Journaling has no “one size fits all” what may work for you, may not work for someone else; Bullet Journals, Photo Journals and the latter, but is there a wrong way to journal? The WRITE Method supports individuality, there is no right or wrong way to journal. It all comes down to your own expression, and how you are feeling at the time of your entry.
WRITE stands for:
Whatever
Review
Investigate
Time
End
Whatever: You don’t need to have a running theme, you don’t need to be super organised, you put to paper whatever you want. That’s it! There is no need to ensure everything is correct, as long as you understand and resonate with whatever it is you are writing about. You may not even want to write anything, instead you may be inspired to draw or include “mementos” to help express how you felt or what you got up to for your entry.
Review and Investigate: This is where you look back and see how everything connects back to you and your life, how do you feel now its down on paper. It could be that now you can see it all in another light or it evokes the emotions you felt while in the situation relating to your entry. You may even add notes at these steps, which did run through your head while in the moment of original entry, giving yourself more insight into your emotional experience.
Time: While Journaling should be something you enjoy and not a chore, you should set time a side everyday to help you get into the habit of managing your time. Focus on getting what you want on the page and not your grammar or punctuation, you can go back and fix that after in the review stage.
If you are just starting out on your journaling journey, it may feel a little strange to create this “ritual” but in the long run you will start to see the true benefits.
End: Choose a time which makes sense to you to stop, let everything sink in, start your review and investigate steps. Don’t put too much pressure to do pages and pages, but again don’t restrict yourself if you do feel like you want to keep going.
This method may not be the one for you either, and that’s okay, there are so many different methods to journaling so finding one that is for you shouldn’t be to difficult. As William Wordsworth said, “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” Only then will you find what works for you.
