The 3 fruits of having a journaling routine
If anyone would ask me what are the main advantages of keeping a journal, I would say 3 words: gratitude, presence and focus. One could also say past, present and the future. Simply put, journaling helps me think of my life as is, without what ifs and what nots. Let me elaborate on these words a little.
Gratitude
Through habit of reflections, I am able to revisit what happened during the past period of time that I choose to reflect on. And do so with mind clear of emotions because the time difference of moment when something happened to moment of reflection puts them into the background, providing clarity. For me, it usually is 1 day, week, month, half a year and whole year. I think I will do a 3-year reflection once I reach journal history that is 3 years long just to see the bigger picture.
It is thanks to the act of reflection that I discover things to be grateful for. In addition, I discover things to improve and focus during moments that are ahead. Reflection sparks gratitude. Gratitude produces presence and focus. In other words, history is a significant part of my present and future self and I better not underesetimate that in the future. Reflections should be core part of journaling because when you have data, you want to use it for improving decision making in the future.
Presence
I usually set small goals or create todos at the end of reflection when there is a valuable insight that I discovered via looking back. This way, I am behaving intentionally in the present moment. Moreover, I can say yes and no much clearly and easily because I know my priorities. Living in the present moment hasn't been easier with journaling. Offloading distractive thoughts on paper helps me with pursuing my goals with full focus. I revisit them during the nearest moment of reflection to gather new insight.
Presence is essential to living life fully. There is only present moment and what we do with it dictates our fate. What I am after is that I am in control of it. That is possible only by knowing what to do. It helps me do things with full commitment. This is also a great reason for me to charge more while working on projects. This is the reason I can sustain long hours of deep work and productivity. Digital minimalism is a good tool to enhance present moment even further.
Focus
Focus is always on goals that are somewhere in the future, not totally under my control. Goal setting is fundamental practice that leads to success. I frequently take time during the present moment just to think about my goals and whether I am aligned with them or not. What is very important as well is how many goals I set to achieve in a given time frame. There has to be a reasonable number. It is good to have more goals than 2 but it is not optimal to have 50 because you can do only so much in your life.
Goals can also feel overwhelming. It is usually the case when one does not take the time to break the goal down into smaller projects. I have introduced a practice of setting a next action point. Next action is a unit of work you can do right now without any dependency on anything else. Completing multiple next actions gets the momentum going in direction of a desired goal. Opposite of that is romaticizing the vision and just thinking about it instead of walking towards the goal.