Journaling For Fun and Profit

Journaling For Fun and Profit. I have been journaling for several years. In my office we have a leads journal where all brand new prospective business is immediately written down so we don’t lose it.
Particularly when I get distracted and go off on one of my creative tangents.

I have a daily journal where I write notes on every conversation that I have with a client or supplier as I am having the chat. so I will remember any and all main points, plus my commitments.

I have a journal that I write notes in when I am listening to classes or courses so that I can quickly review the information and think about how I want to think about the information. However, recently I discovered a new twist on the art of journaling.

I was in a class on a Sat. with one of my favorite coaches Joe Stumpf from www.byreferralonly.com . He had flown in from San Diego to spend the day with our group. He had a rather novel approach to journaling which I have been utilizing for the past month with rather surprising and interesting results.

Here’s the gist of it.

Joe uses two journals. An imput journal and an output journal.. The input journal is used when listening to tapes, reading a book, generally for learnings and thoughts on learnings..

The output journal :

Step 1:

Make a list of everything on your mind , literally, dump it out. Put air in the Mercedes tire, buy a new electric toothbrush, pick up fresh vegys. And on and boring on no matter how seemingly small or petty.
The idea behind this is that you dump your load. Today our minds are in overwhelm, we have so much coming at us there is no room for more. I have been practicing this for about 6 weeks now. Just a couple times a week. It is interesting how it empties the mind.

Ergo the well known zen koan that suggests the tea cup that is overflowing cannot retain any new content, therefore we have to learn to dump the cup before anything more can come in. What has been interesting about this process is the quality of what comes out on paper after I have dumped the load.

I used to have days of challenge with what was happening when I journaled because I would hold a lot of content in my head while trying to write about a particular area or subject. So first you dump the load.

Once you’ve dumped your load and all the great ideas and projects start to pour out you have some decisions to make; you won?t be able to tackle them all. Sit with them for a time until you figure it out.. here’s the next step.

Step2:

Note all the one step processes and highlight them in yellow.
Pick up fresh vegy’s is a one step process. Get them done or delegate them. Get the one step projects out of your life because they take up mental energy and space, blocking your better projects All processes with 2 or more steps highlight in green, it’s a project.

This is where you have to be picky. It is highly unlikely you will ever accomplish all of your multi step projects. So you need to develop a system for choosing depending on your values. Which ones are closest to your heart, or which ones monetarily allow you to leverage your time to create the greatest financial benefit. You Pick. This reduces the number of tangents particularly for creative types.

Step#3 When it goes beyond project status it’s a letter to God . Joe writes a letter to his inner CEO of what the completed project would look like, puts it into his God box and then leaves it alone. I haven’t tried this last one yet but I will test it in the near future.

I understand it is a system in itself and available in a book called The Eleventh Element which I am sure you can buy at Amazon. This is not on my current time line, but if you are really interested check it out. However, I have moved ahead much more naturally on a couple of major projects in the last 30 days. My brain has simply been clearer.

The concept behind this system is that the brain is a tool for processing and not for storage? It is true many of us get stuck with a lot of stuff in our heads and can?t move on. So give it a try and let me know your results in a month or two. Have a great week.

Aeriol