Tools: Powerful Approaches To Writing Two-sentence Journal Entries

Many, many more people took an interest in my two-sentence journal method than I ever would have expected. Thank you to everyone who shared the original blog, posted about it, or wrote to me about how much you've enjoyed it! I'm glad that my little experiment has proven useful to you.

In the interim, enough readers have asked me about the logistics of journal-writing that I figured I'd do a follow-up blog to cover them. Here I'll go over the different approaches I use when composing my own two-sentence journal entries, reviewing the how and why for each one. I'll also say a few words about how I format my journal (in both its analog and digital variants). Don't think of these as hard-and-fast rules, however! They're simply the methods that have worked best for me, and I share them in case you might find them helpful, too.

Although all of my journal entries end up in a handwritten notebook, few of them actually start there. Truth be told, I more often write outside of my journal first, and transfer my entry to the notebook once I've perfected the day's composition. But I do write directly in the journal sometimes, and am happy to do so if the circumstances call for it.

There are three primary ways my journal entries come into being. Here I've sketched the strategies and mindsets involved, in case you're looking for approaches to adopt or adapt for your own purposes.

I'm a technical writer by day (a great career path if you want to pursue it), which means that work days are often spent tethered to my desk while I scrutinize documents on a computer monitor. When my eyes need a break from the screen – or my brain needs a respite from whatever task I'm completing – I spend a minute or two on my journal.

I rarely have my trusty Moleskine to hand while I'm working, so my writings need to go somewhere else. What I'll usually do is have a piece of scrap paper (or a sheet of loose leaf or printer paper) on my desk at all times. When I take my mental breaks, I'll scribble my usual sentence or two. And I stress scribble – I throw down my sentences quickly and without much forethought. As the day wears on, I polish and rewrite the sentences on each following break, crossing out the original and writing an improved version below it. I'll discard sentences and start anew if a better topic comes along at any point during the day. This continues until I've hit upon an entry I can't improve, or until the work day ends, or until I run out of room on my sheet of paper. W

Source: HackerNews