Quick journaling for busy people.
Welcome to our third installment in our series about journaling, which is going to be all about Micro Journaling.
Micro Journaling is exactly what it sounds like: small journaling. If reading our last two journaling posts made you think things like “I don’t have time for all that” or “I never have anything to write about,” this style of journaling might be a better fit for you. Micro Journaling is essentially all about picking one little aspect of journaling and sticking to it.
People do this in all sorts of ways, all completely different from the next person. In a video by author Todd Brison, he outlines his very specific method of Micro Journaling. There are only three steps to his system. First, write the date. Simple enough. Second, choose a category and write a list of ten things that fit this category. The category can be anything from “ten things I want to accomplish in the next ten years” to “ten reasons I love winter.” The point is simply to get your brain moving. The final step is to write one thing that you’re grateful for. And that’s it. His takeaway from this method of Micro Journaling is that it has improved his focus, and by doing it every morning as part of his morning routine, he kick starts his creativity so that he can do better work throughout the day.
If this still sounds like too much of a commitment for your busy life, you could try the method adopted by Jeremy Daly, who works as a leader in the tech industry and thus has a very busy lifestyle. Rather than finding time to sit down everyday and write in his journal, he took the label of Micro Journaling in a different direction and instead writes little snippets in his journal throughout the day. Every time he finishes a task or starts a new project or has a significant experience, he jots down a little note about it in an app on his phone. Now years into journaling in this manner, he has thousands of little snippets chronicling his life that he can look back on and remember moments that he might otherwise have forgotten.
Remembering seems to be a big motivator behind many people when they begin journaling. I know for me, I often look back in hindsight and wish I could remember when I first went to that place or met that person or did that thing. Ariel Bissett, a Canadian writer, filmmaker, and YouTuber, felt the same when she decided to pick up Micro Journaling. Similar to Jeremy Daly, she writes down little snippets of things she does each day, but she does this by taking a few moments at the end of each day to quickly scribble a couple bullet points into a little calendar. And that’s it. That’s all she needs.
And maybe that’s all you’ll need, too.
Resources & Inspiration:
“Micro Journaling”, video by Todd Brison on YouTube
“Micro-Journaling Needs To Be A Thing” the website of Jeremy Daly
“Micro Journaling!”, video by Ariel Bissett on YouTube
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