Is Journaling The Answer To Better Executive Functioning and Ultimately Career Success?
We live in a world fuelled by stress and our nervous system's just aren't made for the 21st century! Most of us are constantly context switching, working on many tasks at once and having to juggle multiple responsibilities, many of which are outside our comfort zone.
We’re seeing more and more people struggle with focus, as the human attention span is in decline, increasing levels of anxiety which often causes agitation, and lots of us are feeling overwhelmed. The rise in ADHD diagnoses is in part due to ADHD symptoms being worsened by 21st Century life. Decreasing Executive Function (Activation, Memory, Energy Management, Action) can impact our confidence, lower self-esteem, and ultimately lead to poor mental health.
At work, difficulties with executive functioning impact our productivity, which often translates into longer hours as we strive to catch up on the work we think we 'should' have finished already. If that continues, burnout is just around the corner. This slippery slope is definitely one I have been down a couple of times when I was in a corporate career, ultimately leading to a full burnout which took 3 months to recover from and catalysed my career change to becoming a Career Coach.
If you are suffering with poor Executive Function, feel emotionally up and down in the day and are struggling to regulate your nervous system, here are my practical tips to help you.
You’ve probably heard friends and family who dabble with journaling. It’s a common practice across multiple therapies and coaching for good reason. Consistent journaling really pays off.
Journaling is not just a sticking plaster that can make you feel better in the moment; it’s a fantastic tool that can help improve your daily productivity, and support your long-term goals, including becoming more positive, healthy, or focused.
In this post, I’m exploring the ins and outs of journaling. I cover:
5. A free Morning Journal One-Pager for you to DOWNLOAD
SO WHAT IS JOURNALING AND HOW CAN IT BENEFIT YOU?
Journaling is a powerful way to process your emotions by transferring your thoughts and feelings onto paper. It allows you time for reflection, gives you greater clarity, and increases your understanding of your inner self and importantly your Needs!.
LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT THE BENEFITS OF JOURNALING:
1. It brings greater awareness of yourself:
Change can only happen from a state of awareness (and ideally self-compassion, but more about that later). Journaling (and reading your journaling) helps you see patterns you may not otherwise see so that you can make the necessary changes to feel better.
2. It helps you to regulate your emotions:
When we keep our emotions inside and try to push them down, they often end up bubbling over, which increases the risk of reactive behaviours or bottling all your emotions up, which can lead to poor health. By journaling, you are taking your thoughts, feelings, and emotions and placing them outside of yourself to gain clarity on situations in a healthier way - read more about emotional regulation here.
3. It reduces stress and improves your mood:
Writing is therapeutic, and studies have shown that by writing you're processing your emotions, you’re also releasing them, which can make stressful situations and thoughts feel much less...well, stressful—ultimately improving your behaviour and keeping you regulated throughout the day.
4. It can improve your cognitive processing:
Releasing negative feelings and thoughts in this way gives you space for perspective, allowing you to see them for what they are. This can lead to a deeper understanding of yourself and the world around you.
5. It supports you in reaching your goals:
Did you know that studies have shown writing down your goals in your journal or goals diary improves your chances of achieving them? We’ll dive into this more in another post.
CAN JOURNALING REWIRE YOUR BRAIN OR IS IT ALL A MYTH?
I can already tell you from my journaling experience that it isn’t a myth. There’s a lot of evidence to support the idea that writing can calm your mind when you’re feeling dysregulated and rewire your brain to meet your goals. An article I read recently by Brainz relating to the same subject speaks about how writing gives the right side of your brain time to rest. “We access the left brain when we write, which is analytical and rational. Whilst your left brain is busy, your right brain can create, feel, and tune into intuition. When you write with an open mind and no limits, you remove mental blocks and use all of your brain to understand yourself better, others, and the world around you.”
Journaling gives us the space to process our emotions, manage them, and reduce stress whilst engaging our executive functions, improving our attention and reducing the effort needed for some tasks.
Journaling CAN Help You Process Your Emotions.
Journaling HELPS Reset Your Nervous System
It’s not just a brilliant tool for habit change and focus, it also improves your ability to retain information, free your creativity, and allow you to tap into your problem-solving skills to tackle anything head-on. I highly recommend journaling if you have ADHD, as it can be a great tool, but I would also suggest to anyone and everyone to make it a part of their morning routine - even if it’s only 10 - 15 minutes.
DID YOU KNOW ADDING JOURNALING TO YOUR MORNING ROUTINE CAN HELP REGULATE YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM FOR THE WHOLE DAY?
As part of my morning routine, I have adapted the SAVERS method to create a process that has been a game-changer for my Executive Functioning. I am following through on habit change, am feeling calmer, can focus better and my memory is definitely improving.
