Many benefits of journalling

From newsday.co.tt

By Debbie Jacob

THERE are many personal benefits that come from writing a journal, and, surprisingly, they all help you to be a better student.

Journals offer the opportunity for self-reflection. The process of writing helps you to express your feelings, face anxiety and become aware of who you are and how you operate. Journalling requires organisation and discipline. Altogether, these benefits can help to prevent procrastination and focus your efforts as a student.

Today, your cyberlibrary explores resources that provide an understanding of the process and the benefits of journalling.

Positive Psychology lists 83 reasons why journalling benefits you at
https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-of-journalling/.

Written by Courtney Ackerman, who has an MSc, the site says journalling “improves your quality of life…boosts your mood…and enhances your sense of well-being.” The website offers tips and guidelines on how to journal effectively. It suggests you choose a theme for your writing and dedicate a certain amount of time to it every day.

Almost every credible article you will read on journalling says that it is a good way to combat depression and anxiety. It’s difficult to concentrate and function academically if you’re sad and anxious, so it could be one of your best tools for academic success.

 

Writing at the beginning of the day can help you to organise your thoughts and your direction for the day

It might be a good idea to begin each day with your journalling, but you will need to determine what time of day best suits your needs. Writing at the beginning of the day can help you to organise your thoughts and your direction for the day. Journalling in the evening gives you the opportunity to reflect on your day.

Consistency is most important. Journalling daily will help you develop discipline and organisational skills, two important skills for success in school.

It can also help improve your writing skills. The more you write, the better you become at writing, so the daily practice will give you much-needed practise. Over time, journalling will help you to settle into the writing process much faster. If you choose a theme, you will have daily practice in developing themes for essays and SBAs.

One of the first decisions you need to make is what form your journal will take. A hand-written journal will have the added benefit of developing the cognition skills involved in note-taking. The physical act of writing will also develop fine motor skills you need for careers such as being a surgeon, mechanic or engineer. You can find fancy journals in stationery stores, but a simple notebook does the trick too.

Online journals have their advantages. They provide daily reminders for you to write in your journal and some provide prompts, which give you a subject to write about each day.

This can be a fast, useful exercise in defining and developing themes.

If you google "journal writing" or "journalling," you can pick up many resources about how to tackle journal writing. These sites usually offer themes for you to write about every day.

All the websites I have looked at offered many reasons about how journalling helps your life. Surprisingly, few stated one of the main reasons I've already mentioned: discipline. The act of writing in a journal daily builds a sense of discipline, which is vitally important for success in your academic work.

Journalling records your actions and thoughts on a daily basis. It offers a record of your present life. In the future you will look back at your journals to see how you felt and how you worked through certain issues. You will have an important historical document on how you got through the year of covid19.

Check out the sites before you start journalling. You can also explore on your own. Just make sure you use the CRAAP test that you learned about last week to find credible sites.

Starting a journal is easy; keeping it up will be your biggest challenge. Penzu.com provides a good online diary. Type www.bustle.com + 11 journalling tips in the google search bar and you will find useful tips on how to be consistent.

If you’re still not convinced about the benefits, read an article called What’s All of This About journalling,which can be accessed at New York Times + journalling benefits.

Journals are fun to write, and they’re even more fun to reflect on in the future. Years from now you will look back on them as a huge accomplishment.

https://newsday.co.tt/2020/11/25/many-benefits-of-journalling/