Journals and Distributed Cognition

[Busydave]

First of all, I have to say that I feel really sorry for the audience on the Getting Things Done Fast CDs. Why? Because I have listened and re-listened quite a few times to these CDs, and every time I do, a new nugget jumps into my head and causes a major light bulb moment. How did those people take it all in with just one listen? Beats me ...but hopefully they all now have the CDs to listen to.

Anyway, my latest light bulb is the combined potential effect of journaling and distributed cognition.

David coaches us through the mindsweep, which helps us get all our open loops down on paper so that we can consider what to do with them. This “distributed cognition” will produce a lot of items for us to consider.

But there are bigger questions to deal with. I am starting to taste the possibilities of really, and I mean really digging in deep to see what long-term obligations or commitments have become buried under the day to day stuff; also I think some thirty to fifty thousand foot issues will also emerge – and I anticipate that this will result from journaling.

To a small extent in the early part of GTD Fast, and to a greater extent in the article linked from the Press Links section of this website to an article entitled "Finding Your Inside Time" in Writer's Digest Magazine, David hints at the deep-cleansing benefits of journal writing.

It occurred to me that of the dozens upon dozens of the “notes to self” that I write, the majority are observations about how and why I do things. When I sit down to process them, they don’t turn into next actions, but I certainly don’t want to throw them away. I feel that quite a few of them are glimpses of the forest floor. I suspect this is journaling.

I have ordered "Journal to the Self” by Kathleen Adams to give me some pointers in journal writing. Maybe 80% of my writing will just be fluff, but I am sure that some overgrown signposts are going to emerge to give me some better insights as to why I feel obliged to hang on to some of my commitments.

Dave

[Day Owl]

As a long-time keeper of journals and owner of (probably too) many books on journaling, I congratulate you on your selection of Journal to the Self by Adams -- it's one of the best.

[Busydave]

Thanks Day Owl. Amazon gave me a lot of suggestions on the topic, but sifting through the reviews persuaded me towards Kathleen Adams. Glad to hear I made a good choice!

Dave

[Tspall]

Journaling can definitely be a big help in helping to "organize the mind". I've noticed that when I'm not writing in my journal, I sometimes get overwhelmed with personal thoughts and feelings. My life can be organized, but my own feelings sometimes need a good mind sweep too.

I've been trying to make it a point to journal at least every couple of days, even if it's just a mind mapping kind of journal entry of my thoughts. Sometimes even just a few minutes of that can be refreshing.

Thanks for reminding us how important it can be to keep our hearts and mind organized as well as life.

[Busydave]

but my own feelings sometimes need a good mind sweep too.

even if it's just a mind mapping kind of journal entry of my thoughts.

Good tips!

I’m hoping that Kathleen Adams' book will give me other similar pointers to get me past that staring-at-a-blank-page stage.

Dave

[Jamie Elis]

How much time do folks who journal spend writing and re-reading? When I try to re-read things I have writenn about, like my activites or reactions or states of mind, I don't understand what I was writing about unless I spent a lot of time writing about the context, so I am more in favor of using logs or checklists of various types,but even that doesn't get me very far. Am I missing something fundamental in the process?

[Tspall]

Not necessarily. Some of it depends on the purpose for your journaling. I rarely reread my journals. It's a chance for my mind to dump some of the emotional baggage that I'm carrying. These can be both good and bad thoughts. For me, journaling is a place for me to process, in my own mind, the events that have happened.

For things that are more about organizing or recording activities & events, I'll go with a log that I keep in KeyNote. To me, these are two seperate things because they have different purposes. Some people will reread their journals, some won't, some will reread them sometimes when they want to do it. They all can be helpful to the writer.

[flexiblefine]

Some of it depends on the purpose for your journaling. I rarely reread my journals. It's a chance for my mind to dump some of the emotional baggage that I'm carrying. These can be both good and bad thoughts. For me, journaling is a place for me to process, in my own mind, the events that have happened.

When I journal, it's for those same reasons -- to get thoughts and feelings out of my head and down on paper where I can deal with them better. In times of personal stress, I journal more, because I have more "background" stuff going on in my head.

When I worked for a startup a few years ago, I was under tons of stress, and my journal helped keep me sane. I regularly came up with new observations about how my mind was working, and having those things down on paper let me keep working with them so I could change (and treat myself better).

I don't usually reread my journals either, but in that same startup time period I reread my journals from the beginning, trying to find the roots of some of the mental habits that caused me trouble -- I was very interesting to see how my feelings and memories about some things in my past didn't match up with what I wrote at the time.

I don't journal on a regular basis -- I basically write when I have something that's bugging me, or when I have free time and I'm aware that I haven't written in a long time. (A quick look shows that my last journal entry was in October.)

[Busydave]

It seems to me that journaling is one of the key tools for higher altitude thinking.

Let’s say you sit down to do a higher altitude review of your life, and let’s say you haven’t done one for about a year. There is a very good chance that you will make some adjustments as a result of that review. The result will be a refreshed sense of alignment.

Now, in the days and weeks leading up to that review there were pressures on your life due to the lesser alignment. Chances are, like me, you will have been writing “notes to self” for a while as you try to make sense of the imbalances you are experiencing. I think journaling would give greater clarity, especially in identifying the things you are not doing that you really feel you should be doing.

Even if you deliberately scheduled a day for higher altitude reviews, I don’t think it could be done in one single sitting. Rather, the subtle discomforts and pressures of the previous weeks need to be evaluated, and the appropriate remedies identified.

And when you can really drill down to the right NA, you just know you are back on track.

Dave

[SteadyEdd]

I'm new to this 'Journaling' concept. Can anyone suggest some resources (web sites etc) to help me understand what it's all about? Thanks in advance.

Edward