7 Ways to Journal through your PhD

 

Journalling has a whole host of (potential) benefits, including improved mental clarity, productivity, sleep habits, and self-awareness. Given there’s a high likelihood that doing a PhD is one of the most mentally taxing things you might ever do, we think that giving journalling a go is worth it! 

Like most things in life, some journalling techniques won’t work for everyone. For example, if the idea of writing 3 pages every day terrifies you, then Morning Pages won’t be for you! So, in this blogpost we are going to give you a quick summary of 7 different journalling techniques that you might like to try.  

 

1. Free writing 

As you might guess, this involves opening a page and writing what comes to mind. You might decide to write for a specific length of time or for a certain number of pages, but the idea is to brain dump. This can be beneficial when you are feeling overwhelmed and just need to get things down on paper. It can not only help to clear your mind, but also to make sense of complex feelings. You might free write to get ideas bubbling before starting a research project, when you’ve had an argument with your partner, or when your mind is racing before you go to sleep. No judgement, just write.  

 

2.  Morning Pages 

Morning Pages is a specific type of free writing in that you (i) write a 3-page stream of consciousness and (ii) do it first thing in the morning. So, what do you write? ANYTHING. The idea is you write down whatever comes to your mind. To get you started, grab an A4 notebook, set aside 30 minutes in the morning, and experiment with your morning routine to see if this fits in (or causes you more stress!). 

 

3. An Art Journal 

Words not for you? Why not try an art journal instead? You could draw, paint, cartoon, sticker, whatever you like. It can help ignite your creativity and keep you focused on what you are making rather than trying to find the right words to say.  

 

4. Bullet Journal 

Bullet journalling was developed by Ryder Carroll to manage his ADD whilst at university. It is essentially an organisation tool, complete with calendar overviews, to-do lists, upcoming appointments etc. It can also be used to keep lists of goals, health habits, books you’ve read, movies watched etc. They are flexible in structure and so you can decide to make it as structured or unstructured as you like. Lots of people use different colour markers and stickers to bring their journals to life and there are tonnes of YouTube tutorials on different ways you can lay out your journal.  

 

5. Gratitude Journal  

You might have seen this type of journalling on social media, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the process of listing things you are grateful for, and it has some pretty impressive mental health benefits including increased happiness and productivity! The idea is to focus on what you have and not always be striving for more in the future. It can be easy for it to turn into a tick box exercise (“I am grateful for coffee, coffee, and milk for my coffee”) so try to really think about what you are grateful for and write about it in detail. Some prompts include - something great that happened today/yesterday, an opportunity you have today that you’re grateful for, a person who has made your life better.  

 

6. Reflection Journal 

The aim of reflection journalling is to look back on your day, an interaction, an event and think about how it went, how you behaved, if it could have gone better etc. It allows you to develop your self-awareness and grow as a person as you read back on old entries. You might decide to write your entry in long-form or as a list (or as a drawing!). It can help you to better understand what has happened and make sense of your emotions. It doesn’t always have to be negative reflections either, you might have done yourself proud in how you handled a circumstance so it’s important to journal about those times too.  

 

7. One Line a Day 

This could be a good place to start for the sceptics among us.  It can help us build the habit of daily journaling, but it also is a wonderful way to preserve memories. What might seem mundane today might become one of our most cherished memories in the future. Some prompts include – what happened today? What am I grateful for today? How did I sleep last night?