Welcome to the Get Your Goal podcast, the place where ambitious, deep-thinking women chart their own course, exploring the mindset, emotions, and daily practices that help you get your goal your way by being unapologetically you. I'm your host, Pahla B, master certified life and goal coach and creator of the Daily 3 journaling framework.
On this podcast, you'll learn to navigate your unique path to success by using the most powerful tool in your kit, your own internal compass. Ready for the adventure? Let's go. Hello friend. Today we are talking about how to fit journaling into your busy day, and apropos of this topic, knowing that you are busy, this is a bit of a nugget episode.
I'm gonna keep it short and sweet for us, but I also find this to be a particularly useful topic for you. Because I know that you have big goals. You wanna write a book, you wanna lose weight without willpower, you [00:01:00] wanna start a business, or you wanna run the race of your dreams, possibly all of those, maybe more.
And you also know that journaling is, let's say, good for you. Like, you get the idea that journaling can help you get where you wanna go, but also you're busy. So you start your day thinking to yourself, "Okay, I'm definitely gonna journal today. I'm gonna get this stuff out of my head." And then you get on with the things that you know you want to be doing to get your big goals, and also, you know, life.
And then at the end of every day, if you are anything like me, you look back and you're like, "How exactly did I spend my time today? And why didn't I have the time to journal like I thought I wanted to?" This was actually a perfect description of me just, like, a year and a half ago. Like, I, I have known for many years that journaling is useful.
I love the idea of journaling, and found myself still [00:02:00] not being consistent with it, still not always knowing, like, where to start or what to do. I mean, in fact, a year and a half ago, I had already long since even written a book about journaling. Mind Over Menopause came out in 2022, where I have this whole system of how to journal for your goals.
I called it at the time the two-step tool. It has been gently rebranded over the past couple of years to fit into the daily journaling framework that I'm gonna talk to you about today, to be called metacognitive journaling. But, like, I always kind of had this, this idea that I knew more or less what I wanted to be doing, but I still really struggled to be consistent with it, to fit it into my busy day.
And that's why I have for you today a quick episode with my five best tips for how to fit journaling in, no matter how busy your day is. Tip number [00:03:00] one is to know why you're journaling. This was one of the things that stuck me for the longest time, is that I knew that journaling was helpful. I knew that I felt better afterwards, but I didn't truly understand until I'd been doing it inconsistently for a while, that the reason that I was journaling was to organize and declutter my mind brain.
Nobody had ever explained it to me quite like that, which is why I'm saying it to you. And to be fair, at the time, I don't know that I would've said that I even could declutter my brain. I mean, I, I am a, a woman with a busy brain. I still call myself that. So I don't know that I would've even thought that was possible for me, but I'm mentioning it to you because it is.
No matter how busy your brain is, I mean, no matter how many, how many browser tabs you have open all day, every day going [00:04:00] on in the background, I promise you, me too, and also when you journal regularly the way that we're gonna talk about You can actually make a ton of space by getting rid of a lot of the extraneous thoughts of judging yourself or second-guessing yourself or doubting yourself, which really is the point of journaling for your goals, is to gently release the judgments, the doubts, the self-recrimination, and all of that spinning so that you can organize what is going on in your brain.
Even if it's still busy, even if you still have tons of great ideas and things you'd like to do, you can organize and declutter what's going on in there with regular journaling. Tip number two is to don't start with a blank page if that's intimidating for you. I know that not everybody feels that way. I personally absolutely did.
Every day, opening up either a [00:05:00] blank document or a blank page in my journal, I was overwhelmed instantly. I know for a fact, because I see people all the time talking about, like, morning pages or freeform journaling, I, I know that there are people who love having a blank page, who actually feel like that is freedom to just write out everything that's in their brain.
If that's you, then get on with your bad self, girl. Like, you keep doing you. What I will tell you is that for me personally, because starting with a blank page was super intimidating, it really helps me to have prompts for myself. And I don't necessarily mean formal prompts, although I do have them. I mean, I, I have guided journaling experiences with prompts that you can use, and, uh, I mean, this is a...
here's a spoiler alert. We're actually gonna talk about this in the very next tip, but you don't have to use [00:06:00] prompts if you have, like, some general questions that you can ask yourself that help you elicit some kind of response. That is where I started for myself when I wanted to be more consistent with journaling.
The truth of it is that your brain is hardwired to answer questions, so having some kind of question helps you lean in sort of naturally to the way that your brain works in order to start writing. Tip number three, and this is what I was just alluding to, is to have what I call a spontaneous routine, meaning make a routine out of the things that feel good To make a routine out of, and also leave room for spontaneity on the things that don't seem sticky or tricky.
For me personally, I love doing the same thing, which for me is The Daily 3 framework. This is my journaling framework that I [00:07:00] created that helps you rewire your brain for success, where you do three of the same kinds of journaling every single day. There's future self, where you imagine yourself with your goal.
There's metacognitive, which is what I was talking about before, the, the two-step tool. It's where you look at the stories that you're telling yourself that are holding you back, and you gently release yourself from them by feeling the feeling that they create. And then there's also success journaling, where you give yourself credit for what you are already doing, recognize that it's adding up, and really see yourself right now as a person who has your goal.
Having that kind of a framework for me feels like a great routine. I always know what I'm going to do in terms of those three kinds of journaling, and I always know approximately what kind of question I'm gonna ask myself. I start with, what do I want, for future self journaling, and then I ask myself, what am I telling myself that's holding me [00:08:00] back, for metacognitive journaling, and then I ask myself, for success journaling, what did I do yesterday that I promised myself that I would do that I followed through on?
