Buy a paper journal. It can be the cheapest one from a convenience store, it can be a beautiful leather bound one, it can be a structured one with guidance and prompts—whichever makes you feel better. It just needs to have space that you can write in.
The next time you get an urge to open a new tab, or open a social media app, pause. Open up the journal instead.
Start writing right away, whatever comes to your mind first. If it’s, “I don’t know where this is going, but here goes nothing…” then start by writing that. Don’t think to write, write to think.
Write down how you feel, what’s on your mind, what’s happened in the day. (When my friend Samson experienced repetitive strain injury, part of his recovery involved starting his journal entries with, “Today, I feel…”)
Vent to your journal, all of the things you want to complain about or that you feel like doing. Write something that you have never told anyone else, then rip out the page and tear it up into pieces and dispose of it.
Draw to mind something that has caught your interest, or something that you’re wrestling with and would like to put out of your mind.
List out some of the recent experiences you feel grateful for. Take an inventory of your core memories from your vocation, or another aspect of your life. Remember a best friend from school who you’ve lost touch with, and the memories you made together.
Consider a possibility, a regret, or a random memory that popped into your mind. Imagine what you want your future to be like.
Whenever you ever feel overwhelmed by the experience, pause. Put the journal away. Come back to it again when you’re ready.
Write about someone you admire, and things you’ve noticed about them that you want to learn from. Write about what people have said about them, and if you think those critiques are fair or not.
Remember a statement that you tend to say when you feel upset, enraged, or despondent. Work through this limiting belief by asking yourself new questions (I’ve gotten a lot out of Byron Katie’s questions, as well as Derek Sivers’).
You might be surprised by what you find, and how much clearer you feel after.
Inspired by Derek Sivers, who said, “I journal for one to three hours a day. It’s like I watch movies in my head. I play out alternate futures.” This post summarizes where I found the time to start journaling more, as well as just a few of the topics I journal about.