Discover Meaning All Around You Through Mindful Journaling

1. Introduction: Over my life, I have gone over periods of time where journaling was something that I would enjoy doing more for a reason or another. I could pull aside after a short while. Sometimes for short periods of time, like days or weeks, sometimes for several years at once. It's not that I didn't know its importance, but it was more that after a while. I didn't have a very specific and personal reason to keep doing it. The thing is that there are so many popular journaling methods that you can try without a clear direction that resonates personally with you it's very easy to lose motivation or get lost somewhere along the way. My name is Robert. As a creative person, I have always enjoyed documenting my life with photography, video, or different forms of media. I actually used to think that this was the point of journaling just to record memories and moments. Now, I realize that more than documenting anything, journaling can allow you to develop deep perspectives or generate amazing ideas related to everything that matters to you. It can help you discover so much of who you are or who you want to be and these, as a consequence, can allow you to navigate your every day in a very clear and intentional way. In this class, you will learn a journaling system with mindfulness at its core. Here we will not be getting into trying to look creative or beautiful layouts. This kind of journaling is also not about productivity. There's still a lot here that you can learn and apply if you are pursuing any office. But I will be teaching you journaling as something different. Something that has everything to do with being totally present in the process itself. Trying to make the most of how you experience life and being very proactive about how you reflect and express yourself about it through griding. I am very systematic in the way that I do things. Whether you are looking for something simple or if you want something more complicated because maybe you are a bit of a nerd like me, then I'm sure that you will find value here. It doesn't matter if you're just getting started with journaling or you have been doing it for a while. Perhaps you have tried to journal before but failed at doing it consistently. Or maybe you are just a creative person looking for inspiration. If you are any of these, then this class is exactly what you need. I will give you a framework that will allow you to create or personalize your own journaling system so that it becomes something that works specifically for you. I will be covering both physical and digital journaling. Yes, I will tell you what I do on regards to photos, videos, or digital media. But more than that, this class is about coming up with journaling Ideas, organizing those ideas, and developing them into meaningful interests. Here's the keyword, is not just random ideas that we will be talking about. It's about personal meaning. It's about personal growth. It's about you. My goal is to give you tools that will help you explore big questions that will result in an endless amount of inspiration and motivation, not only to journal but to be more authentic and live life at its fullest. You'll be amazed once you start going down this path with me and I cannot wait to share more with you. 2. Redefining Journaing: Hi, thank you for being here. Since we're just at the beginning of this class, I want to spend this lesson to talk to you about what journaling means to me. The thing is that journaling can go in so many different directions and that's great. Well, for you to make the most out of what I will be teaching you, I find it necessary that we start by being in the same page. If you already have some journaling experience, I invite you to put yourself in a beginner's mindset. Just try to be open, even if you've done things a little bit different before. If you are just starting out in this journey, get ready because this practice has the potential to radically change how you see and experience life. There's this method called the 5Ws. You've probably heard of it. Easy questions, who, why, what, when, and where. Many times I even use this to come up with ideas as I journal, but in this case let's answer them to define the topic at hand. Journaling. For who is this? I want you to think about journaling as something very personal. I know there's people who journal for their children, for future generations or for posterity. Depending on who you are, it may be hard not to think about where your journal may end up after you are gone or you may already be considering to share with somebody you love. But still, I believe that there is a lot of freedom that comes from granting only for yourself. As you go over this class and apply some of the ideas that I will be sharing, I highly suggest that you do not think about the future of your journal. Be yourself, say what you want to say without caring about anything else. Do not censor your thoughts and try to be non-judgmental. At some point down the line, you may decide what you want to do with their journal. But that time is not right now believe me. Journaling is all about growing in honesty with yourself before anything or thinking about anyone else. There's an incredible sense of freedom and joy that comes by being able to express without having to worry about what others will think if they ever review. Do not let this blog your authenticity and you'll be amazed by the direction everything takes. Why journal? I am guessing that if you are here then you must already know something about the benefits of journaling. It can help you track growth, strengthen memory, release tension or anxiety, manage depression, provide inspiration. It's a tool for self-discovery. It can help you achieve all different goals, and the list goes on and on. In this class though, I will not try to convince you to journal. Actually, instead of focusing so much on the outcomes, I want pay extra attention to two elements that will serve as foundation for our practice; reflection and expression. Reflection and expression is something that we'll do in a way or another, maybe on social media or with friends and family, perhaps even alone, is just part of all those. Nicely journaling as a way to bring awareness of this aspect of our lives. Every day we are encountering so much information and we're listening to so many voices that as a result, our own voice is often lost. Journaling with a focus on reflection and expression will allow you to listen to yourself. We are basically using journaling as a mindful practice You can say, but I'm too busy or I'm too old, or maybe I'm too young to take life seriously. When is a good time for me to start journaling? I'll tell you, just start right now. Regardless of the circumstances or the time of your life you are at right now, just start. Don't wait for it to be perfect. It will be a little bit messy. You will make mistakes, but historically okay. Let's look at a what question from a different perspective. I want to tell you what we will not journal about. I want to make sure that you understand that the journaling that I will be mostly talking about in this class is not focused on productivity. I do believe in the importance of productivity on getting work done, reaching goals and time management. I also believe that journaling will have a positive impact on all of this, because a big part of being productive and deciding what to do with your time has to do with reflection and knowing yourself. But for now I'm telling you, let's put all of this aside and focus on making journaling something else. You can say, what if I don't grab all the things that I have to do, then what would I write about? Let me be extra clear. It's okay to read about the things that stress you out, it's okay to add about unfinished work or projects, is okay to grad about due dates. But we will try to approach all of this from a more introspective perspective. Not so much for trying to do things, but rather as an exploration of your thoughts and feelings about all of this. This will make everything so much more personal. I just try my best to avoid the topic of productivity when writing because I don't want my journal to become one more list of things that I have to complete, which goes against the whole mindfulness idea that I'm talking with you. My productivity and time management is a totally separate system. Now, as we go along in the class, you will get plenty of ideas of what to actually journal about, I promise. Where will we journal? We're talking about the actual medium here. This is something to consider because now aside from beautiful and inviting notebooks, we also have great options available for journaling on our phones or computers. Digital journaling, those open an incredible amount of possibilities that can boost some of them already beneficial aspects of traditional journalists. But to keep things simple, I will tell you, just start with whatever sounds better for you at this time, either both digital and physical journaling. In this class, I will explain how I merge both mediums, but most of what you will learn can be done in one system or the other. By now, you must already have a better idea of what this is all about. I want to mention one more thing. More than a step-by-step guide, I want you to use this class as a reference to build something that works specifically for you.There's no rules. Nothing is set in stone. Journaling can be as simple as granting down a line a day, or it can be as complicated as you want it to be. My own system may appear too overwhelming if you're just starting out, but don't be intimidated. Just try to apply what resonates the most with you. There is no pressure. As we go forward, I invite you to let go of perfectionism. Don't be afraid to experiment, to make mistakes, and try to get at least something that you can apply from each lesson. In the next lesson, I want to give you an overview of my current journaling system. I just want you to see everything in a very general and practical way. Be fried, talk more about ideas or abstract concepts. I'll talk to you soon. 3. Overview of the System: In this lesson, I want to cover two things. First, I want to give you an overview of how my journaling system currently looks like. Second, I want to talk about your project for this class, which will actually be coming up with a journaling system of your own in the lessons that will follow after this one, I will be diving deep into how I journal I will share with you. Not only how I write, but also a lot of concepts that allow me to generate and organize ideas. All of that can start feeling like it's too much. I think it's good to start off by showing you the actual end result of everything that I will be talking about. You also know that the results don't have to be so complicated. I've mentioned before, I journal both in a notebook and in an app. This is what I currently use for my physical journal, it's very simple, it's a leather cover. I have good paper in here and I use a fountain pen. What I do in here is more long-form than in my Doodle journal. My mindset is using a very different channel that when I type in a phone or a computer, I enjoy it so much that it results in several pages a day. A lot of the gradient that I do here is triggered by life, memories, and feelings. In my notebook and write in Spanish, my native language. While in my data on your own, I use English. For digital journaling. I use Day One. Even though this is not required for this class, it is just a fantastic app that allows you so much in terms of organization that I cannot recommend it enough. It also has many features that you may not find necessary. Which is why I think that you can consider other options that will fit this class just as well. I believe most digital journaling apps will allow you to have different journals, categories, or folders. These may be the most basic form of organization. I have one for stories, one for introspection, one for life, which is photos and video. Paper, where I scan and incorporate everything that I write in my notebook, and in bits and pieces, I include anything that may not fit anywhere else. Some people do like to organize everything per year or with very specific topics. The most popular applications out there already give you different options that can make this kind of filtering automatic. My suggestion is get to know your app, its features and use them to your advantage. The organization that I just showed you is just top-level. For me. Everything goes even deeper with tagging. Another incredible organization tool. Tagging is not unique to Day One. I will have a lesson explaining my whole process for organizing and categorizing everything that goes here. On the other hand, something that is more unique to this application Day One, and I enjoy using a lot is shortcodes in my iPhone. By clicking an icon on my home screen or asking Siri, I am presented with different options that have to do with what I write the most about. Let's say that I wanted to write a short story from something that happened yesterday. I would write anything. When I submit, I have all of these gagging options. This, of course, is not necessary. All the writing can be done inside the app itself. Shortcuts just make the process more convenient and fun. If you are interested in this kind of advanced functionality, do check the resources of the class, where I will be explaining to you, how I have everything set up by the end of this class, you will learn that having a solid system for journaling can be truly incredible. Your project will actually be to take some of the principles that we will analyze and use them to build your own system. This can be something about organization that you learn or even something about the whole process of coming up with ideas. I just want to know that you've got something from out of all of this that you could apply for yourself. I believe that my main categories can work for most of you by the way, it doesn't have to be like that. Your actual journaling system is something ongoing. It's something that will be refined over time. That's okay when you post your project, I just want to see where you're at and the direction that you plan on taking. I really, really want to encourage you. If you find all of these useful, please do share here in Skillshare. By posting a project, no matter how simple it may be, you can be inspiring other students and even influencing in my own way of doing things, there is nothing wrong in disagreeing with how I see some things. If you feel confused or you think in a totally different way. We also have a discussion area where you can post any questions or thoughts. I would love to interact with you and help you figure out things. What you saw in this lesson is just the surface. We will analyze everything related to content much more in detail. In the next lesson, I will be giving you very specific and practical steps that will allow you to identify some aspects of your life that will serve as a never-ending source of inspiration on things so journal about. Let's look together at what I call the expression and reflection framework. 