Journaling
Writing in a journal is one of my most important daily practices. I do not quite have the consistency to claim that I journal every day, but most days I write in a journal in the morning. Over the last few years, the regularity of my journaling habit has ebbed and flowed, but I have made a deliberate effort to boost the frequency the last few months.
Many experts and high achievers emphasize the positive impact that journaling can have on someone’s wellbeing, and I affirm that journaling has been a positive practice in my life. There are now a wide variety of structured journals with different designs and organizational systems, and I use one of them. That said, dedicating the time to simply unleashing and organizing our thoughts by writing them down on paper is the primary benefit of using a journal. Author Ryan Holiday sums it up well in this excerpt from his book Stillness is the Key:
“How you journal is much less important than why you are doing it: To get something off your chest. To have quiet time with your thoughts. To clarify those thoughts. To separate the harmful from the insightful.”
Any type or style of journal likely has potential to provide high value for the writer, but I have only tried a few types, and one of them stuck. In this post, I will tell my experience of using a structured journal, but the important takeaway should be the overall benefit of any kind of journaling.
When I worked at St. Mark's School of Texas for a year after I graduated college, my closest mentor at the school recommended that I begin using the "High Performance Planner" created by the author and speaker Brendon Burchard. Many experts also espouse that free writing in a blank journal is very beneficial to unloading our thoughts in written word, but I have loved the structured approach. The foundation of Burchard's journal originates from his book High Performance Habits. Burchard has been coaching what he calls "High Performers" for years, and they are the elites of their respective fields who sustainably maintain high performance for decades. His book unpacks the 6 foundational habits that Burchard identified as key to reaching their level of performance. These 6 habits are:
Seek Clarity,
Generate Energy
Raise Necessity
Increase Productivity
Develop Influence
Demonstrate Courage.
The High Performance Planner embodies the daily practices for these 6 habits.
I do highly recommend the book, but reading it is not a necessity to begin using the journal. I used the journal for years before reading the book (which I only did a few weeks ago), but the book provides more clarity and context for the structure of the journal.
The journal has several daily components including: 1)"Today's Message to Myself," 2) "Morning Mindset," 3) "Today's Top 3 Goals/Priorities," 4) "Tasks That Absolutely Must Be Done Today," 5) "Person(s) I Need to Lead or Connect with Today (and How to Do It Well)," 6) A Timestamped Schedule for the day to fill out, 7) "Evening Journal," and 8) "Daily Habits Scorecard." Below is a breakdown of each part.
"Today's Message to Myself"
This is a simple prompt with space to write a mantra for the day. I frequently change up what I write for this prompt, but I often include a favorite quote or some quippy saying to inspire me for the day.
Recently, I have been writing a quote from one of my relatives, Bob Berry, a nephew of Dick Bass. During my Sophomore year of high school, our English class assigned a “Family History Paper” to research and to tell the stories of our family and ancestors. Throughout the research process for the paper, I learned over and over about how blessed I was to be in a family of high achievers (or should I say “performers”). Interviewing my relatives (including about 10 hours with Dick Bass) and learning about the journeys of my forbears brought me deep gratitude.
Bob Berry was one of the relatives who I interviewed to gleam stories about our family’s history. At the end of the interview, Bob flipped the script on me with a piercing question:
“So my question to you, Mason, is what are you gonna do with it? Retire? Nah. You see, our family has been given a chance to hit the long ball.”
Bob’s challenge forced me to reflect on how I would leverage the fortunate life and resources that I have been given. Bob dared me to go out and to write my own story.
10 years have passed (wow, I cannot believe it’s been that long!) since that interview with Bob, but I recently rediscovered the quote. This reminder ignited me to refocus on the life story that I am writing each day, so I am now writing it as a daily mantra in my journal.
"Morning Mindset"
This section is a set of 10 prompts that prime my mindset for the day. These prompts set clear intentions for my daily responsibilities and guide me to work toward my long-term goals daily. A couple examples of the prompts used are: "If one word could describe the kind of person I want to be today, then that word is...and why I chose it is..." and "One action I could take today to demonstrate excellence or real values is…" among many others.
