How to Journal Like a Pro Writer
The most important habit for increasing your productivity.
I began journaling in 2015 when I was a freshman in college. It was a few weeks after my 18th birthday.
According to the journal entry itself, the exact date was October 10, 2015.
All my friends were going to the football game that day, and for whatever reason, the thought of standing in a loud stadium getting cheap beer spilled on me didn’t sound super appealing. Instead, I went to a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class in the morning, came back to my dorm, took a shower, and then played around on my laptop until I got the urge to write.
I just started hammering out words in the notes section of my laptop. My first journal entry was 2400 words.
It turned out, I had a lot to say, and I had been holding myself back for my entire life. I still have those journal entries to this day.
Over the years, my journaling habit has come and gone in many different iterations, but I’ve kept a consistent journal for almost a decade now. During those early entries, I was a depressed kid who was very lost. Then, I was a young man who was a little confused sometimes, and much less lost. Now, I’m older and living out a lot of things I would journal about in those early entry days.
It is no exaggeration when I say that journaling made me the person I am today.
Journaling is jogging for your mind.
The reason that journaling became such an easy habit for me to keep was that after each journal session, I noticed my head feeling lighter. It was as if all of the baggage that I was carrying around in my head had been dumped out, and I was finally able to actually experience the world as a person. I was able to just exist because I wasn’t thinking anymore.
I think a lot. It’s a problem for me.
Journaling helped me stop thinking and start living.
After I stopped writing in my traditional journal, I started writing a “morning thoughts” journal in my Google Docs every single morning. This has been the easiest journal for me to keep.
The “rules” of my journaling are simple — all I have to do is write several of my thoughts every single day, and I have to do my best to write 10 thoughts. This is not a strict activity, it just helps me get my brain flowing so I can start my day a little less anxious than I would be if I didn’t journal.
I try to do this before coffee because I don’t want ambition to cloud my journal — I want it to be raw. This simple habit takes 5-10 minutes and it gets me going for the day.
These are today’s “morning thoughts”:
Jet lag when you compete is tough. My body clock is completely out of wack. Need to make sure I am training smart and don’t overdo it today just because it’ll be a room full of new people.
One of the hardest parts of client work is that you need to let go of what you think is right and then do what they think is right. You need to just create things based on what they say — think of it as a test of your creativity instead of a test of your art.
Last night I got to cook in an industrial kitchen for the pretty cool, first time, it reminded me of when I wanted to be a chef when I was younger. I think if life was different I’d still have liked to be a chef but I don’t have the time to dedicate to “cheffing”. I want to learn a new recipe when I get home. I need to buy a cookbook.
That was it.
I didn’t write down all 10 thoughts. That’s fine.
If you’re stressing out about how much work you’re doing on your journal, you’re doing it wrong.
I will do the activity again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day. I’ve done this writing exercise just about every day since 2017. It works for me. It helped me get better at writing.
There’s nothing strict about this activity, it’s all stream-of-consciousness work. Think of it as a digital take on Julia Cameron’s “Morning Pages”. Cameron swears by longhand writing, but I don’t like it. I prefer the keyboard and I always have. Longhand writing hurts my hand and I’m not trying to start my day with wrist cramps.
Journaling protects you from yourself.
I am very imperfect. You probably are too.
I’ve made lots of mistakes. Some that have changed me. Some that I’d like to forget. Others that have hurt me and others around me.
My journal is an active effort I’ve taken to help me prevent myself from repeating my own history.
Whenever I catch myself feeling lost or like I’m missing something or a particular time period, I go back to the journal and check out how I was really feeling during that time period. The truth is, there was a period where my problems hadn’t really changed that much. The last year though, was significantly different for me. I competed in the biggest tournament of my life, moved in with my girlfriend, paid off my credit card debt, released my best instructional, and finished writing my first book. Throughout all of my experiences, good and bad, my central focus has been on my own happiness, improving my financial position, and of course, winning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu matches.
The journal is a running storyline of my life written in real time. Some days it’s pretty well thought out, other days it’s thrown together at the last minute.
That’s how life is.
Writing stuff down helps you remember it. This is a fact. My digital journal is just a way that I’ve been able to keep myself writing about the things that I’m trying to improve at every single day.
Also, this habit goes full circle. By writing things down every day that are on my mind, my head is lighter and I’m able to focus more of my energy on the activities I’m doing and not the thoughts in my head. Sometimes, I feel like a crazy person for writing down everything, however, when I take stock of the results that journaling has had on my life, I just feel like I know something that other people don’t.
Journaling is the best “life hack” out there, and it’s totally free.
Closing Thoughts
If you want to be a professional writer, writing every day isn’t enough.
If you just read things and then regurgitate them into nonfiction articles or stories, you’re not learning. A journal is a place for every writer to carefully examine both themselves and the ideas they encounter in a safe and unfiltered manner. This leads to better ideas, more careful research, and more personal stories.
Right now, I have 4 different writing hats that I wear consistently. I have my work “ghostwriter” hat, which I wear when writing for clients. I have my “author” hat, which is more personal than the ghostwriter hat, but also quite refined and thought out. I have my “social media” hat where I release written posts on Instagram for jiu-jitsu.
Finally, I have my completely raw, impulsive, chaotic “journaling” hat.
Without the journal, I wouldn’t have been able to become a professional writer, and I certainly wouldn’t be the person that I am today. If there is any piece of writing advice that I can tell you that for a fact will change your life, it’s starting a journal today and writing in it every single day for years.
At first, it’ll seem like a challenge. Eventually, it might be the best part of your morning.
Want to learn to write with me?
This first writing cohort will give you:
Lifetime access to a community of like-minded writers as the program grows
Early access to new Modern Writer projects (like the ebook that I’m working on now)
4 weekly coaching calls with me (1-1)
Individualized draft reviews
Guidance in creating your first 30-day content strategy
This is the first edition of the coaching program and it will change over time.
If this program is something you’re interested in, fill out this form and I’ll be in touch soon :)
Thanks for reading another edition of The Modern Writer!
If you liked this post, share it with friends! Or, give it a ❤️ so that more people can discover it on Substack :)