The Stoic Christian Journal System

Journaling showed up in my life about 18 years ago. I carried one around with me and wrote down ideas, wrote poetry, and vented within that small, black notebook.

Today I still use journals, constantly optimizing and refining to make this the best tool to increase my productivity, self-discipline, and growth.

In this course you will learn what works for me and how to start journaling so you can refine and have this amazing tool grow with you.

Nothing in this course is set in stone. If something works better for you go for it. The benefits of journaling increase as you are consistent with writing everything down.

In the "Basic Spreads" section of this book I reference a book called "The Bullet Journal Method". I use some of the elements from this method in my own journaling and want to share them with you.

Feel free to read that book for more ideas but I do advise staying off the bullet journal hashtag on social media. People have very complex spreads and in order to stay consistent with your new habit of journaling we want to keep it as simple as possible.

Keep your journaling system simple and don't build a system that is complex. The more simple the system the more likely we are to stick to that system. The goal is to be consistent. The lower the friction, the easier it will be to execute¹.

When friction is high in starting a habit there is little to no chance of us actually performing that habit.

When starting this new habit, we want to make it so easy that it does not feel like a challenge. It's better to get started than do nothing at all².

Why Men Should Journal

Organization

Organization is a key part of becoming the man God is calling you to be. An unorganized life will bleed into everything you do. The trick to to keep everything in one place. This place is now your notebook.

Structure

As your organization gets better, so does the structure. Structure help take the stress out of life. There will always be stress but excess stress is harmful. Without structure, life is chaos. When our life is in chaos, we stop moving forward.

Discipline

Self-discipline is important to growing as a child of God. This includes following his commandments as well as the instructions set forth in the book of Proverbs.

When we journal in a specific way, we can keep track of our life. We can see where we stumble and how many times we've gotten back up.

If ye love me, keep my commandments. [John 14:15 KJV]

History

Keeping track of our habits and events gives us a history of ourself. Over the years I've built up a small library of notebooks. I can now look back on each one and see where I was at that time in my life.

What make this useful is in how it shows me how far I've come. Obviously, I'm no longer the angsty teenager I was when I started journaling. Looking back on those shines light on the fact that God is moving me closer and closer to being what He wants me to be.

Control

When we journal, all these "why" reasons fall into place. As this happens, our control over our lives increases. We no longer are getting swept around by the wind of life. We know what happened and we can course correct each day to stay on the path God put us on.

The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. [Psalm 1:4 KJV]

Basic Spreads

Let's talk about the basic spreads needed to get started. These are from "The Bullet Journal Method" and are very useful (which is why I keep using them). There are more spreads but these are the ones that I keep using over and over again.

Index

This is mandatory. Without an index we'll never be able to find anything in the future. What good will our journals be if we are unable to look back on the years and find our history?

Then index goes in the front of your notebook. It's a table of contents. Here we write down what page each new month starts on as well as other spreads that we may need to reference at a later date.

Also, don't forget to number the pages in your notebook as you go or else this will cause you a lot of counting.

Weeklies

Each week we set up a page that covers the week as a whole. Most people that are strictly following the Bullet Journal Method are using "monthlies". This is much too broad of a time frame for me and I advise against it.

Each weekly spread is 2 pages, left and right side. You can add things here as you see fit. What's worked best for me is to use this for tasks that I have not finished from previous weeks and habits that I'm tracking to build consistency.

I've also added each day in a list calendar view but find that takes much more effort than I want to put into setting up each week. (More on this later)

Dailies

Dailies are the workhorse of your new journal. It's where you'll spend 99% of your time. It's the place to dump all your fleeting notes. Fleeting Notes are notes that record every idea that pops into your brain¹.

So in your dailies; capture every thought. Don't let them slip into the depths of your mind³. Add each thought, task, and event to your current day. Later you can migrate items as needed.

Topicals

These are collections of information around a specific topic. Think project or vacation planning. Anytime a topic starts to span multiple days or gets too large for any single day; create a topic spread and migrate that information over.

From that point, every new addition to that topic should start and end in that new spread. Don't forget to add the starting page number to your index.

Where to Start

When starting out we want to limit the friction as much as possible. In order to do that we are only going to use the daily logs.

Don't make anything else.

Don't waste time looking for a notebook. Just grab one that you have laying around. Even a piece of loose paper is better than wasting time looking for a nice, new, fancy notebook.

In this starter notebook, write today's date. My preferred way is YYYY.MM.DD - XXX.

i.e. 2022.07.18 - MON.

Now we start logging everything that comes into our mind thought out the day. It does not matter if you end up not executing on the thought. Just get it out of your mind and move on.

Each morning, start with the new date and day name and repeat. when you run out of room on the notebook spread. Then it's time to "migrate".

Migrating Tasks

Migration is a key step in keeping on top of what needs done in your life. When starting out and only using dailies, only migrate your tasks when you can no longer see them in your current spread.

When you start using the weekly spreads, look back on the last week's worth of dailies and carry over anything that is left undone. The only time to not migrate is when the task no longer needs to get done.

After the task is migrated, mark the bullet point with a > symbol. This will help keep track of what you looked at and is a visual reminder that you took action on the task.

If something needs scheduled, use the < symbol and put it on your calendar. For this, I use a calendar app on my mobile device but you can also set up a spread for future events and due dates in your journal if you'd like.

Additions for Building the Life You Want

Habit Tracking

Pick three or four habits you want to start forming. Write the days of the week in one row and list your habits down the side. Leave room to be able to mark off each day you did the habit.

Example:

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
x	x						Habit 1
	x						Habit 2
x							Habit 3

Some people set up their habit trackers on a monthly basis. However, I find this to be too long of a period and creates inconsistency with tracking. Plus, when using a weekly view we can adjust our habits each week as needed.

Routine Builder

Another great system to add into your journal is what I call the routine builder. To do this, take your four new habits and write out your intention for execution.

Routines are just chains of habits we do consistently. These routines must be daily. Because when starting new habits repetition is the goal, not prefect execution ².

When building out your routines it's best to use habit stacking. Habit stacking is when we use already existing habits and attach our new desired habits to them ².

Example:

At 6:00 I will wake up.
After I wake up, I will do as many push-ups as possible.
After I do push-ups, I will drink a pint of water.
After I drink water, I will shower and get dressed.
After I get dressed, I will read the Bible.

Weekly Rolling Task List

This is my bread and butter when it comes to getting stuff done. Once you get the hang of dailies and start using a weekly spread, add this from the start.

The idea is this; each week look back on the last week's rolling task list for tasks that you did not complete. If they are still relevant, add them to your rolling task list. Then look back on the last week's dailies for open tasks and add any that are uncompleted and still relevant or important.

If there is resistance in copying it over ask yourself if it's really a priority for you at this time. If it's not, cross it out and don't migrate it to your new rolling weekly.