Organize your life: methods of keeping a diary. What to write in a diary

Hey! Igor Zuevich is in touch, and today we will talk with you about the fact that keeping a diary can become the most powerful basic habit that you can acquire. You will learn that with the help of the diary you can not only change your life, but also get really self-knowledge, self-control and planning.

Many books on time management and self-development advise you to keep a diary with lists of goals, plans, and daily tasks.

The benefits of this are undeniable - a person becomes organized, better distributes his time, remembers all his affairs and tracks progress towards his goal. Yes, and social networks are full of all kinds of photographs of gliders, which you look at and understand that this is a kind of art.

But how to start keeping your diary when your eyes run wide from such a variety?

1. Get a diary

You don’t need to get too hung up on what format or design you need and search the net for a ton of information on this topic. All these tips are applicable only to those people who give them, and you need to understand from your own experience what will be convenient and useful in practice.

Take care of only the minimum characteristics: Choose a size that you can comfortably carry in your bag or briefcase and think about the need for rubbing. If your handwriting tends to "slide" down or, conversely, "bully" above the line, it is better to stop at the lined version of the diary. If you can boast of perfectly even handwriting, you can do without it.

2. Just start journaling

Yes, it's that simple. Don't wait for Monday, the start of the month, the year, the start of a new job, or your own birthday. Just get started today. At first, do not bother with abstruse planning systems. Set a date and write a to-do list for today in a column. Nearby, you can make another column with things for tomorrow or plans for the weekend. And go ahead, fulfill and enjoy the ticks!

3. Track results

Review your lists for the past few days and ask yourself a few questions:

Did you manage to do everything that was planned?
- If not, why not? Got carried away with making lists and taking on too much?

Or maybe it's because of circumstances beyond your control?

Was it convenient for you to make a single to-do list? Maybe you wanted to divide it into separate lists for work, household chores, hobbies, etc.?
— Has it helped to become more organized and

A situation may arise that you have completed all the tasks, but not always on the day you originally planned. In this case, you should try to make plans for the week and carry them out as far as possible, without being tied to a specific day.

4. Experiment

After you've already tried some to-do lists, it's time to see if how others do it and get something for yourself. It is very important to try it yourself first, in order to actually understand how often you look into the diary and what you write in it.

For example, some people prefer to track their daily activities by the hour. This information can be very helpful when you're trying to figure out where your time is spent, but if you only check your diary in the morning and evening, this type of planning is definitely not for you.

It also makes no sense to start separate lists for work, household chores and hobbies if each of them will have only 1-2 items.

Looking through the information on the Internet, you can get ideas for designing a diary for yourself and, perhaps, understand what else needs your attention.

5. Don't Focus on Design

Many women, looking at the colorful diary spreads with drawings, elegant handwritten headings and themed stickers, begin to hate their boring and faded diary.

Understand your planner is only your planner, and you have the right to do it the way you want. If there is not a huge amount of decorations and curlicues, this does not mean that you do not know how to beautifully keep a diary. This means that you lead it in the way that is convenient for you.

If the heart demands beauty and brightness, feel free to decorate the pages as you see fit. Multi-colored gel and capillary pens, decorative tapes and countless sticker sets will come to your aid. The main thing is that you yourself should be pleased to open the diary, write down information there and mark progress.

6. Don't be afraid to make mistakes

If you have started journaling according to one scheme, and then you don’t like it - this is not a reason to abandon this notebook and urgently look for a new one. Let your first experience be rough and reflect your entire evolution in planning your life. Let it begin in one way, continue in another way, and on the last pages it is generally devoted to the fifth, tenth system. The main thing is that your diary fulfills its immediate function and you yourself like it.

7. Go beyond to-do lists

Who said that the diary is only smooth columns of cases with dates and checkmarks? But what about goal setting? A person cannot work truly effectively if he does not have a goal. At the weekend, sit down and think about what you would like to achieve this month. Or until the end of the year. Or before you turn 30/40/50 years old.

