Did you know that some of the most successful people kept a work journal? To name a few — Einstein, Bruce Lee, and Thomas Edison. Keeping a work journal is like having your own personal assistant. It can help you stay on top of your todos, capture meeting notes, manage your time, and accelerate your career growth. It doesn’t matter if you are an employee, self-employed, or retired — a work journal can improve your productivity and performance at work. …
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Edison was, without a doubt, one of the most productive inventors of all time. He was awarded 2,332 patents—the third most of any American—including many that continue to affect our lives today: the electric generator, electric pen, fuel cell, storage battery, and motion pictures. Edison’s success didn’t spring from a single moment of inspiration—rather, it was the result of a deliberate approach to changing the world. Throughout Edison’s life, journaling was a consistent practice, capturing not only the his inventions …
In my quest to study the journals of successful people, Benjamin Franklin has not only been near the top of my list but also has been most request by many of you who kindly write to me. Franklin has intrigued me due to his self-made success, start starting from humble beginnings and rising to become a successful printer, writer, musician, inventor, and, of course, Founding Father of United States. Many, including myself, are aware of Franklin’s life accomplishments. But I wondered what processes he …
Dr. Seth Stephens-Davidowitz and I got together to discuss what journal keepers (any anyone else) can learn from his book Everybody Lies – What the Internet can Tell us About who we Really Are. We discuss how we can become more aware of their deception – to self and others – so they can live better lives. For journal keepers, please see refer to the self-reflective questions at the bottom of this article that you should ask write out in …
Time and time again, from their writings and journals, I have come to realize that the heroes that I look upto are shockingly human under their “hero disguise”. That is a humbling find as I continue my quest to learn from the journals of these perfectly human heroes. This month I studied the journals of Albert Einstein – a man who needs no introduction but certainly needs to be recognized for his less well known meticulous journaling habit. The rest …
Despite being most well-known for his paintings, as time passes, his true legacy has become his journals (aka notebooks) – so much so that Bill Gates bought a collection of them for $30 million dollars. Unlike Bill Gates, I don’t have millions of dollars to buy da Vinci’s original journals but I did still spend the currency of my time reading his biography and observing his journals so I can improve my habit of keeping journals. Now, wanting to understand …
For those of you who keep or want to keep some sort of a physical Journal, a common question I get asked is what size (pocket, half-page, or full-page) of a physical Journal is best to use? Having heard that question from a handful of you, I’ve decided to put my answer into a brief blog post below – starting with my experience with different sizes of journals. (I hope to write about other attributes of a journal – pages, …
If you have recently started to keep a daily journal, you most certainly have pulled your hair out in trying to decide between following a rigid structure or template vs free flow journaling. With a rigid structure, you would attempt to write articulated thoughts in a similar manner whereas with the free flow journaling you would write anything that comes to your mind – something like the image below. Unfortunately, there is no simple winner between free flow or structured and I would …
As many of you know, I quite enjoy keeping a journal. As years pass by and my journals pileup, I am keen to improve this habit of journal keeping. To do that, I have decided to study the journals of successful people to extract tips and wisdom you and I can use for our journal keeping. I am quite excited about this project as journal keeping is one of the most shared habit among the successful people I have studied …
“Journal writing is a voyage to the interior.” ― Christina Baldwin While I was filling up the last few pages of my 2016 journal, I couldn’t help but take some time to revisit the 365+ pages I’ve scribbled on (or skipped). For the previous years, I have only skimmed through the journal at the end of the year but this year I wanted to take a closer look – as the saying goes “the devil is always in the details”. I hope …