the real hidden benefit to daily journaling
tl;dr -- journaling in *this* way freed me from sleepless nights and stressful days.
Motivation
Recently I started journaling again.
It bothered me for a long time that I knew it was a good habit — except it never stuck.
The motivation was seeing other successful people saying they also journal and the benefit they got from the clarity and peace of mind.
I wanted the same.
You see, I’ve wanted to be an entrepreneur for a very long time.
So I read up and devour all the material I think relates to the skills and abilities I currently lack.
And I have an easily excited mind -> Tim Ferriss would call it the “monkey mind”.
I would think and plan and take notes and fill in spreadsheets… many times at night.
This overly active mind kept throwing my sleeping schedule out of whack.
I would go to bed at 12 or 1 am but wouldn’t fall asleep for 2-3 hours on average, sometimes I was awake all night…
which led to spending effort just to wake up the next day, groggy, not ready for any intense work.
It took a great deal of effort just to stay within the “normal” waking hours.
But I kept slipping back and slept later and later each day, waking up later and later the next morning.
Something had to give.
I decided to write and attempt to take my mind off of things.
I continuously wrote morning after morning - for 25 days.
It didn’t work. My sleep was still messed up, anxiety took up most of my days and I was more stressed than ever.
On the 26th day, which happened to be my birthday, I did something different.
I changed the format of my journal entry.
What I did differently
I started with writing down my insecurities. And, if I were feeling particularly insecure that day, I prioritized and only wrote down the Top 3.
It began something like this.
Insecurities:
[Toasty] - I fear to appear foolish and unknowledgeable in front of my teammates. This is a big one as there are a number of things I need to learn in order to catch up…
[Pace] - I fear yet again sinking my time and energy and reputation on a project that does not reach product-market-fit. I do not yet have all the answers but want to raise an angel round, which I need to be super clear on customer, value prop, and have some level of promising, pre-revenue traction (aka usage).
… and so on.
Then it was writing down the things I was grateful for (Top 3 Gratitude). For me, this was my faith, my wife, and myself.
The Real Benefit
That day I started to “play peaceful music” in my head (yes the tunes just surfaced without me trying).
That evening was magical. I went to sleep like a baby.
Sweet, sweet sleep.
The next day was even better. I woke up naturally at 6:30 am, got out of bed with energy that lasted the whole day.
I got all of my important work done in the morning. And had time to spare in the afternoon to take out the next few priorities.
And the timing was just right, around evening time I slowed down and went to sleep around 10:30 pm to 11:00 pm. I honestly couldn’t remember the exact time. Nor do I care, lol.
For me, this was truly liberating. I had rediscovered the true way to sleep, have energy, be productive, etc … all because I started journaling in a way that worked.
Needless to say, I’ve kept up my journaling habit to this day :)
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