Journaling Course: Day 3

[Vanessa Keranovic, Mindfulness Coach] Welcome to day three of Journaling for Beginners. Today, we're going to talk about journaling for organization and tracking progress. Now this type of journaling is probably one of my favorite ones because it really offers you the structure you need in order to build the life of your dreams. Now having structure in your day to day things sometimes is underrated, but it really is what you need in order to make your dreams come true. Having structure means focusing your energy on what matters and not on when are you going to fit something into your schedule? What is your next step? And so on. An obvious example of this type of journaling is time blocking, to-do lists and habit trackers. Now, time blocking and to-do lists offer you a way to note down all the things you want to do. Now, if we go back to day two, we were talking about setting intentions and setting goals. Once you have set your goals, you wanna break them down into small, actionable steps that are manageable and you can do in over a period of time. To-do lists and time blocking offers you the structure you need in order to get those steps done. You can write to-do list for every month, every week or even every day. You can even break down your day into time blocks and set those blocks into actionable steps. This really depends on what is the best fit for you. When you're deciding on what type of to-do lists you're going to do, or whether you're going to do time blocking or not, always remember that this process is supposed to feel empowering and even fun. It's not supposed to feel like a burden and like something you'll get even anxious over. For example, I do my to-do list for a week ahead. I assign different items from the list to certain days or even times of days, periods of days, I'm going to do that activity. This really helps me stay on top of things and it really helps me to see, to visualize what I have to do for the next week, and when I'm going to do that. So besides a regular to-do list, maybe you wanna point out three priorities for every day that you want to tackle first. But keep this list short so you really know you can handle everything from the priorities list. Besides having a priority list and a to-do list, I recommend doing a "things I'm looking forward to" list every morning. So every morning I write down things I'm looking forward to in that day. It really helps me shift my perspective onto a more positive outlook, onto things I'm really looking forward to. So I'm actually excited about my day, even when I have a lot of things to do. Sometimes this list is easier to write and sometimes it's a bit harder, especially when there are a lot of things in that day that I am not looking forward to. So what I try to do there, I try to see if I can rearrange my to-do list so that every day I have something I'm looking forward to and something that maybe I'm looking less forward to. But even when in a day I don't have that many things I'm looking forward to, I can always think of the small mundane things I can write down, like having lunch, or taking my lunch break, or going for a walk with my dog. There are many small moments in our day that we sometimes oversee and writing things you're looking forward to in the morning reminds you of that. To-do lists, priority lists and writing things you're looking forward to can really help you achieve the goals that you have set in day two, if you remember. If your intention is to, for example, learn more, your goal might be to read more books. Now, this is a great goal, but you need a more specific goal in order for it to be achievable because what does read more mean to you? Whatever it means, you can write it down as smaller actionable steps that you can then fit into your schedule using journaling for organization. Maybe that will be read 10 pages a day, maybe you'll start with reading five pages a day. You'll maybe set a time in the day when you're going to read these five pages, maybe that will be first thing in the morning or last thing at night before you go to sleep. Whatever the realization of that goal is, journaling for organization can really support you in achieving it. Let's take another example. Let's say your intention is to become a more spiritual person, more connected with your true essence, more aligned with who you really are. Your goal here might be to adopt regular meditation practice. Now, once again, this is a great, amazing goal to have, but we need more specific times, dates, frequencies in order for that goal to be achievable. So maybe you'll break that goal, that big goal, to have a meditation practice, a regular meditation practice, into smaller actionable steps, which might sound like, every morning, when I wake up, for five minutes, I will first sit in my bed and meditate. Once again, with using journaling for organization you can achieve that goal. And while we're on this topic of building a healthy habit, there is a great template that falls into the category of journaling for organization and tracking progress, and that's called a habit tracker. You probably heard of it before, but even if you haven't, it's as simple as it sounds. So every time you perform a habit, every day you perform it, you will mark somewhere that you have achieved your habit for that day, you have done the habit. The effect of habit trackers is twofold. So first of all, it offers you a clear way to track your progress. To know, for example, in a month, how many times have you meditated and how many times you haven't. It also encourages habit formation because the mind really likes little rewards after it performs a habit. is like a small applaud to your mind, which says job well done. You can track your habits physically, so maybe you wanna print out a template or you even wanna draw your habit tracker yourself, or you can track them digitally within an app or even your calendar app on your phone. Whatever combination of these organization ideas you end up with, just remember to choose those that will truly support your journey to becoming your best self. This will be different for everyone. Your to-do list will maybe include time for rest, and you'll set aside two or three hours a day where you can only rest and do something for yourself and for fun. This can mean reducing the number of items you have on your to-do list and making them more realistic. Or supporting your big dreams by taking your goals, breaking them down into actionable steps, and planning out when and where you're going to do them. And that sums up journaling for organization and tracking progress. So remember, this type of journaling is supposed to offer you structure so you can start building the life of your dreams. It's supposed to feel empowering and even fun because the whole joy about it is to enjoy the journey, enjoy the progress, and eventually come to the destination. Thank you for joining me today and thank you for learning with me. I'll see you tomorrow in day four, when we're going to tackle journaling to deepen self-awareness and reconnect the mind, body and soul. I'm very excited about day four, this is probably my favorite type of journaling, and I cannot wait to talk to you about it. See you.