TPS #29– The Power of Reflection (an AI-powered journal assistnat)

I’m constantly thinking about my future.

It seems like most things I do stem from the person I want to be in the future.

Which is great, striving to be better and all, but it can really make you lose sight of the present moment.

Now look, I’m not saying I know all the answers.

By no means do I not.

But I’m learning every day.

And over the past 200 days, give or take; I’ve been journaling every single day.

The few minutes each day I take to write down my thoughts reflect on my day, and braindump ideas have been a turning point for me.

You Own Personal Therapist.

It doesn’t sound glamorous.

But, sometimes your brain feels like one of those New Year’s Eve light shows.

Constantly flashing with thoughts, ideas, troubles, anxiety, etc.

When I started my own business, I realized that real growth would never happen if I couldn’t take care of my mental and emotional health.

Writing in my journal each day became a powerful tool for self-reflection and personal growth.

For me, it’s like my own personal therapist.

It allows me the chance to go outside myself and view my thoughts from a less biased perspective.

And sometimes all you need is a little perspective.

Getting Over Yourself

It’s often a battle to sit down and actually do some writing.

You are essentially just writing whatever comes out of your brain with no particular order or pattern.

But there is a method to this madness.

When you’re worried about something, it feels 10x bigger in your head than how it looks on paper.

We are incredibly good at working ourselves up over nothing.

We did evolve not to get eaten by other predators, so paranoia is healthy.

But nonetheless, entirely manageable.

So even when you don’t feel like you have anything to say, write.

I promise that something meaningful will come out, just don’t think about what to write and start writing.

Counterintuitive, I know.

But it’s like solving a math problem in high school. You might not know how to get the answer, but you’ll never know if you don’t just start.

Fine, I’m done harping on you to “just write.”

Let’s get you an actionable plan that you can stick to every single day.

Your Daily Journaling Routine

4 steps.

No fluff, just what works for me and how it can work for you.

Step 1: Set aside time each day.

I find it much easier to sit down and write if there is a specific time each day when I journal.

7:30 am is when I do my journaling every day (again, give or take)

But I do make sure that it’s the first thing I do before I get into my first deep work session of the day.

I find it to be super helpful for focus and clarity.

Step 2: Use prompts or themes to guide your writing.

Staring at a blank page sucks.

And it definitely doesn’t inspire me to write about my feelings.

So I created some simple prompts I use in my daily journaling template, of course, built-in Notion.

(Stick around to the end for this system, and a bonus)

Step 3: Reflect on your day or week.

It doesn’t matter when in the day you write.

If you journal at night, reflect on your day.

If you journal in the morning, reflect on yesterday.

For me, Sundays are the day I reflect on my last week’s progress and plan out my next week.

Typically this is a much longer entry.

What gets tracked gets managed.

But do whatever works for you.

Step 4: Write freely and without judgment.

It might sound silly.

But for when I journal, I catch myself sometimes holding out on writing what’s really on my mind.

I think it’s because I don’t want to acknowledge that it is a problem.

Or maybe I want to think of myself as stronger than I am.

But regardless, it’s there.

So just write.

Don’t worry about what comes out the other end.

No one is gonna judge you.

Unless you’re judging yourself, which in that case, give yourself a break.

Now as Promised:

This week, Notion released a new feature called “AI Properties.”

The use cases are seemingly endless, but I wanted to create a personal coach for myself through the eyes of some of my favorite big thinkers.

In this system, I have programmed Nietzsche, Socrates, and Alex Hormozi to give you constructive feedback based on your journal entry.

The results are nutty.

I also added a “Summary” property, which gives you a short summary of what happened that day.

This really comes in handy when reflecting on your week and staying consistent.

PS: Whenever you're ready, here are two-way I can help you:

1. Get a free operations audit for your business or agency here.

2. Subscribe and get unlimited custom systems and AI integrations for you and your team at ProfitPilot