First, I sit in silence alone with myself and my thoughts (before the kids wake up), and then I do 2 types of journaling. My own 1 page healthy habits journal and also strengths-based writing to help me reframe the challenges I am struggling with.
A key part of journaling is mindfulness—getting out of our heads and into our bodies to release whatever tension builds up. Once we do this, we can feel a sense of calm take over, and our thoughts are clearer and slower.
You can journal at any point in the day. It can be a great way to pause if you start feeling dysregulated at any point, but often we wake up dysregulated - it is caused by stress stored in our subconscious rising to the surface whilst we sleep and in our dreams, so I highly recommend morning journaling. I talk more about this in my morning routine post (there’s some excellent info about how the subconscious works there, too).
6 DIFFERENT TYPES OF JOURNALLING: WHICH ONE IS BEST FOR YOU?
1. Bullet Journaling
This one is an organisation lover's dream! A bullet journal is essentially organising your whole life in one book, which includes your to-do list, planner and diary. They are great for changing habits, achieving new goals, or making life changes. You can write your goals and what you want to achieve and track your progress in bullet form in lists. Depending on how you approach it, you may use this hourly, daily, or weekly so if you want to make some big changes, this is for you. Check out Bulllet-Journal from WikiHow. It’s a great step-by-step guide if you’re just getting started.
2. Wild Writing
Think poetry and self-expression. Wild writing is all about connecting with our emotions and grounding ourselves with nature. The idea is to take a moment to soak everything up, then allow yourself to write freely and let everything flow. It’s a great way to let everything out and a great way to regulate when you’re feeling overwhelmed and out of alignment. You could even throw in the 4-7-8 breathing method before you begin to really ground yourself.
3. The Artist’s Way
Similar to wild writing, The Artist’s Way is all about writing through your stream of consciousness - letting your words, thoughts, feelings, and emotions fall onto the pages without overthinking about what to say. There is no structure behind it; it’s just allowing yourself to fully express what’s going on without holding anything back. Julia recommends using this technique in the mornings before starting your day to gain clarity and release. Read more about Julia Cameron and the Artist's Way.
4. Gratitude Journaling
This is one of the most popular forms of journaling recently. All you need to do is write three things you are grateful for each morning and/or at night. It’s designed to help rewire your brain so you can focus more on the good stuff to increase your feelings of happiness, gratitude and joy. Learn how gratitude journaling works here and its relationship with positive psychology. It’s a hugely successful practice and one I’d recommend when things feel too much, and you’re struggling to see the positives in your life.
5. 5 Minute Strengths Journaling
For this exercise, the idea is to write for 5 minutes - a pure brain dump, then go back through your writing and then find your strengths by underlining the phrases and writing the strength above them. This is great for anyone looking to change their relationship with themselves for the better. I have used this method for a while now (often when things are feeling too busy, or too much or I have strong emotions about something) and you’ll notice that when you look hard, you’ll see where your strengths lie, whether in your honesty, perseverance, or zest. It’s an interesting way to reframe what you’re feeling and helps quell those negative feelings of “not good enough” and any anxieties you might be feeling that take their toll on your self-esteem. If you’re someone who struggles to pinpoint your strengths, take a look at this to get you started.
6. My Self-Regulation & Healthy Habits Journal
Finally, here's the journal template I use, I call it my Self-Regulation & Healthy Habits journal. This one-pager is best used first thing in the morning to free your emotions and focus your mind before you begin the day. It's a one-pager for you to monitor your habits, connect with your thoughts and feelings, set your daily goals, regulate your emotions, and remind you to be kind to yourself - here's how to use it. It’s important to self-regulate after waking up as we can often wake up all over the place and quiet reflection in the morning and writing allows us to literally process our emotions as we write the words, leading to us feeling calmer with more capacity to handle whatever the day ahead throws at us, in a graceful manner.
SO, JOURNALLING LEADS TO BETTER EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING! HOW CAN YOU START JOURNALING TODAY?
In this post, I shared information about journaling, the science behind it, how to do it, and all the different ways you can do it. Why not try journaling for yourself and see how you find it? It's a good idea to give yourself three weeks or a month to try it out and see what works for you. Make sure you reflect on any benefits you see after this time, and let me know how you get on in the comments below. Happy writing!
Warmest wishes
Nat
ABOUT CAREER COACH NAT HARRISON OF AYAMA COACHING
Hi, I am Nat. I help people become more fulfilled and happy in their working lives by aligning their careers or businesses with their skills, values, and interests and helping them overcome barriers to making the desired change.
I am also a trained ADHD coach. I work with neurodivergent people who want to harness their brains for the better and improve their relationships with themselves.
Book a FREE consultation below if you would benefit from some coaching on your work life.
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