This is The Write Now Podcast with Sarah Werner, Episode 102: Daily Journaling.

Welcome to Write Now, the podcast that helps all writers, aspiring, professional, and otherwise, to find the time, energy, and courage you need to pursue your passion and write. I’m your host, Sarah Werner, and I have been keeping a journal on and off throughout most of my life. My maternal grandmother gave me my very first diary for Christmas when I was in first grade and it changed my life. I know that sounds dramatic and maybe it is, maybe it is a little bit dramatic, but it started me down a path that I would follow for the rest of my life in one form or another.

I remember that first diary so vividly, it was a cornflower blue and it had the word “Diary” stamped across the front in sort of a bold black design, because this was the late ’80s, early ’90s and that’s just how things looked. But what was really, really special about this diary was the fact that it had a little built-in lock. Along the edge, right where you opened it, there was this tiny little combination gear, and you would spin it one way and spin it the other way and you could have two little letters that would spell a tiny little two-letter word. And that was the combination for opening up the diary. The thought that I could write something just for me, that only I could read, that was a safe space was thrilling. And in a way that diary became the friend that I didn’t have in real life.

Now, you might notice that I’m using the word diary here instead of the word journal, and we’ll get to all the different permutations among the different types of journaling and diarying and all of that in just a little bit. I remember when I first started, I would begin each entry with “Dear diary,” because that’s how my mom said that diary entries began. And then I would go through and give a description of my day. So, “Dear diary, today I went to school and this happened and this happened, and these people got into a fight on the bus,” and whatever. But I got very quickly bored with just writing down the happenings of the day. I started to get a space of reflection. And so I would write one thing that had happened during the day and then say, “This made me feel…” And I would explore my reaction to it, what I thought about it, what I wish would have happened instead. And that for me, was the real value of journaling, a space to process and explore my thoughts and grow my inner self.

Now because I’m a human being. this was a habit that I fell in and out of, I would forget to journal and then not journal or not diary or whatever you want to call it. I think for this podcast, we’ll call it journaling. I wouldn’t journal for a while, and then I would rediscover my beautiful diary that I loved and I would get excited and I would write in it again, and then I would let it go again. And I would just continue this writing as self-discovery, writing as processing throughout my school career. Can you call going to school a career? Yes, we’ll say yes.

Now we didn’t have the internet at home. But when I went to college, I discovered that there was this thing called blogging, where you could set up a little website for yourself and essentially journal your thoughts for the public eye. And this was back in the early 2000s when the internet was still a place of anonymity, where everybody had little avatars and internet handles and usernames, and you didn’t really have your real identity out there, this was before Facebook. And so I began blogging on a platform called Xanga and I ended up building a very, very robust blog that had regular commenters, and it was just a really beautiful, enjoyable place. And I never used my real name, I never used anyone else’s real names, it was just, again, a safe space where I could be myself.

As I moved through college and into my adult life my blogging also fell by the wayside as other platforms arose. Facebook and all sorts of other places where you could gather a following and share your thoughts, I got onto Twitter really early on, and that sort of evolved into my journaling in a much more micro sense. And for the next decade or so, I just kind of did all of that online.

Now, perhaps like you, I continued to accumulate beautiful notebooks and journals and all manner of writing implements that sat on a shelf blank and unused. People gave them to me as gifts, I compulsively bought them when I saw a beautiful one in a bookstore, it kind of became a problem. I was amassing all of these beautiful notebooks and they were just sitting there. I had this thing where I didn’t want to ruin my journals. I didn’t want to open up one of them and take a pen or a pencil and mark up one of those beautiful, pristine pages with thoughts that might end up being impermanent or a mistake. That’s right, I had all of these beautiful notebooks and journals and I was terrified to write in any of them.

I don’t know if I was in my mind, saving them for a “rainy day” or saving them for a time when my thoughts would be more lofty and important and worthy of putting into these beautiful books. But there they sat while I continued to share my thoughts on Facebook and then Twitter, and then other platforms, I think eventually before I started the Write Now podcast, I even started blogging again.

