The 5 Minute Journal

I’ve been dealing with quite a bit of pushback from my own self. 

I mean, there are things you know you need to change and work on, but then you kind of just stop and feel discouraged.

So I decided to try something simple. It’s the 5 minute journal that I learned about on the Tim Ferris podcast.

It was weird because I instantly felt so much better after doing such a tiny task. The time commitment was so low and the journaling process was so easy. Also, the journaling prompts really helped to get me into a much more positive state of mind.

So if you want quick gains with little work when it comes to self-improvement, and you want to adopt a quick habit that helps you take better care of your mental well-being, then definitely try this five minute journal.

It’s such a simple way to start doing daily journaling and create your own writing habit.

And down below, I included my own tips and thoughts for each of the prompts. So read them over and try it out today.

Side Note: I included a free printable 5 minute journal at the bottom. Enjoy!

What Am I Grateful For?

1. Choose basic simple, smaller thing for your gratitude list. This way you’re not just focused on the wide sweeping things, and you can start to appreciate and notice the smaller things that so often get overlooked. Think, a great book you’re reading, the hot cup of coffee or tea you’re drinking, etc. You can totally add big things, but you mainly wanna focus on the small.
2. No repeats. This way you can grow in gratitude and notice the things that are going right in your life. It can be easy to get discouraged and wonder when things will ever get better, so this should help with that. 

What Would Make Today Great?

1. Don’t overestimate what you can do in a day. Make them short and sweet. It’s easy to think that we can get a lot more done in the day than we can, and when we see all that we haven’t accomplished, it can be seriously discouraging and make us quit. 
2. Also, this just really helps you realize what you actually want to do/get done when you have limited space.
3. This journal printable only has 3 small lines for you to put down your daily goals and that should help with keeping them small. However, if you decide to write the prompts down in a journal, don’t give yourself more than just 3 lines.
4. You don’t have to get everything done! Don’t beat yourself up. 🙂
5. You can also look back and see what you’ve accomplished over the weeks, months, and years, see the progress, and feel encouraged.

Daily Affirmations

1. Focus on a few places you’ve been struggling with when it comes to your self-image. So whether it’s your confidence, your beliefs around what you are worthy of, or what you can and can’t do, start speaking good things over yourself!
2. You can also use inspirational or motivational quotes for the affirmation section.
3. Try to keep these positive affirmations in your mind throughout the day and allow them to influence your actions and interactions with others.

And now, onto the evening journal section of the 5 minute journal.

3 Amazing Things That Happened Today

1. This is honestly such a great thing to look back on each month so you can see all the good things that have happened to you, big and small, and how much you’ve accomplished.
2. Even if it wasn’t a great day, what are some positive things (big or small) that you can write down? This is a great way to train yourself into seeing the good even when things aren’t going well.

How Could I Have Made Today Better

1. This is such a great way to do a daily self-audit. Look over what was good, and then think about how it could have been done even better. And then look over what wasn’t good, and think about how that can be changed for the following day.
2. This can cover so many things like your relationships, your self-care, your work productivity, and so much more!

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I hope these tips and thoughts on the five minute journal help you out and make the journaling process just a bit more streamlined.

Also, here’s the free 5 minute journal printable download. Just click here to get the 5-minute journal, and try this simple way to make your life even better.