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Journalling has been one of the most important habits I’ve ever developed and has had a dramatic impact on my life. In this video, I go through why I think journaling is so powerful and share the best prompts you can use to get started as well. Enjoy x
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I Journalled for 90 Days. Here’s What I Learned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHKiDe8E4hY
How to Make Difficult Decisions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XILu7hxDr2w
How to Build a Life You Love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwSD4uCSX_M
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If we haven’t yet before – Hey 👋 I’m Ali, a doctor-turned-entrepreneur and I’ve somehow become the world’s most followed productivity expert. Through my videos here on this channel, my podcast Deep Dive and writing, I share evidence-based strategies and tools to help you be more productive and build a life you love.
⌚️Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:41 – Why Journalling can change your life
4:44 – Level 1 of Journalling
7:46 – Level 2 of Journalling
10:54 – Level 3 of Journalling
11:25 – Odyssey Plan (Prompt 1)
12:03 – The Wheel of Life (Prompt 2)
13:03 – 12 Month Celebration (Prompt 3)
13:28 – Fear Setting Exercise (Prompt 4)
14:26 – Solomon’s Paradox (Prompt 5)
PS: Some of the links in this description are affiliate links that I get a kickback from 😜li
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I do "intro + dev + conclusion" prompt to orient my thought towards a subject and a way to tel a story about it so that it does not concerne only me anymore. (And it trains my writing ability)
I'll start journaling on my iPad.
Decision making journal questions (Odyssey Plan):
1. What does my life look like 5 years from now if i continue down on the same path?
2. What does my life look like 5 years from now if i take a completely different path?
3. What does my life look like 5 years from now if i take a different path but not worry about money or others' opinions?
Tim Ferris fear setting exercise :
1. What is the worst thing that will happen if i do the thing i fear doing?
2. What can i do to prevent each of the worst things from happening?
3. If the worst case scenario happened, what can i do to repair it?
4. What are the benefits of an attempt or partial success?
5. If i dont do the thing that scares me, what will my life look like in 6 months, 1 year, and 3 years?
Anyone else just think of Doogie Howser when he pulled up his journal on the computer. Or are you all too young to understand this reference? 😂
I am curious to know whether you prefer a physical journal or a digital one. If you use both, how do you use each of them, and what do you primarily use them for?
Thanks for sharing this!
I currently use Notion for daily reflections where I write down in a few sentences what happened during the day in general, what was interesting about this day, what was my personal biggest win of the day – things like that. I also have a separate field in my reflection template for the quote of the day where I often put quotes from Ali's videos ^^
And after watching this video, I'll add another field there – for the story of the day.
Oh, and I fill out different fields using different languages so it also serves as a brief daily language practice.
"What would your future self advise you to do in this particular season of life?" I am currently 19 so I'll think about what my 35 or 40 year old self would want me to do right now in university so that life is more meaningful. Loved the video! I'll start off with Fear-Setting exercises, Solomon's paradox and the 12 month celebration as my journaling prompts.🍀
0:58 he outlines the fact he sold Bitcoin 😭😭😭😭
The way you talk about stuff and the video overall is so soothing. Above all, I like the vibe I usually get while watching your videos. Keep it Up!
Journaling is the thing I’m obsessed with. Thanks for this great helpful video🔥
Just yesterday I was archiving my journal pages into a binder. I wrote 150 sheets, or 300 pages of A5 size in 5 months. I believe journal to be the most powerful tool for my mental health. Any time I feel irritated or angry or sad I take my journal and after 5-10 minutes I'm able to look at my "explosive situation" being almost in a zen state of mind)
Prompt no 5
This is so helpful and complete! I'll go back to morning pages, they genuinely helped me so much in the past, I want to go back to that. Thanks for sharing!
I will be adding the 12 Month Celebration prompt to my journaling .
My favt. Is the gratitude one. But gonna start the fear setting one from today!
Love from Balochistan ❤
Great explanation🎉🎉
'What does my life look like 5 years from now if I take a completely different path?'
This is the prompt that I'm going to journal about and the best part is I have started this "completely different path" this morning and I'm not gonna just journal but document the whole experience to my best capabilities. 5 years from now remind me to share my experience and I'll be happy to do so.
: )
Start with Why bye simon
I love having the different prompts becuase sometimes you just get stuck trying to figure out what to write. I already do gratitude journaling or logging in the morning as well as a 5-year journaling writing what happened in the day. I like the idea of writing down about your next decisions and actions becasue I get so anxious both aout the past and the future. I will ry out the Odyssey plan, fear setting and Solomon's Paradox and will add this to my monthly review. Thanks Ali!
