How to Journal - The 'V.O.M.I.T.' method

Why Journal?

• To keep track of things

• To quieten your loud mind

• To come out of thought-loops

• To organize thoughts

• To identify your thinking pattern

• To navigate your train of thought towards better destinations

How to journal?

There are a lot of ways. But if you have none, pick and choose from any of the five techniques listed below and see which one fits you the most. The list also suggests when and how each of it should ideally be done but of course, you can mix and match according to your ideas. This list is wholly inspired by the creator of the youtube channel - struthless. Here is the list :

V : Vent

• When to do it: When you can’t quieten your mind and thoughts keep coming (preferably in the morning)

• How to do it:

  • Write down whatever comes to your mind especially the things that make you angry or deeply emotional on a piece of paper or an amazon writing pad

  • You will feel relieved of the thought that was bothering you

  • You will find your mind de-stressed and relaxed

O : Obligation

• When to do it: When your ‘to-do’ tasks pile up and you doesn’t do anything

• How to do it:

  • Write down: In a notebook that you have selected particularly for this purpose, write down ANYTHING that can be remotely considered as an obligation
    (eg: renew insurance, get groceries, visit dentist, etc)

  • Organize: Into the below ‘buckets’, classify your obligations (add more if needed) -

    • family

    • finance

    • health

    • work

  • prioritize: just ask yourself - ‘which one thing on these lists, if done, would make everything else on the list (or just your life) easier?’ - and mark them to be done first.

  • bare minimum:

    • select the least number of obligations from your list that you need to do to make tomorrow better.

    • ‘KILLING IT’: if you feel like a ‘task master’ do more to achieve a feeling ‘I WAS KILLING IT ALL DAY!’

M : Minset

• When to do it: When something is bothering you. These journaling ideas are meant to act as a guideline as to gently guide your mind out of things it got trapped under.

• How to do it:

  • Reframing: ‘how is X the best thing to have ever happened to me‘

  • Possibility: ‘I am healthy (replace as needed) BECAUSE…<list why>‘

  • Inversion: ‘how can I draw MORE?‘ < ——— > ‘how can I draw LESS?‘ (invert the thing)

  • Perspective: ‘if you were a friend who is giving you advice on X, how would it sound like?‘
    (we always think about how you could have easily solve your friend’s problem better than him or her)

  • Discipline: not a prompt; just take notes whenever you can and it will form a habit over time. Carry a pocket notebook and a small pen. Scribble as and when a thought comes over your mind; it doesn’t have to be a ‘valuable thought’ that you need to write down. Write down everything. Trim down later.

  • Gratitude: write down things that you feel gratitude for -

    • something mundane

    • something happened by chance

    • something that you made to happen

I : Ideate

• When to do it: When you have problem at hand that your are finding hard to solve.

• How to do it:

  • Time box: In the amazon writing pad (or on a piece of paper) at the top write down the problem and give yourself 5 minutes to come up with 30 answers to it.

  • ‘How would X solve this problem’: How would Robert Green have written this article?

  • Open the loop: Write down the problem you couldn’t solve in the night and go to sleep → come back in the morning and see if you have an answer.

T : Trajectory

• When to do it: When you want to understand yourself better as to where you are in life.

• How to do it:

  • Direction:

    • Write down your goal (Eg: ‘Save $5000‘)

    • Write down two sub-headings

      • towards: things that are make you move closer to your goal

        • Eg: saved $5 by skipping coffee

      • away: things that are make you move away from your goal

        • Eg: Netflix subscription

  • Day-To-Day

    • Write down every day, in a notebook that you have kept for this purpose, three things:

      • ‘What excited me?’

      • ‘What drained me of my energy?’

      • ‘What did I learn?‘

Conclusion

Journalling is a powerful way to connect and re-connect with yourself. It gives you a chance to track things in your life, correct your course and gently guide you to your own betterment if you use it wisely and in a prescribed method.

Happy journalling!

Reference:

The Journalling System that changed my life by struthless