by komali2 | 2025-09-14 09:35:35+00:00
My recent journaling breakthrough involved a move to Trilium, where I have calendar-based notes broken into day, week, month, and year. The simplest part of my journaling process is here, and also the most useful: every day, week, month, and year, I review that day and answer some questions. The questions I developed from reading some books on ADHD as well as talking with my therapist.

Daily questions:

1. All habits done that can be? (this is my reminder to meditate if I haven't, or watch a mandarin video or do some pushups or whatever)

2. Tomorrow planned? (this is my reminder to real quick make sure I at least know where I need to be on the next day)

3. Work done towards goals:

3. A: Mandarin:

3. B: Weight Loss:

3. C: Improving Engineering:

4. What gave me energy? (literally what made me feel more able to do things? This could be, relaxing and watching a youtube video, or, going on a run, or even just eating)

5. What drained my energy? (what subtracted from my daily capability to do things? Often will be a long meeting, or if I overdo a workout)

6. What gave me joy?

7. What made me feel bored?

8. When did I feel most myself today?

9. I felt most absorbed when… (this is seeking out activities that triggered flow-state, which is important in finding happiness with ADHD)

10. I felt slightly playful when… (related to 9. Playful as per Edward M. Hallowell's definition: "I mean something deeply and profoundly formative - any activity in which you become imaginatively involved. The opposite of play is doing exactly what you are told.")

11. This made my brain light up: (related to 9 and 10, Hallowell: "When you play, your brain lights up. This is where you could find joy for the rest of your life, so take note when it happens… When you play, you are likely to enter a state… named “flow.” In “flow,” you become one with what you are doing… Your brain glows.")

I answer these questions every day, and then every week summarize the answers to these same questions into a week-based entry, with an additional question:

12. What activities did I naturally seek out?

Same then for the month, I summarize the weeks into a month entry. The month has some more questions:

13. What surprised me this month?

14. Did anything I explore make me curious?

15. What habits felt enjoyable or supportive?

16. Which habits am I doing out of obligation?

17. Which small experiments genuinely improved my mood or confidence this month?

18. Where did I unnecessarily push myself too hard? What can I release next month?

19. Did I speak kindly to myself this month? When did I struggle most with self-compassion?

20. What tiny victories can I celebrate this month (especially regarding Mandarin, weight loss, or exercise)?

21. What feels truly sustainable going forward (diet, exercise, language, emotional health)?

For year, I do a year compass. I review my year compass monthly. https://yearcompass.com/ (these I've been doing for 8 years)

Each day review takes about 5 minutes max, week reviews take about 15 minutes max, and month reviews take about 20 minutes max. Year compasses take many hours to complete spread over a couple days (an excellent Christmas activity).

I've been journaling for ~28 years (since I first learned to write, yes really) but my journals were just me kinda flowing my thoughts. I think that's been nice but there's not much point in going back to read old journals, it's just nice to look at them on the shelf. What gets journaled gets remembered, or only I only journal memorable things, who knows. But I've been doing this day/week/month question thing for like a half year now and it's made significant improvements in my life, in terms of keeping me on track for my goals, allowing me to be more in touch with my emotions, and helping me realize a couple key things about myself that completely shifted my self perception and made it all the easier to achieve my goals. For example, I discovered that I actually really like working out, and being fit is a key part of my identity, that I'd been lying to myself about that by telling myself I'm just a fat nerd and that working out is a chore. Or, that despite my nontraditional background, I really do enjoy programming, and can rest in my confidence in my love of my profession.

I do still maintain a longform journal in a Hobonichi book and that has been a nice habit to keep up, it's quite relaxing and I really enjoy using my various fountain pens and inks, pasting in train tickets and whatnot. I'm looking forward to having the hobonichi on the shelf at the end of the year as a year's worth of thoughts.