[0:00]Let's talk about journaling and vomit. This is a picture of me at 18. Here's me at 25, and here's me now. Now, these three guys, they don't have a ton in common, but there is one thing. This druggy little teenager, this quarter life crisis dude who's losing his hair, and this sober happy suburban dad, they all journal. Journaling is one of those things that massively changed my life, but there is a problem with it. There is a lot of hype, but there isn't that much instruction. The general message is journal, and it'll change your life. And so, you sit down at a blank page, and uh, now what? Should I start with dear diary? Do I talk about my day? Do I talk about my childhood? Am I allowed to use this for a shopping list? What are the rules? If you've ever wondered why journaling isn't doing that life-changing thing that it's meant to, or even if you love journaling, and you're looking to love it more, then I made this video for you. But first, I should probably explain the title. The vomit system. To me, journaling is vomiting. So, you know when you're really, really sick, and you've got windy roads, maybe you've got plaster last night. I don't know. For whatever reason, you're just not feeling good, and then you vomit, and you kind of do feel good. In the moment, vomiting is pretty gross, but just after, you're like, "Oh, I feel better. I think that was what I needed." Now, I've journaled for 15 years, which means I've tried hundreds of techniques. Some were great, others not great, but the good stuff stays with you. And in this video, I want to take you through that good stuff. My all-time favorite journaling techniques, and the system that I think about them in. The vomit system. All right, let's do it. So, what is this? That's probably the question that you got right now. What this is, is the five main reasons that I journal, the five things that I use journaling for. One reason starts with V, another reason starts with O, then M, then I, then T, and the entire topic starts with J. So, if you're playing along with the Alphabet Super Set, this video is J. Now, let's talk about vomit. I feel like I'm going to keep saying that. First reason. I journal to vent. I've also made this the first reason, because this is how I started journaling, and it's how I start a lot of journaling sessions. I'll show what I mean. Vent: "Write what makes you angry" - Po Bronson. This is a quote from the writer Po Bronson, who said whenever he has writer's block, he just thinks of something that, you know, makes him mad. And it's not that he's trying to write a rant, it's just that rants come pretty easy, you know? It just rolls right out of you. I start with whatever makes me angry, and that usually gets me over that hurdle of starting. Now, as much as venting is a tool to get us into the flow, it does have some practical benefits. One of the big ones is the mind dump effect. So, come on, red! So, before journaling, I kind of see my mind like that. Afterwards,
[2:42]It's like that. It's this indexing effect. Things are chaotic up here. Things are not chaotic up here. There's this quote that I like, "I don't know what I think until I write it." Apparently, Joan Didion and like 30 other people said that. It's one of those ones where there's like a think piece on where did this quote originate. But regardless of its origin, I really like its meaning. Because basically what we're trying to do is get all of this mess and put it on paper. And paper, it's finite, it's trivial, it's clean, we can sort of see what's going on. The thing that I liken it to is looking for your keys. If you're looking for your keys in a dark room, you probably couldn't find them. As soon as you turn on the light, you're like, "Oh, got him." This is when the lights are off. I have no idea what's going on up here. This is when the lights are on, and I'm like, "Oh, there's that nasty thought. There's that cognitive distortion. Maybe I'm not a train wreck." And that is vent, the first thing that I like to journal for. Now, we have O, obligations. Yeah, specifically to make sure our obligations aren't just rogue intrusive thoughts that just bug us throughout the day, and also to get them done. This step is similar to venting in the sense that we are mind dumping, but the big difference is we are not just mind dumping our thoughts, but our responsibilities. Our to-do list, we're just trying to, I'm going to say it again, vomit it onto the page. The idea here is that we don't want to use our brain to store problems. How smooth. We want to use it to solve problems. And in order to free up that space, we want to put all of our problems onto the journal. Also, if you want to explore just how far you can take this indexing idea, just taking your thoughts and putting them somewhere else, check out Tiago Forte's concept of the Second Brain. Super fascinating stuff. All right, let's get into actionables. When I am using journaling for obligations, what I do is these four things. So, firstly, I'll start with an obligation dump. This is where it's like anything that could remotely be considered an obligation. Everything from I need to write this check, I need to get this film built, I need to clean the kitchen, I need to write back to this email, I need to update my license, I want to buy a boat. Everything, everything from the mundane to the grandiose, just get it all on the page. Next, I organize it. I've drawn some buckets here. That's fun. In terms of actual buckets, I usually just split this up into like broad categories, you know, like family, finance, health, work. Now, we get to step three, prioritize. I've drawn a boat here. You probably know the story. It's this UK rowing team that won gold one year, and when the coach was asked what the secret formula was, he said, I just gave them all one guiding question. Does it make the boat go faster? Do you want to eat broccoli or a cake? What a crossroads, right? What a normal decision. But, for example's sake, I'll roll with it. Broccoli or cake. Which one are you going to eat for breakfast, buddy? Instead of having to mull over all of the pros and cons, the team would just encourage to ask one question. Will it make the boat go faster? Therefore, pick the broccoli. Sorry, cake. So in terms of journaling and organizing all of these obligations and the to-do list, I usually run it past a guiding question. There's a decent Tim Ferriss question that I like for this, it's which thing on this list, if