Quick Journal Writing Technique: Expanded Bullet Points

Following on from Powerful Journal Writing Technique: The Unsent Letter, I would just like to share a different journal writing technique. This is one that I have been using just recently.

I do this about 2 to 3 times per day:

• When I first wake up
• Just before I start my day
• When I've finished my day

What I do is I quickly make a bullet point list of the main things on my mind or things that have happened:

• Thing 1
• Thing 2
• Thing 3
• Thing 4

I then expand these things with quick bits of information about them in further bullet points (including how I feel about them), keeping them as brief as possible. If necessary I can expand some of these further if there are additional details.

• Thing 1
  • Detail 1
  • Detail 2
  • Detail 3
• Thing 2
  • Detail 1
    • More information
    • Yet more information
    • What I'm going to do about it
  • Detail 2
• Thing 3
  • Detail
• Thing 4
  • Detail 1
  • Detail 2

The intention is to get as much information down as quickly as possible, using as few words as possible. I aim to spend no more than 10 minutes on it, and sometimes it doesn't even take 5 minutes. It's so much more efficient than writing long-winded waffle like "Today I went to the shops and Margery was there. She looked at me in a funny way and I wondered why. Then I felt an itch on my ear, which I scratched, before going off into a daydream about donkeys..."

 

• BuzzAldrin
  • Steals other people's stuff
  • Probably does other bad things too
    • For example:
      • Torturing kittens
      • Pushing old ladies into oncoming traffic
      • Taking toys from children and then throwing them in the canal