Keeping a journal can change your life. Here’s how to get the most out of it...

I’ve been using my journal for over 15 years to improve my productivity, embrace my creativity, and stay happy through it all. Feel free to steal my framework and make it your own.

First, how to get started: Pick your phone, computer, or any medium that’s suitable. I prefer pen and paper to get my ideas flowing. You can journal at any time of the day, but some studies suggest that writing at night helps you sort through your thoughts.

Staying happy. Writing about negative experiences can help you reflect on the lessons learned and help you find meaning in your suffering. It also helps you detach emotion from the incident, leading to valuable life lessons.

Get something positive out of each day. Write down one good thing that happened during the day. Some days might be harder than others, but they’re never completely bad. This simple exercise before sleep will help you look at the day more objectively.

Learn gratitude. Think of the worst thing that happened in the last week. Then write 10 reasons why you’re grateful for it. This will help you get rid of any residual resentment and you can derive a lesson from the sadness to carry forward in life.

There are two ways you can use your journal to maximize productivity.

- As a planner: List monthly goals at each month’s beginning. Review them at month-end to see how far you’ve come.

- Make to-do lists to keep track of daily goals. Do daily progress reviews every night.

Daily and monthly reviews can reveal what tasks take longer than expected. Once you’ve identified them, you can either give them up or find ways to outsource them, based on where they lie on your list of priorities.

Embrace your creativity: Write 10 ideas every day so the idea muscle in your head gets regular exercise and becomes super strong. After a few months of ‘idea journaling’, you’ll be able to get amazing ideas at a moment’s notice.

Here’s how to use your journal to generate ideas. Start with a fresh page and write 10 ideas. Don’t worry about whether the ideas are good or if you will ever be able to execute them. Just keep doing this every single day without fail.

Bottom line: Keeping a daily journal is the best way you can learn more about yourself. Since it’s something we do for ourselves without any intention of writing to “please” another person, a journal becomes a powerful tool for both self-awareness and development.