4. The Reflection and Expression Framework: In this section, I want to talk to you about the framework which is at the core of all my journaling. It basically is a way in which I generate and process all the ideas that I want to write about. I try to be very organized, I want to know where everything goes and where I can find things that I'm looking for. Because of this, I try to have systems in place for my everyday. They provide clear direction or simple and practical ways to deal with everything around me, I have a system for tasks that I have to complete, which involves a calendar and a to-do list, for example. Or I have a system for my routines, the reading, and the media that I consume. Here's the thing that I want to get at, having frameworks or systems not only can help you with time management, organization or how to reach goals, but they can also set you free from indecision or not taking action. In the case of journaling, the unlimited options and directions in which your journal can become paralyzing and intimidating. We're dealing with experiences, information, things of personal value, memories, feelings, thoughts, and so much more. In the framework that I want to share with you, yes you will get ideas what to do with all of this and yes, I will present it all to you in a very practical way that you can adapt to your specific needs. But let me emphasize something one more time. We're trying to focus on the process and the content of our journaling. Think of these being at the very center of this system. I have personally been very inspired by GTD or getting things on, which is a productivity system that deals with pending tasks. Another system that is very big for me is building a second brain which deals with knowledge management. But I found that journaling for me was too personal and the idea of mindfulness did not directly fit in any of these systems that I'm telling you about, so I created what I call the expression and reflection framework. We're all different, we have different lives, we have different needs but this can give structure to your journaling regardless of who you are. I want you to think of this as a solution on how to deal with pieces of personal meaning that you encounter in your everyday. The actual steps are very simple, Number one is recognize, which has to do with awareness. Number 2 is capture in the form of quick notes. Step number 3 is process where most of the reflection and expression happens as we clarify, organize, and expand on those notes that we took. Sounds easy. In the following few lessons, I want to explain much more into detail what each step implies because believe me, they may seem like nothing special, but they have the potential of being quite transformational. As I go through each step, I want to give you some personal advice. Number 1, go one step at a time and adapt it to yourself wherever you can. I will try to give you some examples of my own, but do think of examples in your life. Number 2, wherever you see that you can apply, just go for it. If you are taking this class or lesson per day, do not wait until you get to the very end. All of these will continue to take shape, but each step is very practical by itself. Remember that you will only be able to refine and personalize your journaling system by being in the process already, by taking action. If you haven't thought of anything to apply to your own journaling so far, starting the next lesson, you will have absolutely no excuses. Number 3, be flexible and open-minded. At some point, I felt that journaling was only meant for things that I was grateful for. It took me a long time to realize how amazing it is to have unlimited things to write out about, as long as it's something that I want to write about, so be open-minded. Yes, I encourage you to experiment and explore but if something definitely doesn't feed you and doesn't go with who you are, then go on to the next idea, don't let that stop you. Number 4, your journaling may look messy or without a clear direction at the beginning, it may seem like it's going nowhere or like you're wasting precious time, my suggestion here is that you try to overcome being paralyzed by perfectionism and that way you will be able to embrace and enjoy every step of the journaling. In the next section, let's talk about recognize and I'll give you some ideas on how to grow in awareness, so that you can start finding personal meaning all around you. 5. Recognizing Meaning: In this lesson, I want to talk to you about the first step in this journaling method, recognize. One of the amazing things about journaling is that it gives you new perspectives. Things many times do seem different once you start to think about them and even more when you try to explain them or write them down. But it's not that we just want to journal about whatever even though we could. There's methods of journaling that consist of only trying to empty our thoughts and feelings regardless of what they are but if we want a reflection and expression, want journaling to be truly meaningful and personal, it is necessary that we first find that which is already meaningful to us. This may sound too obvious or simple but the thing is that everyday we encountered so many things, moments, people and experiences that if you do not spend some time trying to figure out where your heart really is, then you may actually just end up following whatever pops up first in front of you. Journaling gives you the chance to get away from the comfort of the algorithm of recommendations; all of those automatic suggestions that you find everywhere. You don't only want to follow what others with similar interest follow. You are an individual and the entire planet doesn't have or will ever have anyone else that is totally you, embrace it. You want to pursue your sense of wondering, of discovering things that deeply connect with who you are in a way that no piece of technology can tell you. How can we expect to be taking big or small decisions in life and be happy with them when many times, we don't even know what we want or what is important to us because of that, growing in self-awareness is huge and generally allows you to take action towards this. Now, before actually journaling anything, how do we go about recognizing meaning around us? You have to be intentional about it. If you don't, it won't make a difference. The more that you try to look for that which is important to you, the more that you will find and also the more natural this step in the process will become. But if you feel lost and don't have any idea where to start, let me give you some practical advice. Sometime ago I heard about the Eisenhower matrix. This is a system that is very useful for decision-making and prioritizing tasks. Basically, you have to think of everything that you have to or want to do and organize it in four different categories under the criteria of urgent and important. There's the things that are both urgent and important, urgent but not important, important but not urgent, and the things that are neither urgent nor important. The idea behind all of this is that the things that you actually have to prioritize are the things that are important but not urgent. These are the ones that oftentimes fall in between the cracks. Those things that you know that are important to you but you keep putting them off until later. Now, why am I telling you this? Didn't I say that this class was for a journaling about reflection and expression and not productivity? Correct. But what I want you to do here is to spend a moment thinking about this. With the Eisenhower matrix system, you can find not only the tasks that you have to complete because they are important, but you can discover the actual areas behind the tasks which hold the meaning in themselves. Let me give you an example. For several years I put off until later the whole idea of working out and trying to eat healthy. I knew that it was something I had to pay attention. I used to feel that it was so busy and couldn't set time apart for it. When health and my overweight started to become an issue, I realized how important this actually was and decided to take action. Now, I do work out and pay attention to how I eat every day. Well, that in itself is not interesting or exciting to me. The reason that paying attention to my health is important to me is because it's about having a richer life with those I love, my wife and my family; because of them, my health became a higher priority. See, exercise is a task but in reality, it only reveals one big element of my personal life which the people that I value the most. In the same way I put off trying to build a habit of reading for a long time but then I realized that it was not just about grabbing a book and reading it from start to finish. Now I read because personal growth and learning from the experiences of others is something that, again, I personally find valuable or I read fiction because of the value that I find in creativity, imagination, giving shape to abstract ideas and building connections when expressing. Do you get me? Every action that is truly important to you already has something that made you label it as important. As a side note, if you explore this personal connection, doing the things that you actually want to do will also become easier and you'll be more motivated. Here's another mental exercise that can help you out. If there was a fire right now or if there was an emergency and you have to run out of your place, and you only have one chance to grab three to five things, what could you take? Ask yourself, why will you take that? Maybe you are already super organized and you already got this in place, ready for you to just run out but what I'm saying is that some material things also reveal things where you can find personal value. I know that I will grab at least my main hard drive, which represents years of experiences, learning and memories. If I could, I could also grab a box that has a lot of letters and cards from past birthdays or special times in my life. Again, these reveals the meaning that I place in the people around me. I actually started thinking about this years ago and as a result, I became much more intentional in the way that I document my experiences, interactions with others, and the memories of my everyday. I started doing this even before I made journaling a consistent habit. Remember, all of this is just to raise your self awareness. Ask yourself, where do you find meaning? What resonates with you? Maybe you just watched a film and it moved you, or you got some big insights from a book that you're reading, or you just truly enjoyed a YouTube video that you just watched. Try to think beyond the film, the book, or the video itself. What was it that connected with you? You can start making a list of things, things that you are interest about, that which makes you curious, everything that you love, and as you go on with life, you will find yourself making better decisions because you will know what connects with you. You will be more authentic and honest with who you are. By the way, if you're a creative person, this is also an amazing practice because you can become much more intentional about how you seek or approach aspiration. All of this journey and self-discovery will also reveal things that you need to work on. You may realize that some things are very meaningful and important to you but they are just ignored. Maybe the person that you want to be is not actually in line with who you are at this point and that's okay. You will start seeing what you want to do for a change or maybe you will find that you already are where you want to be, and that's also totally perfect. The thing is that this process of being, growing, or following the direction that is best for you, and at the same time aligns with those areas that hold personal value, all of these is not only something that happens from one day to the other, everything is just one small step at a time in the right direction. What I want to say is that it is totally possible to recognize these little things; things that may seem mundane but bring you a tiny bit of joy. The small chat with your friend that allow you to know him or her a little bit better. The moment you woke up in the morning and you felt grateful to have a good night of rest. Details that could go unnoticed but it has captured the essence of everything that is meaningful to you. Let me tell you a little secret : one of the biggest reasons that people quit journaling or they find it too difficult is because they skip this step. It's easy to find the popular journaling method and try to follow it without actually thinking if there's a personal connection. So start by recognizing everything that I have talked to you. A lot of what we do in our daily lives we do it without thinking, so it's not so simple. I'm not saying that you have to be paying extra attention to every little detail, no. It's just about noticing the things that contribute to the bigger areas of meaning. It's like a muscle that you need to develop and the more that you do it, the easier that it gets. Once you start recognizing more and more meaningful things around you, you can make journaling an extension of this; that way it will feel natural and not a burden. In the next section, let's talk about the next step in our framework which is capturing. 