Where to start and How to keep going

Published on February 12, 2023

Make success as easy as possible for you

Now that you’ve chosen to try out my Bullet Journaling inspired guided-freestyle Business Journaling approach, you already have all the material you need in front of you:

  • your folded 20-pages DIY booklet or even a fully-fledged blank book from a store
  • and a pen, of course. 

“How to actually get going?” might now be the next question on your mind.

Common Whys for Journaling

There are two main approaches to journal: 

  • to reflect on experiences, on work, on life 
  • to organise yourself, your work, your life

Either way (or: why :)) requires you to add an index page on the very first page and write small page numbers on every single page. This is something that you can and should do right now. 

I’ll wait here for you until you’re done with numbering your first 10 pages and putting the headline “Index” on the first two ones.

Why Nr. 1: Get organised

Let’s say you want to use guided-freestyle journaling to organise yourself better. 

Then start with monthly and weekly logging plus leverage daily logs in your blank book in front of you. 

You will use your journal most likely for planning ahead, e.g. a couple of minutes in the morning. Some people even do that in the evening and look briefly at the next day ahead.

Why Nr. 2: Start reflecting

In case you would like to start your guided-freestyle journal with a focus on reflection first, then you write every evening (or end of your day). 

You will heavily use daily logging to start walking your self-development path.

In the next piece I will briefly explain those terms borrowed from the Bullet Journal method (i.e. monthly, weekly & daily logging). Knowing these main building blocks will make it easier for you to start.

Knowing your why makes building your new habit easier. That’s what we focus on today.

Make succeeding easy for you

You already have a big part of your most important reason to (re)start Business Journaling. Either you want to:

  • reflect more
  • organise better
  • or even both.

Now take your pen and go to the middle of your DIY 20-pages-booklet or to page 10 of your blank book.

Write down your why

On this page 10, take a moment to complete (one of) these sentences for you:

  • I want to reflect more on … so that I …
  • I want to organise … better so that I … 

For some folks this just works that straightforward.

However other people find it easier to first “freestyle” for about 10 min and then boil the learnings down to one or two sentences.

Proceed like this, if you want to try the freestyle journaling technique:

  • make sure you have distraction-free 10 minutes
  • write this prompt on top of the page: What *I* want from journaling is…
  • start a timer, put the pen on paper and write…
  • …keep writing!
  • only stop once the timer is over

You might be surprised what appears on paper within as little as 10 mins.

Celebrate your steps

You just set-up your first milestone for retrospection in your journal. Good job!

Once you’ll arrive at page 10 you’ll be reminded WHY you started all this.
This will be a great occasion:

  • to pause and reflect for a moment,
  • to celebrate how far you’ve already come
  • and see where you want to go next.

You eased your path into success with Business Journaling already today.

Next week you’ll see some pictures from my own Business Journaling practice to explain the basic concepts borrowed from Bullet Journaling (and: my tweaks to it).

( This article first appeared on RespectAndAdapt.rocks and it’s part of my Substack Newsletter on Business Journaling. )