I was introduced to journaling many years ago and just kept doing it out of habit. You can write anything, it doesn’t have to have structure or purpose. Just write down random thoughts and musings (like I do here). It can have a therapeutic effect. I find it relaxing and a way of decluttering my mind. As I empty my thoughts onto the page I find that I feel much better afterwards. My brain generally works non-stop thinking about things and coming up with ideas and if I don’t do something with them it becomes cluttered and I find it hard to think about anything else. By emptying these thoughts out onto the page it frees up my brain to think about new things.
Although journaling does not need to be productive, sometimes it can be as a side-effect. For instance some of the things that have come out of my journaling are:
1. Jobs / tasks I need to add to my to-do list.
2. Article ideas.
3. Ideas for talks or events.
4. Subjects I’d like to learn more about.
5. People I haven’t thought about in a while that I should really reach out to.
6. Books I want to read, TV shows I want to catch up on, movies I’d like to watch.
7. Places I’d like to visit.
And the list goes on. Journaling can be both cathartic and a way of being productive at the same time. Why not give it a try?