Reduce Stress with a Daily Planner or Journal

As you probably know, stress can have a major impact on your life. Among the different daily habits and healthy ways to reduce and manage stress, using a journal and/or planner are at the top of the list.

These tools are inexpensive, easy to do, can be done from anywhere, and provide a lot more benefits than just reducing stress.

In this report, you will learn all about how to use a journal to reduce stress, as well as how to use a daily planner for this purpose. You are also going to get some simple, beginner-friendly tips for getting started.

1. Reduce Stress with a Journal

Journaling is a powerful tool that can have great benefits if used correctly. Not only does it help people on a psychological level, including helping with depression, boosting memory, and so much more, but it also can have actual physical benefits that manifest themselves in one’s health. Bearing that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the most prominent rewards that come with jotting down your feelings and emotions on a piece of paper. 

Journaling Can Help with Everyday Learning

Given the massive amount of information that you are bombarded with on a daily basis, it would be impressive if you could retain more than half of it. What’s more, it’s not enough to just remember this information, but you also have to take the time to reflect on it and see how it relates to you if you truly want to learn something meaningful: 

The best analogy to drive the point home is the difference between a student who can’t remember anything from their classes, a student who regurgitates everything their professor says in class, and a student who takes the time to rephrase what is said in class and tries to connect it with other concepts they’ve learned over time. Journaling can help you be the third type of student, the one who actually makes use of their college tuition and knows how to thrive in today’s knowledge economy. 

Think about stressed you can get on a daily basis just by trying to retain all of this information, no matter how you are spending your time. It is a lot, especially when you combine it with everything else going on in your head at any given time.

Apart from the fact that writing something down allows your brain to better recall it later as opposed to just thinking about it, taking the time to write in a journal will give you the time to both mull over important events, whether throughout the day or in your past, and reflect introspectively on what these events mean and what you can learn from them; this, in turn, can enhance your decision-making skills in future situations as well as make you into a better critical thinker. 

Additionally, when you force yourself to write down your thoughts and ideas, you will inevitably develop clearer thinking that allows you to structure your ideas and arguments in a way that will facilitate your future communications with others. Most important of all, journaling will help you learn about yourself, aid you in constructing a clear sense of identity, and clarify your life’s narrative. 


Construct Your Life’s Narrative

Life can get hectic and messy, and it is very easy for someone to lose their way. As a result, having a way to record valuable moments that can keep you anchored in the most tumultuous of times can be worth something. As a matter of fact, some people who journal go so far as to record the entire family history, leaving something younger generations might one day cherish. 

This is one of those benefits of journaling that goes beyond just helping to reduce stress, but to gain more clarity and understand more about yourself and your life. This in turn, can help with a lot of issues you have been experiencing on a daily basis, even the ones you were not completely aware of. You might even figure out what some of your biggest stress triggers were.


Journaling Helps Achieve Your Goals

There are many forms of stress in your life, from things you can’t avoid, like work and school, to daily, unexpected stresses like personal and relationship issues. If you are someone that deals with more stress from the long list of things you need to do or want to get done or hope to achieve, then journaling is perfect for you.

It will allow you to sit down and work through all of these plans. You can first figure out what your goals are, then make lists right in the journal that show you what is needed to achieve your goals. This reduces your stress by helping you make all the important decisions that you were too overwhelmed to think about before.

Journaling Enhances Your Creativity

Journaling can be an excellent way for you to document most creative ideas that come to you, whether they come while you’re strolling through a park or while you’re fast asleep dreaming of how you could have solved that problem at work. 

The bottom line is that there doesn’t have to be a filter on what gets recorded in your journal: If you are the type of person who gets a flash of creativity every other minute, then a journal might be the only sensible way for you to keep track of all that creative energy. And even if you don’t fancy yourself as a creative individual, taking the time to commit your ideas to paper might be the push you need to discover a side of yourself you have yet to explore. 

Find More Gratitude

Having more gratitude in your life is one of the top benefits of journaling, and can also help you to reduce stress in your life. If you haven’t heard the term before, a gratitude journal is a journal where you get to list everything you feel grateful for, which helps you relieve stress and elevates your mood. After all, how can’t you feel better after focusing on all the good in your life? 

Over and above, learning to be grateful for the good in your life has countless benefits: To begin with, it can help you reach your goals along with enhancing your quality of life. Moreover, it has been shown that when people attend to the positive things in their lives, they become more mentally resilient and are able to bear the emotional turbulence that life may throw their way. Along with all of this, happy people tend to be more optimistic and friendlier overall. 

