Now’s a great time  to start a journal. And it’s easy to do. Journaling is an awesome tool to help you reflect and plan. A template is a sure fire way to help you do it consistently.

Using a template will make journaling much easier for you.

I’ve tried and failed many time in the past to journal on a consistent basis. One of my biggest roadblocks was, what to write about. I struggled everyday to figure out what I wanted to journal about.

I decided that I needed a template. After a little reflection, I broke down the big areas I want to reflect upon.

Here’s what I wanted to focus on :

• Yesterday – Reflection.
• Now – Be in the moment.
• Today – Plan my day.

These are the big areas I want to hit during my journaling time. In the past I struggled to hit these areas with any consistency but now I don’t even have to think about it.

I break each section down further with a few key question.

Yesterday:

• What did I do yesterday? I stop to think about what I did yesterday. Here you can recognize patterns. Am I getting the right stuff done.
• What lessons did I learn? Write it down! Keeping track of lessons learned is important to your personal growth.

Now:

• What am I thankful for right now? Give thanks for one thing write now. It could be something small or something big.
• On a scale of 1-10 how am I feeling? I like to track my mood and my physical well being.

Today:

• What did I read today? One of the great things about this question is it helps to keep me reading.
• What are my plans for today? Here is where I start to plan my day. I pause and think about what’s important.
• What one thing must I accomplish today? I drill down even further here. What the most important thing I have to do today.
• Other items of note? Sometimes I have thoughts that I want to track. I think for most people this is what they journal about everyday. Some days this is blank and why I have this template in the first place.

I use the Day One app on my iPad. This is a purpose built, feature rich journaling app. I highly recommend it.

Day One will also track the weather, date and your location. It also can be backed up to dropbox and can be exported. I export my entries into Evernote.

I also use the Text Expander app on my iPad. This is a great app for making temples. You type up what you want and then make a short code for it. Any app that works with text expander will recognize the code and expand it. My journaling template code is teje (Text Expander Journal Entry)

These apps make a great combo!

Please give journaling a shot. I promise with my template it will be pretty pain free.
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