One of the prompts I particularly like is: “If I was a high performance coach looking at my life from a high level, I would tell myself to remember that…” For this prompt, I like to remind myself on the importance of “compounding” for my daily habits and actions. James Clear explains in his book Atomic Habits that “Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. A small habit—when repeated consistently—grows into something significant." When I do not have high motivation to practice a good habit or to act on one of my top goals, this prompt serves as a reminder to consider even the tiniest of actions. Lots of small wins added up over the course of months and years can create a compounding effect that exponentially accelerates growth. The exact opposite is true for bad habits, so a reminder to avoid my negative tendencies is equally valuable.
"Today's Top 3 Goals/Priorities"
This blank is included to outline the 3 most important goals or priorities to focus on for the day. Mine are often very consistent day to day and include things like: "Work," "Health & Fitness," "Family/Relationships," or more recently "8th Summit." This practice creates constraints for the day's attention on what is most critical toward living well and personal growth, directing energy toward the essential.
One of Brendon Burchard’s quotes is: “Always remember that the main thing is to make the main thing the main thing.” If we do not narrow our attention toward and pour our energy into our most essential goals each day, those dreams may take far longer than we hope to manifest.
Because I am an ultra-nerd, I color-code my priorities. This adds a bit of creativity and fun to the process rather than going through the motions. (If you are curious, blue is for “Work,” orange is for “Health + Fitness,” pink is for “Relationships + Family,” and purple is for “8th Summit,” naturally).
"Tasks That Absolutely Must Be Done Today"
The purpose of this prompt is self-explanatory. Notably, the section is rather small on the page, and the small size helps to limit this list to only what is most critical to complete and cannot wait until tomorrow. We all know how easily a to-do list can become unbearably long and stressful, so the constraints of this daily practice help to avoid that sense of overwhelm.
"Person(s) I Need to Lead or Connect with Today (and How to Do It Well)"
We usually will have one person or a couple people in particular that deserve special attention and care each day. For me, these people are often my co-workers, family, or roommates. I appreciate this daily reminder to be a source of care and connection for those closest to me.
A Timestamped Schedule for the Day
Especially when our day is not predetermined with scheduled meetings and commitments, using a daily calendar to schedule important tasks and activities is a valuable practice. When I block off time to complete critical items on my to-do list (like writing these blog posts...), I mentally commit to using that time for a specific purpose. There are times when I break my pre-determined schedule, but I do my best to stick to it.
"Evening Journal"
The Evening Journal section offers a set of prompts designed to reflect on the day’s most important experiences and achievements. Sadly, I almost never complete this part of the journal. A short evening journal session is not yet a part of my routine. Perhaps, I will be able to incorporate the nighttime journaling in the future.
"Daily Habits Scorecard"
The Daily Habits Scorecard is the second part of the daily pages dedicated for reflection at the end of the day, so I also do not complete this part. The items on the scorecard correspond to the 6 High Performance Habits that I outlined above. After reading Burchard's book, I am much more inclined to begin using the Scorecard to keep track of my progress at developing those habits. I will need to focus a bit more energy and time to work these two evening reflection tools into my nightly routine.
Weekly Review
In addition to the daily pages, there are also weekly and monthly components. Taking a step back from my daily responsibilities and actions to see how they fit in a larger time frame is immensely valuable.
I recently read the book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman, which is an excellent read that illustrates this long-term thinking. “Four thousand weeks” is the number of weeks in today’s average lifespan. When you think about life on that scale, the quality of each week matters a lot more. Burkeman writes:
“Our lives, thanks to their finitude, are inevitably full of activities that we’re doing for the very last time. Just as there will be a final occasion on which I pick up my son—a thought that appalls me, but one that’s hard to deny, since I surely won’t be doing it when he’s thirty—there will be a last time that you visit your childhood home, or swim in the ocean, or make love, or have a deep conversation with a certain close friend. Yet usually there’ll be no way to know, in the moment itself, that you’re doing it for the last time. Harris’s point is that we should therefore try to treat every such experience with the reverence we’d show if it were the final instance of it. And indeed there’s a sense in which every moment of life is a “last time.” It arrives; you’ll never get it again—and once it’s passed, your remaining supply of moments will be one smaller than before. To treat all these moments solely as stepping-stones to some future moment is to demonstrate a level of obliviousness to our real situation that would be jaw-dropping if it weren’t for the fact that we all do it, all the time.”