Write down these goals, and then break them down into smaller, more quickly achievable ones. In order to fly to Spain on vacation, you need to find out about possible tours and their cost, get a visa, pack your bags, take the cat to friends, etc. So even the most unattainable goal will seem real and quite affordable.

8. Plan smart

As inspiring as the process of drawing up Napoleonic plans may be, don't get carried away. In every person there is a huge stock of laziness and conservatism, intensely rebelling against cardinal changes in life. And you can't simultaneously start exercising, stop smoking and drinking, start a new business, and suddenly start reading ten books a month. Soberly assess your capabilities, because failed plans only upset you worse and discourage you from further work on yourself and achieving your own goals. Do not immediately rush to conquer Everest, start simple.

9. Reward yourself for success

There are many opponents of this approach who argue that the best reward is the achievement of the goal, and intermediate successes are a matter of course, and no need to make a fuss about it. However, if you reward yourself by going to the movies or to your favorite restaurant, no one will be worse off from this, on the contrary. Remember, you are not condemning yourself to a life according to a plan, you are planning for yourself the life of your dreams, and there should always be a place for joy, pleasure and encouragement in it.

By following these simple rules, you can easily start keeping a diary and do not abandon the case halfway. Remember, there is no such thing as "right" and "wrong." What is perfect for others may not be perfect for you. Therefore, do not be afraid to experiment and adapt for yourself. That's the only way to find your

As you can see, nothing is impossible! If you do everything right, then your life will definitely become better. You will become the person you want to be. You will design the life you want to live. Your relationship will be healthy and happy. You will be more productive and stronger.As always, the main thing is to act correctly, and you will succeed. It is better to act together and together with those people who already have experience and results. Come to our programs, at the same time and earn more!

With you,
- Igor Zuevich.

How to keep a diary properly!?

And if earlier I could do one task, for example, a week, now it takes me no more than 2 days to do similar actions, and I know what needs to be done next so that my business is constantly developing.

This article shows absolutely - a working method for planning your time, starting to apply which, you are GUARANTEED to get great results, and your business will begin to grow rapidly.

Do you want to know this ingeniously simple planning secret that will make you a mega-productive entrepreneur?

Great, then read carefully, but I apologize in advance if you expect to learn something supernatural.

Oh yes, I almost forgot to say.

The greatest value of this given article is that by starting to apply the information that you will now read in it, you no longer need any additional information on the topic of planning.

It is a fact!

Strategy number 1 how to keep a diary. For beginners.

And so, in order to become the most effective entrepreneur, or, in principle, a person, we need something where we can plan our, first, immediate, and then more further actions.

And the easiest way to do it naturally and simply, is - a regular paper notebook.

You need to start a diary!

The only condition in it is that the days, numbers, the name of the month and the week must already be written there. That is, the information that, having opened it, we already knew what day of the week it is today, what date it is today, and what month.

Again, I tried all possible modern things for this business, and nothing from modern technology suited for comfortable work better than a regular diary!

Everything ingenious is always simple.

And so, if you are new to planning, and have never done this before, you will need such a notebook, which I have just described.

Tomorrow you will do the same for the day after tomorrow, and so on all week.

Thus, we will develop the habit of setting one task per day, by completing which you will advance at least a little bit in your business.

A prerequisite is that the task that you plan, you must complete on the day for which it is worth. This is the whole point of the diary and planning.

Or, you need to transfer this task to the next day, and complete it then, but in no case, until it is done, you cannot set another task. You cannot schedule another task.

You set the next task only after the previous one is completed, period.

Thus, in a week you will have 7 completely ready-made tasks that will move your business forward! For a month, this is already 30 tasks that will advance you a fairly good distance up! Etc.

The bottom line is to perform one scheduled task every day. In this way, we get used to planning and develop a habit that successful people use. And in principle, thanks to this habit, they achieve success.

Practice task:

Buy a fully prepared and completed diary

Every evening during the week, plan 1 task for the next day by writing it in your diary on the appropriate page

Do what you have planned every day

Do not record a new task until the old one is completed. If you haven't completed the task today, move it to tomorrow.

