write it all down
‘Everyone’s life would be improved by picking up a pen’. So says Cathy Rentzenbrink in Write It All Down, her book on memoir writing whose title I have borrowed for this article. This book is so much more than a how to guide for aspiring memoirists. She explores the reader’s possible reasons for not yet putting pen to paper, and provides writing exercises for working through the negative beliefs and practices holding them back. Really, these pages could be rechristened as general life coping strategies for anyone who is vaguely literate.
The life-changing power of writing
From my own experience, I share Cathy’s belief in the life-changing power of writing, so I’ve hunted down some evidence on the positive impacts. A 2018 article in The New York Times references studies showing that journaling can lead to better sleep, more self-confidence and a stronger immune system. A Psychology Today article from September 2020 states that ‘over the past couple of decades, dozens of studies have shown that certain journaling practices can positively lead to a variety of outcomes, including happiness, goal attainment, and even some aspects of physical health.’
Therapeutic writing pioneer Dr James Pennebaker has compiled a mountain of evidence to show how ‘expressive writing’ enhances the immune system and supports ‘the whole person’. In his book Opening Up, he summarises: ‘Writing about emotional upheavals has been found to improve the physical and mental health of grade-school children and nursing home residents, arthritis sufferers, medical school students, maximum security prisoners, new mothers, and rape victims. Not only are there benefits to health, but writing about emotional topics has been found to reduce anxiety and depression, improve grades, and aid people in securing new jobs.’
Untangling the spaghetti
Journaling helps you to focus, to get the mess of emotions and conflicting thoughts out of your head and onto the page. Once it’s on the page, you can deal with the spaghetti jumble that’s been clogging up your thinking space. If you leave it in your head, you will be operating from a messy backdrop of confusion and indecision, typically exacerbated by anxiety and self-doubt. Imagine your journal as a pensieve, as used by Dumbledore in the Harry Potter books, a magical basin into which he would siphon the excess thoughts and memories from his head.
I recommend a number of different ways to use journaling to help you focus at work, all of which I’ve successfully used myself. Rest assured that you don’t have to have any experience of writing to give this a go. You simply need the means to write, along with a desire to improve your focus and mental wellbeing.
Free writing: a secret superpower
In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron recommends a practice she calls ‘morning pages’. This simply means doing three pages of ‘free writing’ in a notebook when you wake up in the morning. Free writing, also known as flow writing, is based on the fact that our conscious minds hold just a fraction of what is valuable about us as human beings. So if we want to explore further, we need to tap into the huge source of ideas and feelings that make up our unconscious minds. This is what happens with free writing, which simply means writing the first words that come into your head and then following that train of thought wherever it takes you.
I find doing morning pages really helpful for clearing the clutter in my head. It can also be cathartic and surprising. Sometimes, you don’t know why you’re not quite firing on all cylinders and this is where your subconscious can help you out. Even just free writing every morning for a few days can help you to declutter your mind. I know some people who do it every day as a form of meditative practice.
I ran a free writing activity at an Egremont team event and for some, it was revelatory. The exercise went like this:
Write for five minutes around whatever comes into your head. Don’t stop to think. If you feel yourself stopping, write, ‘I am writing something.’ Repeat this until a train of thought catches and then continue to go with the flow.
When the five minutes are up, read what you have written and see what you notice. Underline a few words or phrases which stand out for you.
Then take one of those phrases, write it at the top of a clean sheet of paper and take three minutes to write some more. Same rules apply.
What do you notice? Underline words or phrases that stand out to you
Write one of them at the top of a new page and start writing again for three minutes.
Read and notice.
If you do this with a group, make it clear at the outset that whatever they write will be private – they won’t be asked to share it. Some may have breakthrough moments which they might not want to describe, but may want to share how it felt.
As well as a daily practice, free writing is a useful one-off exercise when you’re finding something difficult to tackle. Just free writing for five minutes, starting with a line such as ‘I’m angry/worried/nervous/confused because…’ can reveal the barrier holding you back, whether it lies in a strained relationship with a colleague, or a business challenge you’re struggling to solve. Sometimes, seeing it on paper helps give you a different perspective. If you regularly journal around difficult situations, you may start to notice patterns in your thoughts (also check out our article Noticing: A Superpower everyone can tap into).
Transform your mood with gratitude
Another simple yet powerful practice is gratitude journaling. The idea of using a gratitude journal to improve mood first gained traction in 2003, following the publication of a paper by Robert Emmon and Michael McCullagh in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Just writing three things you are grateful for at the end of each day for a week can have a noticeable impact on your mood. They can range from small things you notice, like hearing the thrush singing on your fencepost every morning, to big things like family relationships and good health.
When you write down what you’re grateful for, also write why – ‘I’m grateful for the thrush on the fencepost because I love hearing him sing’. When you write the reason why, it triggers the feeling of gratitude in your body and greatly amplifies the impact of the statement.
Try doing a weekly preview and review. Set yourself some goals at the beginning of the week and review how you did at the end of the week. Write down the answers to these questions:
How far did I get?
What worked and what didn’t work?
What will I keep, improve, start or stop?
Essentially whatever you choose to write about and however you choose to do it – in a journal, on your computer, in the Notes app on your phone – just remember the old adage: Better out than in.
To find out more please get in touch / +44 (0) 20 7298 7878
