Self Journal

The Self Journal is another one of those pricey journals that promises to help you achieve all of your goals and dreams with their scientifically backed 13-week goal setting program. At first I told myself that I didn’t need this, I could just buy a cheap blank journal and write down my goals every day by myself. Of course, after a year of telling myself this, it never happened. Once I bought the Self Journal, though, I was committed. I’m one of those people who won’t start working out unless I buy a yoga class, so this was par for the course.

I’ve been using my Self Journal for a couple weeks now, and the biggest thing that I’ve learned is that I waste a lot of time. I put off opening it for a few weeks after I purchased it because I couldn’t justify spending time twice a day to sit and write. Now, however, I’ve realized that this time is there, I was just spending an extra ten minutes on Instagram rather than on myself. I’ve also learned that I’m uncomfortable with thinking about myself. Before I started using this journal, I would spend my days absorbed in other people, constantly texting friends about what’s going on in their lives. Having to reflect on my goals for the day forces me to think more about myself and what I want to get done for me.

I’m not even using the whole journal correctly — it’s divided into three sections based on a long term roadmap, weekly check-ins, and daily reflections. When I first opened the journal and saw a question asking what I wanted to accomplish in the next thirteen weeks, I was instantly overwhelmed. In thirteen weeks I’ll have graduated college and will be moving to a new city and into an apartment I have yet to find. How am I supposed to make long term goals when I don’t even know the start date of my new job? The long term and weekly parts of the journal I’m saving for once I’m situated in a job and have a clearer life plan. For now, the daily entries are plenty helpful for me.

The daily journaling itself doesn’t take a lot of time. The prompts are exactly the same every day, so it’s easy to get into a rhythm. You’re supposed to journal once in the morning and once at night, but I often just do the previous day’s night reflection with my journaling the next morning. The prompts ask about gratitudes, goals, and your daily schedule. Each page has a little quote as well, which can either be inspiring or cliché depending on the day.

I’ve found that taking the time to sit down and write twice a day about what I’m thankful for has had a small, but significant, impact on my day. Now, I walk around looking out for the little things that make me happy so that I can list them in my journal later. Writing down my daily schedule every morning has helped me better plan my time and stick to that plan throughout the day. I’m getting more done, since at the end of each day I have to look back at these goals and write down what I actually accomplished.

As with any form of self-improvement, there has to be some desire from your end to want to change. I have to set aside the five minutes twice a day to journal, and made the decision to keep this up for thirteen weeks. It seems daunting, but at this point I now see journaling as being part of my everyday routine for a long time. It’s a little feeling of accomplishment, but it’s satisfying to know that I’ve successfully kept up with my journal for a couple of weeks now, and can continue to successfully journal moving forward.