Recently I came across this video of Sid Warrier, where he talks about some journaling techniques that I think can be helpful. I wanted to share them here for my own reference and for anyone who might find them useful.
Post #4 of 100 Days to Offload challenge.
In this video, he talks about 3 journaling techniques. I like the idea that he explained here that Journaling is not just about documenting, but also about discovering. It is a way to understand yourself better. So here are the techniques:
1. 10-Thought Dump
When you start your work, write down 10 thoughts that are in your mind. There is no need to rank or organize them; just write 10 consecutive thoughts as they come to you.
When we have unfinished tasks, worries, or other things in our mind, holding on to them makes our mind feel scattered. Writing them down puts them somewhere outside of our head and can help free some working memory.
It is like registering a complaint. Once it has been registered, we don't need to keep reminding ourselves about them. We can come back to it and deal with it one thing at a time.
When to Use
- Do this first thing in the morning, before you start your work.
- At the start of a journaling session.
2. Free-Flow Writing
This is similar to free writing, but the difference is that we decide the topic beforehand, on which we will do free writing. It can be anything that is bothering us or something that we want to explore.
For example, if you are feeling anxious about something, you can do free writing on that topic. Or if you want to explore your thoughts on a particular subject, you can simply start writing on that.
It helps us bypass some of our self-censorship, allowing us to follow our thoughts freely.
When to Use
- When something is off, but you can't pinpoint what exactly it is.
- For Learning: When you want to explore your thoughts on a topic or create a rough first draft of something you are learning.
3. Prompt Journaling
I haven't tried this technique much, but this is about using AI tools like Claude or ChatGPT to ask for prompts for the themes in your life you want to write about.
Ask for 5 introspective questions over a theme you want to explore and then answer them in your journal. This gives some structure to journaling, because here we are answering direct questions, rather than writing randomly.
It is more like guided journaling. You can ask for guided journaling prompts and then answer them.
When to Use
- I think it would be best to use it when there is a specific recurring theme or pattern in your life that you want to explore.
In the video, it is recommended to use pen and paper for journaling, but I would like to do it digitally as well. The idea is to sit and write, not focusing on the tool.