5 reasons to maintain a journal

With so much on our plates, there are often times when we feel like we have stretched ourselves too thin and that 24 hours is barely enough time to get everything done! Prioritising and learning to manage time in an effective way can be challenging yet crucial, something that shouldn’t be avoided at any cost. And what is a better way of doing that than self-reflecting? Yes, according to a recent study conducted by Harvard Business School, setting aside 15 minutes to reflect each day can increase your productivity and boost your performance.

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Maintaining a journal can be a great way to indulge in a little self-reflection. The lost art of putting pen to paper can prove to be highly beneficial for keeping your sanity and act as a positive reinforcement. Here are five reasons why you should start maintaining a journal.

Venting safely

A journal can prove to be your best friend when you want to vent your frustrations out (but secretly). All those times you want to shout at your crazy boss or bash a colleague for being too rude or simply just throw shade, a journal is the right place to do it. The journal is like your personal shrink that you don’t have to pay for. But make sure no one gets their hands on them, or else you will end up in a pile of trouble that can’t be averted.

Mental health benefits

In this dog-eat-dog world, there can be nothing more crucial than mental health, and the saddest part is, it’s always overlooked. Maintaining a daily journal not only helps you to keep your creative juices flowing but also helps in lowering stress levels considerably. A study from the journal Advances in Psychiatric Treatment is the most recent and concrete research that shows exactly how maintaining a journal can act as a positive catalyst for your mental health.

Helps harness creativity

The best way to improve on writing is to keep on doing it. The benefits flowing from maintaining a journal, especially in terms of boosting creativity, are immense. Writing down daily experiences can help you to understand them better and helps break down complex situations into more comprehensible and coherent information.

Habit building

Talking about functionality, maintaining a journal can help you to build better habits as it forces you to be aware of their results. By writing down the positives of a day, you can identify the good patterns in your behaviour, and by writing down the negatives, you can identify the bad ones. Needless to say, the positive ones are the behaviours that need to be maintained and repeated.

Accounting good ideas

Good ideas can come to everyone, but we often forget them due to our jam packed nine to five routine. But do not let your work life rob you of the opportunity of brainstorming new ideas. Take some time to think and write the brilliant workplace ideas that come to you and make sure you show them to your boss and co-workers.

With tweeting, WhatsApping and status postings, we have gotten really good at sharing our views and opinions publicly, but with clear benefits of journal writing, we think it can be a little worthwhile to write down your thoughts in private.