So for me, having that routine where I do the same kind of thing leaves me free to answer those questions, first of all, any way I want to. Like, whatever is on my mind, having, like, a framework that I can stand on helps me open up my brain so that it doesn't start with a blank page, and also I can be spontaneous in the way that I'm answering things.
I do not answer the same way every single day, and I don't even have the same routine in terms of, like, you know, at this time of day, I do this very specific thing, and it's always the same way, and that's how I journal. My, my journaling routine is actually very open. Sometimes it's in a book. Sometimes [00:09:00] it's on- online, meaning that I have, you know, a document that I open.
Sometimes it's in my head. I have, I have given myself free reign to do the journaling any way I want to because there are parts of it that are such a beautiful habit and routine And then tip number four is to give yourself credit for the journaling you're already doing. My friend, this is something that I see all the time, where we, all of us, have it in our heads that journaling is supposed to look a certain way.
Like, we are supposed to be in our comfy, cozy chair, and it has to be completely quiet, or maybe there's, like, soft music playing if you can think and listen to music at the same time, which I can't. Sometimes it depends. If there are lyrics, I definitely cannot. But if it's just music, well, but sometimes my brain is still trying to follow that.
In any event, maybe you have music, maybe you don't. Maybe there's a soft candle. Maybe you have your beautiful journal and all of your different colored pens, and you're [00:10:00] sipping tea, and it's just perfect and cozy and just right. Right? My friend, my journaling almost never looks like that. Sometimes it does.
Sometimes it's quiet and peaceful. Sometimes I'm quite literally in the shower when I am mentally journaling. Sometimes I will be journaling when I'm in the middle of doing something else, and I notice that I'm having a feeling, and I simply create the space for myself to feel that feeling instead of shoving it down.
Sometimes I will find myself daydreaming, which is the essence of future self journaling, when I am out for a run or driving, times when I should probably be paying more attention, but hey, let's not go there. Here's the thing that I'm telling you. You are, any time that you are thinking about your thoughts or feeling your feelings or daydreaming about your goal or thinking about what could be [00:11:00] stopping you and allowing yourself the space to move through that, it's all journaling.
Journaling is not just about your thoughts. It's not always writing. Journaling can encompass so many activities. I know people who are far more artistic than I am, far more musically inclined than I am, that access their thoughts and feelings through art, through movement, through music. Give yourself credit for the journaling you're already doing, and when you do, I promise you, you are probably a lot more consistent than you think you are.
And then tip number five, oh my goodness, make it worth your while. Here's something that happened, not really happened to me. That's not what I meant to say at all. Here's something that I used to notice way back in the day when I was mostly just vent journaling. [00:12:00] When I was just journaling because I was mad about something or hurt about something, and I would just be writing about what I was, what I was going through.
I noticed that I wasn't really getting a lot out of it. Like, I would feel better, but I didn't really know where it was going. So this tip actually really does tie in with tip number one of know why you're journaling. When you know what you're aiming for, it makes it so much easier to get it, get the most bang for your buck and make it worth your while.
Because here's the deal. When you can really focus on finding your thoughts and feeling your feelings and coming to your journal knowing, "This is what I'm going to be doing," it makes it so much easier to be there for a shorter amount of time and getting more out of it. [00:13:00] This kind of focused work that I'm talking about is why I created The Daily 3.
The Daily 3, as I mentioned, is my, um, proprietary daily journaling framework that is really specifically designed to help you get your goals. It's not vent journaling. It's not gratitude journaling, even though it definitely has, like, both of those pieces sort of intertwined into it. It is very specific journaling. It helps you rewire your brain for success, which means that you can take it as a framework to really use as your own.
You know why you're journaling. You don't have to start with a blank page. You can make it a spontaneous routine by having that scaffolding in place, but without being tied to, "I have to do it a certain way." You can absolutely give yourself credit for journaling in all kinds [00:14:00] of manner when you're using the Daily 3.
The, the pieces of the Daily 3 can fit anywhere into your busy day, and it's definitely worth your while. There's a link in the show notes or the description box, depending on where you're watching or listening, where you can go watch the masterclass where I really explain, like, the pieces of journaling, what they do, how to do them in order to get the most out of them, and then what you're going to get out of the Daily 3.
But where I'm going with this is that you can fit journaling into your busy, busy day when you incorporate one or all five of these tips and tricks so that you can be consistent enough to start really getting the results that you're looking for, my friend. I purport that the Daily 3 is five minutes of journaling, and I want you to know that I say that so that you can fit it in.
[00:15:00] Your, your mileage may vary, as the saying goes, meaning that you could make it a significantly longer routine if that feels pleasurable and enjoyable to you. Or you can get in there, you can bang it out, and you can get it done as quickly as you want to. I really hope that this was helpful for you today.
Thank you so much for listening. I'll talk to you again soon. No matter where you are on your goal-getting journey, I'm here to help. Get started by watching the free Daily 3 Masterclass to learn the simple journaling framework that rewires your brain for success. Move forward with confidence at your pace with one of my goal-specific guided journaling experiences.
And when you're ready for immersive exploration with fellow travelers just like you, you belong in the Get Your Goal membership. Find it all and join the adventure at [00:16:00] getyourgoal.com.