Help With Your Depression and Anxiety

It should go without saying that people suffering from depression should seek professional help, especially in extreme cases, and that no alternative could take the place of an experienced counselor. That being said, journaling has been shown to have positive effects for people fighting depression by supporting their attempts to manage its symptoms. 

If you want any evidence, you can look into the studies done to see the effect expressive writing can have on women exhibiting signs of depression who had previously suffered intimate partner violence; there have also been studies showing that journaling might be as potent as cognitive behavioral therapy when it comes to mitigating the symptoms of depression. Even people suffering from severe depression reported feeling significantly better after journaling for three days. 

2. Tips for Using a Journal

You should now have a better understanding of how journaling can benefit you, especially as it pertains to using one to help reduce your stress. Now let’s discuss some tips for getting started with journaling, and really using it to your advantage.

Journaling for beginners can sometimes seem overly simplified, but for others, it seems daunting and like homework. It is neither of these things!

The great thing about choosing to write in a journal when you are dealing with a lot of emotional stress in your life is that there are no rules. You will learn some tips and tricks, but you don’t have to follow any of these. You can journal however you want, and in whatever way works best for you.

These are just some recommendations for getting started, and to really use journaling to help with your stress and anything else you are dealing with. 

Use Journaling Prompts

The first pages of a journal can often be the most daunting, so an easy way to get started is to use journaling prompts. These can be more generalized journaling prompts that are just meant to get the creative juices flowing, or they can be tailored specifically toward reducing stress and figuring out why you are so overwhelmed lately. 

Journaling prompts are very easy to find online, whether from other bloggers and websites, sites like Pinterest, and bonus: at the end of this report! 

Stream of Consciousness

Another excellent method of journaling when you are feeling stressed is stream of consciousness. This is when you just start writing, and have absolutely no timers, plans, or prep. All you want to do is start writing what comes to mind first, and just keep writing.

You aren’t forced to stick to a specific topic, you don’t have to worry about how long it takes, or how many directions your mind seems to go. Just let it flow naturally, writing about anything and everything you want. 

Do this for however long you want to, or when you feel satisfied with how much you have written. A lot of times, just doing this is enough to find some clarity, figure out where your stress is coming from, and acts as a type of “brain dump” in your journal.

Don’t Use Any Journaling ‘Rules’

It is really important that you take out any ideas of rules when it comes to journaling. If you keep thinking about so-called rules, such as what type of journal to use, how long you have to write every day, and what topics to stick to, it can make it hard to really find clarity and actually benefit from the practice of journaling.

Another rule you definitely want to avoid is about the type of writing you are doing. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar! You are the only one who will see these journaling pages, so as long as it makes sense to you, that is really all that matters.

The reason this matters is because if you are so focused on making everything perfect and being sure your spelling is right, you are overthinking about the writing itself, and not your feelings. You want to reduce stress with journaling, not increase it or put too much pressure on yourself.

Find Your Stress Triggers

Lastly, a great way to use journaling for stress is directly, where you are actually trying to find those triggers. A trigger is what is causing you to experience the high levels of stress you have been dealing with.

In some ways, it can be obvious, such as work or your personal life. But you might be surprised by the seemingly meaningless things that can be making your overall amount of stress much worse. When you figure out what these triggers are, you are able to work on reducing them in whatever way you can.

How to Find Your Triggers

If you want to try using your journal to identify stress triggers, here are a few helpful methods:

1. Stream or Consciousness with a Twist – Stream of consciousness usually means just writing what first comes to mind. You can try this for your triggers, which alone can help a lot. But with a twist, you can try writing what you want, but with a minor focus of how you are feeling and what you think led to feeling that way.
2. The Good and the Bad – This is a type of journaling prompts, where you are going to have one good thing for every bad thing, and vice versa. A type of pro and con of every action or emotion you feel. What happens is that you figure out exactly how negative your thinking is even when good things happen to you.
3. Journaling Your Days – This is where you journal everything you did, felt, and experienced each day. You only have to do this for a while, or until you figure out what some of your triggers are. Simply write in your journal as often as you can about what you are doing, and how you feel while doing it. You might find that you always tend to have more negative emotions around certain things – those might be your triggers.