done, would make everything else easier? And that usually rises the correct obligations to the top. And then finally, I put it into a to-do list form. That's what I got right here. So, bare minimum and killing it. This is how I truncate my to-do lists. I write out the bare minimum that I need to do that day. What is the least amount of things that I need to do in order to make tomorrow suck a little less? And then, if I'm really in the mood, what could I get done? Now, I've used this split system for years, and what I really like is it minimizes the guilt that you might place on yourself if you don't get enough stuff done. It creates momentum, because the bar is set low, so you do achieve stuff, and it accounts for the normal ebbs and flows of life. Some days are really, really hard, and on those days, it is really nice to know what the bare minimum that you have to do is. And that brings us to M. The next thing that I like to use journaling for. What could this be? I use journaling for my mindset. Do you know this guy? This is meant to be a brain, and it's training to get a better mindset. I promise this is going somewhere. So, I like to understand mindset in two ways. The first way is with a tech metaphor. The mindset is like the operating system that your computer runs, and the second is something that you can train. Hence, the swell brain. But training your mindset is one of those phrases that just doesn't sound like it's going to lead anywhere, you know? Super vague, man. It's like, what do you do with that? What's the action that you take? And this is where journaling comes in. Here I've got six journaling techniques that I will use from time to time to improve my mindset, and from 15 years of journaling, I'd say that these are probably my favorites. All right, so the first one, reframing. I've talked about this so much, but my favorite journaling question is, how is this the best thing that's ever happened to me? And I've asked that about some deeply, deeply painful things. And it feels so inappropriate, but the thing about your brain is it just starts looking for answers. When you ask that question, it's like, could be this, could be this, could be this. It's wrong every time, but starts breaking your thinking, and it helps train your mindset to just naturally reframe stuff. Next one, possibility. If you are struggling with like limiting beliefs or just doubting yourself, it might be worth checking out because statements. What's a because statement, Mr. Ball man? I will tell you, don't worry, I got this. A because statement is a way that we gather evidence that we are whatever the thing that we say we want to be is. Because it's not like you can yell affirmations at yourself and just have your identity change. If, for example, you're trying to be healthier, you can't just yell in the mirror, I am healthy, I am healthy, I am healthy. I mean, you probably could do that. Maybe you'd get a sweat. But ultimately, it's probably not going to be that effective. Instead, we want to build tangible bank of evidence that we're healthy. So, you write the identity statement, the one that you might want to yell in the mirror, I am healthy. Then you write because, and then at the end of the day, you find a few reasons that actually validate this from your day. Now, this works on three levels. Firstly, it's positive, because you do start to actually piece together the evidence, and that's the thing that will cause change, and actually creates new possibilities. Secondly, I've found that this will make me create evidence. You know, if I'm like, I am sober because, if I want to finish that sentence, I got to stay sober. And then thirdly, it can actually be a half decent reality check. So, if I'm like, I am 6'4" because I'm not 6'4". It's just not going to happen. The next journaling technique that I use to train my mindset is inversion. For me, what this is about is practicing a reaction that I want to have to problems in my everyday life, and that reaction is to look at the solution, but also look at what the opposite of the solution is. But why? Why do I want that reaction? Well, the reason that I want this is because I find that it makes the solution to things really, really obvious. To the point where not doing them looks quite dumb. An example would be, let's say I want to draw more. It's a bit of an open-ended problem to solve, but with the inversion, you sort of get a better direction. So, while asking how can I draw more, we're also asking how can I draw less. To draw less, I could leave my books where I can't see them. I could put my pencils in the cupboard so there's more friction, and I could spend any window of time that I have on my phone. Immediately, I realize what I'm doing wrong, which I find gets me to the answer of what to do right a lot faster. In a journaling prompt context, this is just about taking whatever question it is that you're asking, and asking the opposite. Next technique for mindset training is perspective. Hmm, this is fun. So, you know that whole phenomenon that other people's problems are easier to solve than your own? Like, you know when your friend has this conundrum and they're like, "What do I do? What do I do?" And everyone's like, "Obviously, you do this. You just do this, man." But they still deliberate, and it's not as clear as it is to everybody else, and it makes sense, obviously. You know, they're the ones who actually have to live it, they're the ones with all the nuance. Whereas the people giving the advice have the luxury of not getting caught in the details and perspective. And that is what we can practice. Giving ourselves perspective. So, the journaling prompt here is, if you were a friend who was giving you advice on this situation right now, and you really, really wanted you to succeed, what advice would you give? We are practicing looking outside ourselves in order to help ourselves. Next up, we have discipline. This is a bit of a meta tool, because it's not about a journaling prompt, but just the entire action of journaling. So, just like with because statements, discipline is something that is evidence based. You know, you have to build that up in order to believe yourself that you actually are disciplined. It's one of those things that you got to practice when things aren't easy as well, but man, this really, really helped me out a lot. I made a full video on this experiment that I did, where in every time I went to look at social media, I