2 Reasons Why I Like Journaling Digitally Versus Physically
There’s a lot of people obsessed with journaling.
It’s not just something you do to write about your day anymore. It’s a way to get your thoughts out to gain clarity, to uncover limiting beliefs, or even to identify your goals and obstacles.
Some also use their journals for the Law of Attraction, like the scripting or 365 method. Which, by the way, in my personal experience — it works just as fine digitally, too.
But even with all of the examples I talked about above, physical journaling isn’t the only answer.
And since I’m also a bit obsessed with journaling, I wanted to share my two main reasons why I choose to go digital over physical.
Guided Journals
I am weirdly obsessed with making workbooks.
I’ve made a Confidence Workbook and had posted it on Etsy, but have since took it down and will be editing it. But ever since then, I knew that I wanted to make more.
I have also made some workbooks and worksheets for identifying and overcoming obstacles, identifying and creating goals, and others that are filled with activities, journal prompts, open-ended questions, and more.
I am not going to lie, some of these are not aesthetically pleasing or not in-depth. Just take a look at my free digital workbooks here and you’ll see. Most of these are made in short timeframes and are meant to be short and simple.
My “Goals and Obstacles Workbook”, for example, is one of the most simple and boring-looking workbook I have ever made. And even as I look at it now, I can see a lot of other ways I could improve it — in design, organization, and writing.
Also, as much as it can be fun to design these workbooks like I designed my confidence workbook previously, design takes time.
However, I personally use a lot of the workbooks and worksheets that I make.
These workbooks, or guided digital journals, are great ways to journal with a form of guidance and direction.
Instead of going on and on like I’m doing right now…
Thoughts on paper — and seeing where I went wrong
Physically journaling is good if forcing you to slow down your thoughts is important to you, but for someone like me, who probably has ADHD, it doesn’t benefit me as much as it does other people.
I just end up getting distracted or losing my train of thought instead.
But sometimes, you just need to get it all out. And you need to get it out fast.
It’s a lot easier to brain dump when you can type fast, then go back and see where you went wrong.
Sometimes, it’s hard to understand why you start to doubt yourself.
But with brain dumping, you can quickly type out exactly what you are thinking in the moment that leads to that feeling of self-doubt or loss of motivation.
Here are some actual examples of things I have caught by brain dumping, then looking over what I wrote afterward:
- I realized that I shouldn’t be hard on myself when I kept changing my mind about things, and that it was a process. I was simply trying things out and exploring what I wanted, and that was okay.
- I noticed that certain things were actually triggering certain chronic illness symptoms (this happened multiple times).
- I spotted triggers I haven’t noticed before.
- I came up with ways to get over my perfectionism.
- and much more.
The Brain Dump and Look phase is all about identifying things like triggers, patterns, beliefs, or even good ideas.
Then, journal with open-ended questions and journal prompts to guide you in a specific direction that you want to go.
Using this method, I have helped myself in so many ways with all sorts of unique situations.
I talk about mental wellness and give away free guided journals — are you interested?
All of my digital journals have printable versions, too.
I’m working on creating loads more of guided journals, but if there is a guided journal topic you are particularly interested in, let me know below!
To learn more about me, follow me on social, or see my free guided journals, visit my Koji profile here.
