[Time you'll need to read this - 10 minutes. You'll do a quick exercise, create something valuable and consider 3 tips. BAM! EASY!]
Dear WeChat Friends,
This a temporary page for a recent WeChat post. The rest of the Big Sky Café site is being developed - you can practically smell the fresh cut wood and hear the voices of workman relaxing over free coffee! Look around if you like - but come back later as we get more things ready and wrestle down some typos.
Now let's get to what brought you here. We are going to keep this extremely short and simple and dig into it more in later posts.
There a thousand ways to approach journaling. The Big Sky Café will discuss many. But the most important thing right now is to make right use of your motivation and get started immediately on generating sustainable approaches and habits. The tips below are designed to give you a good start before you leave this page. You can come back to this site later and we'll dig deeper, elaborate and adapt for personal preferences. For now, just start!
Do this exercise right now - you'll see why in a minute.
Step 1: Get ready to write down three notes. Take the notes on something that you usually have with you - like your phone, a tablet, a notebook or just a piece of paper in your wallet or pocketbook.
Step 2: Write down the current date and time.
Step 3: Write down the name of someone who recently did something nice for you. Include a word or two about what they did.
Step 4: Write down something you recently did for the first time.
Step 5: Write down the name of a book, movie, TV show or documentary that you recently looked at.
Step 6: Write down the current time.
Stop!
Look at your start time and finish time. How much time did you use? This is how much time you will need to capture some of the value and meaning in your life. You can come up with that kind of time - right?
Keep what you wrote. It is a completely valid journal entry. Later we'll talk about how to combine it into the larger picture of your life.
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Here are 3 tips for starting journaling habits you can stick with. They are designed to create fast value and to avoid the traps many of us fall into.
Tip 1: Use what you have right now
Find something you can use to take notes with. Pick something you have with you most the time. Most phones have a note taking tool. Or use paper - something you can keep in your wallet or purse. If you have place and inclination to keep a note book - OK. But don't wait for that. Pick up something you can use today. You can migrate the notes to other places later.
Tip 2: Start Small, Short and Sweet
If your just starting limit yourself to 10 minutes or so a day until you see the value of what you're doing. Don't commit yourself to anything more elaborate. You might very well do more over time - for now focus on building some immediate and clear value and creating simple sustainable habits. If you are on fire and just have to elaborate on something now - do it on the side - after you reach your simple target goals each session. These simple records will form a history and you’re going to be excited about what that gives you over time. With a good foundation - you'll have plenty of time for more ambitious goals. Believe me - there is a universe of elaboration just around the corner - take it easy for now - you can come back to everything later.
Tip 3: Keep It Simple and Positive
Pick three simple things that you can takes notes on once a day. The three topics you used in the exercise above provide a very good start (something nice someone recently did, something new you’ve recently done and something you’ve watched or read).Use those if you like - we'll explain why these are selected in subsequent posts. You will notice that those three things are neutral or positive - this is very much on purpose - and its hugely important! We’ll explain that next!
That's it for today! We'll take this further in the next days
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Big Picture:
Journaling is a big part of what goes on under the Big Sky. I am migrating a large amount of process, methodology and training material from an earlier project which focused in part on journaling in service of learning, mental/emotional health, creativity and personal growth (Designs On Knowledge). This migration is done incrementally in order to work the concepts into the special goal of Big Sky - "Developing an Integrated Psychology of Learning, Self-Development and Happiness." If you have time you can read why journaling is such a big part of the Big Sky ->.
Get in touch if you're interested in this or other parts of the Big Sky project: Send me a WeChat or email (timothy.smith@outlook.com)