switched the placement of the apps, so then my muscle memory just naturally opened the notes app. And then, I was like, "Well, I'm here, I guess I got to journal." And it was really cool, because switching from something that pacifies your brain to something that gets you to actively reflect on what your brain's doing, it just fast tracked this entire process, and yeah, massively glad that I've up to discipline. All right, final mindset thing that we can use journaling to practice, the one that everybody knows, gratitude. Easy prompt, what are three things that you're grateful for today? If you want to spice it up, you can add a bonus prompt. Make the first thing you're grateful for something mundane, make the second thing something that happened by chance, and for your third thing, it's something that you made happen. Write them down, and watch your brain gets well. All right. Vo me. That's where we're up to. The next thing that I use journaling for, I use journaling to ideate. The skill of having ideas is one of those things where, I don't know, there's so much messaging about it being innate, and if you don't have it, you can't do it. It's just not true. You can absolutely work on having ideas. You can build that muscle up strong, man. And journaling, I think, is a really great environment to do this. So, let's say you've got a problem that you're trying to solve. Maybe it's a big problem, like where do I want to live, or a creative problem, like what should I draw today, or even a problem of what do I do on the weekend? Whatever it is, and there is always something. What I like to do is put on a timer of 5 minutes, and then challenge myself to come up with 30 answers before the timer goes off. You know that phrase, if you want a kitten, ask for a horse? This is like the cognitive version of that. If I want one solution, I've got to come up with 30. And usually, I find it's like the 14th idea that I go with. But yeah, one thing that I find really important is just don't edit the list until it's over. It's a quantity game. The second technique that I like to use to ideate is how would blank solve the problem? And that could be anybody. I learned this when I worked in advertising. My first year, I was working for this amazing creative director, and every time we get a brief, he'd say things like, what would Nike do? How would Red Bull solve this problem? And every single time it would just break our thinking in the best way possible. You can substitute this with anything. It's sort of the basis of what would Jesus do, I guess.
[12:54]And then the third technique for ideating that I like using is open the loop. We like closing the loop, or our brains do, I guess. Our brains love to close the question loop. If a question is posed, our brains want to answer them. How many regular sized ducks could you fit in a Kia Carnival? I've just opened a loop. It's a question out of nowhere, but it still opens a loop in your brain. Your brain's just naturally going to the size of a duck and then the volume of a minivan, and it is just keen to get to the answer. It wants the resolve, and we can use this so much in our journaling. If there's a question that's on your mind, ask the question. Just write it down, and your brain will naturally try to close the loop. This technique, I find really good when I'm really struggling with a problem. And the way that I do it is, I'll write down the question just before I go to bed, then I go to sleep, and then hopefully, I wake up and I try to answer it. And for me, at least, it works more often than it doesn't. Close the loop. Speaking of closing the loop, it's time for our final letter in the vomit system. T, trajectory. Yeah, I use journaling to get a good sense of my trajectory. And also to tweak it as I go. All right, last letter, let's have a little look. So, I split trajectory up into direction and day-to-day. What I've got here is two different journaling techniques, one's for the macro, one's for the micro. Direction. This is a pretty well-known prompt, but here's how it goes. So, to make sure that we are on the right direction, we have our goal up here, let's say it's a financial one. I want to save a thousand bucks. Then you look at the day that you've just had, or the week that you've just had, whatever the time period is, and you ask whether you're moving away from that goal or towards that goal. To answer this, you can compile evidence. So, evidence for away could be like, "Oh, I got Uber Eats." That wasn't wise. Evidence for towards could be, but I canceled like eight subscriptions that I'd forgotten about, or I resisted the urge to impulse buy. Whatever it is, then you just adjust accordingly. So, if you're moving away, you sort of tweak that behavior. If you're moving towards, just keep it up. Order Uber Eats, delete Uber Eats app, put your saved money into savings. If you're doing good, double down. And our final journaling technique for today is about getting the day-to-day hidden metrics. A hidden metric. All right. So, we've got visible metrics, things like money, then we've got hidden metrics, things like happiness, fulfillment, peace of mind. And the problem when these are hidden is they can get ignored. And this can lead to all sorts of misery pretty quick. Like people choosing to work a little longer instead of spending time with their kids, because the dollar we can count, but the quality of the relationship we can't. But just because the metric is hidden, doesn't mean that it is any less important. But what helps with these hidden metrics is making them visible, and this is where journaling comes back in, and actually, starts creating change. These three questions, it's one of my favorite journaling prompts, but basically, at the end of every day, you ask yourself these three questions. What excited me today, what drained me of energy, and what did I learn? If you do this for 30 days, you will get seriously good data on yourself. Honestly, you'll see the patterns by like five days, and you'll be like, all right, I get the idea. I got to do some stuff. A Kia Carnival can hold around 494.7 regular-sized ducks. And this concludes the vomit system. Yeah, thank you very much for watching. I hope you enjoyed that. Also, if anybody has any cool journaling prompts, chuck 'em in the comments, 'cause I really like collecting them. I just think they're fun. But yeah, I hope you enjoyed the video. I hope you have a beautiful day, and uh, vomit. Catch you.