3. Reduce Stress with a Planner

Planning is one of the most vital components in determining how productive you will be. Tasks are broken down into simpler ones allowing you to focus on one thing at a time. After having achieved one of your duties, you feel much more fulfilled and productive.

If you are still unconvinced that there is a need to write things down to feel a sense of productivity in your life, read on. This section is going to discuss some of the psychology surrounding using daily planners. The act of writing your tasks down – even your feelings and emotions – can be a powerful way to combat stress and trauma.

Why Writing Things Down Can Ease Stress

Most people would think that writing things down on a notebook or a planner is too old school. But then again, what’s wrong with that? By using one of those brightly colored notebooks and planners, you allow yourself to let go of a thought with the security and assurance that the idea has been written down somewhere, somewhere you can always go back to.

With that in mind, here are the reasons why writing things down can ease trauma and stress:

You’ll find more time for everything – Have you ever noticed how you are always running out of time? Well, it’s not just you. In fact, students have admitted needing more than 24 hours a day. The key to appropriately managing your time on a day-to-day basis is writing all of your tasks for the day on a planner.

You can adequately define your goals for the next hours, and you can also monitor them well with your planner. As a result, you wouldn’t be caught off guard when something unexpected happens. You’ll still be able to track your progress despite a number of changes within the day.

You can adequately schedule all of the activities you need to get done for the day – By using a planner, you are allowing yourself to follow a routine that you have previously written down. Yes, it provides you with some sort of peace of mind; however, planning your day also allows you to look at the bigger picture.

What are the things you need to finish within the day? What are some of the deadlines you need to take care of? How can you fit in emergency meetings within the day? Do you have room for any self-care activities?

By properly planning your day, these tasks, deadlines, and meetings appear much less daunting. You don’t feel overwhelmed with what you need to do for the day resulting in less stress and anxiety. Of course, there are outside influences that may affect your stress level for the day, but by the act of writing these down on your planner, you get a sense of control over things.

You worry less – By using a planner for your daily activities, you can achieve these three words: “you worry less.” Psychology states that our lives are too demanding and stressful. Students, young professionals, senior professionals, and everyone else constantly need to live up to a specific goal in mind. You set yourselves to achieve great things; however, halfway through, you realize how tiring things can be.

By writing down your tasks for the day, your goals for the month, or even your happy thoughts and other accomplishments for the day, you acknowledge one thing over the other. By writing down your task, you are claiming to the universe that this is one thing you need to get done within the day. This makes achieving your goal less demanding, less stressful, and less worrisome.

Structuring Your Day Like Successful People

Have you ever wondered how the billionaires of 2019 could handle the pressure of being a billionaire? Imagine all those meetings, financial planning, managing their fortunes on top of family time, proper health and fitness, and so much more. How do they accomplish so much if we are all merely given the same 24 hours a day?

Well, the answer has been in front of you the whole time. It is true that we are given the same 24 hours a day; however, our circumstances may contribute to certain differences in how individuals live their lives. Nonetheless, this shouldn’t be an excuse. In fact, let this serve as an inspiration.

So, how do they do it? Furthermore, how can you structure your day like these billionaires? You’ll be surprised to know that a billionaire – despite all of their responsibilities and obligations – can find the time to enjoy a hobby, spend time with their family, exercise, meditate, read, perform tedious tasks, journal their thoughts for the day, and prepare for tomorrow. Well, they simply plan!

Why Planners are Better Than a To-Do List

With proper planning, you can also fit in all of those items mentioned above within your 24 hours a day. Planners can function better than a simple to-do list or sticky notes. Why? Here are some reasons:

1. Planners can recognize which of your tasks are more urgent and which are not. You’ll know which to prioritize first.

2. A long list of tasks can be overwhelming; this is one of the elements that we try to eliminate. With planners, you can prioritize those tasks that need to be done immediately, tasks that can be rescheduled, and tasks that are of low priority.

3. Planners do not contribute to stress in the way that long, detailed to-do lists can. Look into the Zeigarnik Effect, where unfinished tasks can create uncontrolled thoughts and lead to more stress.

4. You can’t plan your day as effectively with a to-do list, especially not when it comes to schedules and times.

5. With a planner, you can easily juggle multiple roles in your life. Your responsibilities for each role will not overlap with one another, resulting in a stress-free process of going about your tasks for the day.

Scheduling and planning can do so much. If you are going to do it, do it with a planner. It will be much more worth it and will drastically increase your productivity like that of a billionaire.

