Thick Mind or Thick Book? The Power of Journaling

“I can shake off every­thing as I write; my sor­rows dis­ap­pear, my courage is reborn.” 
― Anne Frank

Like many busy, dri­ven peo­ple, I’ve strug­gled over the years with so many thoughts and ideas that it’s hard to focus on what’s most impor­tant, or I get lost or over­whelmed in too many idea opportunities.

For years I stud­ied med­i­ta­tion — high­ly effec­tive to calm and focus my mind — then one day, I recon­nect­ed with jour­nal­ing, which I used to do at school, in cre­ative writ­ing time. At the time, I did it because I had to, but the tech­nique I learned is insane­ly pow­er­ful for men­tal clar­i­ty and focus, today.

Writ­ing words on paper clears my head and has become one of my most pow­er­ful Resilience Rit­u­als (as in Chap­ter 3 of my recent book Your Oxy­gen Mask First).

One exec­u­tive I work with, in India, summed it up by describ­ing it as ​“thick mind or thick book”: either clut­ter your mind, or record it in a book. It’s mag­i­cal when thoughts leave your head to be com­fort­ably held on paper.

That dis­ci­pline cre­ates men­tal free­dom: the abil­i­ty to think about what you would like to ver­sus what you are dis­tract­ed by.

Whether I jour­nal ear­ly in the morn­ing after a work­out, in a cof­fee shop or on a plane, here are the tech­niques that work for me:

1. Take out the trash. Write down all the thoughts in your head, whether it’s one or a thou­sand. Write ran­dom­ly about every­thing and any­thing that comes up for you. This can be in two min­utes on two pages or 20 to 30.
2. Solve prob­lems. List all the things you want to dig into, oppor­tu­ni­ties you want to make the most of, and prob­lems to solve. Then write more specif­i­cal­ly about each one to cre­ate a mini action plan — or until you get the insight you are look­ing for. In almost every case, you’ll get clar­i­ty on your next step.
3. Make to-do lists. As you go, write down ideas of tasks that need to be done, on the back page of your book or in your phone.

Ulti­mate­ly, I end up with a few pages of trash and a few pages of strate­gic, deep­er think­ing. When I’ve fin­ished, I tear out the pages of lists and strate­gies to get into action with and let go of, or shred, the rest.

It doesn’t mat­ter how you do it — any free writ­ing helps you to turn down the noise and fig­ure out what to do.

It’s game chang­er – a life chang­er. You’ll be clear­er, more ground­ed and have more high-val­ue thoughts on what’s important.

The Chal­lenge

• What do you do to calm and focus your mind and ensure your brain is open for high-val­ue possibilities?
• What two or three things can you write about today?

What are you wait­ing for? Grab a pen — or device!