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Watch yourself grow with this simple journaling exercise.
This month's journal practice is the "Monthly Reflection". I have used this journalling technique for over two years now and appreciate the way it has helped me keep track of my life without the hassle of a daily diary. This frees up my journaling time for self work or other prompts most days, and allows me to expand the versatility of my journaling practice.
In this article, I will describe the practice, the steps I find most beneficial in setting it up, and go over the benefits I feel it has brought me. At the end of this post, I hope you will have a better understanding of this technique and will have an idea of whether or not you find it beneficial to your journaling practice.
Journaling Practice: Monthly Reflection
The Practice
This practice is relatively simple and conceptually easy to follow. It challenges the common assertion that journaling has to be structured as a "daily diary" in which one details the events of their day each day before bed or in the mornings. In my opinion, this is not an efficient practice if one intends to reap all of the benefits of journaling. However, this is a personal opinion, and what works for me may not be the case for others.
This practice strips out the daily aspect of recording events and moves it to a monthly basis. At the end of the month, you record the highlights and briefly reflect on the progress you have made in different parts of your life.
This can involve a recording of events you remember or stick out to you, or you can break it down into sections revolving around your goals.
Try to make it as comprehensive as possible, with a goal of about 2-4 pages each month. This way, at the end of the year your journal or document will be between 25-50 pages long. Not only is this a satisfying project to have at year end, it is also relatively quick and allows you to get a high level overview of what each month of your year looked like.
The Steps
So how are you going to structure this? While most of it is personal preference, in this section I will provide the format I usually use in structuring my monthly recap.
Setting Up
Firstly, I usually do this practice in an online document, but it can also be done in a traditional journal. However, I do suggest having a separate journal or document from your other practices to create a cohesive space for the work to flow.
For some reason, I usually end up doing this in an airport, so having a digital offline doc is a great way to take the time to do this without having to put aside other tasks I need to do in my daily life.
Secondly, I remember to do this task on a monthly basis by setting up a monthly recurring task on Google calendar. I set it for around the 1st and again on the 4th in case I got busy and overlooked it on the first. Also, sometimes multiple sittings can be helpful in structuring your entry.
Ok, let's get into the actual task itself. You've sat down, opened up your journal and are ready to write. Let's begin.
Start a new page. On the page, create a heading with the name of the month. Insert a colon (:), and then create a name for the month based on your experiences. You can create this name at the beginning, but it also might be beneficial to come back at the end, once you have recounted your experiences for that time period.
It should look like this:
January: Creative Title That Helps You Recount the Month
Start With A Strong Introduction
Next, start writing. As with most written work, start with an introduction. I usually start with an overview about how I felt this month went. For example, "January was a good month, I did a lot of XXX which made me feel XXX." Delve into an explanation of some of the goals you set this month, and how you did in those regards.
The Recap
From there, I start another section. I see three main ways to structure this that could be beneficial.
First, break things down into categories and write/reflect on what this month brought and how you feel about it. These could be things such as work, school, friendships, health, family, etc. Label the sections and then break them down into smaller, more specific parts. For example, in the 'work' section you could include details about a project you were proud of, and note anything that comes to mind. Maybe your are proud because you developed a new skill or attained a favorable opinion from your boss. Note that. Include both positive and negative things that impacted you. At the end, you should be left with a well organized holistic life overview.
The other method is to write about each week in the month of if there were any consistent themes. Some months this works very well, while for others not so much. For example, last April I broke down my journal entry into: 'final exam week', 'goodbyes and packing up', 'cruise time', and 'back home'. This is a good method for those who prefer to reflect chronologically or feel that their months are easily spliced into distinct, memorable weeks.
Lastly, you can also just create a list of events that happened throughout the month, and touch on each one briefly. You could organize them after or just consider it a stream of consciousness exercise if that's your style. A good way to do this is to look through your camera roll, and see what stands out to you as memorable and make sure you include it in your analysis.
The moral of the story is, it's your journal and there is a variety of methods you can use to structure it to best suit what you are looking to get from it.
Reflect
At the end of the Recap, I typically end with a paragraph summing up my experience. It may start something like this, "Overall, June was a really great/sad/fun/annoying/stressful/awesome month...". I'd continue on to restate highlights and takeaways.
If you set yearly goals, this section is a great chance to connect with those, track how any of your experiences helped or hurt your progress and how you can adjust your goals or habits to do better next month. Create a few small goals or intentions for the subsequent month, which you will use to open your next entry.
The Benefits
While this practice has not been scientifically researched, and was created by me (to my knowledge), I still think there are some benefits it can offer.
What I Like
To me, I found this practice helps eliminate the hassle of keeping a diary, and it also serves as an easy way to compile the highlights of my year. Details in a daily recap get lost if not significant or important, which helps shorten and make the writing more impactful.
It is also more concise and easy to navigate. For example, if I want to know what I did in April of 2023, I can go into my '2023 Recap' and search for 'April'. I will see the creative name, which will spark some feeling surrounding that month. I also have a 2-4 page write up of what I did that month and how I was generally feeling. It can be good to look back, especially when dealing with long term goals.
You can sometimes see how much you have changed and developed as a person in achieving your goals. You may also notice you have become a better writer over time with consistent practice. Besides, this technique will have you writing 25-50 pages of content per year.
It is also a good way to look back on previous mistakes or refer to a previous situation similar to a current one. What choice did you make in the past and how did you feel about it? You can use this reflection as a basis for future decision making.
What I Don't Like
In terms of drawbacks, I don't see too many as I have found this practice personally helpful to my development. I will say it can be time consuming and the consistency can be challenging. It also may be hard to recount details of a difficult month or experience. However, journaling is a personal practice so make sure to tailor it to your needs and desires.
As with all forms of journaling, the practice will only be as effective and impactful as you allow it to be. If you treat it like a chore and are constantly dreading it, you may not get the full benefits of the time spent in thoughtful reflection and contemplation. Journaling is a tool for focusing on emotions and bringing insights from our subconscious to the surface.
Final Tips
As I stated earlier on, I think this is a great practice for an online document. You can work on it offline and keep it in your personal drive or saved to your computer. If you are uncomfortable with this, a paper diary is also perfectly fine!
My reasoning for this is because I enjoy adding pictures to the document so you can also have a visual of what you did this month. It makes it seem like a book you can open and see your life experiences. Though I have not done this, I may print my Monthly Reflection in the future and have them bound so I can physically flip through them. I think it's a great and creative way to look at your life progression utilizing a mix of traditional journaling and technology.
As always, if you have tried this practice, please let us know how it went! We strive to make our content the best we can so feel free to share any feedback, or check out our other articles if you find this practice helpful!
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