No constraints. Nothing is silly or stupid. Just write! The more you do it, the easier it gets. Your creative writing muscle gets stronger. For example, my journal entries include: * Ideas for new goals this year. * Sketching a high-level roadmap of goals, subgoals, milestones, and tasks. * Crazy new product ideas (e.g., sketching gym equipment concepts). * How I’m feeling that day and why. I try to discover patterns in my moments of sadness, depression, and anxiety and find ways to manage it all better (e.g., I couldn’t make time for outdoor exercise this week, so I’m feeling down and need recharged). * Future to-do items I need to remember so I don’t forget them later (i.e., marked with a hand-drawn checkbox). * Notes about things I want to research more deeply. * New ideas for marketing my businesses. * New ideas for social media posts. * Potential partnerships and collaborations. * Ideas for courses and workshops. * Outlining the concept for a new book. * Sketching changes in my business model. * Sketching concepts for book covers. * Introspective notes to help me keep improving myself. * Reflecting on past events and memories. * Adding new destinations to my travel bucket list. * Sometimes, I’ll even draw some ideas for art projects, write poetry, and plot a fiction series. What are some things you can imagine writing in your daily journal? Let your imagination run wild! This is just for you. Check Them Out! I hope you’ll check out The Invincible Daily Journals and The Invincible Solopreneurs Daily Journal. Even if you don’t purchase one, I hope you’ll give daily journaling a chance and see if it makes a difference in your life! I’m Larry Cornett, a Freedom
