One of the curse of reading in 2025 is your mind starts to pattern match if this is AI written. Parts of this has tell tale signs of ChatGPT. Like:

> 2. Digital Typing. The Modern Powerhouse

Not to say it is but it kinda means the article is pretty light on "new" information

This is how counsellors and psychotherapist gain insight into themselves.

Back in 1996 I started with just 200 words each week, this is about equivalent to half an A4 page.

Each year this increased by 200 words, until at year 4 you will be writing a personal journal of a minimum 800 words each week.

I used to carry a tatty old cheap notebook and jot down things that interested me during the day.

This could be a thought, a feeling, an interaction with another person, at home, on the train or at work with a colleague.

As the author wrotes, Good Journaling is a dialogue, not a monologue.

example:

I was sitting on the train today on my daily communute into the city.

There was a women sitting in front of me. When she got up to get off at the next stop, she stared at me for a litle too long. I felt uncomfortable.

questions to expand upon:

what is this about? who does she remind me of? Was it a teacher, a bully, a neighbour? What was it about her facial expression that sent a cold shiver down my spine? Is there someone in my past life who has the same expression? Have I felt this before, if so, when.

and so on.

I think the author probably solved the blank page problem for me. I dont journal and I have no intention of picking it up. But the trick I picked up here is when faced with a blank page try to treat it as an answer to a question. Solid idea. Thank you author.

Paper is best. I love flipping through my notebooks. I do it a lot more often, even if only to find the next empty page. I revise my paper sketches a lot more often because I see them again and again.

Digital is faster and more convenient. My journal is in obsidian. My work notes are on my iPad. Everything is synced and backed up. However it's missing the chronological anthology that is a paper notebook.

That being said, I try not to overthink things. The map is not the territory, and my notes are not a perfect capture of my mind at a given time. I don't need to perfectly observe and process everything. Sometimes it's good to just live in the moment.

Taking responsibility for inner dialog is the key.

As for what actually "works", one measure is not whether one produces journal entries (however insightful), but how journalling helps with minding one's life -- in the same way that anticipating a dialog with a therapist or friend might lead one to temper one's own dialog (or conversely, how worrying about what people think might be inhibiting).

I do think that imagining oneself in a constant dialog with Socrates could be illuminating.

Some interlocutors are direct, correcting faults or encouraging you. But the best teachers use indirection, setting you a challenge that should break you of a bad habit or push you to realize a mistake or integrate some insight (Nietzsche intimated that enemies can be better than friends in this regard). People who posit that everything happens for a reason (or, as Thales said, the world is intelligible) do a reflexive form of this, challenging themselves to find that insight or truth.

Similarly, some interlocutors are careful to not inject their own positive bias, but eager to protect against errors; e.g., "the unexamined life is not worth living" says little about what kind of examination helps. That creates essential space for one's own agency.

Ultimately, you create your world, even if you have no choice, so be at least as kind and forgiving as you are critical and diligent.

Totally off topic, but opening this page and seeing the typography makes me want to read it. Yay clarity!

(Edit: the many many paragraphs of fluff before unveiling the actual method did counter this effect somewhat)

I like this sharing of the joy of journaling, thanks for that. I don't quite like the formula described here, though. I would imagine that following a set of questions would make it feel like filling out a templated form – too structured. I really enjoy the flow and natural progression of journaling in a free-form format.

By the way, in addition to occasionally writing a personal journal entry, I also really enjoy keeping notes on my thoughts on the books I read, whether fiction or non-fiction. I love flipping back and seeing what I was going through while reading a really good story, and reminding myself who the characters were, and seeing the important points to remember of some technical material. All good stuff :)

This is an interesting perspective and I like this. I'm going to see how this method goes. I journal and tend to write a lot. This is after years of repeated tries, failures, and re-tries.

I agree with the simple physical pen/paper combo.[1] For the digital part, I suggest sticking to plain-text.[2] Personally, I’ve a feeling video or audio, unless transcribed and texted, will likely become cumbersome and will remain in oblivion.

1. https://brajeshwar.com/2025/notes/

2. “Every device, including ones long gone, and ones not invented yet, can read and edit plain text.” - Derek Sivers

I have been wondering if there is a way to tie this into the zettelkasten method. ie, to clarify and reflect with this sort of journaling. There are only about 100 or so ideas that each of us can deeply understand from first principles and apply on a daily basis. If only each of those could be journaled via this method, and then categorized.

The one journaling approach that has worked for me (and still does after multiple years) is interstitial journaling. It's now the very center of my personal organization system. That's how I organize my work, how I capture new things, how I organize my ideas etc. Everything goes through my daily notes (in Obsidian).

Details details: https://www.store.dsebastien.net/l/knowii-journaling-deep-di...