Happy Tuesday!

I started journaling in 2013. I’ve gone through 20+ notebooks along the way—some A5, mostly A6—and tried a few types of journaling.

My biggest takeaway:

All types of journaling are helpful in gathering data about your inner and outer worlds.

It just depends on your current needs and context.

Use the right journaling type for the job.

I now have a simple “toolkit” of journaling types to help me navigate life:

🤬 Purge Poisons with Rant Journaling

Negative emotions are normal.

Compartmentalizing negative emotions is unhealthy.

Instead of suppressing those emotions, let everything out on paper:

• Curse and swear about the situation
• Rant about the “could haves” and “should haves”

Stop writing the moment you feel like you’ve run out of things to say.

Don’t read what you just wrote. Instead, step back from your journal:

• 💆‍♀️ Wash your face
• 🥛 Drink some water
• 🔥 Burn the pages (optional)
• 🤔 Think about how to move forward, using prompts or brain dumping (see below)

🧪 Collect Data with Prompt Journaling

Prompts are useful for:

• Tracking your progress over time
• Revealing limiting beliefs and blind spots
• Providing a starting direction for your writing
• Thinking about a situation in novel and productive ways

You should find yourself using prompt journaling most of the time, such as for your periodic (daily, weekly, etc.) reviews.

If you’re a subscriber, you can find my simple weekly reflection template at the end of this email.

If you’re not a subscriber yet, subscribe now to receive the Notion template.

Where to find prompts

• Google for a list of prompts relevant to your situation or desired objective.
• Ask ChatGPT. To generate better prompts, provide detailed context about what you hope to uncover through journaling.
• Use a guided journal. They’re especially useful for navigating specific situations, such as anxiety or finding your own voice.

Tips for better prompt journaling

1. Use the same prompts for your periodic reviews. This lets you easily compare your progress across periods.
2. Keep things simple. You don’t have to use all the questions suggested by ChatGPT, a blog post, or a guided journal. Prompts should:
   1. Be relevant to your present situation
   2. Leave you feeling neutral or refreshed, not drained
   3. Help you organize your thoughts, not trigger a thought spiral

💡 Breakthrough with Brain Dump Journaling

Brain dumping, also known as “stream of consciousness” journaling or Morning Pages, has 2 simple rules:

• Write whatever comes to mind until you reach your “goal”
• Keep writing even if you can’t think of anything to write

It’s like rant journaling, but without the intense negative emotions. Instead, you’re driven by a goal—usually a target page count or word count.

Striving to reach this goal is what helps me push past my usual frames of thinking. I often finish my brain dump sessions with a new direction that I can experiment with.

My framework for solving problems using brain dumping

Write down, as many as you can:

1. Information you have about the situation
2. Details of your desired outcome
3. Possible ways to change the situation—even if the solutions seem unrealistic

Then, implement one of the solutions in Step 3 and collect data on whether it works.

Bonus: You can also use prompts to kickstart your brain dump.

Remember, these journalling types are tools!

Don’t feel obliged to use all 3 journaling types. Otherwise, it’ll be like using an axe to peel an apple.