• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Dear Sabrina

  • Family
  • Happiness
  • Life in Sweden
  • Beauty
  • Thinking
  • Miscellany
  • About
    • Now
You are here: Home / Happiness / An Alternative to Journaling: Micro-Journaling

An Alternative to Journaling: Micro-Journaling

April 3, 2017 By Jodi

Stack of black Moleskine journalsIn my footloose and fancy-free days, I whiled away a lot of hours in cafes, drinking tea (later lattes) and scribbling in a journal. I've got a stack of classic black Moleskines to prove it. I'd paste in ticket stubs and magazine images, copy down quotes, and, of course, reflect on whatever was going on in my life at the time.

Now I'm a mom (of three!), and I have very little time—or mental energy—for such prolonged naval-gazing, though I miss it dearly. I loved to journal, but it's just not something that fits into my life at this moment. I've tried doing a one-sentence journal and found even that to be too burdensome most nights. (Does anyone else remember Doogie Howser's one-sentence journal??) But a few days ago I came across the idea of micro-journaling on Todd Brison's website. The basic idea is to choose a category and write a list of ten things in the morning to get your brain warmed up for the day. That's it. Well, if you want to follow his model in total, you also write the date and one thing you are thankful for. Here's Brison's take on it:

If you’re worried about what to write, here’s the fun part. It doesn’t really matter what the list is made of. The whole point, really, of any intellectual morning routine is to make your brain go “hmmm.” When the brain goes “hmmm,” you move from instinct to higher level thinking. Honestly, the number of things you list doesn’t really matter either. Do whatever it takes to get to the “hmmm” moment. If you list 10 colors, and you didn’t once have to try and remember one, the activity is a worthless. However, if you’re me, and can only think about 4 colors at any given moment, this would be a challenge. If your prompt happens to be “Things that could improve the American political system,” you might hit the “hmm” right away. I am much too scared of this topic to try a list on it.

If you're interested in doing this you can sign up to receive a list of 31 prompts to get you started each day. While I'm sure I could come up with my own categories and write lists that are more meaningful for me, I've downloaded the prompts anyway. I need a head start. 🙂

Stack of Moleskin journals with quote

I'm going to treat this a bit like a 31-day happiness project. I'm not making any other resolutions (believe me, I'm busy enough with a newborn) except to write a list every morning (or as close to morning as I can get ten minutes of quiet to myself). Does anyone want to join me? I'd love to have a buddy or two for accountability and reflection. Send me a note if you're interested.

Do you journal? Have you tried bullet journaling? I've heard so much about it but haven't tried it yet, but I'm really intrigued.

Some thoughts about beauty and some thoughts about clothes.

Photos by me.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Related

Filed Under: Happiness, Happiness Project

Previous Post: « Using My Superpower: Donating Breastmilk
Next Post: Great Parenting Books That Don't Make Me Feel Like a Shitty Mother »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

About Jodi

I just repatriated from Sweden to the US with my British husband and three young kids. I started this site while living in Sweden to build the conversations and community we've had with loved ones around the world, and to create a space to share thoughts about life, beauty, motherhood, and everything else. read more →

Connect & Follow

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Receive the weekly newsletter

* indicates required
/ ( mm / dd )

Recent Posts

Preschool in Sweden: the Basics

October 7, 2016 By Jodi 13 Comments

boy-playing-in-boat-preschool-in-sweden

Let me start by saying that I never know whether to use the word daycare or preschool when referring to the place where kids spend their early years here in Sweden. I suppose that's because it's sort of a mix of what we know those two places to be in the US. While I will continue to use the word preschool here, do...

Read More

Alternative (and Free) Souvenir Ideas

January 31, 2017 By Jodi Leave a Comment

Blue bottle and rock cairn

Slipping away to some exotic or culturally rich location for a vacation is wonderful; bringing home souvenirs from that vacation, which jog travel memories and help the vacation last longer in your mind, is also wonderful. But that doesn't mean you have to stop at those kitschy, overstuffed bric-a-brac shops and pony up for some mass-produced (and questionably...

Read More

A Morning at Denison Farms (Photos!)

October 31, 2017 By Jodi 1 Comment

Raspberry bushes at Denison Farms

It’s probably hard to believe that a couple weeks ago, I absconded one morning to a cafe for an hour of blog-planning and latte-sipping, no babies on board. I had more than a dozen ideas for posts I was excited to write—and then life happened, as it always does. Since that glorious hour of alone...

Read More

Preparing To Go Home, and Some Links

October 19, 2016 By Jodi 2 Comments

even batky mountain lake with ripples

Tomorrow I'm flying back to Michigan to be with my family. It's been a weird few days here in Sweden, being so far removed from my childhood home, my mother and brother, our extended family and our friends. I've had to continue on with life as normal here, even with a heavy heart. I've felt as though my grieving...

Read More

Categories

  • Beauty
  • Family
  • Happiness
  • Life in Sweden
  • Miscellany
  • Thinking

Follow me on Bloglovin'

Follow

Instagram

Footer

About Dear Sabrina

Welcome! Dear Sabrina is a lifestyle blog for the thinking woman (and man, if men read lifestyle blogs). I hope that visiting this site gives you something to think about, makes you laugh, or shows you something new. If you want to further connect, find me on one of networks below or send an email.
Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think. More about me…

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Copyright © 2023 · Jodi Elliott

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.