As I am progressing in life I am discovering I have control over less and less so I am finding it extremely calming and energising to have consistent control in certain areas. I only became aware of this need for control after I reflected on my first two months of ‘better’ journaling and found patterns in my mood when I do or don’t have control.
Similar to my enjoyment of baking and cooking, where I am in total control of the process, journaling provides this control and a third space all for me. For contrast in a work setting, you may be told you are leading a project only for someone at the last minute ‘to drop an egg’ and ruin the bake.
“Control the controllables and don’t be stressed with what you can’t control” was a term I was brought up with; however when you don’t have enough to control you lose your purpose.
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Since finishing school I have kept many journals, diaries and notepads, which have become quite a collection that contain so many lessons and priceless memories. The problem is I have rarely got round to looking back through them and when I do their varying structures makes the reflection process time consuming and uninspiring to do it again.
At one point I had two scrap notebooks for meetings, a to do list on my phone that synced with my laptop, a calendar on my emails split across my personal and work phone and to top it off a reflective diary that I never really used unless I was having some problems I wanted to log.
Texts, calls, E-mails and meetings were controlling my time. Other people were controlling me.
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Not long ago by complete chance I came across The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll who coined a delightful phrase “Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future”. The penny was dropping that I needed some way to collate all my notepads, technology and resources while making my reflective style more purposeful. I became curious about how to bullet journal. Always believing the best thing to invest in first is you, I bought myself a Black dotted Leuchtturm1917 and began the journey to reconnect with myself on paper.
They say the best time to plant a tree was 25 years ago and the second best time is now. I could have carried on being ineffective with my journals however I decided to turn one day into day one.
I use my journal for many different areas of my life however the main benefit I have had is the reflection process, my mental & physical health and my daily structure.
My Reflection Process
Reflection is an incredible tool for checking in with yourself and staying on track with your goals. Every person I have met reflects in a different way however the most effective people have a direction or a focus to achieve and check their progress on a Micro, Meso and Macro time scale.
Month (Meso)
At the start of each month I select a new two-page spread. I title the left page with the upcoming month. Two columns in from the left I write the number of days in that month partnered with the initial of the day of the week it falls on.
The right hand page is used to reference and set the months goals.
The previous two-page spread is used to reflect on the month which has just finish. I reflect on some consistent items like mood, activity and stressors. These are common events that are making me feel a certain way. By logging and reflecting it allows me to find triggers to my stress and better notice the trigger when it next occurs, allowing me to be prepared to deal with it.
Week (Micro)
The month reflection is made up of the end of week reflections that take place on a Sunday afternoon.
This is when I look back on the previous week and check any consistent trends that I do or don’t want to have, a stop, start and continue for myself. This is usually across both personal and professional activities.
This is important to me because it provides an opportunity to monitor progress of goals and check in with how I am doing in general. For example I saw that I hadn’t spent an evening with my partner in two weeks and I really value our time together so I made sure that the next week we would go out for dinner just the two of us. I also found my mood was lower during the latter part of that week which I linked to us not seeing a lot of each other. Tenuous link I know however, when we spend time with each other we talk, share our thoughts and help with anything that may be chipping away at us.
This all helps me stay on track to achieve my Peak Goal.
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