6. Capturing Ideas: In this lesson, I will talk to you about capturing, the second step in this reflection and expression framework. A few years ago, I became really interested in productivity, organization, and time management. One thing that was very influential for me was when I learned about get things on. A system created by David Allen is just a very practical way to deal with actionable pending tasks. But among all these steps and instructions found in this system, there's this phrase that the author emphasizes over and over again. Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them. This is a great insight of how to deal with information, experiences, and things that we encounter as we go on with our everyday. Yes, even those things that are meaningful to us or that we may want to reflect an expressed in writing. Let me tell you how can we apply this principle to journaling? More specifically, let me show you how being systematic and organized can be very influential on how you develop a journaling method that works for you, because the actual content becomes easier to produce and it makes it much more intentional and therefore valuable. A very useful first step that you can take if you want to put some order in your life, is to noticed, your information containers. Let's call them like that. Picture in your mind, boxes or drillers around your desk for pens, receipts, papers or tools. In a similar way, a container can be your email, your bookmarks folder, your phone for a gallery, your voicemail, or your calendar. In our digital world, we have a lot of information containers, so a lot of things end up buried in them, forgotten or forever postpone for a later time that never arrives. Are you still with me? We'll bring it all back to journaling in a second. But for now I want you to know two things that are super-important on how to deal with all these containers of information that I'm talking to you about. Number 1, it's always good to regularly process or empty those containers so the nothing falls through the cracks, so that we are not just hoarding things without purpose. Number 2, it's always best to have as few containers as possible, just to keep it all manageable. A lot of the information or the things that I encounter everyday may end up in one of my few containers. For example, if it's something that I need or want to take action on, it may become part of my task management system, which has to do with my calendar and my to-do list. If it's media like a podcast and online class that I'm taking some useful YouTube videos or other information that I'm interested in installing and learning, then it may become part of my personal knowledge management system, which is something like a personal Wiki or a database that I store in my note-taking application. But then if what I encounter comes in the form of information and experience, a memory or anything that I recognize as personally meaningful, just like I told you in the previous lesson. Then these may end up in my journal. I have three main systems. There's tasks, there is knowledge, and then there's journaling. Sometimes there's an overlap and something may end up in all three places. But before we get there, and before you start feeling like all of these is too overwhelming, let me tell you something that is incredibly useful. When you recognize something as meaningful, something that stands out, I felt that you don't want to forget or something that you cannot take off your mind. You don't have to interrupt whatever you are doing at the time and start journaling in that moment. No. You don't have to carry the pressure of having to remember it. Just take quick notes, write down something short and quick that just has the essential information so that you can come back to it later. That's it. For example, as someone who loves movies, the other night I watched the latest work from a big Italian director, Dario Argento, somebody I respect. He's a big figure in the history of horror cinema. Right after I finished the movie, he was already late at night and I just made a quick note with the name of the directory, Dario Argento. That's it. I knew that by seeing the name, more ideas would come up next day. I saw my note the next morning. I wondered if I should just write a personal review of his film in my journal, but before that, I thought maybe I'll just look him up in Google just to see if there's any news about him. I knew that I wouldn't spend long. It took me like two minutes and one of the first things that I saw was that he's already 82 years old at the time that he made these last movie. That stood out for me. He just surprised me. Nothing big or life-changing, but I just recognize that there was something there. I did a quick note that says journal on Dario Argento's age, I also created a desk in my to-do list to research Dario Argento's work, because I thought that there was so much more that I was interested in there. Do you start to see the framework in action? First, I met and recognized a piece of information that somehow resonated with me. In this case was a curiosity that the film gave me on regards to the author. I took a quick note. The next day, I identify this note as actionable. By actionable, I mean that it was a two-minute tasks that I completed with a Google search. Here, I met new information that both produced an actual project of research, also it gave me another quick note that had something personal. Step after step, the actual thing that connected with me became more and more clear. The next day as I sat in front of my journal with pen in hand, I wrote about the passing of time, age is relation with passion and the search for a personal creative voice. The stage that I'm in, where I feel I'm going in regards to this, the good, the bad, how I can improve thoughts that I have when reflection on Dario Argento's age, and remembering their body of work that I know of him. At the same time, I now have a project in my task management system, which also came from the original note. I know that a lot of what will come from my research, like interviews, essays, or videos, may end up in my knowledge management system. Maybe we'll even give him more to journal about. Let's step back a little bit. I want to mention something that you will probably notice in this example that I just gave you. The more that you start to practice the first recognizing step, the more than you will start to notice things that resonate with you everywhere through experiences are in the real-world, but also in the containers that you already have tangled together with other pieces of information. It may be a photo, a text message and email, a letter if you're old school like me, or post on social media, is your choice if you decide or not, to go into the actual container and tried to organize things there. But even more than that, when you notice something that stands out, you have the choice of rescuing this piece of meaning, don't overthink or tried to analyze it. Just steady aside for later when you actually want to process it. In that moment, you stick a quick and simple note. Now, where should you take this notes that I'm talking about? I have tried carrying a small physical notebook, but the convenience of digital really wins here, at least for me. My favorite note-taking application is Bear, but you can use whatever is available to you. There's so many great options and you don't need anything with too many features. I use one note in my app as an inbox and I use it as a sticky, always one swipe away from my home screen. Since Apple has these wedges functionality, my note also appears on my desktop notification center. For the actual note-taking, I also can just click a shortcut that is just a swipe away. Again, you can check the resources of this class for more details of my setup with shortcuts, just because all of these can get a little bit technical, but it doesn't have to. Taking notes can be so simple and quick that you don't even need to spend a lot of energy on this. You can also get creative by the way. Note can just be like placing a bookmark, a reminder of something that you will come back to. It can be a photo snap that you take up something or a voice memo, even a screenshot of something that you saw while you were scrolling. A really cool thing is that now most digital tools for note-taking allow you to attach media. But many times, since I keep my desktop clean, I may just drag something there. You could even do note-taking directly into your digital journaling app. But I don't suggest that you do this because having this step as something separate than the actual journaling is an important part of all of this framework, as we will see in the following lesson. For now, we're just gathering things that are temporary, things that may or may not end up in our journal. Why are we doing this? Why this extra step if we could just go straight into journaling? The thing is that by taking notes like this, you are still present in whatever you're doing. You just quickly set something apart for later. You don't need the extra stress that comes from trying to carry something in your mind or memory, and you're not leaving something incomplete until the next time that you have a chance to journal. You are not leaving any open loops as these are called. Now, if you only throws your memory, you may end up losing things. Remember, our mind is for having ideas, not holding them. But there's even more. By capturing notes, you will distance yourself from the moment that you will actually write those things in your journal. It will give you the opportunity to reflect on them, re-evaluate their meaning, and not just act on impulse. At the same time, you will need to start from zero while facing a blank page. Let me make this clear. You do not need to annotate everything, only what truly resonates with you. In other words, make what we talked in the previous lesson, recognizing something that will trigger your capturing. If something is just dwelling in your mind, it's most likely something that you also need to put out in some of these notes. I'm talking those things that you encounter and they stay with you moments after, whatever you want to remember. Also, whatever keeps you awake at night, anything that you want or need to dig deeper. This is even good to help you free yourself from anything that doesn't let you focus and go on with life, thoughts, feelings, memories, all of these capturing step. It's not just helping you with journaling, but it is also teaching you how to find a deep connection with who you are in every sense of the word. You are recognizing and taking a quick note, It's like saying, yes, this is important to me. You are strengthening your ideas, knowledge, character, and overall identity. Now, there's one moment where I may not do quick notes, and that's when something comes to my mind in the middle of journaling. Journaling, after all, can also become a source of new ideas. Let's talk about the actual process in the next lesson. 7. Processing Journal Entries: In this lesson, I will share with you how to process those notes we've created so that they become actual entries for our journal, even though you may have already reflected for a short moment at a time of encountering something and making a note out of it. Here is where the actual journaling happens, is a time for you to explore the reason that you recognized something as being worth capturing in the first place. Let me start here by giving you two practical pieces of advice. First, I highly suggest that you do not leave your temporary notes unprocessed for more than a day or two. One of the ideas behind capturing notes during the day, is that they made your journaling process easier. But if you let them build up, then setting some time aside to go through them can become bigger and more difficult than it will be. Number 2, this totally depends on how much attention and time you plan to give to your journaling practice. But if you want to start small, you have to know that your temporary notes are very close to being a form of journaling in themselves. You may need to quickly figure out which of those you really want to hold onto. Most of the journaling that I do in digital form is like this: short, straight to the point, and it doesn't take more than a few minutes. So you want to keep it short and simple. That's totally okay. But if the notes that you took throughout the day are anything like mine, you may still need to add a few more words before saving them in your journal. At the very least, you should just make sure that your entries have enough in them to make sense. Don't forget that by taking notes before journaling, we are creating an opportunity to later reflect about what you capture and clarify its meaning through expression. So even if it's short and quick, don't miss this chance. If you don't mind making the most out of a journaling session or if you find it hard to stop once you start, then I suggest that you do not stop there. The first thing that I normally do is decide where my entry will go. Just like I previously showed you, I suggest that you give yourself some limits with categories or decide what content will go where in your journal. Organization plays an extremely important role, because it's like a filter that will define how you write. Once you decide the destination, whether it's your digital journal on their category or facing your notebook, then it's just a