Brief Summary
This video provides a guide to journaling, addressing the common question of what to write about when the words don't flow. It introduces a structured approach to journaling, incorporating personal events, achievements, areas for improvement, and philosophical reflection to construct a coherent life narrative. The video connects journaling to self-improvement and the philosophical concept of understanding one's life as a whole, drawing on insights from philosophers like Charles Taylor and Julia Annas.
- Get a journal and pen you like.
- Write daily if possible, or when you feel like it.
- Use a structured approach: event, pride, improvement, bigger picture.
The video introduces journaling as a simple practice involving three steps: acquiring a journal, selecting a pen, and consistently writing. The main focus of the video is to address the common question of what to write about in a journal, especially when facing writer's block. The video promises to provide a guide to journaling, including tips for when words aren't flowing, and will explore journaling's relationship to self-improvement and its underlying philosophy.
When struggling with what to write, a reliable structure can be followed to generate content. This structure involves writing about a recent event, something you did well, something that did not go well, and then zooming out to consider the bigger picture. For example, the author describes writing about a stressful work event that turned out to be a misunderstanding. Following this, the author reflects on their ability to break down the problem into smaller parts and solve the most important ones. Then, the author identifies their tendency to spiral into anxiety when problems arise and considers how to avoid this in the future by recognizing conditions and thought processes that trigger anxiety.
Many philosophers view humans as storytelling beings who construct narratives about themselves to make sense of their lives. While not everyone has a formal autobiography, people constantly relate events, seek coherence, and place them in a linear format. Journaling is a practice to intentionally take an active role in telling one's life story, aiming to be the author of one's life. Ethicist Julia Annas emphasizes making sense of one's life as a whole, aligning with ancient ethics where the central problem is achieving happiness or eudaimonia through reflective work.
For those struggling to start journaling, the video recommends using the structured format discussed: write about a recent event, something you're proud of, an area for improvement, and then place it in the larger context of your life. This approach helps in constructing a personal narrative and making sense of one's life as a whole.
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Transcript
Full transcript of “How to Journal (Like a Philosopher)”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 so if you want to start journaling it's actually pretty simple there are basically three steps first just get a journal find one that you like I like these Lloyds terms soft covers lately second get a pin that you like to write with I really like fountain pens but you should just pick whatever works for you and third the step is to just write make a habit of it try to write every day if you can and if you can't write every day just write when you feel like it it really is that simple but every time I talk about journaling on this channel I get one question over and over what do you write about so in this video I'm going to give you a guide to journaling I'm going to tell you what to do when the words aren't flowing and along the way I am going to talk about journaling's relationship to self-improvement which is one reason so many of us journal and also the philosophy behind it all if I'm struggling to write I found that there
0:46 is a reliable structure that I can follow that lets me write about a Page's worth of content First I write a paragraph about something that happened that day or if I'm journaling in the morning something that happened the day before this is a purely factual account I'm just writing about some event in my life something that was notable I'm being selective here I'm not writing about everything that happened to me and I am not aiming for this to be a comprehensive account of my entire day so as an example a few days ago I was writing in my journal about something that happened at work basically this event occurred it the details don't really matter for this video but it was something that I found very stressful but it turned out to be a misunderstanding on my part so I was able to get it resolved but it took a little bit of time and there was some
1:31 stress for me until it was resolved that was a notable enough event that I decided to write about it in my journal so after I've written my factual account of the event in my life I then try to write about something that I did well this is something I can feel proud of this is an achievement or a little bit of a success a small victory or even just an instance where I was able to reliably fall back on a habit that I've built up over time to go back to my example I wrote about how when the problem arose I was able to investigate it and I was able to actually figure out what I would need to do to solve the problem now because it turned out it was a misunderstanding I didn't actually have to do much but what I was proud of was that I broke the problem up into some smaller problems and started solving the most important ones after I've written that paragraph I write a
2:17 paragraph about what did not go well this is an opportunity for me to identify problem areas in my life to identify places where I want to improve these can be besetting vices so the sorts of mistakes that I make over and over again or it could be bad habits that I've cultivated that I want to try and break so I'm someone who's prone to anxiety and when a problem arises I tend to spiral for a little bit I can usually then collect myself and solve the problem but I always go through that anxiety spiral and I want to stop doing that so I try and identify times when I let my anxiety get the best of me and then I try and think about how I can avoid that what are the conditions that make me more anxious or what is the thought process that my anxiety always seems to follow because one very
3:02 effective technique for combating anxiety is figuring out where the anxious mind goes wrong and actually being able to reason with yourself so far I have written about an event I have written about something I'm proud of and something that I'm not proud of a success and a failure but after that there is still something else worth writing and that is when I try and zoom out and think about the bigger picture this part really isn't a paragraph it can sometimes just be a paragraph but it often extends to pages on those days when I have a lot to think about what I'm really trying to do is figure out what this event has in common with other events in my life or really I am trying to fit this event into a larger narrative about my life I am giving a sort of internal logic to my life story
3:48 and I am using my journal as an opportunity to do that let's talk a little bit more about this in the philosophy behind it many philosophers just to name a few Charles Taylor Aleister McIntyre Mario sheckman uh Martin Heidegger there are many others but those are some notable names they think of persons as primarily storytelling beings so what makes us persons as opposed to Mere animals is that we are able to construct and tell a narrative about ourselves it's not as if we all have a formal narrative written down despite being someone who has consistently journaled for about a decade it's not like I have written an autobiography of myself and even those who write autobiographies don't write totally comprehensive accounts of their
4:34 lives but as we live our lives we are thinking about how events relate to one another we are finding the logic in it we are looking for coherence and we are placing them in a more or less linear format we're being selective we think about some events more than others but all the time as we live we are constructing a narrative about ourselves as we tell this story about ourselves and construct this narrative really we are construct acting who we are what I think is interesting though is that most of us don't take an active role in this construction we do it out of habit and routine my journaling practice is designed actually to break the routine it is designed actually to take a more intentional and active role in telling my life story to myself if my life is a
5:21 story I want to be its author but I also want to be a good author and that takes practice journaling is my practice the idea is that I want to go beyond a fragmented account of my life Julia Annis who is an ethicist and a scholar of ancient philosophy who I really admire calls this making sense of one's life as a whole she discusses this at length in the first chapter of her book The morality of Happiness a book that I highly recommend even if you're not an academic philosopher it's pretty readable according to Anise ancient ethics begins with one simple question am I satisfied with my life as a whole with the way that it has developed and the way that it promises to continue for ancient philosophers like Aristotle the central problem of Ethics is happiness
6:07 or what they would call eudaimania we could also call that human flourishing achieving happiness is no easy task it takes work and a lot of that work is reflective work reflecting on one's life as a whole and that is exactly what a regular practice of journaling can provide so if you have been struggling to get started with journaling maybe give this format a shot all you have to do is write about something that happened to your day write about something you're proud of something where you can improve and then try to place it in the larger context of your life write that story about yourself foreign