Or if the matter is big, for example, creating a blog, today you can do one part of the business, plan another for tomorrow, and plan to launch a blog the day after tomorrow.

And only after the blog is launched, you can write another task. Elephant Rule: "Eat the elephant bit by bit!"

Finished 1 thing, cross it out, and start planning another.

The minimum time to complete this task is 21 days.

Yes, another small addition, no need to schedule a task for a specific time! Just write down the task that you will do on a certain day, no need to tie it to the clock!

Now you know how to keep a diary correctly, and how to get results from it!

Strategy number 2 how to keep a diary. For advanced.

Surely you think that this strategy will be seriously different from the first one. That here you will need to complete 10 tasks a day, and people who start using it will achieve their goals 10 times faster and will be much more efficient than the rest.

I hasten to disappoint you, because it is not so.

Firstly, by completing 10 tasks a day, you can only earn stress and illness faster, and secondly, you need to understand that a lot does not mean good!

Think about it, you wrote down 10 tasks that you need to solve in your diary for tomorrow. Tomorrow morning you open your diary... You are full of strength, energy, and you think that now you will do all 10 tasks properly!

But, just starting to think about how much work needs to be done today, you have already subconsciously received a good dose of stress. And repeating the same action every day, you will simply never reach the level of productivity that you want, because, without even doing one thing, you are already stressed.

And it is unlikely that you will be able to qualitatively perform every day 10 tasks that you will face! Because we are all people, we need to eat, go to the toilet, breathe fresh air, even do banal exercises if you have a sedentary job. Right?

Therefore, it makes no sense to take the amount every day. You still can't do everything right.

Remember, the essence of this article is to find the answer to the question - how to keep a diary CORRECTLY and PRODUCTIVELY.

When you already feel that doing just 1 action a day is too easy for you, and you can already do more, start planning every evening not 1, but 2 - 3 things for the next day that you will definitely need to do.

Remember last time when we did just 1 action a day, in a month we got a good package of completed tasks that moved us forward in our business?

Now imagine that in a month you will perform not 30, but 60 or 90 tasks that will push your business into the orbit of success with jet fuel!

After all, all these tasks will be 100% fully completed, and it will be hard to argue with the quality of the work performed! It will be great!

But doing 10 tasks every day, tell me, on what day will you spit on all this, and say, when will I live then? And it’s not that you won’t be able to complete all 10 cases, but those that are completed will be very different in quality from the norm or the minimum standard.

Therefore, strategy #2 is not much different from strategy #1, but it can double or even triple your business results. Unlike messy work, or trying to do everything in one day.

Advanced Challenge:

After it becomes easy for you to perform 1 action per day, you need to increase the number of scheduled tasks to 2 - a maximum of 3 per day.

You need to do every day what you planned yesterday. If you could not do something, transfer it to the next day, and this will already be the 1st thing, the 1st task. Consider it when planning new cases.

Don't try to do more than 3 things a day, you will not only not be able to do it well, but you will also get stress, which in the end can cause you to get sick. Remember, a lot does not mean good!

Improving Strategies

And also, when you start keeping your diary, make notes next to the tasks that you complete. For instance. mark each task with numbers from 1 to 3, which will characterize the importance of your tasks.

For example, it looks like this for me:

Not important tasks, routine tasks, such as going to the store or paying bills. Opposite the task, I put the number 1.

Important tasks that move my business forward. For example, creating a subscription page, setting up an advertising campaign, and so on. Opposite the task, I put the number 2.

Critical Cases. Cases that are urgent at the moment.

For example, urgently stop an advertising campaign because the subscription page has stopped working. Or today you need to conduct a coaching session with one of the students. That is, these are things that need to be done first, and which I will prepare from the very beginning.

Opposite the task, I put the number 1, 2 or 3.

If I see that today it is much less than yesterday, for example, yesterday it was 12, and today it is only 6, for tomorrow, I will try to raise it.

As you understand all your affairs and gain skills in working with them, you can increase the number of your tasks per day from 3 to 5.

