Prompt Yourself - Part I: The Journaling Framework

To start you just need 2 things

1. An empty page (physical or virtual)
2. A goal you really want to reach

The Idea

Since the 1980s journalling is a well researched and established tool for

• Stress relief
• Therapy
• (Self-)Coaching
• Organising thoughts
• ...

There are already countless frameworks like

• Freewriting or Expressive Writing
  • Goal: Unblock creativity & Mental relief
• Written Rubber-Ducking
  • Goal: Find solution for a current complex problem
• CBT Thought Record
  • Goal: Non-Judgemental processing of own thoughts
• ...

each solving their respective particular problems.

Prompt-Yourself is designed to

• Surface your thoughts and emotions (what you didn't know you knew)
• Bring order and structure into your thoughts
• Work consistently towards a solution in small steps
• While focussing on a single (often multi-facetted) goal
• Over multiple hours, weeks or even years

While it is a variation of written rubber-ducking and thus is capable of solving complex technical problems, it is even more useful for pursuing personal growth goals like

• managing
  • energy
  • emotions
  • carreer growth
• or simply dealing with life.

The Process

Setup 1. On top of the empty page you write a paragraph detailing your goal in your words.
Every Day 1. Start a new section on the page (or new empty page) titled with the current date (e.g. "June 8th"). 2. Look at the empty page below the title, thinking about your goal.
3. Write the first sentence down that comes to your mind related to the goal. Focus on what feels most immediate and relevant to you in the current moment.
4. Stay focussed on what you just wrote and "just sit with it" and see how it feels. Then continue writing down emerging follow-up thoughts. This can be prose or a bullet point format.
5. Repeat 4. until you are satisfied. Make sure to remind yourself on your main goal from time to time and keep your writing somehow relevant. Don't worry about spelling or it even making sense to anyone else but you. Noone else is going to read it!

The empty page and uncompleted thought should create a certain tension in you, stimulating your brain and creating the need to complete what you started. Focussing on what you already wrote should keep the thoughts from going in circles, slowly but steadily progressing to a novel perspective or idea, one step closer to a solution.

At the same time it should help you to "check in with yourself" to become aware of your mental state and how you feel in the moment, something that we often forget to prioritize and never find time to do, but is absolutely necessary for a healthy lifestyle.

Finally your journal becomes a "save state" of your thought process. Just by reading the last paragraphs you can pick up on the next day where you left off.