But as I began to work on my personal brand, and as I began to gather a bigger following, I realized that there were some thoughts and some learning curves that I didn’t necessarily want in the public eye. For example, I was extremely dissatisfied at my job, but I couldn’t blog about that because my employer would find out. I didn’t really have a safe space anymore to really journal my feelings. The tipping points, my re-entry into the practice of daily journaling came in two parts. In 2017, I got a job managing a paper store, a stationary store for a friend. And let me tell you, I had an employee discount and access to all these beautiful, beautiful journals. Oh my gosh, I bought so many of them because they were all so beautiful. And my collection of these notebooks grew and grew, and I was still not writing in them because I was still feeling that nothing I could scribble out was going to be good enough or worthy of these beautiful books.

In 2018, my mastermind group, which I’ve talked about before on this show, we took a road trip to a conference in Tennessee. We road-tripped together, and I had just on a whim thrown one of my little notebooks, my beautiful notebooks into my bag. And we sat around conference tables for this conference and the speakers started and I realized I wanted to take notes. And initially I started taking notes on just a sheet of paper in front of everyone so that everyone could take notes while they listened. But for me, because of the kind of note taker I am, one sheet of paper was not enough. I was desperate to retain all of this amazing and wonderful information, and I remember glancing into my bag and realizing I had this beautiful notebook with me, but could I dare ruin it with thoughts from this conference?

I borrowed somebody else’s piece of paper that they weren’t using and I filled up that piece of paper front and back. And then I was like, “You know what?” I glance to this notebook again, and I was like, “I’m going to write in this notebook.” And I did. This is the very first one of my adult life journals, and it begins with the notes that I took at this conference. Throughout the conference I would take notes, but also I would doodle. I would put stickers in it. I would draw arrows. I would draw my own conclusions. And I remember I had never felt so engaged. I had never felt like I was so fully participating in a learning experience because what I was doing on the page was digesting the input. I was processing it and I was internalizing my own thoughts. I would get back to my hotel room after the conference and continue writing, “What if?” I would read back through my notes and circle things and expand upon them and extrapolate.

And maybe you’re like me, maybe you’re the kind of person who absolutely loves learning, but my brain was just lit up in a way that I hadn’t felt since those first grade diary days. After that, I brought my notebook everywhere. I brought it for coffee, with friends, jotting down ideas that would arise as we talked. I brought it with me to meetings at work, writing down things that struck me or that interested me. My journal became a living space for my brain to explore, to process, to think, to learn, and I’ve been writing in my journals ever since.

It’s always fun to finish up a journal. I finish it up, I stick it on a different shelf where my completed journals are all lined up, and then I get to go to my blank journal shelf and select the next one. And it’s become something I’ve looked forward to instead of dreading, which beautiful book will I select next to hold my thoughts, my learning, myself?

Now, like I said earlier, in this episode, there are different types of journaling. There’s the sort of diary where you write down what you did that day, where you logged tasks completed, or calories consumed or steps walked or activities done with or without a certain reflection upon that day. There’s bullet journaling, which is sort of a quick jotting method where you have bullet points and you can talk about, here’s my tasks for the day. Here’s my schedule. Here’s my thoughts, boom, boom, boom. That tends to work really well for people who don’t want to spend a lot of time writing out their thoughts. There’s art journaling, where you doodle, you draw, you express your thoughts that way. There’s sort of free writing journals, where you just sit down and you write whatever comes to your mind. There are so many different types of journaling from structured to completely free and messy. And it’s just sort of up to you, which kind of appeals to you the most. There’s also blogging, if you are okay with the internet reading your thoughts, then blogging or journaling online in some way is also extremely valid.

So why journal? What are the benefits of journaling? What does it do for you, exactly? Like you’ve just heard, I’ve used my journal for a lot of different things, but mostly what my journaling represents is an investment of time and energy into myself. For me, it has become a record of my personal growth. It is a place where I have steadily been building myself over the years as a person. It is in a way an extension of my brain. It’s a place where I’ve learned to find myself, and to discover myself, and understand myself within the pages. It’s become a place where I can ask myself really hard questions and to take the time to process my answers and responses. It’s a place where I’ve been able to break down negative stories and limiting beliefs and really explore how those affect me as a person. What I’ve internalized, what I don’t want to internalize anymore.