And don't forget to add tasks. that will develop your life in the same way. Meeting with family, walking with children in the park, roller skating, playing sports, or yoga and so on...

Feel that golden mean, starting to walk along which you will feel comfortable doing your daily tasks.

And in this way you will learn to constantly plan your next day, as well as understand where you are heading at the moment, and what else needs to be done to accelerate your step towards your goal.

How to keep a diary? Are you looking for an answer to this question? In this article, I have revealed it completely and as simply as possible for the use of any person. Now share your knowledge of how to keep a diary properly with your friends, and show them that a day can be truly productive!

Almost all business people striving for self-organization keep their diary (organizer). But not everyone knows how to do it conveniently, understandably and constructively. There are many ways, I want to offer you mine. I have been using it for about 10 years now. I periodically corrected the maintenance, and I will tell you about the method that I came to over time.

Earlier, I introduced you to the Eisenhower matrix. I also use her techniques to fill out my to-do diary, but I also use some tricks that make my life easier. In this article I want to tell you how to fill out a diary (organizer).

To keep a diary, get 4 markers with a wide stroke. They don't have to be very dark. With them, you will shade cases in categories of importance A-B-C-D, filling the case with color.

1. First, I enter those cases that have already been assigned a specific execution time (meetings, calls, etc.), placing them at a specific time.

2. Then I enter the rest of my tasks, without time instructions.

3. I also separate personal matters and those related to work. At the top, I enter personal, cross out the content, then all the working moments.

5. In the margins on the left, before each case I have entered from any category, I put an em dash. From them, then I form the symbols for the diary - the stages of my tasks.

6. Mark cases.

At the end of each task, I turn the dash in the margin into a plus sign, and circle it, this means for me that the task is done.

If it was not physically possible to complete some task that day (did not have time, or the task was postponed due to other circumstances), I turn the dash in the margins opposite into an arrow pointing to the right. After that, I transfer this outstanding task to another date.

If the matter simply ceased to be necessary, or did not happen and it will not be carried out in the future (for example, you made an appointment, and having called at the right time to confirm it, you were told that they no longer need your services), you need to circle the dash in the margins in a circle, which will mean that the case is closed, although it was not done. Also, if you set some daily task for yourself, for example, jogging in the morning, and you didn’t do it for some day, such tasks are not summed up. Put a minus for this day.

How to fill out a diary. Click on the image to enlarge the image.

Try to make keeping a diary (organizer) your permanent daily habit. This will give you many benefits:

You can always know when you have free time and when you have something planned
everyone loves organized people, they are more trusted and respected
you will not forget about a single meeting or call, and you will be valued as a person-word.
in addition, our mind has such a property - you will strain your thoughts knowing about the important things that you just have to do, and not giving you the opportunity to do other, maybe less important, but things. When we write down things, we know that now they will not be forgotten, and we can relax and continue to do other things.
you can always find and track what happened to you and on what day, because memory is not eternal, everything is erased from your head
Your diary is your personal and, moreover, free secretary. So take him to your service!

Which diary to choose

Size

It must fit in the bag that you always carry with you. If it is too small, it will be inconvenient to place information in it, and if it is too bulky, it will not only be difficult to transport it, but also to use it, taking it out at the right time.

Binding

In addition, the binding should be soft, but should keep its shape and not fold into a tube. If the binding is rigid, you will not be able to permanently attach a pen inside, and a pen as part of a diary. Or when choosing a diary, make sure that it has a pen holder.

Pages

Do not take a diary with a bright line, it will only further distract your eyes from finding the information you need.

Useful extras

It will also be useful if there is a bookmark ribbon or an elastic band on top that girds your diary and prevents the pages in the bag from fraying. After taking it out on the fly and making a record, then there is not always time to pack it back just as carefully.

And more about the benefits of keeping a diary -

If you don't know what to do now, others will always find something for you.

And instead of your plans and tasks, you will deal with strangers.

Thus, you can live half your life not for your own life, but for someone else.

