JOURNALING TEMPLATE, SUMMARIES, AND REVIEW FOR YOUR JOURNALING
Written December 19, 2014, Friday, 851 a.m.
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JOURNALING QUOTE
Your journal is a looking glass. It helps you search for the things you cannot easily see and it helps you to find treasures. Your journal helps you see beyond the surface.
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THE BIGGEST MISTAKES OF JOURNALING
The biggest mistakes we make with our journaling are:
1 Not journaling every day.
2 Not making summaries of our journaling.
3 Not reviewing our journaling.
4 Failing to get out journals digitized and saved permanently on the Cloud or over the Internet.
Let's look at numbers two and three now.
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JOURNALING TEMPLATE
Make sure to do a journaling template for the time-frame you are looking at, whether it is daily, weekly, quarterly, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, 25 years, or lifetime.
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SUMMARIES
Journaling is the most rewarding thing we can do with and for our lives. Therefore, I do not know about you, but with knowing this, I want to see what I can do to get the most out of my journaling. Summaries is one way to accomplish this endeavor.
First, do a journaling template for the time period you are looking at and are doing.
DAILY SUMMARIES: At the end of your day, every day, write a summary of your day, or do it for the previous day the next morning. Your summary can be as long as you want or as short as you want. I usually try for one sentence and then one word. Look at ALL of your journaling for the time-frame and remember what all you wrote before you write your summary in your journal.
WEEKLY SUMMARIES: At the end of your week, every week, write a summary of your week in one sentence and/or one word. Look at ALL of your journaling for the time-frame and remember what all you wrote before you write your summary i your journal.
OTHER SUMMARIES: Do the same with monthly, quarterly, every 6 months, yearly, every 2 years, every five years, every decade, every 25 years, and for your life (do the life summary at least once a year). Look at ALL of your journaling for the time-frame and remember what all you wrote before you write your summary in your journal.
THE BARE MINIMUM: Now, let's be honest here. There will be times we just can't do our summaries, for whatever reason, or just don't want to do so. Consequently, what should we do at a bare minimum? Weekly and Monthly Summaries is the answer.
Note I did not say daily or any other for that matter.
If we get no other summaries done, it's okay, since we will have gotten the most important summaries done. However, as you have the opportunity, try to then do the quarterly then yearly summaries. Then, do the daily, decades, etc.
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REVIEW
Another useful way to get the most out of journaling is through review. More to the point, a streamlined review is the most helpful.
A review is different than a summary. However, doing a summary is what we do first.
A review is pondering/thinking, analyzing, pouring through, trying to remember every detail. It's trying to figure out what worked, what didn't, what was learned, seeing our changed perspective, and how our lives were touched by what we journaled about or what we journaled. As we review, we ask ourselves questions and we journal those questions and our answers.
What does a review look like? And, how often should we do them? I will answer those questions in a moment. For now, let's look at a few more steps we need to do before we do the review.
FIRST: Do a journaling template for the time period.
SECOND: Do a summary of the time period.
THIRD:: Answer these questions with every review:
What jumped out at you the most about your journaling and why?
What were your biggest blessings (list at least three)?
What memories do you want to remember? Why? (List at least three and be thorough.)
What did you learn?
FORTH: Pick at least three to answer--and you can pick a different three with each review:
What was a challenge?
What was your favorite moment and why?
How did your journaling transform you?
What do you now realize?
List more blessings from that time.
What was a moment of sunshine or bright spot?
What will you cherish and treasure?
List more memories from that time.
How have you grown from this time, experience, and journaling?
What repeating patterns do you see?
What do you want to share with others?
What was the most surprising to you?
What didn't surprise you?
What do you want to do more of from this time?
What do you want to do less of from this time?
How was your faith during this time?
How were your relationships as this time?
What happened at home during this time?
What did God say to you?
What did you say to God?
What did you pray?
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THE MINIMUMS
Make sure to do a journaling template at least for each week and each month.
Make sure to do a journaling summary at least for each week and each month.
Make sure to do a journaling review at least for each week and each month.
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END OF YEAR JOURNALING
Do this every single year without fail. Start looking at this around Thanksgiving and complete by December 31.
Do:
1 Journaling template for the year.
2 Journaling summary for the year.
3 Journaling review for the year.
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If you do those things, you will get a great deal more out of your journaling and it will enrich your life.
Now, go ahead. It's your turn. Tag! You're it.
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