matter of starting by reflecting on your original note. This is where the magic happens because you will find that when you process your notes, you can enter a loop of reflection and expression. The moment that you start writing something down, or in other words, expressing, you will find something new to reflect on. The more than you will reflect, the more reasons you will also have to continue expressing. Don't let anything hold you back. Be honest, be authentic. Let the writing flow without caring too much about rules or mistakes. You can care about that, but the more true to yourself that you can be without any filters, the more that you will find yourself in the process. Basically, at the time of journaling, you are using your capture notes as personal prompts. If you feel like you're not good at this, don't worry so much. It will involve some degree of trying again and again, or maybe experimenting with different forms of writing until you start to feel more comfortable. Just use this as a way to track experiences, moments, conversations, stories, explore your thoughts and everything that is important to you. Some weeks ago, I heard a suggestion that stayed with me, write more about meaning than feeling. This was great for me because I personally find it so easy to write about how I feel about something. But to actually figure out the meaning that something has, then you have to actually start asking yourself questions. A great way to take your writing in this direction is to use the five Ws that I mentioned before. Why is this important to you? What of these resonates with who you are? What are you doing on regards to this? How? Where is this leading you? You don't actually have to write these down, but if they are in the back of your mind, they can serve as some form of inspiration. In my case, I use my digital journal for short entries, while in my notebook, it's totally the opposite. I can write for several pages as I dive deep into all of these questions of meaning, experiences, and ideas. Whether I'm writing in short form for digital or a longer sessions on paper, sometimes it happens that it's getting late and I realize that I have other things to do. Then I may also do a couple of quick notes for me to process the next day. Maybe these notes have absolutely nothing to do with my original motivation for journaling that day, but they are still in line with my search for personal insights. If you let it be, journaling can truly become an incredible place to discover things that you were not expecting. If you're not feeling creative or you feel like you're not in the mood for journaling, you can still do some writing to empty your mind and find a way to get yourself unstuck. Maybe you're stressing out about something, writing about it, it's actually a very healthy way to get all of that out of your system or just to start seeing it from a different perspective. By now, we have seen the three steps of my journaling system. If you try to follow this, you will realize that you will be removing so much friction and the time of writing, the blank page will not be daunting anymore. Totally the opposite, it will be inviting. At the same time, you are building discipline as you actually work on bringing your self-awareness to a whole new level. You are recognizing and categorizing thoughts, ideas, experiences, and emotions at the same time that you are seeing your narrative. If you are seeing your own story more clearly, you also have more power to transform it. Well, we express all the time, not all the time we're having conversations in our mind, especially conversations led by what we find meaningful. The thing is that we don't pay attention to so many important things. We take some much for granted, and the rhythm of our busy lives really doesn't help. By recognizing what resonates with you and by capturing it in the form of notes for later journaling, you are being proactive about this. At the same time, you are freeing your mind to live more spontaneously and creatively to be present in your everyday moments. Remember, there is no pressure. Journaling can be as simple as a few lines long, or you can write pages and pages. But when you take some time of your day to intentionally reflect and express, you will know that you are doing something of huge personal value for yourself. I believe there is also a great feeling of assurance by knowing that all of these things of personal meaning that you encounter every day are not getting lost. Not only they are not getting lost, but they are now very well organized. There's actually some much to be said about how to structure and organize what you write in your journal. In the following two lessons, I want to share with you more about these. Along the way, I'll give you more practical ideas on developing the content for your entries. 8. Organization, Stories, and Introspections: In this and the next lesson, I want to talk about the content of your journal in relation with this organization. Specifically, I will share with you about how your main categories can become an important idea-generation tool at a time of writing. By the way, everything that I will talk here is still an extension of processing entries, the last step of our framework. So far, we have already talked about recognizing things that resonate with us. Everything that makes us curious or keeps us awake at night. Everything that we treasure, material things or not, people, experiences, whatever we find exciting, interesting, or that we may want to explore more. Maybe by now you already got all of these things that you have gathered in your mind, or you already took some notes after learning about the reflection and expression framework. Maybe even you have already written some journal entries by following these methods. But hold on one second. Let me give you another big and important insight. How you organize your journal is a reflection of how you will organize your thoughts at the time of writing. These will affect everything. If you take a little bit of time to put some order in this aspect, you will have a much more clear perspective all through your journaling process at the end. I didn't notice this until I first downloaded a digital journaling application. I was presented with so many options in regards to categories, tags, search filters, location tagging and much more than at first I considered unnecessary. But later I thought, well, since I'm paying for all of these, then why not try to figure out the best way to take advantage of some of these features. It took a couple of months of experimentation, but now it's been more than a year that I have been journaling every day on digital, aside from physical, and I'm at a point where the way that I do everything is simple but extremely effective. Let's talk about top-level categories, collections, or journals as my application calls them. I showed them to use some lessons ago. I have stories, introspections, life, paper, and bits and pieces. If you have decided that you will only be journaling on a notebook, don't worry. If you pay attention to these concepts, you'll still be able to apply them to your own form of journaling. I can easily picture how you could have a small section on your entry for a short story, then a thought or an insight then a longer text, for example, stories. These are simple moments of your day documented without going into too many details. This is where some of your notes may go after you have added just enough information for them to make sense. Let me be clear. You are not writing a summary of all your day here, just a moment that stood out. In my personal case, stories is the kind of content that motivated me to pick up this habit after years of not doing it. I wanted to make journaling into something consistent and capturing everyday stories seemed like something quick and simple enough. It's just like taking a quick snapshot of something that you find important or meaningful. For example, let me read to you a recent one that I wrote. Just for a bit of context, I have two dogs, Lupe and Conchita. They are mother and daughter. They spend their days fighting and bothering one another. Let me read. Last night before going to bed, I told Sunny. Sunny is my wife. I love you like Lupe loves Conchita. Then we laughed as we realized that maybe Lupe doesn't really love Conchita. It was just something that made us both laugh before going to bed. A little moment that I know that I will appreciate later. When I write stories, sometimes another one comes to my mind. If that's the case, then I will make another entry. If you can do this, especially in digital, this will be helpful scenes. You can have a deeper level of organization later with tagging. We will talk specifically about tagging in a later lesson. But for now, I just want you to know that by keeping each story in its own separate entry, I am creating an archive or a database where I can identify content at a glance. Few lines are enough to bring you back in time. Remember, if I really want to expand right more or connect and play with all of these ideas, I will do that on one of my longer writing sessions which usually happen on paper. The thing with stories is that every day comes and goes so fast. But as you start to notice things and moments that are happening around you, even your perception of time can change. If you ever feel like the past week just flew by and nothing happened, you just have to take a quick look at what you wrote for those days. The nice thing is that stories can take many different shapes. They can capture your achievements, they reveal your priorities, and they tell so much of who you are. Overall, they give you one more reason to appreciate life. Introspections. This is the place where I'd write thoughts related to areas of interest in my life. I write thoughts about films that I watch or maybe I read something that day that stood out in a personal way. If that happens, I may write down a couple of lines. I do not use this for book summaries or anything that requires more than a few minutes to write. Also, I don't know to write about every movie that I watch or everything that I read. I am still being very selective. I just tried to keep it short, simple, and personal. This is also a place for me to put into words how I feel about something. I'm may write down thoughts or concerns about situations around me. A lot of internal monologues are captured here. In my introspections journal, I personally do not mind writing about things that may not be as happy or positive. It's just a good place to clear out my head. I can empty out anything that is stressing me or challenges that I'm facing. I even use this as a space to reflect about things that I want to get better at. Like I said, I also use this to grab ideas that come from things that I'm passionate about. This is where I found myself writing about how much I was enjoying journaling. Later, the idea of this class was born. I have this category not only because I think it's good to seek for insights and be intentional about setting some time to reflect on them, but I also get to explore a deeper side of the things that matter to me. It's a great place for self-discovery because I can clearly see the questions that I have in this specific season of my life. I can notice my struggles and as time goes by, this journal also becomes an evidence of my growth as a person. It's a place to find motivation and encouragement. Here's something very important. Almost everything that you will find in your notes can end up in either stories or introspections. It truly is a matter of perspective. The decision on how you look at something that you encounter is one will guide both the way that you express about it and the category that you're range will go to. What do I mean by this? Sometimes you will find that you grow the moment and experience or a situation. Well, the reason that you grow that down, the thing that stood out to you was bigger than the moment itself. Documenting it as a story may be less relevant than talking about it from this deeper perspective. For example, a few weeks ago I went fishing with my wife and my grandfather. We did not catch anything. There was one there's more fish more practical enough. After spending more than half a day, you will expect that we will get more. However, I saw that my grandpa was so happy on the way back. I wrote a note that said something like just a small fish, but grandpa is happy. When I looked at this note in the evening at the time, generally my application, it made me think in all the years that I have been fishing with my grandfather, that there's only been a few times that we actually catch anything. Well, he's always so happy to go. He enjoyed it so much, and I'm always so happy to spend time with him. I figured out that I didn't just want to write about this particular fishing day, I wanted to write more about the other thoughts that came to my mind because of it. This goes into introspections. I do not start my writing with, today I went fishing with grandpa. No. Because then it will be hard for me to get out of documenting more, especially in digital where I try to stay brief and to the point. I started writing directly. I enjoy fishing with my grandfather, even though most of the times we don't get anything. Do you see? It's not so much about the specific event and it's giving me an open door for other thoughts or reflections. I may still be able to find something that will go into stories more in this case, that will be more specific, like this one that I wrote. Today we were fishing with grandpa. Sunny, my wife, was walking by the shore and she saw a live fish. She caught it with her hands and brought it to where I was with grandpa. We were so surprised. I have to say, by the way, Sunny is much more comfortable handling live fish than I am. This is just enough to bring me back to that moment and that day. I have to tell you, since I have made it part of my routine to write out the very least, one story and one introspection per day, I feel like I have this somewhere in my mind as I go on with life. In a way, I am on the lookout for stories and insights and this is also very helpful at the time of recognizing things that are meaningful to me and that I want to journal about. Just as we talked in the first step of the framework. There's one more thing. Having these two categories with very general definitions also make this journaling method very flexible. If you want a journal for gratitude, for example then you can write that into stories if you are thankful about something that happened or into introspections. If it's something more related to an area of your life and not a particular event. But not making one journal for something that is very specific, there's also less pressure. If you want to try different journaling ideas, a lot of them were still fill in here. You can do so without breaking the consistency of your journaling habit. We have talked about stories and introspections. Next stop, I will share with you about bits and pieces, a journal where I keep all different sorts of media. I also want to tell you some more key points on how I grade on my physical journal and why I think that it's an incredible experience in itself. Something that in my opinion, can now be replaced by digital. See you in the next lesson. 