I really hope. that my article was useful for you, and most of all I would be glad if it serves as a guide for someone to action.

If the article was helpful, I ask you to rate it at the top or bottom of the article.

Read another article about the benefits of keeping a diary.

You have probably noticed that people who lead an active lifestyle always have a diary at hand. This is not surprising, because they live in a truly frantic rhythm and it is very important for them not to lose sight of a single detail. The diary in this case is a wonderful help, and a paper diary. Why paper? But because while writing (by hand), a person involuntarily structures his thoughts, organizes them. Those who regularly take notes, subsequently begin to remember much more. Electronic devices, unfortunately, do not have a similar effect.

In addition to the above, another advantage of the diary is that it helps its owner to be more consistent, that is, move from words to deeds. How does this happen? Let's take an example. You made a note that on such and such a day you need to start working on something especially important. Every time you open the diary, you will see a kind of reminder of the upcoming business before your eyes. Along with this, your subconscious will begin to stimulate you to complete the task. Many people noted that after they began to regularly make and view entries in the diary, the number of useful things they did increased significantly.

Some people use the diary not only to plan their day, but also as a means of dealing with self-doubt. It looks like this: opposite each completed item, they write small comments about how they achieved this or that goal. You can also try this method: if you are satisfied with how you coped with the task, you can write something pleasant in your diary, like “I did great!”.

Sometimes psychologists recommend using the diary in the following, rather unusual way. Its essence lies in the comments, but in more complete and detailed than those given above. Comments should be written next to those items that you were dissatisfied with. You should make a record of why you did not cope with this or that task, what prevented you, what are the reasons for the failure. By painting everything in detail, you will put things in order in your thoughts, get rid of nervous tension. Then, rereading your notes, you will remember your wrong steps and try not to repeat them. Just do not take this way of keeping a diary too seriously, engage in self-flagellation and throw out all the accumulated negativity - it is still better to share emotions with real people, friends and relatives.

Today, many parents buy diaries for their schoolchildren, trying to make them more organized and disciplined. Having their own diary, the child feels like an adult, responsible. He understands that even now, at his age, it is important to learn to take studies and extracurricular activities seriously, since in the future the number of tasks facing him will increase.
As for business people, entrepreneurs, managers, and so on, they often do not even think of a workflow without a diary, because there are many different tasks and plans that need to be implemented. It happens that a business person, for some reason, left without a diary, feels "as if without hands."

By the way, there are different types of diaries. A diary is especially important for those who travel often, for example, go on business trips. Sometimes you just need to make notes about what time the train leaves, what time you need to arrive at the airport so as not to miss the plane, and so on. In addition to these notes, it is convenient to make a list of things that you definitely need to take with you on the road.

We should not forget about important dates, for example, the birthdays of relatives with friends. It is no secret that many older people are familiar with the feeling of loneliness, and they need communication. Thanks to the entry made in the diary, you will congratulate your grandmother in time, who will be very happy about this.

Start a diary, and you will soon notice that you have become more collected and less forgetful, and the number of goals you have successfully achieved will increase significantly!

Everyone seems to understand how to keep a diary. But it can be used for more than just work. It also helps with personal development. The to-do list on it is a list of small goals. Achieving them, a person grows, and how noticeable this growth depends on the type and magnitude of the tasks set.

The need for a diary

The diary in the simplest version is a notebook, the pages of which correspond to the dates in the calendar and the days of the week. It helps to streamline the working day, is used for such purposes:

Meeting recording. This weekly feature is useful for people who work with a large client base. If you have to meet many clients every day, it is best to set a specific time for each of them. This will also help in financial planning if the calculations are made immediately after the meeting.
To-do list. Using a notepad is often associated with plans for the day. Go to a store, a beauty salon, pick up delivered goods, make an appointment with a partner - the list can contain both banal household chores and important events.
Schedule. The contents of the diary can be mixed, it has a place for recording an important meeting and attending a yoga session. This option is very suitable for people who feel like they never have time to do anything.

Notepad is useful to a business person, student, even a housewife.

