4 ways journaling has changed my life

Do you ever get through the end of yet another busy day, look back, and just wonder, “What in the world did I even accomplish?”

I’ve been there so many different times where life gets so crazy, your schedule gets so busy and hectic, that you get to the end and question, “How did I even move the ball today? How did I even get closer to my goal? I just ran around putting out fires, reacting to everything that was going on, and I don’t really feel like I accomplished what I needed to accomplish.”

So I want to tell you how journaling actually helped me focus my life, reorient myself around the things that were most important, and accomplish more that I thought I ever could.

Now, I’m not talking about a diary type of journal, where you write down what happened during the day.

• “Dear diary, today was a great day.”
• “Dear diary, today was bad.”

I’m not talking about that kind of stuff. What I’m talking about is productivity journaling.

Productivity journaling is writing down and keeping track of the things that matter most in your life, the things you need to do in order to reach your goals.

Well, a few years ago my life and my schedule was in chaos. It was insane.

I was working full time during the day as a pastor, and at night I was taking classes to get a masters degree from Phoenix Seminary. Also, my wife is a nurse. If you’re a nurse or you’re married to someone in the medical profession, you understand how crazy their schedules can be. On top of that, we have two kids. So between my work, my studies, my wife’s work, my kids and their school and activities, my dog, and everything else we have going on, our schedule was insane.

I was so focused on taking care of everything else, doing everything else that I had to do that get piling up on a schedule, that I wasn’t taking care of myself.

It was getting pretty bad. Something had to change.

So one day, I’m in a store, and I see a shelf with these empty notebooks on. I’d been seeing things online and reading a little bit about people who had been productivity journaling—how it helped them get more focused and more accomplished. So I said to myself, “You know what, I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna start journaling.”

I’m not much of a journaler, never have been. But decided to start tracking my progress on some goals, start forming some habits, and focus on taking care of myself.

So I picked up the jornal, and I started coming up with different systems that would work for me.

Over the last few years, that journal has helped me tremendously. I don’t say this lightly: It changed my life.

So I want to give you a few reasons why think productivity journaling could change your life too.

1. More focus and direction

Every single day I write out my primary goal and the next step I need to accomplish in order to reach that goal.

By writing this down every single day, it keeps that goal right there, right in front of my eyes. It keeps me focused on what I need to accomplish.

I used to live a lot more reactively. I would wake up and react to whatever the day thew at me, putting out fires here and there. Then I’d get to the end of the day and wonder what happened. I didn’t get closer to what I need to do.

By writing out my goal every single day, and tracking what I need to do, it keeps that goal front and center. So when I wake up, I’m attacking the day. I’m not wondering what the day will bring at me. I’m bringing myself at the day. I’m taking care of what needs to be taken care of first. Then, I can deal with all the fires and other problems.

Look, if you’re like me your to-do list is huge. But this is not a to-do list. This is just writing down a few things you need to get done each day in order to take the next step towards your goal.

2. Deeper Bible study

I include Bible study in my journaling every single day. I’m diving a lot deeper than I used to.

I used to just reading through the Bible every year. I would just read through it and absorb it. That’s a great thing to do, and I highly recommend it. If you’ve never read your Bible from start to finish, you should do it.

But year after year, that’s all I was doing, and I wasn’t getting deeper into it.

What I’m doing now in my journal is diving deeper into a passage of Scripture. And I’m not just reading it I’m actually writing down my thoughts, forcing myself to think about it by following a set method. I read a passage of Scripture, than try to explain it in my own words, and apply it to my life, and then I pray about it.

On a side note, if your pastor or writer, it’s an awesome way to get content ideas from your study from God’s Word.

3. Forces you to slow down

Our lives can be so busy, so hectic with so much going out, those moments to just pause and slow down and breathe think and pray first thing in the morning or throughout your day are huge.

One of the things a journal he has done for me, is forcing me to slow down. And I like the fact that I’m doing on a physical piece of paper in a physical book, because I spent so much time all day on screens. There’s notifications popping up, emails, Twitter, Facebook, and whatever else.

I get so distracted with all things popping up on his screen and all the notifications that just adds to the craziness. So using a physical book and slowing down to think about my day, and to pause to remind myself to pray and think about God’s Word has been such a calming, relaxing element in my life. It’s just been amazing.

4. Builds life-changing habits

Part of my journaling process is writing down some the things I want to accomplish every morning, things I want to accomplish every night before going to bed. I call it my morning reps and evening prep.

And every single day I try to accomplish these little things. They are small. They don’t take a lot of time. But cumulatively, day after day after day, as you do these micro-habits, they build and accomplish a lot more than you think. They make a huge difference in your life.

One of the things I want to do every day is a Bible study, like I mentioned earlier. I don’t spend a ton time doing it every day. But those 15-30 minutes I spend in God’s Word every day add up.

I’m saturating my mind, my soul, and taking in what God is speaking to me. My faith is growing stronger day by day, brick by brick, as I do these things.

Another thing I’m doing is exercising for 15-30 minutes every day. And once again, one day of exercise doesn’t do much. But over time, I’ve become much healthier.

Without that journal to keep me accountable, I know I would’ve fallen off the wagon a long time ago.

Journaling has been life-changing for me

It may not be for everybody, but if you want to start taking control of your life and start attacking your day rather than waiting for your day to attack you, journaling could be a helpful thing for you.

Because of that, I created the Productive Christian Journal. It’s my system, the journaling process I’ve been doing.

It’s how I keep myself accountable every day, track my goals and next steps, focus on just the most important things, and focus on God.

If you’re interested in that, you can learn more about it here.

The most important thing I want you to get out of this, is that journaling has literally changed my life, and I think it can be something super helpful for you. Whether you use my journal, one of the other ones out there, or you start your own, journaling has been a tremendous difference maker my life and I think it could Do the same for your life too.

So get out there and start journaling.