Tiny steps: Keep a journal

If you're journaling on paper,
a nice pen can really make writing feel special.

In a simple steps approach to improving your health and well-being, it's important to develop habits that not only support you physically, but support you mentally and emotionally as well.

Keeping a journal is one of the simplest steps you can take to support your mental and emotional health.  Like all of your other healthy habits, the most important thing about keeping a journal is finding a way that it fits into your life.  Some folks like to keep them online.  For me, I just keep one of those black and white composition books.

Journaling can help you organize your thoughts, increase your attention span, and help you focus.  It can also help you get out the mental clutter each day that's getting in the way of your productivity and preventing you from being your best self.

New to keeping a journal?  Here's a great way to start.  Decide whether you'll keep an electronic journal or a paper one.  Set aside a time each day, with no distractions, and write for three pages without taking a break to do anything else.  (If you're working online, that can be a real challenge!)

Things to remember:
*It's the habit of writing that's important, not the content of the journal
*Do not edit as you write.  This exercise really is about getting your thoughts out as they come to you
*Finding a quiet space with no distractions
*Resist the temptation in the middle of your writing to check your email or facebook.  You really are working to increase your attention span
*Choose a time of day when you know you can be successful.  (If you know that your morning is all about getting out the door, that's a bad time to try to journal.)


Give it a shot this week and let me know how it goes!