Journaling - A Useful Tool

One thing that has been mentioned from time to time on this blog is “journaling”.

What I’m going to demonstrate here is the writing of an article by the journaling method. This is how it is carried out. We start with typed articles with a keyboard. There is a strict time limit of 10 minutes. In fact it isn’t a time limit. One has to write for 10 minutes, neither more nor less. There must be no pauses for thought. There must be no going back for editing. That doesn’t mean you can’t edit the result for publication, but that editing must take place after one has finished, not while you are still writing.

What subject should you choose? Well, that is a good question. You can either decide on a subject to explore, or just start writing and let the subject find itself. It’s this second method that I am using now. At the moment I am somewhere around the half-way point. Not quite there. But what I am expressing is coming to me as I write without forethought. I have no preconceived ideas about what I should say, or what style I should be expressing it in.

How much will I edit once I’ve finished? Just enough to make it comprehensible. Not so much that it destroys the sense of exploration of one’s mind. What I am writing at the moment is writing itself. So i don’t want to take that experience away by over-editing.

What can this method be used for? Just about anything, I think. You can write about emotions, about ideas, about exploration, as a diary, as recollection of the past, about hopes for the future - of yourself or your town or your family, your country or humanity as a whole. It doesn’t matter. In fact some people have used the technique to write whole novels. I’ve always loved the idea of this tool because it may not be so beautifully crafted as normal writing, but it does seem to get at the essence of things.

Comments

[Brent]

Here is my own quick thinking written down about this....

I think this is such a valuable tool for exploring outcomes on just about any project or thought explorations. It is a similar concept that Natalie Goldberg writes in her book "Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within"

While I try not to edit while I'm writing either, I tend to highlight or underline pretty quickly a sentence or thought if it really strikes me as a To Do or a Key Epiphany of sorts. Often I'll leave it highlighted and in a notebook. but it it was a to-do, I'll move it to my official lists.

For "processing" these notebook writings, sometimes I will simply just scan the page, read the highlights and decide whether is it is something I should keep, edit, consolidate, act on, or simply toss. I'm personally not one that likes to keep old notebooks around for too long because they tend to represent un-done work for me. So If it is just ramblings I wrote, I toss it. If there is actually something useful there, I would either "publish" it or action it. By publish I mean I write more polished plans or essays even if they are for my eyes only. Those more polished pieces are kept for a longer period of time until they may too be purged because they are no longer useful.

[Mark Forster]

Brent:

<< I'm personally not one that likes to keep old notebooks around for too long >>

Yes,,, I remember once coming across some old notebooks which I'd written ten or more years before and being horrified to find that I was still writing about exactly the same subjects!

[Brent]

I remember being unexpectedly in the hospital and being horrified that if I didn't come out my notebooks would be open game for misinterpretation. I think it is healthy to write things down and think but equally healthy to discard as appropriate. Sometimes immediately after writing it :) Abraham Lincoln was apparently famous for letters written but never sent....

[Seraphim]

Mark -

<< Yes,,, I remember once coming across some old notebooks which I'd written ten or more years before and being horrified to find that I was still writing about exactly the same subjects! >>

Haha! I always thought I was the only one who did that!

[Mike Brown]

I remember, in my 30s, coming across some journals written in my mid-20s, and was appalled that for many many pages the first thing on my mind was "haven't sent Christmas cards! must do this!"

That was my clue that a lot of the noise in my head just echoes around up there and writing about the noise was maybe not as helpful as I'd been led to believe up to that time :)

Since then, if journaling, I tend to favor the Pepys style (went here, did this, saw him, talked about this), and then maybe BRIEFLY how I felt about something. If I want to work something out, then I'll instead use Mark's "continuous revision" method or "3 pages/morning pages" to freewrite.

I don't know what this says about me, but my current journal is one of those "5 lines a day" things and I tend to reference the weather, activities, passing thoughts, more than COVID or impeachment hearings or current cultural/political events.

[Mark Forster]

Mike Brown:

<< my current journal is one of those "5 lines a day" things >>

Yes, I use one of those too. But it's just for record keeping for historical interest (a lot about my weight after Christmas for instance!)

The "three pages in one go" journal is for a quite different purpose.

[avrum]

Mike Brown wrote:

<< tend to favor the Pepys style >>

Mike - never heard of this style. And then found this article, which provides some helpful tips:

http://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/wellbeing/coronavirus-diary-journal-writing-samuel-pepys-plague-413786

[Cricket]

Journaling can be helpful if it focuses on brain dump and reframing and change, but not if it becomes navel gazing. One day I'll actually read Pennebaker's book "Opening Up by Writing it Down" instead of articles about it. There are some interesting studies where they gave the subjects different instructions. Write about a traumatic event vs write about moving on from it.

[svsmailus]

I've "dabbled" in journaling. I'm not into diarying what I had for breakfast and that my shoe lace snapped today. What I've started to use journaling for with some success is using it as place to ask and answer questions. I'm essentially creating space to think, using my journal (on paper). I have to thank Derek Sivers for pointing me in that direction on his blog.

[Lenore]

@svsmailus

I'm interested in what you say. Could you expand more and/or provide any links to blog posting(s) you found helpful?

Cheers

[svsmailus]

@lenore

Derek Sivers explains it better than I could. The last five paragraphs of the link below are the most helpful for me personally:

http://sive.rs/dj

[Charles]

Interesting that Sivers mentions topic journals.

For me, something similar I do is to keep a Word document organized by question and to list different solutions I've thought of/tried and under those to list pros/cons I've thought of/experienced. I use headings and the navigation pane to be able to quickly jump to topics.

For example:

"Task selection (as a heading)

How to identify the “best” (appropriate for your energy level/psychological preparedness, urgency of task, importance of task, etc) thing to do now with the minimum cost

- Reverse simple scanning
....- Pros:
........- Considers most relevant tasks first
....- Cons:
........- Low priority tasks can crowd out more important tasks"

Whenever I think of/come across other solutions to the same problem or pros/cons to existing solutions, I add it to the section. If I come across/think of another problem (e.g. how do you house people affordably?) then I create a separate heading/section for it.

Some advantages of a digital method for this are that it saves you from needing lots of separate journals, it allows you move materials around, you can insert new material at any point, you can rephrase questions later, etc. Although I guess a 3-ringed binder could provide similar benefits.

[Mark Forster]

Charles:

I use Roam Research for similar purposes.

[Lenore]

@svsmailus:
Just wanted to take a moment to say thanks for the link. Very helpful in thinking about how to make my spotty journaling practice more consistent.

And let me not fail to thank Mark for his work, especially today I'm thankful for his work creating content for and moderating this forum.

And thank you all, posters, for sharing your wonderful, rich thoughts. I post rarely but regularly enjoy your posts!

[Alan Baljeu]

I like to write a bit. But unlike Derek, I’ve *never* been inclined to go back and look at what I wrote. While a goal is active, reviewing my recent goals in that topic is helpful to direct and motivate continued action. But primarily my value in journalling is it helps me in the present organize my thoughts.

Maybe related? “How to Plan your Week Effectively” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jozNEpY8iik), derived from Bullet Journal author Ryder Carol, but not about Bullet Journal (which I don’t use). The video presents a collection of practices which I mostly follow. It’s a grab bag of routines that combined form a system.