Each week, I may be doing something for the “last time,” and these weekly reflections help me to appreciate my special experiences. As Thoreau would say, I strive “to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life,” and thinking in wider time frames helps me to savor the journey. These reflections also encourage me to be more present and intentional the following week.
The Weekly Review has three sections: 1) “Weekly Learning Review,” 2) “Weekly Life Review,” and 3) “Weekly Review: High Performance Habits.” Below is a brief summary of each part:
“Weekly Learning Review”
This section includes five prompts guiding the writer to reflect on the most significant learnings from the previous week. These prompts add perspective on both achievements and struggles—to practice gratitude for the good things and to learn from the challenges.
One of the prompts is “1 decision that I could have made last week to make my life better or to move ahead faster would have been…” I love this prompt because it is very actionable for the coming week. Last week I wrote: “Be more concrete about times for using my phone, social media, etc… Do it this week.” I absolutely could have been even better at implementing this decision this week, but I did indeed constrained my phone and social media use. My “Screen Time” function on my phone told me that I overall reduced my average screen time by 26 minutes each day. My total time on Instagram (my social media app of choice) fell by more than an hour! Hopefully, I can keep improving on reducing screen time and using my phone more deliberately rather than passively.
“Weekly Life Review”
The Weekly Life Review is a section to score yourself on the quality of 10 unique lifestyle areas with extra space to add thoughts on ways to improve that area. Each score is a rating from 1 to 5 with “5 being awesome.” At the end, the writer multiplies the total of all 10 scores by 2 to arrive at a score out of 100 (mine was 77 last week).
This practice is not meant to promote a compulsive perfectionism with the various aspects of our lives. Instead, Burchard intends this to be a quick diagnostic check to know where our strengths and blind spots reside. Burchard writes in the journal’s instructions: “Be honest, but also kind to yourself…Basically, you are doing a spot check on your life and giving yourself a score so that you know where you are.” Above is a photo that shows the 10 areas.
This diagnostic tool provides me with a compass toward balancing my different lifestyle factors. Depending on which goals are receiving my greatest attention, I often can find that a handful of these life areas are excellent while the quality of others fade. My balance right now is strong, but my “Health” area has been by far the best while my “Finances” has been lacking (stock market is hurting me). With that in mind, I have been much more disciplined about reducing spending and saving money in recent weeks with more room for improvement.
“Weekly Review: High Performance Habits”
The final part of the Weekly Review provides an assessment directly tied to the 6 High Performance Habits. Each habit has a set of 5 prompts for scoring again out of 1 to 5, and the user totals the set of 5 scores and multiplies the total by 4 to arrive at a score out of 100 for each habit. This is a bit complicated, but the general idea is to provide a diagnostic for how well you are practicing these important habits.
Last week, my best score was 80 for the “Generate Energy” and my lowest was a 3-way tie at 64 for “Seek Clarity,” “Raise Necessity,” and “Develop Influence.” I feel good about where I stand even on those lower scores, leaving room for improvement.
Monthly Review
The journal also has a Monthly Review section, which is similar to the Weekly Review with an even wider time horizon. For the sake of avoiding too many particulars, I will hold off from breaking down what those look like but include photos below:
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In today's modern world filled with incessant distractions, we can easily slip into a reactive, unintentional lifestyle. We go through the motions of work, social life, and other experiences without taking a step back to see our daily behaviors in a wider context. Using a journal has helped me to interrupt the daily "grind" and guide me toward actions motivated by purposeful intention. Steve Jobs said in his iconic 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech:
“Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.
Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
Job’s choice of tool may be sobering, but thinking with the end in mind is also empowering. My journaling habit became a key catalyst to begin writing this blog. I codified my ideas and thoughts for my own personal uses for several years, and I began to think: "why not share my experiences?" Self-doubt cause me strong hesitation in sharing my writing, but I am thrilled that I took that leap. On my deathbed, I know that I would regret not telling my story.