Many of us who have kept a journal in the past, or are trying to do that now, face the challenge of keeping it up.
We get caught up in our day’s activities and don’t seem to find the time to do it. At the end of the day, we’re tired or have forgotten what we wanted to say. We miss a day and then another and soon, we’re not doing it anymore.
Which is a shame because a journal is a powerful tool for improving productivity, creativity, mindfulness, and more.
A journal can help us:
- memorialize our days accomplishments
- gain clarity about our goals and the path to achieving them
- record ideas
- improve our writing skills
- prioritize our day
- plan the future
- make better decisions
- track how we spend our time
- track our daily state of mind
- track our habits
- record inspiring thoughts and ideas
- and so much more
The solution? Instead of scheduling time to write in your journal, write in between your other tasks. It’s called “interstitial journaling” and for me, it’s just what the doctor ordered.
As you go about your day and think of something you need to do or want to remember, or you want to reflect on something you did well or something you want to improve, take a minute to write it down–in the moment.
No need to wait until it’s time for journaling.
Nor do you have to write it in an actual journal. Write it down in whatever you have available to you–your notes app, your task app, your legal pad, or your calendar.
Capture the thought or idea and get back to what you were doing. Do this throughout the day and at the end of the day, your journaling is done.
You might be recording notes about a file your working on when you have an idea about your upcoming presentation. Record that idea alongside your other notes.
No need to switch apps if you won’t want to, or wait until you’re working on the presentation.
Won’t those ideas get lost or buried under your other notes?
Not if you do this digitally and tag your thoughts or tasks or ideas. When you want to review your journal notes, click the tag or link to call them up. You can then transfer your journal notes to other apps if you want to, or keep them where they are.
When you get in the habit of journaling this way, you’ll find yourself doing more journaling than you ever thought possible. I write “journal” notes every day now, something I’ve never done before.
I don’t schedule time to write in a journal. I spend a few seconds, a minute or two, throughout the day writing a few lines here and there, between tasks or appointments or calls, or whenever I take a break. I write what I thought, how I felt, what I did and what else I want to do.
Not only has this made me more productive, it’s also liberating to be able to empty my head any time it fills up.
Keeping a journal this way is simple because your journal isn’t a special notebook, you don’t have to allocate time to write in it, and you don’t have to worry about having anything to say.
Write in between the cracks of life and you might be surprised at how much you have to say, and how easy it is to record it.
Do you keep a journal? Have your tried interstitial journaling?
