How to Journal Even When You Have ADHD
Starting a journaling practice isn't always easy and when you have ADHD it can be even harder. Finding time to sit down, stay focused on writing and then making it a daily practice can seem like a fairly daunting process.
At the same time though, all we're asking ourselves to do it write out stuff that is already in our head. We aren't trying to create a great work here, we're just sitting down to write our thoughts. It's both simple and it's not. Even when we do manage to get ourselves to sit down we can find staring at that blank page intimidating. It often feels like a task that we can just put off until we're ready to write, but how often do we actually find that motivation. While I know I'll have at least a few entries that start off with, "well it's been a while since I wrote anything here..." I don't want every entry to start off that way.
Creating and maintaining a journaling habit may seem like it is well beyond our abilities sometimes, but there are some really good reasons that you should consider picking up the pen.
What I tend to like most about journaling is it allows me to clear out my brain. When I'm journaling I just unload all of the thoughts, problems and worries out onto the page. By writing all this down, it allows me to slow down and actually work through my thoughts and feelings.
One of the clearest benefits you can find from journaling is that it can really help you notice patterns in your life. We all know we forget stuff, but that also means that we might not notice how often certain things are happen. For example it was a lot easier for me to identify I was dealing with a sleep issue when I looked back and found entry after entry mentioning how tired I was. I knew I should be getting better sleep, but because I had so many entries mentioning my bad sleep I could really see that it was something that I needed to address. By writing down these things down we can start finding patterns in our behavior that we might otherwise miss (especially when we are sleep deprived).
Once you recognize a pattern further journaling is a great way to work through what's keeping you in that pattern. Journaling allows us to slow down our thinking and it can almost feel like you're getting an outside perspective. When I'm just trying to think about a problem I'll often get into repetitive thinking patterns where I never reach a solution. I'll have thoughts like "I should really get better sleep because when I don't sleep I'm tired and when I'm tired I need to get better sleep because otherwise I'm going to be tired" and when your thinking is looping like that it is hard to ever find a solution.
With journaling, I can instead stop at, "I need to get better sleep" and then I can start asking myself questions on how to make that happen. It creates a structure to my thoughts that I'd other wise not be able to keep up. Creating that structure allows me to really think through the problem, break the loop and actually come up with solutions. It's all about finding ways to ask yourself better questions.
Journaling is about more than just problem solving though, it also allows us to think through our feelings. ADHD can make it hard to navigate our emotions and with journaling we can slow things down a little and figure out how we're really feeling. When we're having trouble working through our emotions, putting down on paper how we're feeling can help give ourselves a lot more clarity.
Of course just deciding that you want to include more journaling in your life isn't the end of the decision tree, one of the most important things you are going to need to think about it your medium.
Most of the journaling I do is with a small notebook and then I typically use an erasable FriXion pen. While I like being able to erase I mostly use them for how smooth they write on the page. I also like using a variety of colors for my entries - this is to help my brain identify that I don't need to perfect about my journaling practice. This also means I don't have to worry about having the "right" pen with me when I'm doing my journaling, which has caught me up in the past.
If you choose to go the pen and paper route, the most important thing to remember is that you only have to find something that is good enough. There are a plethora of journaling products out there and it would be easy to get lost finding the "perfect" journal. Creating your journaling practice is about finding the time journal and less about what you are journaling on.
Paper journals also have their share of problems though, such as our ability forget them places. Just yesterday I arrived at my office and was planning to do a little journaling only to realize I left my journal sitting on my kitchen counter. Fortunately I have a few options when it comes to journaling.
What I do when I've forgotten my journal or misplaced it for an extended period is I use a digital journal. There are a ton of options that you can use to take your note digitally. I mostly use Evernote for this - which is an app that is designed for note taking and organizing that I use for a lot of my writing. I keep a folder in Evernote just for journal entries. I don't use it all the time because I like the feel of the paper journal but I definitely also like the flexiblity of having a journal that I can access from my computer or phone. While I might like the idea of having just one system for journaling I haven't been able to work out for myself. Journaling isn't about perfection and it's okay to have two or three places that you are putting down your entries.
It's also important to note that ADHD writing can be really difficult - one of the most common comorbidities with ADHD is dyslexia (something I also have). Now whether you have dyslexia or simply have trouble paying attention when you are trying to take notes there are still a lot of good options for creating a journaling practice.
One easy option is to use a speech-to-text program - Google has a free option for voice typing built right into Google Docs. All you have to do is open up a new document and click tools and then voice typing. Once you give it access to your microphone you are good to go. I will note that it doesn't automatically put in your punctuation but with a little practice saying comma and period while you are talking and it goes fairly well.
You don't have to limit yourself to only creating a text documents for your journaling, we've now got lots of easy options for creating audio or video journals. Both of these options are simpler than ever with our phones. There are a number of journaling apps for both audio or video entries - all you have to do is click record and talk. These are great options for people who are better at talking through their thoughts than writing them down.