It’s been a place where I can process all of those thoughts in safety and in peace. It’s also a place where I will also integrate task lists. I will also integrate any notes and thoughts that I have while I’m taking courses. I will put in quotes that I hear, I will put in snippets of text conversations if there’s a text conversation that I’m having with a friend and they say something really insightful, I will jot it down into my journal, this is maybe a little bit messier than some folks prefer. And some people also like to separate out their journal from their task list. They want their journal to be a space of exploration of the self and not necessarily a to-do list. And I totally understand that, it’s going to be different for everyone.

Now, there is a little bit of a snag, there is a little bit of a catch, and it’s something that I struggled with myself for a long time. And that is the argument that, “Okay, Sarah, I have a very limited amount of time each day in which I can write, and why on earth would I write for myself in a journal when I could be putting in words toward my novel or whatever writing project I am currently working on?” I remember thinking this when I first learned about Julia Cameron’s idea of morning pages. In her wonderful book, The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron suggests that you begin each day by writing two to three pages, handwriting them or typing them or whatever works best for you just to get all of the stuff out of your brain. The thoughts, the worries, the ideas, the weird dreams, the anxieties for the upcoming day, you write it all out, and once you’re done with your two to three pages, then you get into your daily work. Then you work on your creative project.

And when I initially heard this, I was like, “No, I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to waste my writing on garbage.” But later when I started prioritizing my journaling time in the morning, when I started prioritizing myself as the ultimate creative project, I realized just how important that practice was. I was essentially unclogging a writing drain. I was freeing myself of the thoughts and worries and gunk that would build up in my brain overnight. And even more than that, I was learning new things and exploring new things and having new ideas through the process of journaling each morning. And that in turn fueled my writing and sparked new ideas and helped me develop a better flow within my writing.

I love that quote from Stephen King, that every character you create is partially you. And so what I was doing in exploring myself into my thoughts in my journal was further understanding how my characters thought and felt, or if you’re writing nonfiction or a memoir, just even understanding yourself that much better can help you have those insights that are so important in good non-fiction writing.

What I do now every day, first thing, while I’m having my cup of coffee is I don’t check my email right away. I don’t open up Twitter. I don’t open up Instagram or at least I try my very hardest not to. I don’t open up my work in progress first thing. I make my coffee, I sit down at my desk and I start a timer for 20 minutes, and I use that time to write in my journal. And I’ve noticed that I write more and I write better on days where I journal. On days when I get the faucet flowing. On days when I get my brain into a space of processing ideas through words on a page. Do I need to set my alarm 20 minutes earlier to do this? Yes. Do I enjoy doing that? Not really, but it’s worth it.

Some of you may be thinking right now, “Wow, this sounds like a really cool idea and I’d love to try it, but I have no idea where to start. What do I even write?” Well, to start, you need a space for writing. Whether that is a physical page or a digital page. And that digital page can be in a blog, it can be on Twitter, it can be a new Word document, it can be an email to yourself, it can be one of those beautiful journals sitting unused on your shelf. Trust me, it’s okay, you will not ruin the journal by using it for its intended purpose. And in fact, if it helps think of it as an experiment, pick one of your journals from the shelf or the pile or the box or wherever it is you keep your many, many unused journals and say, “I am going to sacrifice you. You are the chosen one. You are going to be my experimental journal.” And give yourself permission to write in it, give yourself permission to be messy and to start ugly.

What you need is a space in which to write, something to write with. If you’re typing it’s your hands and a keyboard. If you are handwriting, it’s a pen or a pencil or a marker or whatever it is you prefer to write with. And if you have trouble starting, you can do a couple of different things. You can start by asking yourself, “How do I feel today?” You can start by writing down a question you don’t have the answer to such as, what am I currently resisting in my creative project? Or why when I have the time to write do I do anything but write? If you’re anything like me, when you have time to write your house suddenly gets very, very clean. Or you can use a prompt. If you Google journal prompts, you will get hundreds of prompts of ideas, of questions, of what you can journal about.