The psychological benefits of a diary

A weekly journal can turn from a mere notebook into a valuable psychological tool. How to keep a diary to promote personal growth? First you need to understand what you want to achieve, the purpose of keeping a diary depends on this.

Goal achiever. You can write down your goals in a diary. It is best to set aside a separate section for them. At the same time, in each day you need to find a place to record a step that will bring you closer to achieving them. Seeing how much has been done, it will be more difficult for a person to give up, on the contrary, there will be motivation to bring the matter to the end.
Idea box. People, especially creative people, often come up with creative ideas, and it would be cool if there was always a notebook at hand where they could be written down. An excerpt from a future article, a verse of a song, a quatrain, a sketch - everything has a place on the pages of the weekly.
Motivator. By writing down a to-do list, a person gives a signal to the brain to complete them. Subconsciously, tasks are distributed in order of priority and the optimal order for their implementation is built. You need to mark which of the cases are completed in order to see the result. If there are few marks of completion on a given day, the brain will begin to work out a plan to optimize the time.
Keeper of secrets. The diary can easily be used as a personal diary. Many people worry that they have nothing to write about, but you can’t write much on an A5 page. This will also help those who do not know how to structure their thoughts, because they will face another task - to try to fit a large amount of information on a small page. But you don’t always need to limit yourself, especially if an undated notebook is chosen.
Success rate. Seeing a person with a diary, people consider him successful, because he knows how to allocate time, he probably has a lot to do, since he decided to start a notebook.

Diary selection

There are a lot of diaries, they differ in format, size, content.

Big and small

The most comfortable A5 hardcover notebooks. They have enough space to write at least 10 daylight hours. Although some have lines for all 24, this is not always convenient. The A6 format is suitable for students and schoolchildren, as their to-do list will probably be smaller.

Checkered and lined

Choose a diary not only by the cover, but also by its content. The people who run them recommend purchasing the version with no dates. This is due to the fact that a person does not always start using the weekly journal from January 1, you don’t want to skip dates at all, and if you fill in the days arbitrarily, not paying attention to numbers, the essence of ordering is lost.

There are diaries in a ruler, a cage or even unlined. In some, hours are marked, sometimes even with half hours (8.00; 8.30; 9.00, etc.).

Formal and creative

Of course, it is better for a business person to get a diary that is concise in design and corresponds to his status. Many people in high positions choose options with a leather cover, company logo or embossing. But there are also less formal, but more interesting models. For example, bright sketchbooks where you can draw, mark the mood, and not just write about your business. They can have an interesting design, such as antique-finished sheets. Some of them even have titles - The Plan to Conquer the World, The Book of Happiness, My Dreams.

Paper and electronic

Given that we live in a high-tech world, there is nothing strange that keeping a diary also happens through gadgets. If this option is chosen, then it is better to stop at a program that has an analogue in the form of a mobile application. This way the data can be synchronized.

It is preferable to keep a weekly journal by hand. Data recorded on paper is not subject to the risk of disappearing, unlike those stored electronically.

How to use the diary?

Immediately you need to determine the purpose for which the diary is kept. If we are talking about a business planner, then everything is simple. You just need to write down the cases and meetings in the column with the right time and date. If we are talking about a personal diary or a goal-setter, then fantasy comes first.

In the diary, you can mark each case with a thematic icon. For example, a date - with a heart; purchases - with a dollar sign; important business meeting - an exclamation mark.
You can mark your mood by drawing a muzzle in the corner of the sheet.
If you have an important event, an exam, a speech, an interview, you can cheer yourself up by writing in advance on the appropriate sheet something like “You are done! You will succeed today!”. Or vice versa, subdue yourself a little if some business has not been done for several days. The entry “You can’t put it off for the 4th time!” will do.
It is allowed to draw, decorate, paste clippings from magazines. This makes journaling really personal and more interesting.

The correct answer to the question of how to keep a diary is one - so that it is a pleasure. Such a notebook is a diary of success, where you can see the results of each day you live.

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