It's important to remember that starting any new habit isn't easy, and that journaling is no different. If you want to create a successful journaling practice you need to think through the problems that might crop up along the way.
I know I've said this a few times already but let's remember that journaling isn't about perfection. Some days we are going to miss our appointments with the journal - that's okay, our practice doesn't need to be daily. It might be better to start off by saying your goal is to journal 3-5 times a week.
The best thing that I've found to keeping up a practice is simply just realizing I don't have to do a whole lot. A journal entry doesn't need to be pages and pages, it can be if you're feeling it, but if you're not it's fine if it's just a sentence or two.
We can start off by defining what our minimum journal entry needs to be. When we set this, we want to make getting our win easy, so try and make it something small - but also something you'll be satisfied with. Sometimes when I sit down the first thing I write is, "I don't know what to write" and that can be a great jumping off point, but sometimes that's all I've got that day. I usually try and spruce that up though and have something more like, "it was a long day, I'm exhausted and my brain is closed for the evening." I like having entries with a little more meat like that because it gives me a better picture of what is going on in my head when I look back at old entries. When I've got, "I don't know what to write," it doesn't give me a whole lot to work with. But maybe that's what you need your minimum entries to be. Remember this is about what works for your brain, not anyone else's.
If you are having trouble getting past that minimum entry not because you don't want to write but instead can't think of anything to write a good option might be to look at either journal prompts or a guided journal. A journal prompt is just a question to get you started and could be about anything - examples might be: write a story from your childhood or list 5 people you admire and explain why. Guided journals are similar, where you answer prompted questions, but they tend to be more focused on walking you through the process of journaling. One example I have liked from time to time is the Five Minute Journal. In that you start off with a few questions about what you are grateful for and what you want to do that day and then another set of questions for the evening. As the name implies it takes about five minutes to fill out, so it's a great option for people that are worried about how much time they want to spend journaling.
Let's also take a minute to talk about deciding how much time you want to set aside for journaling. You don't want to block off your entire morning but you've still got to give yourself ample time to actually write. This is going to vary from person to person and what your goals with journaling are. If you are going to be able to get your thoughts out in 5 minutes that's great - I personally like to try and give myself about 20 minutes, but I also don't always write that long. That's just how much time I make sure is available in case I need it.
Another thing we need to think about are all the things that go into our practice of journaling. In episode two (Timing Your Day) I talk about how there are a lot of invisible parts of tasks that can slip up how long we think something is going to take. Let's say you decided to give yourself 15 minutes for journaling in the morning - you set your timer and sit down, but then you think that you'd also like a cup of coffee while you write. You quickly make your self a cup but then realize that 10 minutes have already passed - did you account for that extra 10 minutes in your morning planning? If not, you just reduced your journaling time by 2/3rds. Or maybe you didn't think about the time you were going to need to look for a pen. All those little things you do to make your practice work take time. You want to make sure you're accounting for all them so that you're your not cutting yourself short.
I mostly talked about journaling in the morning, but you can make journaling a part of your bed time routine as well. Sometimes I really like doing a bit of writing right before I get into bed, and it is actually a really great way to release a lot of the anxieties that have built up in my head over the course of the day. If you have a lot of trouble getting to sleep once you are in bed because you can't get the gears in your brain to stop turning, journaling can be a great way to get your mind to settle down.
While journaling can do a lot of great things, you've got to be mindful of how you use your journal. A lot of us with ADHD don't always have the best self talk and if you let that onto the page you aren't going to get a whole lot of the journaling exercises. Just writing about how you needed to be better and how much you suck isn't going to help. Journaling shouldn't just be another way for you to beat yourself up. When you are journaling you've got to treat yourself with compassion. This doesn't mean you can't journal about negative things, but it does mean you've got to work on how you talk about yourself sometimes and to also call yourself out when you aren't being fair to yourself.
I've had plenty of entries where I was starting to beat up on myself for one thing or another but when I'm was able to step back and objectively look at the situation I was able to give myself a little slack and talk down the negative self talk. And when I that I can do a lot more to work on the problems that I'm facing. If my self-talk is that I'm lazy my only option forward is trying to work harder, but if I actually look at the situation and maybe realize that I'm over scheduling myself or not accounting for some other factor, then I've got room to try and actually solve those problems.
We've all tried to motivate ourselves to be better by using negative selftalk but as I've often heard my friend Eric Tivers ask, how's that working out for you?
This Episode's Top Tips
Journaling allows us to think through our problems and improve our emotional well being
You've got a lot of options for how to journal - be it with pen and paper, digital, or an audio or video journal make sure you are choosing the option that is best for your ADHD brain.
To be successful at journaling we've got treat it like any other habit that we want to form and start off easy - by thinking ahead we can come up with strategies that will make it easier for us to sit down and actually write.
Remember to approach your journal with compassion - you're not going to be solving any problems just by beating yourself up.