9. Bits & Pieces, Life, and Paper: There's something that I think that could be called active journaling. By this, I mean the things that we are actively interacting with day-by-day. Then if we recognize them as meaningful and collect them, this can be a form of journaling in itself. Since we live in a world where so many things are digital, if you decide to have something like a Bits and Pieces category as part of your digital journaling app, this opens a whole world of possibilities. Especially since many of these journaling applications can import a lot of media like screenshots of messages, voice memos, links to websites or YouTube videos, photos of letters or cards, and many more things. Remember when I talked to you about containers, think of this as a place to store all of those pieces of meaning that you rescue from all the other containers that you deal with in your everyday. You can even incorporate the idea of a commonplace book and start saving quotes and knowledge. If you do this in an actual physical notebook, you may be a bit more limited on the media, but it's also totally doable. I imagine that it will start to look like all of those creative and scrapbook journaling that I'm personally not very good at. That's why for me it just makes a bit more sense in digital. Do keep in mind what I told you in the last lesson, everything fits into stories or introspections. Even if it's a note, a letter, an email or something else. By me saying today I saw this or this person gave me this or I found this. In this way of writing I'm already telling you a story. Or I could write about the thoughts, ideas, or feelings that come to my mind because of this thing that I found or received. By the way, I do actually try to write a couple of sentences, either in the form of documenting something or reflecting about whatever it is that I want to save. Bits and Pieces is mostly for me to have a space for media or information that was created without actually thinking of journaling in the first place, but that I still found meaningful. The Life journal is a subdivision of Bits and Pieces, this is just for me to journal with personal photos and videos. Something that makes memories truly come alive like no other form of media. We live in a world where we have amazing cameras in our pockets. It's so easy to take snapshots of moments around those but at the same time, our phone photo galleries are something that can easily get out of control without proper organization. That is why I have a specific day where I do a weekly review and not only look at projects and tasks that I need to deal with, I'll also look through all my digital photo containers, which are basically my phone and my cameras. At that point, I will decide what I want to keep and before I [inaudible], I will do a second pass for some favorites that will go in my life journal. At the time of making these entries, I go write a short caption here and there. But photo and videos already speaks so much that usually I do not find most need for text here. Oh and by the way, I also have physical version of this. I personally love to sit down and look at some photo albums with my wife or my family. Is just so different than looking at a screen. Journaling in paper is something that I treasure lot. Physical journaling for me is an experience similar to being deep in my thoughts after an important moment or during an important period of my life. Not wanting to play with my phone, wanting to disconnect myself from everything and spend some quiet time thinking. Well, it's like having a record of everything that goes through my mind in that time. It truly is amazing to have this feeling every single day. In a way it's like a stream of consciousness type of writing. Here I abandon the idea of only writing short entries like I normally do on my digital journal. I am not in the whole less is more mindset anymore. Actually, it's quite the opposite. On paper, I want to say the most that I can out of every little thing that matters to me. While this is a stream of consciousness and I am emptying everything that comes to my mind, it is not just about whatever the content of my notes and everything that connects personally with me is still my guide. There's cases where maybe something happened just before journaling or the night before and it stayed with me, but I didn't take a moment to annotate it, I will still write about it. It's okay. When I go write in my physical journal, I sometimes give myself permission to break some of my rules. Here's a big piece of practical advice. Don't be afraid to follow connections. In the last lesson, talking about short stories, I suggested to keep separate stories in separate entries. But here let me tell you that if you're in the mindset of wanting to truly explore and go deep in expression, then just go with the flow. For me the whole experience of writing a bit slower on paper just motivates this a lot. Maybe once you start reflecting and expressing about something an old memory will pop in your mind. Or you will find that by talking about a place or a person, you will be reminded of somewhere or someone else. An idea will bring up another one. That's your creative self talking to you. I suggest that you go there by following connections in a longer format type of writing, your entries will become a journey. What is the day passed and you didn't take any note? Or if you're writing and you feel like you have nothing else to write about? Maybe there's no significant short story that you grow out for that day or you didn't do any introspection entry that can give you a jump-start. If that's the case, then you can start writing about literally anything. Think of a color, a thing, something in your room. The first thought that comes to mind, write it down without trying to reason with it and just follow its connection. Remember, you can always use the five W's to give you some inspiration, what, when, who, where, and why. If you put your mind in what you're doing and you don't forget about your purpose of exploring meaningful through journaling, then no matter where you start, you can still get there. Let me bring back the example that I gave you a couple of sections back. The note that I wrote down right after watching a scary movie by Dario Argento. I already knew that I liked his work. I told you that a quick Google search told me about his old age and this stood out to me. so I used it as a prompt to write some personal thoughts on creativity and age. Well, here's the thing, I found that I could also write about when I first discovered the films by these director. This brought me back to the days when I was dating my now wife. I wrote about how I started watching films like this because she liked scary films. I wrote about how funny and surprising I thought this was when we first started dating. Suddenly, I'm not even writing about Dario Argento or horror films anymore. I am writing about when I met the girl of my dreams in Dallas a decade ago. I am writing about our story. At some point of my writing, I decide that I want to close this entry so I bring it back to how watching films is something personal to both of us and how sharing this interest brought us together. See, it's just one thing leading to the next one. Even though you have much more freedom in length, and you're seeking this flow of ideas in how you write, don't lose sight. Keep it personal. Don't just write for the sake of writing. As you write just try to be honest, don't be afraid, don't listen to your inner critic. Write like you're talking to a very close friend. If you can get to the point of being totally authentic, you'll discover that you're gathering insights from so many different areas of your life. You don't have to write down the parts of it you don't want. Of course. Well for me, this process of writing on paper allows me to let go of any thoughts or any emotion, including the good or the not-so-good. Everything. It all stays on the page. I personally think that this way of writing is a perfect match for a physical notebook and not a phone or a computer. Writing by hand is actually a slow process, slower than typing. That is why many people find this challenging, but is also why it can be great for mindfulness and being totally present in what you're doing. When you write by hand, you have no chance to edit it. You have to consider each and every thought more deeply and if your text takes a turn, you weren't expecting the best is usually not to try to erase or correct anything but to keep going. If you try a day or two and you just feel like it's just too challenging. Remember that this is a muscle that you are exercising. The more you do it, I promise you will get better at it. There's this concept that I found to be true. It has to do with the physics of productivity. It says that motivation often comes after starting. Objects in motion tend to set in motion. So it's just a matter of sitting down to write and doing it. Give yourself an achievable goal for the day, like writing a page or two. But if you are absolutely sure that writing on a physical notebook is not for you, then don't worry. You can also try to follow the same methods I have shared with you on digital. The medium should not be what stops you from journaling. Just watch out because there's a lot of built-in distractions in all your devices. Remember, it's all about being mindful and being present at the time of writing. Everything else can wait for at least a few minutes a day. That was a lot to cover. Let me give you a very quick overview on how it all looks in my practice. I take quick notes throughout the day, I wake up in the morning and I do a handwritten entry. Usually I write 4-6 A5 size pages. I started with only one page a year ago, but I enjoyed it so much. Now. It has grown into this. By writing in the morning, I'm already starting my day with a creative win that has nothing to do with perfection or getting any results. So it is very liberating. Then every evening I write at least one short story and one introspection in my digital journal. Sometimes more. Usually once a week, I will add some videos or photos in my life journal. Then whenever I find something worth keeping without a set schedule, I may add things into Bits and Pieces. I didn't get into this, but every evening, since I'm already in my digital journal, I also track some habits of my data. They're in the next section I want to talk to you a bit more about habits actually. I don't think that it will be so interested in tracking my habits if I had not found journaling to be such an incredible everyday practice. You may be wondering, how to find time for all of these in your busy life. How to make space. How not to make it feel like work when it seems like so much. But don't worry, journaling is not a heavy load as it may seem after this and the previous lesson. For you to have a better perspective on this, stay with me as I share with you some important insights about habits and consistency. 