How I Journal

Young Man Writing, Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier, 1852

I recently went to a bookstore in Austin with a couple friends of mine. We were looking for Christmas gifts for our families, and one of them decided on getting some stylish journals. This prompted a conversation about the act of journaling, and how profound of an effect it has had on our lives.

But the more we talked about it, the more we realized that journaling is not properly taught to people when they are young. One friend remarked how great it would be if you started the day in elementary school by journaling. Ideas like this got me thinking about how—although there are not any rules for journaling—it would be useful if there were more education about it, particularly in explaining why it is important.

Since 2021, I’ve filled out eighteen journals more or less cover to cover. Why would I do this? Because writing is infinitely valuable. Writing helps you remember things. Writing helps you forget things. Writing helps you sharpen your critical thinking skills. Writing helps you understand yourself better. Writing helps you understand the world better. Writing helps you become wiser by making you realize your limitless ignorance. And along with weightlifting, writing is the most transformative habit in terms of changing your mood. I’ve never worked out or journaled and not felt better, more confident, and more clear-minded.

You don’t need to sit down and write The Brothers Karamazov part two to reap the benefits of writing. That would be cool, don’t get me wrong, but if you don’t feel like doing that you can just keep a journal for yourself. It is like magic. And there is no right or wrong way to do it. That is the beauty of it. You can write whatever the fuck you want. What you put in your journal doesn’t have to make sense to anyone but you.

If you read my journals, some of it would seem like the scribblings of a madman. The topics are all over the place. There will be a four-page entry about some idea I’ve been wrestling with, then an inspiring quote I read online, then a reminder about something, then another page-long paragraph about some upcoming plans, then a few sentences about how beautiful the view of the sunrise is, and on and on. There is a chaotic nature to capturing your thoughts on paper, but it is also soothing.

It is not only soothing but intellectually enriching. There is a short story by Ted Chiang called Understand where a man becomes more intelligent through a new type of drug called hormone K. Sounds like a great drug, right? But don’t you know that this drug already exists? It’s called pen to paper.

Now, while accounting for the timeless idea that began with Socrates—something echoed by Feynman in his statement, “I’m smart enough to know that I’m dumb”—it cannot be denied that noticeable changes in the effectiveness of your mind occur when you make a habit of writing. Or, as Chuckie Sullivan from the film Good Will Hunting would say, you become wicked smaht. And this, of course, is manifested through your behavior changes. You make better decisions, you think more long-term, and develop more sophisticated ways of thinking and speaking. Here is how a character from another one of Ted Chiang’s short stories describes the way writing affects your mind:

“…writing was not just a way to record what someone said; it could help you decide what you would say before you said it. And words were not just the pieces of speaking; they were the pieces of thinking. When you wrote them down, you could grasp your thoughts like bricks in your hands and push them into different arrangements. Writing let you look at your thoughts in a way you couldn't if you were just talking, and having seen them, you could improve them, make them stronger and more elaborate.”

Put differently, the more you write, the more likely you are to engage in error correction. As the physicist David Deutsch has explained, correcting errors is a fundamental part of knowledge creation. It is easier to correct errors in your thoughts when you turn them into ink. When a vague notion floating around your mind becomes a solidified statement, you can better analyze it and think critically.

What is unique about writing is that it is an active learning process. You can watch Jayson Tatum shoot a basketball all you want, but if you want to have a smooth jumper yourself you have to get shots up. It is somehow not obvious to people how much more deeply you learn something when you write about it, as opposed to only reading, which is mere consumption. It goes back to an ancient Latin aphorism: Homines dum docent discunt—men learn as they teach. The topics I can speak about with the most confidence and fluency are often topics I’ve written about, and that is no coincidence.

Now that I have sufficiently expressed my love of journaling, let’s get tactical in conclusion. I like to use the Pilot G2 Premium Gel Roller Pens and Deziliao Lined Journal Notebooks. My preferred setting is in a coffee shop early in the morning, but I write whenever inspiration strikes. There are not many things that bring more satisfaction. I’d bet that readers of this blog are more likely than most internet audiences to know the particular type of satisfaction I’m talking about. But if you do not, I encourage you to find out. Playing with language is an endlessly rewarding game.