Journaling as a minimalist makes it easy to write about your busy days. It allows you to write about your life accurately and frequently.
We will look at how I journal like a minimalist and ensure that I can make a factual account of my life.
Journaling like a minimalist when you are busy
Look I get it: most of us are busy and we do not get the time to journal. Most of us do not brush our teeth twice either, for various reasons. Some of us do not have the time to eat on schedule or pay homage to our hobbies.
This is where journaling like a minimalist can come into play and ensure you are able to write about yourself with clarity.
What's wrong with the current practices in journaling?
Journals are fabricated in a way that they dictate how you write about your life. Prompts, nudges, checkmarks, etc really influence the way you write and some of them are focused on positivity or bringing changes for good.
You might agree that prompts like "name 5 things you were grateful for today" is excessive and a turn off but you might wonder what's wrong with journals that want to bring positivity into your life?
Well, journals are supposed to be factual events in your life you write about; we cannot cherry pick the best moments or force ourselves to write about specifics that will make every day look good.
We simply cannot lie ourselves with positive-first entries that make us feel nice when we write about it and for a few weeks that follow.
After a few months, you will look back at it when you self reflect. And since memory isn't good to remember what happened a few weeks ago accurately, you will keep believing that you had better days.
This accounts for gaslighting and being in delusion.
Instead, our goal is to be blunt to ourselves. Think about journaling as being your own reporter focused on writing nothing but the truth, as it happens.
Why are people tired of journaling the old fashioned way?
Journaling in the old fashioned way means writing about yourself in every possible detail. When people worked fewer hours and dedicated time to themselves, this was easy to do.
But with the current scenario where everyone wants to take up your time (even brands on WhatsApp FFS) you aren't left with time for writing accurate accounts for your life.
This is where minimalist journaling comes into play.
Minimalist journaling involves writing about your daily activities in a way that it provides an accurate account of your life with proper context like date and time.
We keep a tab of the following in minimalist journaling:
- Date and time.
- The journal entry, usually one sentence long.
- A marker or indicator (an emoji or icon for example).
These three help you understand context in the present and patterns for the future.
For me, I noticed how I was staying up late and binge eating whenever a series I liked dropped a new season.
Another habit I noticed was how I was using my iPad and my phone simultaneously. This is of course a terrible thing to do given the context of digital minimalism.
Start journaling like a minimalist today to help your future
Instead of writing only the best parts about your life, use your journal to create the most accurate, unfiltered version of you ever written on paper.
Choose your journal
You can go with a physical notebook or an app on your phone; my suggestions would be:
- A diary - write down the date in the top right corner, then time followed by the journal entry under one sentence. Physically accessible to others.
- Notes app - create a new note as an entry or use one single note for each single day. Can get messy.
- Voice notes - use a shortcut to start a voice note recording with a single click; then use the transcript button to copy text and paste it in a doc. Difficult to record an audio journal if you have people around you.
- Journaling app - I use Dwoth, an emoji journal I made with my team, you can record daily events in a minimalist fashion. Drawback is that it's a web app, iOS and Android soon.
- Google Docs or Sheets - with either you can create entries each day and organise them in a single document instead of creating many documents altogether.
Adding a minimalist journal entry style to your writing.
What I mean by this is that you need to type your journal entries in a way that they provide context within a single sentence.
NO YAPPING.
Your journal entry:
"I sat on the kitchen table, picked up three bananas, looked outside my window and saw the clouds going by. As I ate those bananas, I felt the gratefulness the surge of potassium will bring for me."
What your journal entry should be:
- Ate 3 bananas
- Ate 3 bananas at home, kitchen
- Ate 3 bananas in the kitchen while watching clouds
- Ate 3 bananas, 300 calories.
That's the most I have ever typed bananas but you get my point. Remove the fluff and keep it clear.
Concise journal entries can help you revisit and understand how you have been doing for the last couple of months without having to look for heaps of paragraphs.
Have been eating 3 bananas 5 times a week on average? Awesome.
Been eating but bananas but unsure how many, how long, where the heck is that journal entry now? Yes, it happens when you clutter your entries.
Switching to active journaling for a better impact
If possible, try to journal on the go. This is called active journaling where you write about life events as they happen.
This allows you to accurately write about your life without forgetting about important context.
Closing notes
- It is okay if you cannot journal daily; please don't force yourself to journal either. Start healthy and at your own pace.
- Journaling is not a superpower that helps you solve your problems. You need to be true to it so it acts like a mirror that shows you your strengths and shortcomings. How you work on it is down to you.
- Disclaimer - I am unable to journal as much as I would love to either; previously I would journal each day and now I am falling short on consistency. It is totally fine to have highs and lows while journaling.
- Journaling is accurate reporting, not a necessary step to success. Please do not believe those that promise success or exponential results just by journaling.
- If you want to try Dwoth, The Emoji Journal - feel free to reach out on X (@anthonysmendes) byasking for a lifetime free plan by citing this blog post.
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