I have been writing 750+ words per day for the past 663 days. Here are some things I learned:
- I think in text. I need to trap my thoughts in text. I cannot process my thoughts without seeing them as words.
- Initially I wrote and edit at the same time. I censored, restructured, rephrased and all. But I find it burdening rather than cathartic. So now I just write in stream-of-consciousness manner. It’s not like I would publish it anywhere…
- I get more ideas and insights now because my working memory is emptied often.
- It means for 663 days I never went without my laptop for more than 24 hours.
- It also means that I never went without internet connection for more than 24 hours (because I journal on 750words.com). Even during backpacking through Europe, my brother’s wedding, and all the day to day life. I was still able to squeeze 750+ words in every day. I admit I did manipulate the timezone settings 3–4 times to sync the entry on some occasions, but that’s arguably fair play :p
- I cannot imagine going 12 hours without journaling / jotting down my thoughts now. I can imagine how unsettling the amount of mental clutter will be.
- My attention span grows stronger.
- I am able to reflect and am more mindful of my own thought process and behaviours.
- It helps me organise my thoughts and verify some assumptions I didn’t notice before.
For me, journaling is like building my private time machine. I can read last year’s entry and discover how much I have or haven’t changed.
Actually I have always been keeping a journal, on and off ever since I can remember.
A while back I even found a notebook back from 5th grade. Quite entertaining to read the dumb stuff I wrote about not finding some comic book volume at the book store, all these important stuff when I was a kid ~_~.