10. Consistency, Habits, and Identity: In this lesson, I want to give you some insights that I have learned about habits and consistency and how it all relates to journaling. I think I have always known the importance of developing good habits. But it was one of those things that I will always put aside. I always felt that trying to make a consistent routine of things to do wasn't for me because I was always so busy or I don't know, I would always come up with an excuse. It was only about a couple of years ago that I did a conscious effort to work on the habits that I wanted to have. It started with health, exercise, and diet because that was in a very bad state. It was just too obvious. But then I figured out that if I could do this, I could also make time for other things like learning or like putting some order in my life. The very interesting thing is that all throughout the process of working in habits or trying to improve myself, I would always read articles or books that would talk about the importance of reflection. The thing with reflection being an intentional practice, like the one that we pursue in the journaling method that I have been teaching you is that it's one of those habits that can have a ripple effect. It has the potential to influence your perspective about everything else in your life. But the first step before even trying to give you practical tips on consistency is for you to realize the importance that habits have for yourself. Nothing will change if you don't come to the realization that you want this as part of your life. Let me share with you an insight that was huge in my understanding of this. The most powerful way to think of habits is not to see them as tasks or things to do, but to see them as part of the identity that you want for yourself. What do I mean? Remember when I mentioned about the Eisenhower matrix in the lesson where I talked about the first step of the framework recognizing. It is the exercise that allows us to discover tasks that we need to prioritize that are important but not necessarily urgent. In this class, since we're trying to look at journaling as a mindful practice, we use this as a tool to help us find areas of personal meaning. When talking about habits, you can use the same method to discover more about who you are, for example. Maybe in your list of important, but not urgent things to do, you have a couple of books that you have been wanting to read for a long time. Or maybe you have the plan to take your wife or someone you love out to their favorite restaurant. Or maybe you just want to reconnect with an old friend, but something always gets in the way. If you only put this one task as a goal, it won't get you that far. Try to change the way that you look at it. Think about this in the context of your identity, who you are, or who you want to be. You won't just to read those books, instead, you want to become a reader. Is not just about taking the one you love out on a date, but it's that you want to become a more caring person. The way that you get there or the way that you transform who you are is through habits. There was a time in my life when I was journaling very frequently. I grew up in Mexico, but for my undergraduate and master's degree, I studied in America. At first this place away from home felt like a totally new world in so many aspects. I started journaling about all the big experiences that I was having, all the people and different cultures that I was meeting. Later I found that I could also write about big feelings, whether I was happy, excited, or the opposite. If I needed to vent about my frustrations, there was a place for all of that in my journal. I realized that I really enjoyed doing this, but I always struggled to make it an everyday habit. I used to think of myself as one of those people that journal when they feel like it. Just as feelings come and go, journaling came and went out of my life several times. A decade went by and I just did a couple of entries. It was always in my list of important, but not urgent things to do. Like I mentioned to you, it was not so long ago that I went through a period when I wanted to put order in my life. I wanted to work on building good habits. I realized that journaling was important, not because I needed somewhere to write about big experiences or big feelings. No. I just wanted to live appreciating everything, big or small. I wanted to become a person that was present in his everyday, focused and not wasting time in distractions, making the best out of life, and always looking for a meaning. What a better way to do this than through intentional reflection and expression? So the thing that triggered journaling for me changed, and since the trigger is connected to my identity and who I want to be everyday, then as a result, I journal everyday. This is something that you have to think about. It's very personal. There's infinite possibilities in the way that you can journal. But if you want to do it consistently, then your reason behind it has to be big. Something bigger than just trying to get something out of it. Bigger than trying to put some order in your thoughts or bigger than capturing a special moment or event. My suggestion is that you make your reason for journaling something close to who you are as a person. Do you want me to say it in more simple or practical terms? Just look back at the framework. It's older. Recognize meaning, capture it, and process it through reflection and expression. On the habit side of things, there's a lot of practical techniques that you can try out. For me, nothing beats deciding a time and place to do something, then you're sticking to it. If necessary, write it down in your to-do list or set up a reminder. Make it easy for yourself. If you journal in a notebook, first thing in the morning, leave it out on the table already. If you plan to journal on your laptop, leave the app already open. A popular technique is to stack your new habit on top of another one that you already have. Like after drinking your morning coffee or after your daily workout, or instead of have it stacking, you could just try to replace one thing with the other. Like if you are the type of person that gets a dopamine hit or a rewarding feeling by sharing something to social media, you can replace that by sharing things to your own digital journal. In this case, where you're basically sharing things for yourself, this can become your note-taking method. When during the day you set some time for processing and reflecting on your entries, you will just be taking out non-relevant content instead of just adding stuff in there. Don't make excuses for journaling and just make some space for it. If you are super busy, you can totally complete a journaling session in five or less minutes. Remember, it's okay to do this in a short form only. If you have the time and you already are there in front of your journal, but have trouble focusing, then give yourself an achievable goal. You do need to have a goal in mind or you will feel like you're not doing enough or that you are getting nowhere. For example, set up a timer for 10 minutes and just write. Or think about filling up the page and just do it. Start small and if the habit grows, then great. And if we stay small, then that's also great. Lastly, if you want to make this something consistent, let me tell you, you have to enjoy it. Seriously, you do have to feel good about it. If you do not associate your journaling practice with something positive for you, the habit will not stick. That is why I say that it's okay to start small. A big empty page was too daunting for me, so when I picked up journaling with the idea of doing it everyday, I started with digital. Writing just a little bit on my phone felt better. But now in a similar way, I find some joy when I see a fully written page. When I finished a notebook I get a great feeling of accomplishment. If you want to get there sooner, for example, you can even get a smaller notebook. After journaling on digital for some time, I started reading past entries and I enjoy this so much. These also became a new motivation for me to write more. You see where I'm going? If a desk doesn't work for you, try on your bed. If the morning doesn't work for you, try in the evening. If you don't want to do it on the notebook, try in your phone or on your computer. But at the same time, I also think that some degree of discipline is necessary. I have to tell you I am not a morning person at all. But I decided that I wanted to get up early and journal on paper first thing every morning. Months ago, I noticed that I would wake up and spend about 30 minutes in bed scrolling through social media on my phone. It was just a waste of time and I knew it. All I had to do was replace that with journaling. I figured out that maybe I couldn't be very productive half asleep, but that I could journal half asleep. I discovered that it was an amazing feeling to start the day like that. It's okay if you find this a bit of a challenge. As you exercise this journaling muscle and start enjoying its practice, you may try to tweak it a little bit, experiment, sometimes try to write more. Try to discover new areas that you are curious about and that you want to explore. If today you don't feel like you want to write a lot, even if you have been doing it like that, it's okay. Switch it up, go back to simple. Any journaling is better than no journaling. If you have made up your mind to do this as a daily habit, but you miss a day, don't blame yourself for it. Pick it up the next day. By now, I hope that you can see how good habits can have a huge impact on your personal growth and bring you closer to the person that you want to be. Or on the other hand, realize the growing habits that are taking you in the opposite direction. Reflecting about areas in my life that I want to develop more and paying extra attention to the steps that I'm taking together is something that I also try to do consistently. Because of that, I have found a lot of value in habit tracking. Paradoxically, for you to track your habits every day, you have to make this a habit first. To make it easy on myself, I do it inside Day 1, my digital journaling application. Since I'm already there every evening anyways. Make sure to check the resources of this class where you will find more details on this specific ways that I do this. Before closing this lesson, I want to make something very clear. If for any reason you don't want to pursue journaling as something for everyday, you don't have to give up on the idea of making it a habit. You can do it like two days a week kind of habit or you can do it as a habit triggered by so and so conditions. What I mean is that consistency means different things for different people. Feel free to find out what is it for you. I have told you that to make journaling stick as a habit, you have to associate it with something positive. Because of that, choosing the right medium is extremely important. In the following lesson, I want to share with you my personal preferences for physical journaling. I will talk some helpful things to consider when choosing a notebook and a pen. Sounds simple. This decision can have a huge impact on your writing experience and how you build a system that works for you. I invite you to keep watching. 11. The Physical Journal: We have spend several lessons talking about how to journal or what do you know about. But in this lesson, instead of focusing on content, I want to focus on the medium itself. I want to share with you more specifics about the actual physical journal. I have told you before, if you want to succeed at being consistent with journaling, one of the best things that you can do is to associate it with something positive. Let me tell you, it all starts with choosing the right medium, both in physical and in digital journaling. Do not take this decision lightly. I would say that even before knowing exactly how you will be journaling, enjoying the actual writing experience is already preparing yourself for success. Based on personal experience, I can tell you that when I first started journaling seriously, a big part of it was because I received a really nice fountain pen as a gift from my father. This was a great motivation to get a good notebook, to go with it. Having a good notebook made journaling a very special practice that I kept doing for years. But after taking a long break, I tried to come back to it and this time with an application on my phone. By now, I have lots of experience on both mediums. I can tell you that writing on paper is such an organic process that I personally find it much more inspiring than typing on digital. Well, that is, if you do it with the right pen and the right paper. Now, I know that this may start sounding expensive, but it doesn't have to be like that. Believe me, you don't have to spend a fortune to have a great grabbing experience. But if you are new to this, it's also very easy to make mistakes that can be discouraging because you may end up spending more than necessary or not getting something that you truly enjoy. Let me tell you a few things about pens. You will most likely need to choose between ballpoint pens, gel pens, or fountain pens. If you like something that feels timeless and classic, something that lasts for a very long time and something that can give you many different options for customization, both on the width of the stroke or the size and the weight of the pen itself. This is even before even talking about all the amount of inks and papers that you can try, then I honestly think that you cannot go wrong with fountain pens. Since you can refill the ink they can last for a very long time if you take care of them. There are several false beliefs about them though. Mainly that they are very expensive or that they can only be used for cursive. I do love to read cursive and fountain pens do make this somewhat easier. But you can use this same tool for just about any handwriting. They will not make everything magically look better. But the thing about fountain pens is that because of their mechanism, the ink flows in such a way that you just need a very light touch as you write. This results in a very relaxing writing experience. You get to feel the paper as you write and let your ideas flow. In my opinion, it's unlike anything else out there. By the way, the high-grade fountain pens that cost very little. For example I have a couple of pilot kakuno with extra fine needs that I love. In the US, these are about $12. Another great value option is a platinum preppy. This one, you can get it about 8 or $9. Hongian forest. This one is all metal and it's about $16. Another great option. If you're just starting out or do you use one to get a feel for fountain pens? Any of these are incredible value. My personal favorite out of this is the pilot kakuno. I love it so much that later I got a pilot prera which is a pen that shares exactly the same name. If for whatever reason I need to replace one with the other, I can do that. Fountain pens do require a bit more cleaning and care than normal pens. But the experience that they provide as your write is incredible and it doesn't have to break the bank. Now, there's a couple of things about notebooks that you have to consider. You will only make the best out of your pen if you wisely choose the notebook that you will be using as a journal, especially if you decide to use gel pens or fountain pens. Since you need to consider that not every paper will take the ink well. For me, I love something minimal, something simple, but at the same time, something that will last for a long time. I do want my notebooks to be able