Newsletter #8

One of the first new habits I formed was journaling. Journaling originated as a means to record various daily activities. It ultimately evolved into an extended habit tracker with daily reviews in a minimalist style.

The method I used for journaling was the bullet journal, which is named after its distinctive bullet dots on the journal pages. Furthermore, it adopts a minimalist approach, which is appealing to an aspiring minimalists. I came across this method via a random YouTube video on journaling. At the time, it sounded like a great way to journal, and it was. It gave structure to my journaling, and I had a handy monthly overview to track my habits. The bullet journal is created by Ryder Carroll, more information can be found here: https://bulletjournal.com.

Not only did I gain more clarity on how well I was doing with my new habits, but I also gained valuable insight into my sleep patterns and well-being. For instance, I realized that alcohol affected my sleep negatively and that certain foods also impact sleep negatively. Inactive days and days without social interaction were not great for my well-being. Furthermore, I began to enjoy analog writing and improved my handwriting in the process.

Gradually, I tracked more and more just to track. It started very minimalistic, with a monthly habit tracker and a daily summary. Later, I began tracking the books I read and how long it took me to finish them. Weekly and monthly reviews. The weekly reviews, in particular, looked very similar. In the weekly reviews, I asked myself: what bad habits have been reduced or stopped, how can I improve myself, how am I improving myself, and how do I feel. Week after week, similar things popped up. It did not occur to me that I should mix things up a bit. Much later did I realize this.

As I write this newsletter, I have not actively journaled since April 17^th . The entries looked quite similar every week, so I just stopped doing it altogether. I do not see the point in writing down the same things over and over again; that is the definition of insanity. Right now, I am partly writing down or audio recording what I experience during IFS therapy and the results in my daily life. This is helpful, and writing it made me realize I should do this more often.