A key path to success is to start and keep a written journal.

Writing down daily, weekly, and yearly events helps keep your mind focused on your goals and dreams, as well as provides an account of your history you can later share with others.

In another article I wrote on the importance of writing a health and fitness journal, and I stand by that advice, but it’s also a good idea to take the next step and keep a written journal of your days activities.

Good ideas and information you should keep in this journal can be your health and fitness results of the day, as well as how much time you spent performing your daily activities, like watching TV, checking email, working, and side projects.

You should also write down your short and long term goals, your mood, and just speak to the journal like you’re telling another person about your day. You can even make boxes next to your goals in your journal which you can go back at a later time and check off, this way you will be more likely to achieve them as you assigned a positive task in their completion.

Written journals are a great tool for writing down ideas you have, but a lot of the time you may not have your journal with you, or perhaps it’s stored on your computer. This is why I recommend keeping a small notepad idea journal with you and a small pen or pencil at all times.

I find that I have great ideas pop in and out of my head all then time, but if I don’t write them down, when I take time to start working on ideas I had most of the time I forget the ideas and I sit and my desk day dreaming aimlessly. For more on keeping a idea notepad, see my article Always write ideas down on a notepad

So it’s a good idea to both keep an idea notepad, as well as a written journal.

but what If your already great at mentally taking notes and keeping track of your life mentally?
Then I say great! But you’re not going to convince me that it would not be better to both continue to mentally take notes and keep track of your goals, as well as keep written journals and notepads.

The truth is that doing both will increase your chances that you are both remembering everything, and keeping track of your goals and dreams. Like a fitness journal, they don’t have to be complex or professional in any way, they just have to be there and be able for you to go back and read them later on.

In fact the best way to approach a journal is keep it as simple as possible at first, and then if you have more time and wish to write more as well as make it more advanced then by all means do so. Here is an example of what I keep in my written journal.

• Fitness health report of the day: Brief account what exercises I did, how I ate.
• Goals I’m trying to accomplish: Brief list of goals on my mind.
• Ideas: If I wrote down some quick Ideas in notepad, I might jot them down again.
• Brief Summary: Brief summary of the day’s events, my mood, and outlook on tomorrow.