How it helps to maintain a journal

There is a good reason why we are encouraged to pick up the habit of maintaining a journal from a very young age. Most of us tend to give it up as we grow older and truth be told, it does become a bit difficult to keep up with as our schedules get busier. However, we should all look into journaling again and try to resume the practice as it has a few amazing benefits that can drastically change our lives. Here are a few ways journaling helps.

Helps you become organised and focused

Putting your thoughts down on paper not only helps you revisit them but also makes them more refined. You can add to them, modify them, remember them better, and in general just assess them to contemplate whether or not they are worth executing.

Journaling can indeed help you organise your thoughts and not allow them to get all over the place like they sometimes tend to do inside our heads.

More headspace

Maintaining a journal also helps us transfer thoughts from our heads to paper. Doing so can dramatically free up headspace. You will be amazed at how light your head feels after unloading some of those thoughts. The brain might be designed to be like a computer but our bodies are not so the information overload can take a toll on us and leave us exhausted both physically and mentally.

Think better

The practice of maintaining a journal helps us become better with our thoughts as the days go by. As mentioned before, it helps us revisit our thoughts and revise them. What this also does over time is help us become more articulate with our thoughts and make them better constructed. We will also be able to convey them better to others so those proposals and pitch decks will elevate to new levels for sure. This will also enhance your decision-making abilities.

Improved memory

The general rule of thumb is that writing things down helps us remember things better. Add the benefit of freed-up headspace to it and what you now have is improved memory. Sure, you will remember the important memories better but it is the little memories that will see the most significant improvement. For instance, you will remember where you kept the keys or to make that call you were supposed to make, and so on. Improved memory will lead to an overall improvement in your quality of life.

Increased efficiency

All of the aforementioned benefits of journaling will only increase your productivity. You will be able to get your work done in a timely manner and generally be more proactive. You will also be able to generate ideas and process them quicker since you have more space and an organised system in place.

Become a better speaker and writer

An added perk of journaling is that it helps make you a more polished wordsmith than before. Noting your thoughts down on a regular basis helps you become more eloquent with words and therefore become a better speaker and a writer. You will be able to communicate better because you will constantly be sharpening your ability to use words more effectively. This too will have an overall positive impact on your life as well as your career.