Journaling is a great way to get your thoughts out of your head and onto paper.
There are many ways to journal and many purposes.
Below are the ones I’ve tried in the last 5 years.
The GLAD Structure
This form of journaling uses the acronym GLAD to remind you to note four things each day:
G is for Grateful – What is one thing you are grateful for?
L is for Learn – What did you learn today?
A is for Accomplishment – What is a key accomplishment from the day?
D is for Delight – What brought you delight?
The One Sentence
This journaling method is exactly as described. Each day, write just one sentence that summarizes something significant that happened that day. Capturing just one memory a day can give you an interesting perspective of your year.
The Haiku
I wrote about this approach in another post. The concept is to use the short format of a haiku to push your creativity and summarize a moment from each day. This method is also targeted at helping you be more mindful of small moments in your day.
Morning Pages
The concept of morning pages was developed by Julia Cameron in her book The Artist’s Way. In this method, you write three pages of whatever is on your mind first thing in the morning. Some people keep their pages while others shred, burn, or throw them away each day.
I’m trying this method right now for at least 12 weeks (the duration of The Artists Way program). Some days this happens in the morning, other days it happens at a different time. The experience with this form of journaling has been interesting and this is an approach I would recommend trying.
Your Turn
Do you journal?
What techniques do you use?
Have you tried any of the methods described above?