to lay flat because it just makes writing easier. I love the A5 size, is not too big or too small. If this will be your first time journaling, you may even want to consider something smaller like A6. Just because every time that you finish a notebook, there is a very rewarding feeling of accomplishment, something that results in more motivation to continue. There's a huge amount of notebooks with flashier designs, but we're looking for a simple cover that is good quality paper. The amount of options is less overwhelming. I decided that I wanted to look for something with dots instead of lines. The number of options became even less. This year I started writing on a Dingbats notebook. These are hardcovers and it's not real leather, but it does feel very nice. This cover design may be about the most that I would be comfortable having. It's all great, smooth paper that can take all ink very well. The price depends on your location, but in the US there are about $20. It truly is a great price for what you get. There is another notebook that is very budget friendly and it's also very popular because of the quality of its paper. This is the Midori MD. These notebooks are between $11-15 in the US, but again, this may be different depending on where you are. They are very simple looking as well. But I personally just don't like the cover material. Is just too easy to get out of shape and to get dirty. I have one here that I have been using for practicing my handwriting. I do think it's a great option if you don't mind that the paper is a bit ivory colored, not totally white. You can always use a cover to protect it and use it like that. Not everything that is popular works well with fountain pens or gel pens. Whenever you do research, do keep in mind the following terms. Bleeding is when the ink when you write is absorbed by the paper and gets to the other side. This may not make granting impossible, but probably you will not be able to use the backside of your page. That's the best-case scenario. Worst-case, it can get quite a bit messy. Ghosting is when the ink doesn't get to the other side, but you can still see what is written back there. That has to do more with the thickness of the paper. Something like the Midori notebook that I showed you has some ghosting, but it's minimal. I personally do not find it so much of a problem, but it definitely is something to keep in mind. Also, there's some inks that accentuate the effect a little bit more like the Platinum Carbon Black Ink, which is the one that I like to use. This is a very deep black that is water resistant. I use it because its qualities are more important to me than the minimum ghosting that I get in a couple of my notebooks. On the Dingbats that I showed you before, this is not a problem at all. Feathering is the effect that happens around the ink as you write. It basically shows inks spreading out. Again because of the way that the paper is made. Let me show you on a napkin, where the effect is much more pronounced. Usually, I don't find feathering to be much of a problem. Especially if you're already looking into fountain pen friendly paper. Ghosting, on the other hand, is something that can even happen on ghost paper. It's more about you deciding how tolerant you are to it or not. A couple of other details that are good to consider is if you want lines, dots or grids. For a long time I use lines. But when I first tried dots, I just couldn't put my notebook down. They just give me much more freedom and they are less distracting than lines. They keep me writing in straight lines. But after some moments is just as if they were in there. I love that. You also have to keep in mind how much of a texture on the paper you are comfortable with or you prefer. If you like the feeling of pencil writing on paper, for example the Midori MD is great for that or anything with Tomore River Paper. But if you like something that feels more like a gliding, like no friction at all, then something like Rhodia paper, Claireontaine or Cosmo Air Light will fit you better. There are notebooks that will offer you different layouts on the pages, like space for a title or date. But I personally never look for anything like that. The one thing that I have come to enjoy are numbered pages. This is great because I can always make reference to what I write in my notebook whenever I'm on my digital journal. Now, that you know some paper characteristics, you will have a better idea of what to ask or how to research when you're looking for something that fits you best. Currently, my personal favorite notebooks come from Musubi. Is a company in Singapore and I buy them online. You could say it's a bit of a luxury item. But they are offering some paper are all incredible. They are minimal. They are fountain pen friendly, simple but durable covers. They have number pages. They offer lines or cross grid, which is their version of dots. They also open totally flat. I've also been using Galen leather cover that I swap to whatever notebook I'm currently using. I do plan to continue with this because I truly have nothing to complain so far. If you spend some time thinking about your preferences and considering what you like in regards to your pen and notebook, you will save yourself a lot of friction at the time of journaling. You will be able to love not only the whole reflecting and expressing process, but the act of writing itself. Writing on paper, is a practice that immediately slows you down. It makes you much more engaged on the process. You are disconnecting yourself from all digital distractions and allowing total focus in the moment that you are at. I personally love the handwriting experience so much that this year I decided to take it a step further and use this as an opportunity to improve my cursive. I have another class on that. If you're interested, do make sure to check it out. I believe that improving your handwriting is something that goes perfectly in line with the whole idea of journaling as I have been presenting it in this class. Because part of the process will require you to slow down and be focused, so that you can be more aware of the forms and shapes of the letters that you are writing. If trying to improve your handwriting is not your cup of tea, don't worry. Journaling can be what you define it to be. I've seen people even started new journal by spilling tea on it because that's closer to their personality. Just do whatever makes sense for you. The biggest takeaway with all of this is that you should do all that you can to receive positive reinforcement from the journaling practice. I have talked to you about the pen, the paper, the notebook design, but even something like the page orientation matters. For me writing in horizontal just makes more sense since I don't have to take so many line breaks. Let's use an example. Take a comfortable decision in every little detail as you can, and journaling will be a step closer to becoming second nature. Before closing this lesson, let me tell you how I label my journals. I use the last two digits of the year and then these two digits tell me which notebook I met. These other numbers are just the dates that I cover inside. But the important thing here is the first group, for example, this is the fifth journal that I started in 2022. These four digits system is great, especially if you also have numbered pages, because you can easily reference something on the physical notebook from within your digital journal. You can write something short, for example and in parentheses, use the journal code, followed by the page number. You will know where you can find a place where you wrote something more in depth about the same topic. This, of course, may not be always necessary, especially if your digital interests often are a short version of what you write on your notebook. As I've told you, a lot of what I write on my digital journal comes from those quick temporary notes that later inspire my longer writings. My short entries on my digital journal become an index of my notebooks. All that I need is the date to know where I can find more content. I see physical journaling as something that is all about the experience. I see digital journaling as something that is all about convenience and organization. Actually, there is so much to say about this. In the next lesson, I want to talk to you more in depth about what features you need to consider when choosing a journaling app. I want to show you some ideas on how you can have a deeper system of organization and why I think that both physical and digital journaling compliment each other perfectly. Stay with me guys. I'll see you soon. 12. The Digital Journal: In this lesson, let's talk about digital journaling. People think that they need to choose between the experience of writing on a notebook or the convenience that journaling on your phone can bring. You do not really have to do that. I believe that both mediums complement one another perfectly. But before I get into that, let me talk to you about some features that I think are something that you should consider when deciding on your digital journal. By the way, what I would mention is something aside from the privacy aspect, because especially in the case of journaling, I think that this is already something very obvious. For me, one of the things that a digital journal can do that you can not exactly replicate if you are only on a notebook, is the on this day feature. You may have already seen something like this on social media like when you're reminded of a post that you shared five or 10 years ago on the same date. Well, imagine this, but for your journal. The more entries that you write over the years, the more that you will see pop up under this feature. I didn't actually realize how valuable this would be for me at the beginning. It wasn't until I started reading the things that will come up there that I found these to be incredible, because it allows you not only to remember, but also to reflect about something meaningful to you after a long period of time. Even though I personally do not journal with a goal of documenting every aspect of my life, there is this portrait of you that appears as a consequence of journaling. It just shows who you are in a specific moment of time. Having the option to see this day over the span of several years can give you a very big perspective of how you change and how you grow as a person. Even though my whole approach to journaling has to do with being present in the now, having this feature is often giving me new insights. Whatever my priorities and my struggles are at a certain time, I can know that there is a tomorrow where things may and will most likely change. I have learned to accept that, and even though I feel some of my writings from years ago are sometimes embarrassing, the vision that I have now even allows me to rescue moments and thoughts that were special to me and at that time I did not really recognize them. I can notice patterns and connections over the years that I never imagined. It's like Steve Jobs said once, you cannot connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backward. Of course, you can totally use any text processor for writing your entries. But a dedicated application that was created with journaling in mind can have on this day feature, which for me is now just as important as the organization or convenience that digital journaling is supposed to give. We live in a digital world, so I think that digital journaling should allow you to bring different kind of files to some degree. I would say that the most common type of media that digital journals allow aside from text is photos. But when you decide to journal in an application, you should also consider if you can bring in video, audio files, PDFs, or if it allows you to type and recognize links to websites, or if you can insert a YouTube video, for example. In a way, having a digital journal can be like a private version of social media. Having this flexibility can truly motivate you to journal more, and at the same time, it can give you more ideas on creating a system which encapsulates your life in all the areas that you find meaningful. I used to think that journaling was just a tool for expression, just a place for me to put our thoughts, feelings, or ideas into words. Yes, I always thought that it offered me some opportunities to reflect, but it was only when I decided to make this an intentional goal to truly use my journal as a space of mindfulness and growth that I realized the importance of revisiting previous entries. I have already mentioned the on this day feature which makes an anniversary out of what you write everyday. For me, that is an amazing tool for rediscovering all the interests. But sometimes you may want to know exactly where to go to find more about something specific or a thought, an idea, maybe a topic that just pops up in your mind and you want to see if that's something that you have already written about. I can imagine so many different cases where having a solid organizational system can become something extremely valuable, and because of that, I see this aspect as something that I'm doing for my future self. Now, I don't necessarily right for my future self or anyone else, I just do the organization part, specifically thinking about later, because I believe that there's incredible value to be found like this. Because of this, I think that a solid search and filtering set of features is essential for digital journaling. My personal favorite journaling application, which has all of that, which I'm looking for is Day One. I have researched and tried so many applications and I am totally convinced that right now there's absolutely nothing else that has a more complete set of features. Of course, this application has a lot more that may not be essential, and I think that you can also find others that have these they feature, allow different types of media, and gives you the possibility to search entries easily. A good alternative