Journaling is fast becoming one of my favourite ways to spend my time. More than scrolling Instagram, more than watching creators talk about social media or writing on YouTube. Maybe even more than watching The Big Bang Theory.
I'm currently sitting, legs up and covered in a blanket, on the settee. I've just had to tell my dog off - I won't tell you why because she's (occasionally) disgusting - I hate telling her off so my heart rate has sped up a little.
But now on the settee, blanket on and my notebook open on my lap, it’s just started raining and the light is switched on behind me - and I felt peace wash over me. Because I knew I could escape into my writing for awhile. No pressure of writing my novel no worrying about people reading it - just me and my journal and writing whatever is in my head.
If you don't keep a journal - maybe it feels indulgent, maybe you feel silly, maybe you feel you don't have the time or are worried that people might read it - then I strongly recommend it. So I thought I'd write this blog post/script for my video (below), the first draft of which is in my journal, to share with you the reasons why I keep journal and how it helps me.
A journal is a way of recording your ideas so you don’t forget them.
Journaling makes you a better writer. Writing is like a muscle. The more you use it the better it gets.
Writing down ideas helps grow more ideas. Are you constantly worried about running out of ideas? So was I. But when I started journaling one idea led to another and another and another…
Journaling helps you let go of things that are bothering you. Making sense of world events. my health, my business, even if I’ve no idea what’s causing that anxiety in my tummy I can usually pinpoint it by writing it all down.
It helps you figure out who you are. This has been particularly helpful when I seemed to be making the same mistakes again and again in my writing business.
Over the weekend I sent out a newsletter which opened with a short anecdote about my YouTube channel. The subject of the newsletter wasn’t actually about YouTube at all but I received an email back from one of my lovely subscribers asking what had happened with my YouTube journey. She said: It feels almost like we followed you on your journey then when you arrived at the Emerald City, you left us outside the gates.
I completely agreed. I’d stopped talking about YouTube once I reached monetisation. I’d shared a lot of what I was going through including my analytics and how close I was getting on my Instagram Stories - but then just didn’t carry that narrative on.
My YouTube journey has dominated my life for a year. I was thinking about it a lot; anxious that I would not reach the relevant requirements and then, when I did, I was worried about being rejected and monetisation would not be allowed for my channel.
So I thought I’d explore why I stopped talking about my YouTube channel in this blog post, as well as looking at my YouTube journey so far.