What I don't understand with Journaling is that I can't grasp what should go in there. There is usually nothing happening worth writing down. You work, go to the toilet, eat, do sports etc.. Nothing really anything to keep. Similar with emotions. My emotions are basically the same, so there are no Traumata, no emotional events, no up and downs. No idea what to write there. Same with gratitude. I would write every day the same. Nothing to add to what I wrote on day 1. I really don't understand it. The things I work on for myself, I know anyway ; why journal about it?
Hey, Ali, I just wanted to thank you for what you do. Thanks for providing working methods of improving your live and sharing such helpful ideas with a big audience. I've started journaling about a year ago, being inspired by your videos. My sel-awareness and mental health have improved seemingly since then – I journaled in the evenings and it helped me to offload and calm my brain before sleep. Besides – it's very true!) – it's so much fun to go back to notes and being able to recall your emotions and experience on particular days.
Thank you for being there for other people. I genuinely appreciate your personality and actions that help to improve lives of thousands of people for the better.
💛
this video is amazing!
I've been looking forward to starting journaling since last week, though there was no motivation/kickstart/reason to start.
Now, I am Looking forward to taking a step into it now that I know why I should be doing it.
Thanks, Ali, great video:)
daily, gratitude, feeling journaling i liked the most
How much time you waste by measuring the time you spent on everything
Thank you for this Abi Abdaal.
Thank you Ali, for this amazing video. I was thinking about starting journaling again on daily basis and this video came out at perfect time. My favourite prompt was having a conversation with 85 year old self. I think we tend to make things bigger in mind, while if we look at the bigger picture it won’t be that stressful. Will definitely try all these prompts though.
This is an awesome one Ali
My takeaway will be:
• Have a morning journal which will basically start with, "Today is going to be a …. day. It's currently …. and I am sitting here with … (describe something or some things). My plan for the day is to …."
• Have an evening journal which employs a storyworthy approach
• Update your evening prompt to take on a more storytelling approach to what your life should be
• Use the fear-setting exercise for most actions I want to take
• 12-month celebration at the beginning of every year
Nice videos ❤ from 🇵🇰 Helped alot thanks for sharing such a wonderful information ❤❤
Salam Ali, thanks again for another wonderful video. Honestly I'm 31 and I've started journaling ever since I was about 16 or 18 and it did help me much with some misconceptions about myself and make better decisions. But Later after getting my degree my notes mostly went around my feelings and being lost not knowing what to do…etc so I had to stop and I've been on and off ever since. I've been itching to restart this habit and you gave me a little push so I'm grateful . Thanks again. I'm working my way to stop procrastinating and just change my attitude to things, also improve wherever due.
how can we control our mind and thoughts. And, how can we be a good listener?
I had tried many times to journal but i didn't do consistently and i always procrastinating.i have been in this situation since the last 4 years, it worries me alot whenever i saw people who talking about the benefit of journalling. Alhamdulilah i won to do it the last week, and you shared the video the right time😊. Thankz Aliiiii i hope i would continue after I've noticed more about it inshallah. You always encourage us to do better things in our life and teach us everything aspect in life wether it becomes bussiness, finance, self development, health, relationship and e.t.c.
I was considering starting Journaling lately and this video will be where i start, thanks ali abdal.
Commit
I've been journaling since I learnt how to write and it has been a huge blessing
A few days ago I did the Fear Setting exercise. I was wondering if you were going to bring it up. I just sat down and wrote out the 3 qualities/examples I appreciate about my girlfriend and sent it to her so she'll have something nice to wake up to.
I just loved this video. I am planning to take journalling seriously from this moment. Thank you for making such videos Ali. Meanwhile, I am curious to know why do you wear a watch in both hands? Not sure if you have mentioned it anywhere before 🙂
Thank you Ali for everything. You truly are an inspiration to me.
Is it just me or but the Introduction of the video is blurry?
i hve been journalising for more than a year evry single day and the dicipline is the thing you learn and value so much
Ive been journaling for about 3 years now, and I've come to the point where I'm "planning" or brainstorming future projects or decisions and figuring out an actionable plan. But what i love most about it is that it's living proof of all the progress you made when depression and self doubt take over.
I like the prompt of writing 3 things we’re grateful for , it’s easy and really is a mood booster
this is a really good video, i am really glad to see you putting these videos back, the 2020 ali abdaal. My favorite journal prompt is the WTFnc journaling from susan david PHD, wtfnc is just what is the function of this emotion, for eg the function of anger is to see who i am resenting at this moment and see my mistakes and if i did any harm… etc
Thank you for this sharing
the 12 month celebration is actually such a good prompt!