for Apple users is another application called Diarly, which is, in my opinion, even more good-looking and customizable than Day One. Ultimately, though, I decided for Day One because of the trust that I have in this company, given the fact that they have been going on for about a decade. You want to be able to trust whichever app you choose. Let me give you a couple of organization ideas for your digital journal. A few sections ago, I talked about top-level organization, different journals, categories, or folders. Most applications will give you another level of organization through tagging, which I find extremely useful. If you are just getting started, you may think that you have to choose whether to make many different journals for the many different categories, things, or areas that you want to journal about. If you come from a more traditional journaling background, you may consider just having one journal and use tags for everything else. Both ways can get out of control very quickly and you can end up with a lot of journals that will make it difficult to keep up with or with a lot of tags that you will not remember or reuse and therefore will not be very effective or helpful later down the line. What I do is a very balanced approach. You have to keep in mind that in digital journaling applications, you already have a search function. It doesn't make a lot of sense to reuse words as tags that are already there in the content of what you write. A better way to think of tags is to think of them as filters, groups, or saved searches that will help you narrow down whatever you may some day come looking for. Remember, here, do think about your future self. While the main categories are very broad, like the ones for stories or introspections, and the content is very specific, I consider tax somewhere in the middle. For example, I already know that I may write something about my dad or my sisters, my wife or my mom. How do I know that I can search for entries of them with their names alone? No need to tag the entry with their name. But I find that I can group all of their entries with a family tag. I have another tag that is specifically for those who are not in my family. This is people. I have a tag for seasons in my life, like university, high school, or memories. I have a tag for different areas of interests like music, photography, books, cinema, health. I am recently experimenting with adding a tag for feelings or moods. For a while, I was only adding good or bad, but now I'm trying to actually recognize how I feel about what I write. Maybe I am grateful or excited, or maybe I'm frustrated or upset. When it comes to feelings, I'm not only using them for future search, but also for self-awareness. I do love tags, not only because they create these groups of entries that have something in common, but they can also cover content that comes from all different top-level categories. Very quickly I can find family-related entries that are stories, introspections, and different kinds of media. I can combine this with the normal search functions, and in this way, search for entries that have the tag of family and travel and then type a specific place or a person's name. Truly, using tags in a smart way, the possibilities are infinite. But they are there only when you need them and not on your face overwhelming you or just building up and without control, like it can happen with folders or categories. I like to bring everything that I write on my physical journal inside Day One. If you have already a lot of notebooks, then this may sound very time-consuming. It took me several weeks actually spending some time every day doing this. The process itself is not so big once you are already up to date and you stride to catch up once every two weeks or once a month, which is what I do now. There are a lot of scanning apps out there. My favorite free one is Adobe Scan. I usually make every entry into a PDF and then attach the PDF to an entry in the correct date of my digital journal. If you're journaling application does not support PDFs, you could insert your scans as images. After that, I do tagging as usual, but in this case, since I don't have everything typed up and I still want to take advantage of the digital search functions, I make a line at the bottom and have some very specific tags. Here, I will write the names of people, places, or anything that I believe is relevant. See, I suggest that you trust the content of your entries for search. But if you feel like there's not enough searchable content, like with PDFs or with photos or media, you can always add more in this way without creating unnecessary tags. Now, everyday in the morning, usually during or after breakfast, I can look at my on this day and see things that I wrote sometimes up to 20 years ago. I used to find that fascinating. Of course, I don't read everything all the time. Sometimes just a year or two back is just great. Something that I had been doing recently is that I'm trying to get my physical journal interests transcribed into text. Whatever pops up on my own this day, I just spend a few minutes a day to read it out loud and copy past it there. Again, there's a lot of different services for this, but my recommendation is for otter.ai, if you write in English. Happyscribe is also great for any other language or if you prefer a onetime payment app for iPhone, I have been using Just Press Record and that's pretty accurate. I am doing all of these transcription because I enjoy the process of revisiting all the entries a lot. You can definitely just keep your handwritten interests as PDFs or you do not even have to digitize them, since you can always refer to them as I showed you in the previous lesson. We are at the end of this lesson and we are very close to the end of this class. But before closing this talk about digital journaling, I have to mention something. There's always a risk to lose something, either in physical or digital. You may think that your journals are safe because you write them on paper, but believe me, you never really know, and it's the same with digital. Regardless of your digital journal being on the Cloud or in Day One servers or anywhere, I highly suggest that you do regular backups. One of the reasons I also bring my physical journal into the digital one is that I know that this is a backup available to me always anywhere I am with my phone. Once a month, I also export everything from a digital journal and make a copy on two hard drives plus a Cloud Service. Ideally, your files should be saved in at least three different places. This is just common practice. Better safe than sorry. Now, we're really at the end. Well, guys, can you believe it? This has been quite a class. Stay with me because in the next section, I want to give you a quick visual review of everything that I have shared with you. I also want to give you some closing insights that may be useful to you as you go forward with your own journaling. 13. Review and Closing: I am so happy that you guys made it all the way here. I think that by now you may have already noticed that by doing something like journaling without focusing on the outcome, you're actually getting so much out of it. I am a true believer that at least some sort of a reflection and expression tool is essential for anyone's personal growth and journaling well, it just fits the need perfectly. I hope that by explaining in-depth the system that I have developed for myself, you have been able to gather some insights that you can apply for your own way of doing things. Since we are at the closing, I want to do a very quick review of the framework that served as the foundation of everything that I told you in this class. I know that I gave you a lot of information, but I have created a visual map where everything is a bit more simplified, that maybe helpful for you to make sense of it all. It all starts with life experiences, moments that we have in our everyday information, things that we have to deal with, people that we meet, memories and thoughts that randomly pop into your mind. When something stands out, in our mind we run it through the framework by asking ourselves if it's meaningful. Here we are recognizing. Remember that this is a muscle that will become more sensitive the more that we exercise it. If it's something not meaningful, it may still be something that will serve other purpose. In my very particular case, if I find something on which I need to take action, I'll run it through my task management system. Or if not, then this may still be something interesting or useful so I run it through my knowledge management system before discarding it. But what if it truly is meaningful? Then we go to the second step, which is captured in temporary notes. At some point of the day, you will go through all of the notes to process them. Here, you'll be asking yourself how to categorize your content. For me, short entries will go to my digital journal. Here I have a separate category for whether it's media, if it's photos, video or audio, or maybe it's a story, maybe it's a thought, or perhaps it's just something else, like a message, emails, letters or different kinds of media. Maybe while I'm trying to find a place for these in my digital journal, I realized that it's not actually meaningful, so it's discarded. On the other hand, I may realize that it's just difficult to play all in few words and since I just want to capture it or get it out of my mind. Then this will go straight into long form grading in my physical journal. I grade on my physical journal every morning. Just a different time than when I grabbed my digital journal. Here I have content that comes from either my temporary notes or from a digital journal. If there's anything else I can say about what I already wrote in a short entry. Sometimes things that I write also comes straight from my mind into the paper. Remember that at any moment that you are capturing or processing information through the framework, new insights or new pieces of information may appear that you can still run all the way to the beginning. Now, just so you can see this clearly, I call this the reflection and expression framework, not only because this is something that we do at the actual time of journaling, but because we're doing it all throughout the entire process, isn't that cool? Try to follow these steps or your own version of these steps and you'll be intentionally being mindful about everything that matters to you. While journaling is something that I consider personal, this can easily spread to so many areas around you and influence the way that you go on with your everyday life. How? Well, you also start off by paying attention, by being present and capturing meaningful things. You will actually feel motivated to seek even more meaning in your life. It's as if the process of reflecting about experiences has a side effect of making you want to have more experiences to reflect about. While journaling starts with you, it will give you a perspective and sense of awareness, which will translate as appreciation of life, people, and everything around you. Keep in mind that while reflection is internal, expression is external. Once you get in the habit of doing it in an honest way, you will find this authenticity not only in the way that you look at yourself, but also in all of your interactions with the people around you. Journaling in this way is not for you to try to escape life and just live inside this little world that you create for yourself. No, totally the opposite. This has the potential to become a huge motivation that will encourage you and give you direction on how to live life in a ritual way. None of these may sound good, but what if journaling seems too overwhelming? Remember, if that's the case, the best you can do is start small. Make it easy on yourself, but be consistent. Follow the framework. Make it a personal goal that you will notice a thing or two a day and write at least a line or two about that. Build on that. Give yourself a month or a couple of weeks. Once you get past the initial friction and start to develop the habit, you may find it hard to stop, but maybe, just maybe even after taking all of this class, you'll still feel like this is not for you. Or it just doesn't seem to be fun, or it feels like too much work, well, I can give you two things that you can try out. The first one is for you to consider that maybe you feel this way because all of this seems to be about grading. I get it. Many people don't like to write either on paper or on the phone or computer. But you have to know that we have incredible tools and technology available to us. Journaling doesn't have to be done in writing. You can do it with video or with audio. I mean, with these journaling applications, you can even journal dictating to your watch. It's amazing the times that we're living in. Number 2, along the same lines, if you are someone who finds journaling difficult because you don't wear your heart on your sleeve, maybe it's hard for you to talk about feelings or deep thoughts, then you can do it about something else. The beauty of this system that incorporates not taking us spaced out, reflection and expression is that you can apply it to so many creative fields, music, design, illustration, photography, and so much more. I personally think that it's all about finding the way that works for you and you alone. Remember, as your project, I would love to know how you will be journaling moving forward. Tell me what you got from my method. What would you change about your own system or what ideas you've found the most useful and inspiring. If you have any questions we have a discussion section here where we can interact and I'll do my best to clarify anything. If you like the class and found it useful please do leave me a review so that it can reach many more students. Make sure to follow me here on Skillshare for more updates and new classes. Thank you so much for your time. I will see you in the next one.