Journaling Made Easy: 5 Simple Questions for a Better Life

Journaling isn’t overly complicated or time-consuming, but a valuable tool to improve your life.

“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”

— Lao Tzu

When it comes to self-improvement, there really is no shortage of information, tricks, and habits that are supposed to change your life.

One thing almost everyone mentions on a very frequent basis is journaling. If everyone talks about it, there must be something to it, right?

Still, when you ask anyone if they keep a journal, you’ll hear a “no.” I didn’t either for a pretty long time.

Why? Because like most people, I didn’t see the benefit and had no idea what to write.

“Yeah, I’m going to journal about what kind of ice cream I had today and that is going to make my life better how exactly?”

Journaling is a powerful tool, but unfortunately, it’s not as straight-forward as sweat-breaking exercise.

Look, I get it. You’re busy. You don’t want to add another daily habit to your already crammed schedule, especially if the benefits aren’t obvious.

And even if you make it, you still have a major problem. You have no idea how to do it and what to write about.

That’s why you need two things.

First, a strong “why” as a motivator — you need to see what’s in it for you clearly.

Second, a simple “how” — a streamlined process that makes it easy and straightforward to follow through.

The “Why” — Understand Yourself to Live Better

Without a clear why, there’s no motivation and reason for you to journal, which will make the whole thing a lot harder. And quite frankly, it won’t make any sense at all.

My goal is not to talk you into it against your will. You have to decide for yourself if and how journaling can help you live a better life. If you don’t think you’ll benefit from it, then don’t do it. Simple as that.

Some of you might only see it as a hobby or a way of emptying their cup, but for most, the objective is clear.

You want to journal to improve yourself and live a better life in one way or the other.

It’s not only about better, faster, stronger. It’s about the fact that if you want to improve yourself and your life, you first have to know and understand yourself.

• How do I make decisions and do they make sense?
• What makes me happy and why?
• What makes me sad or angry and why?
• Why do I behave the way I behave and do what I do?
• What holds me back in life?
• How can I become better?
• What am I good at and where do I need to improve?

If you have specific answers to all of these questions (which you won’t) — congratulations, keep on doing what you’re doing.

If you don’t, no reason to worry. This is where journaling works its magic — it helps you to understand yourself.

How journaling works

You can think of your brain like a computer with its own operating system — Windows You. You can run different programs, such as exercise, work, reading, or drinking beers.

The problem with computers and brains is that every now and then, they’re acting up. The computer slows down or freezes. Your brain causes you to be unhappy or angry. Sometimes, you make the wrong decisions and have no idea why.

When your computer malfunctions, you need to run a diagnosis to find out what’s wrong. Then you can upgrade or replace parts, uninstall programs, or remove viruses and malware.

That’s what journaling is — it’s a diagnosis tool for your brain. If done right, it lets you peek into your operating system so you can find out how your brain works and get a better understanding of yourself.

The “How” — 5 Minutes, 5 Questions

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”

— Voltaire

Now that the first hurdle is taken, you will still sit in front of an empty page and don’t know what to write. At least, that was me in the beginning.

Sure, sometimes extraordinary events will give your brain food for thought, but it’s not every day that your personal Titanic sinks or you first step foot on the moon.

Don’t worry, you can learn a lot about yourself from your ordinary days. You just have to ask the right questions.

Over time, I have distilled five questions that give me a pretty good overview of how my day went and lead me to at least one thing that’s worth to investigate and ponder for a while.

• What did I learn today? On any given day, we encounter tons of new information. The problem is that due to our fast-paced lives, most of it flies right past us. Journaling is a great way to think about what you learned and make sure it doesn’t just go in one ear and out the other.
• What made me happy & why? The recipe for happiness is easy. Find out what makes you happy, appreciate, and double down on it.
• What am I grateful for? We live in a world of abundance. Unfortunately, we take most of it for granted. We don’t appreciate the beauty and wonderful moments in our life but are fast to complain when they’re taken away. You’d be surprised how awesome your life already is if you took the time to appreciate it.
• What/why did I do wrong & how can I learn from it? This is my favorite question. Look — you, me, and everyone around us make mistakes. All the time. The point is to not beat ourselves up, but learn from them. They’re our greatest teachers.
• What made me laugh? Laughing is great. It’s healthy. It’s fun. You should never spend a day without at least a little bit of a laugh or chuckle. If you can’t think of an answer to this question, you should think long and hard about why and what you’re going to do about it. If you can, it’s a great opportunity to relive the moment and laugh again.

The rule of thumb is that the more something makes you think and the harder it is to answer, the more you’ll get from mulling over it.

Apart from asking yourself these questions, there is another way you can use your journal to improve your life.

Organize your thoughts

On some days, I feel like there is nothing but chaos in my head. My thoughts keep going back and forth like a ferret on speed and at the end of the day, my head hurts from all the thinking but without the results to show for.

Journaling isn’t only a great way to help you reflect and understand yourself but can also help you to organize your thoughts.

Have you ever mulled over an idea or argument but as soon as you tell someone, you realized that it doesn’t make any sense at all?

Save yourself the embarrassment and talk to your journal first. I have found that I benefit most from the added clarity in three key areas:

• Decisions. Writing out your thoughts about critical decisions can help you identify and balance the pros and cons. I ask myself “should I do X or Y?” and try to argue from both sides. By the time I’m halfway through writing down my thoughts I usually know what I need to do.
• Fears, worries, and obstacles. We all have long lists of unpleasant events — either past or yet to come. Writing about your worries and fears surrounding these can help you to identify what you are actually afraid of and what to do about it. With written words, you often can adopt a more rational view instead of your brain running emotional amok.
• Dreams, hopes, and goals. We all dream. But to achieve your dreams, you have to find a way of getting there. Journaling is a great way to bring some structure into your efforts and help you identify possible pitfalls.

You Know the Answers, but You Have to Find Them

Journaling isn’t rocket science. If you break it down, it’s pretty simple. Ask yourself a question, think, answer.

As such, it’s also not the magic pill self-improvement gurus make it out to be. It’s not going to save you therapy if you need it, and it’s not going to turn you into a productivity beast overnight. It’s not going to magically give you answers to all your questions.

Instead, it will help you to come up with the answers yourself. They are deep inside your brain and operating system and journaling is the magnifying glass that allows you to take a closer look.

What I want you to do is to start now. Set an alarm on your phone for the same time every day. When it goes off, write in your journal — whether it’s a physical notebook or a digital document.

Five minutes, five questions.

You already know the answers — you just have to look deep enough.

Journaling is one way to obtain clarity and focus in your life — another one is a technique adopted from one of the world’s most successful investors of all time: Warren Buffet.

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