In recent years, journaling has become much more in-vogue rather than the slightly hippie-dippie feel from the 1960s. But using a journal is far from the whoo-hoo, but an amazing way of plumbing your inner thoughts, values and beliefs.
However, using a journal can help to you write well-crafted goals and actions and give your extra motivation by uncovering the reasons behind your initial thoughts. Not only that, but getting your thoughts out of your head and onto paper is an excellent way to evaluate how realistic and achievable your goals are and freeing up mental space in your brain for being more creative. Find out more about the power of journaling in the goal setting process.
What is journaling?
At its simplest, it is writing (often in a journal, diary or notebook). Hardly rocket science. But what makes journaling so powerful? Many productivity gurus put much of their progress down to processes such as journaling to help them steer their own course and get insights into their personal journey.
Why is journaling so powerful?
Journaling has its roots in the written version of diaries, where you write down how your day went. There is something very cathartic about getting your thoughts, feelings, hopes and anxieties down on paper and the self-help industry has begun to realise how useful this exercise can be.
How do you journal?
Your main task is to get all the ideas swirling around in your head down on paper.
There are very few rules on effective journaling. Each person is different and the reason and benefits from journaling change with our situation, mood, age and life-style. Basically, the idea is to get the ideas out of your noggin – in what form is up to you. Write sentences, single words, pictures, full watercolour masterpieces or silly little doodles – whatever feels right for you.
It may take a little while to get into your groove, but keep experimenting and find what works most effectively for you. One factor you might want to keep in mind is that if you are a perfectionist or have a creative streak in you, your journal does not have to look perfect. Keep focusing on your output, rather than the neatness of your journal.
Using a journal to help set goals
1. Free write to dig down and work out what your goals really are
It is all too easy to think, “Well, I want more money,” and use this to create a goal. However, is that something you really want, or is this just something you have adopted because of other people, peer pressure or because it is a societal norm? Perhaps a goal of wanting more money is at odds with your beliefs and values (eg. You think that rich people are selfish and nasty and therefore, you will have to be selfish and horrible to all those around you if you become wealthy.)
Free writing is a technique you can use to uncover your deepest thoughts about a subject. First, take a page of your journal and write. Write and don’t stop for 15 minutes. Just transfer what comes out of your head onto paper without judgement, criticism or editing. You will find that this helps to circumnavigate your own inner critic and exposes some deeply held values you may be initially unaware of.
This stream of consciousness opens the wellspring of your beliefs and gives you an insight into aspects of you that are usually hidden. Keep going until you have nothing else on the subject to write about. Then, after a break, re-read this unfiltered expose of your subconscious and see if you notice any patterns and themes you can use to decide whether a goal is right for you.
2. Use ‘why?’ to go deeper underground!
After you have used free-writing to uncover some elements you might use to craft a goal, it’s time to go deeper.
Using the ‘why?’ method is a great way of honing your goals. Let’s have a look at the process with an un-crafted goal:
GOAL: I want more money.
WHY?
Because we have bills to pay for and a holiday on the horizon. We want to enjoy our holiday with some spending money, not scrimping on activities while we are there.
WHY?
Because we work hard during the year and deserve some proper family time to relax and recharge.
WHY?
Because I don’t want to be worrying that we can’t afford some of the nicer things in life.
RESULT: I want more money actually means you don’t want extra stress that having to tighten your financial belts often causes.
This only took 3 ‘whys’ to get to a root thought, but it may take 5 or more whys to reach bedrock. Just keep asking ‘why’ until you find a thought that resonates clearly with you.
How is this useful?
Because sometimes we are chasing the wrong goal. You don’t want more money – you want to live life without stress. You don’t want a better car – you actually don’t want your family judging you. You don’t want to kick a sugar-loaded diet – you want to live long enough to see your grandkids grow up.
Sometimes our goals hide deeper values and beliefs at their root and uncovering them allows us to change the goal to a more relevant one.
Therefore, a goal of “reducing the time I spend on my phone” can be repackaged as “to develop a habit of working on my stress levels” (as mindless scrolling through social media temporarily takes us away from our anxieties).
Writing this down in your journal helps to clarify your thoughts and brings them into a tangible form, rather than a muddled, mental mess.
3. Be honest with yourself
Now is the time to get real with yourself. Is this goal something I am prepared to put the necessary effort, time, money, as well as blood, sweat and tears, into.
Setting up a business, learning a new language or resigning your career are big, scary goals and not for the faint-hearted. Before you invest your valuable resources in this new endeavour, are you and those around you prepared for the changes needed to implement such a sea-change in your life?
Using your journal to free-write about this subject may help uncover any obstacles you could encounter on your journey and therefore, plan to overcome them before you hit that particular bump in the road.
4. Make your goals SMART
Writing a woolly generic goal such as “I want to be fitter” is difficult to measure. In theory, you will have reached your goal with a quick 20-minute jog. You are definitely (slightly) fitter than you were half an hour ago.
So, write your goals as SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-Bound.
If you want more help with this process, you could check out our blog post on Action Planning, which runs you through the process as a small part of crushing your goals.
In your journal, you can try out different wordings – edit and refine to make them as useful as possible. Writing them down allows you to see the progress you make and go back to previous versions if you find you need to.
5. Prioritise your goals and actions
Once you have journaled your ideas and reached some really specific goals you are happy with, you need to find your Next Few Steps. Which goals will you prioritise? Having too many goals muddies the waters and stops you from focusing on massive progress. Goals need to be undiluted. Some productivity gurus say you should have a maximum of 5 goals; others suggest 3; some even advise you have only 1 main goal at a time. What and how you choose your priorities is up to you, but if you are struggling, you might want to read our article: How to prioritise tasks to reach your goals quickly.
After you decide on your goal/s, you then need to decide on your Next Few Steps. Again, our blog post on Deciding on your Next Few Steps might help, but basically you can find the Next Few Steps you need to take to reach this goal. You can go further and reverse engineer your journey towards a successful goal.
6. Use a Bullet Journal
You have your SMART goal. You have your Next Few Steps. Now is time to employ another type of journaling – the bullet journal or BuJo.
This type of journaling is different from the free writing journal we have used up to now. This is more like a to-do list, with spaces to tick when a particular action has been completed. This also allows us to track root habits we employ to make progress.
For example, a goal of eating more healthily may involve writing such steps as: research new recipes, re-write your shopping list, talk to family about possible changes to dinner times etc. are probably one-time actions that need to be done.
However, one main daily habit might be to batch cook healthy meals every Sunday and heat them up on weekdays. This is one recurring action that would most effectively steer you towards your goal of healthy eating.
If you want more details, be sure to hit up our article: 10 reasons to use a habit tracker.
You might also want to check out Matt Ragland’s YouTube video on bullet journaling to help goal setting.
Conclusion
If you want to get to know yourself at a deeper level, or just think that digging deeper into your psyche would help you set more realistic and achievable goals, then getting yourself a journal might just be the change your life needs.
In true Next Few Steps style, what one thing will you take from this article that you can easily integrate into your life immediately to help you make the changes you want?
We would love you to comment below about your main revelations that journaling has brought you and your life.