What is the Importance of Daily Planning?

Daily planning is an essential factor in achieving success. Even just for the next 24 hours, proper planning can make you feel like you can take on the entire week, month, or even year. This is because you are more in control of what happens in your life.

As explained, the process of writing things down gives you a peace of mind. Furthermore, there are other reasons as to why it is essential to have a daily planner:

• A planner can reduce your stress quotient.
• By writing down on your planner, you allow yourself to think that your goals are much more attainable – which they are.
• Planners allow you to be prepared for any emergencies.
• You can create contingency plans on your planner for any unexpected problems.
• You can properly evaluate your progress throughout the day, week, or month with planners.
• Writing your schedule for the day on a planner can actually help you realize ways to free up your time. If you always take the train to work, you can buy a MetroCard to save yourself from buying a ticket every day.
• A planner can help you save more money. By following a routine, you allow yourself to submit to the same activities over and over again. As a result, you can plan ahead. If you eat fruits and vegetables for breakfast every day, you can buy them in bulk the next time you grocery shop. If you go to the gym a few times a week, you can apply for a gym membership which will allow you to avail their services for a lower cost.
• A planner allows you to be more mindful of your choices. As you write things down on your planner, you become much more aware of the things you spend on and the activities you invest in. With that in mind, assessing them by using a planner is the best course of action.
• A planner lets you know if you are slacking off. As a result, you are more mindful of your daily productivity.
• A planner facilitates relaxation. The truth is that there will always be something beyond your control. The key to achieving a less stressful day is to simply accept this fact. What you can do is focus on the things you can control. With that in mind, writing those controllable aspects in your life in a planner can facilitate relaxation.

With all of the happenings going on in your life, it can get pretty hectic to keep track of everything without the use of a planner. A mental note is okay; however, having a planner with you can change your whole productivity game.

In the end, a planner is just a tool that will help you achieve your goal. The critical factor that will truly make your dreams a reality is you. Nonetheless, a planner can be of great help if you are feeling unproductive lately. Remember, focus on the things you can control and simply take it from there.

4. Tips for Using a Planner

You go about planning every day but are you really planning in an effective manner? Here are some tips for using a daily planner effectively, and being sure you use it to reduce stress, not create it:

Use the Planner as Your Main To-Do List

Get rid of the other methods of creating to-do lists if you are going to use a planner. You do not want to have multiple lists all over the place, creating chaos and disorganization in your mind. Have one way to use a planner for your tasks, and keep them there only.

Most planners that you purchase, as well as ones you can print and customize, offer everything you need for your schedule. This includes areas for schedules (with the dates and times), to-do lists, notes, goals, and other information that might be pertinent to your planning. 

Incorporate Journaling or Notes Pages

If you are customizing a planner, it is a great idea to have full notes pages or journaling pages. This allows you to journal right in your daily planner so that you can benefit from both of these methods to reduce your stress naturally and organically, without too much effort.

Categorize Items Based on Priority

It can also help tremendously to set priorities for the tasks in your planner. This ensures you know right away what you should work on first and what can wait a little while, as well as helping to reduce stress if some of the low priority tasks are not completed. You already have it in your mind that they aren’t too important or urgent, so there is no need to worry about it if they are put on a different day.

Have a Strategic Routine for Using the Planner

Like many other things in your life, it can help to turn something into a routine. Otherwise, you are much less likely to be consistent with it. It does take some practice to start a routine, but the more often you do it, the easier this will become.

If you are determined to make planning a part of your day, pick a location and time that you think you will be more willing to do it, and make that part of your routine. It can be in the morning before getting ready for work, while you are enjoying your first cup of coffee or tea, or even in the evening when preparing for the next day.

Bonus – Journaling Prompts for Stress Reduction

Here are just a few journaling prompts that can help get you started if you’re feeling a little stuck and aren’t sure where to start. Some are more general, while others are specifically for writing about stress.

1. How are you feeling today?

2. Write about 3 things you loved about today, and 3 things you didn’t love.

3. What is your biggest concern in your life right now?

4. If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?

5. Why do you feel more stressed today than you did yesterday?

6. Is there someone in your life who you feel is contributing to your stress?

7. Do you have a hard time saying no to someone?

8. When was the last time you did something just for you?

9. Talk about the moment you knew your stress had become a problem.

10. What is one thing you are grateful for today?