I took a journaling course from Amie McNee, she is @inspiredtowrite on Instagram. And I just adore her. I think she’s wonderful, but she has this journaling course and I took it and it gave me so many ideas and prompts that I’m still writing on these. Some of the prompts that I’ve written on recently include, what difficult thing have you been through that’s made you stronger? And what kind of impact do you want to make with your art? There is no end to the number of journaling prompts available online. I encourage you to pick one and just start, give yourself lots of grace, give yourself permission to be messy, give yourself permission to not have the amazing searing insights that you’re maybe hoping for.

A lot of the time I sit down and I journal and it’s like, “Meh, okay.” I didn’t have any sort of earth shattering breakthroughs today and that’s okay, but then there are the days when you do. I’m even in a place now where even just listening to a podcast episode or reading a chapter in a book will spur me into a journal entry. I love to journal along with Seth Godin’s podcast, Akimbo. He’s great at raising points and asking ideas that then encourage me to think about my own situation and write out my own introspections. And you can do this with any podcast, you can do this with Write Now if you want. Again, this is something that you can try and then decide it’s not for you. You can set aside those 20 minutes or five minutes, or however long works best for you, but see it as an investment of time in yourself as a creator and watch how it changes your writing.

The journaling class that I took from Amie McNee, which I’ll link to in the show notes for today’s episode, I really enjoyed it. But again, it’s maybe not for everyone. She advises to never go back and read your journals. And in fact, she says, “If it creates a safer space for you, in which to share your ideas, you can even burn or tear up each journal entry after you’re done with it.” But for me, I love having access to my past journals. Like I said, I have a special shelf for them here in my office where they’re in chronological order and I can go back and revisit them. I can go back to that very first journal from 2018 that I started at that conference, and I can look at the insights and what I learned from that trip. And I absolutely love going back and reading my journals and reminding myself, “Oh, that’s right. I learned this and this is okay.” Or, “That’s right, I processed the same thing that I’m struggling with now two years ago. And here’s how I processed it then, and here’s what I think about it now.”

For me, it’s become almost a reference section for my own growth and development as a human being and as a creator. But again, this practice is going to be different for every single person and for you, it might feel really good to write out your thoughts and then burn them or type out your thoughts, nod with satisfaction and delete the whole thing. It’s up to you, however you feel works best for you. But regardless if you are a lifelong journaler, if you are hesitant to begin a journaling practice, if you are eager to start, I would love to hear your thoughts on how journaling has helped you on whether you are hesitant to begin, let me know.

You can do this by going out to the show notes for today’s episode, episode 102 out at sarahwerner.com. That’s S-A-R-A-H-W-E-R-N-E-R.com, navigating to this episode and scrolling down to the bottom where you can leave your thoughts and comments beneath the show notes. I read every single comment and I respond to every single comment that I get. I would love to have a conversation there with you in the comments about your own journaling practice or your lack thereof. And Hey, if you hate journaling, if journaling ruined your life, I would love to hear that perspective as well.

Just a quick announcement, since there are five Wednesdays in December and since I try to have this podcast come out on Wednesdays, which I’m not always very good at, there will not be a new Write Now podcast episode next week, so that is December 2nd, 2020. I am giving myself a little bit of a week off and then resuming Write Now podcast episodes on December 9th. There will still be four Write Now podcast episodes in December, and I’m really looking forward to getting back in touch with you then.

As you know by now, if you’ve listened to all 102 episodes of this podcast, I make the podcast for free, I make it freely available to everyone all over the world, and I am able to do that because of the support from my patrons on Patreon. Patreon is a secure third-party donation platform that allows people to donate a dollar per episode, $2 per episode, a hundred thousand dollars per episode, whatever you feel like this show is worth to you to cover hosting costs and the other costs associated with producing the show. Special thanks go out to Amanda L. Dickson, Julian Vincent Thornburgh, Laurie, Leslie Madsen, Regina Calabrese, Sean Locke, TJ Bricke, Tiffany Joyner, Leslie Duncan, Ricardo Lugo, and Sarah Lauzon. Thank you all, as always, so incredibly much for your generosity.

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And with that, this has been episode 102 of the Write Now podcast, the podcast that helps all writers, aspiring, professional and otherwise to find the time, energy and courage you need to pursue your passion and write. I’m Sarah Werner, and I’m excited to hear your own thoughts about journaling.