Change Your Outlook - Journaling

Change your outlook – Change your productivity

Post #3 in a Series: Journaling

In his TED Talk, The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor identified five research-based practices shown to increase happiness and productivity when built into your daily routine.

Creating Lasting Positive Change

Three Gratitudes
Journaling
Exercise
Meditation
Random Acts of Kindness

Today, we will focus on journaling. If you would like to revisit the introduction to this series, click here. Use the links in the bulleted list above to access previously discussed elements of change.

Shawn emphasizes in his TED Talk that you can change your outlook and increase your productivity by practicing journaling for a mere two minutes per day.

Two minutes? Yes! Two minutes.

Slatcher and Pennebaker explained the findings of their research in a report entitled, How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Words, that “Writing about emotional experiences is associated with a host of positive outcomes.”

Those who wrote about a meaningful experience for a couple of minutes each day tended to communicate more positively throughout the day. This translates into strengthened relationships among “families, circles of friends, and even work groups.”

How does this work?

Each day:

Identify a significant positive encounter, experience, or thought from the previous twenty-four hours.
Set a timer for two minutes.
Write everything you remember about your significant positive encounter, experience, or thought. Record every detail.
When the timer is up, you’re finished.

Remarkably, refreshing your brain to the positive experience spills over into daily interactions. You come across with “increased emotional expressiveness” and this tends to “strengthen relationship connections”.

Maybe that is why I enjoy looking through photo albums so much. My brain gets to experience the happy memories again.

Watch and listen as Shawn Achor describes how journaling can impact leadership.

Taking Action (2) – Journaling

You may already have a journal or spiral to capture your daily thoughts.

If not, I have designed a sheet you may print.

The Happiness Advantage Journal Guide reminds you of the action steps, includes space to write and the design coordinates with the other printable elements of this series.

What if you are experiencing a particularly “down” time and you are straining to think of a positive experience to write about? This exercise is exactly what you need to ensure your interactions with others are positive.

You may consider a prompt to take your mind to another place. Marelisa of Daring to Live Fully has shared a list of 119 journal prompts.

I particularly like that Marelisa includes a wide variety of prompts such as: create a list, my favorite tradition, reflect on a quote, and what if? And many more! She even includes prompts for visual journaling! There is definitely something for everyone! I encourage you to visit her list of 119 journal prompts.

Remember to track your daily progress on the Happiness Tracker.

Wherever you are in your journey to create positive change, I continue to cheer for you!

There will be three more posts in this series, each one featuring one of Shawn Achor’s elements proven to change your outlook and your productivity. Look for a post on exercise next. Make sure you subscribe to my newsletter. You will not want to miss a post in this series.