Erik and Leo talk with Will Gant from the Complete Developer Podcast about journaling and how it helps with his productivity and progress.
Show Notes
Introduction
- Will Gant is a co-host of the Complete Developer Podcast
- How Will and Leo met
- Will's lightning talk at MicroConf
What's in Will's journal
- Will's familial history of journaling
- Unknown stresses as the impetus to start journaling
- Will's original journal was a spreadsheet that covered anything happening during the day that bugged him, taking roughly 20 minutes per day to write
- Switching to monthly journaling helped Will focus on opportunities instead of the bad stuff and takes about 10 minutes to write
- Other ways Will's approach to journaling has changed over the years
- Journaling well after something happens helps separate the act from the emotional state
- Journaling is also a great way to track things that are tough to remember
- Will's is an advocate and regular user of float/sensory-deprivation tanks for meditation
- Bonus lifehack: Rethink your internal calendar to start each year on April 1st, after winter and taxes
Keeping life organized with journaling
- How Will uses journaling and KanbanFlow to keep track of upcoming tasks
- Journaling can take many forms: a food diary, a workout journal, daily insights, monthly reflections, etc.
Tips to start journaling
- Pick a time period (daily, weekly, etc.)
- Write only what you remember
- Make a note of the emotions that you remember as well
- Keep it simple and easy: use paper or a plain text file
- After writing a new entry, revisit a few past entries
- Keep each entry short
- Don't out-write your previous entry
- Write only for yourself, be blunt
Effecting change with journaling
- Writing actions and (separately) your emotions is great for personal growth, especially for kids
- A food diary is an easy way to observe and adjust what's going in your body
- Write down repeating chores so you remember to do them and how to do them
- Keeping track of multi-step tasks is tough in simple journaling and to-do systems
- Nothing beats a text document when recording lots of details
- Recipes are some of the oldest types of journal entries
Will Gant on the interwebs
Related links and apps
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What is OK Productive?
a podcast of banter and being productive enough