How to use Morning Journaling –
Go from morning chaos to fired up and focused
Go from morning chaos to fired up and focused
The rose-tinted movie narrative of a business owner’s day (and what might have been your expectations when first starting out) looks a bit like this:
You wake up naturally by the sunlight gleaming through your window and catching your eye. You plod into the kitchen, yawning sweetly, to make a continental spread for breakfast. Then you slip back into bed with your laptop perched on your lap and serenely start working away.
In stark contrast, your reality probably looks a bit more like this:
You’re rudely awakened by your alarm at the break of dawn. You pick up your phone to turn your alarm off and see you’ve already been bombarded with emails and messages. So you throw some clothes on and get a coffee and a bite to eat while you sit at your desk, slowly chipping away at your to-do list but never seeming to get anywhere.
The first morning is unrealistic (and working in bed isn’t really good for you anyway). The second morning starts your day off on the wrong foot – with a lot of stress. It’s the worst domino effect ever. If you start the day with negative emotions, that’ll lead to negative thoughts and before you know it your whole day is derailed.
So we want to find the balanced in-between to set us up for the most productive day possible and avoid the looming feeling of overwhelm. Here’s my suggestion:
Don’t dive into work straight away.
I know it’s tempting because you don’t want to leave people waiting on you and you’d like to start working through your to-do list ASAP but it’s just not the most productive way to work. You need to prepare your brain for high-performance activity.
That’s why I highly recommend morning journaling. It allows you to tidy your mind before putting it to work. If you’re the kind of person with a chaotic mind who’s thinking about a million things at once and a lot of those are crooked thoughts, then this is perfect for you.
How to use morning journaling for a positive impact
#nofilter
Remember, this is a brain dumping exercise. You don’t need to worry about grammar or having super neat handwriting. I do recommend you handwrite your journal because of the freedom and flow of thoughts it enables. It’s just not the same as typing. Let your thoughts come to you and then write them down. It could be things you want to get done that day, things you’re worried about or even things you’re proud of. Whatever it is, don’t filter it.
Jumpingboard
Act on what you’ve written. If through journaling you find there’s something you really want to do, make a plan of action for incorporating that into your schedule. On the other hand, if you find patterns of negative thoughts and fears, take time to work through them and extinguish the fear. You don’t want to be carrying negative thoughts and feelings into your workday.
It’s not a one and done situation
Keep to a routine. Morning journaling can be such a great tool for overcoming mindset barriers and setting yourself up for success. Its impact only increases when you use it regularly. Worries and ideas will pop up each day as you take on new challenges so be ready to deal with them ASAP. Don’t give them a chance to fester!
Morning is the keyword
Schedule your journaling for when you first wake up. If you wait any longer, you’ll get distracted and then have to go for that meeting and your opportunity is gone. Getting into routines isn’t easy but once you’ve built the habit, you have morning journaling as a stable support system. Also, the morning is often when our minds are most chaotic so clearing it before doing anything else gives us the rest of the day with the clarity to be productive.
How to kickstart this healthy habit
Morning journaling is a really important part of my routine. I know how valuable it is to my personal and business growth. It’s helped me to come up with some of my best ideas and work through some of my hardest challenges. So I want to support you in building your morning journaling routine.
To get started on your morning journaling journey or streamline the routine you already have, check out the Morning Journaling & Flip the Thinking Toolkit. It’s an all-in-one resource for getting your thoughts down and then working through them for positive results. On one side you have the Morning Journal where you write down your thoughts and on the other side is the Flip the Thinking Toolkit which will help you to work through anything that’s holding you back.
I’ll leave you with this, a journaling session a day keeps the chaos away!