What image appears in your mind when you hear the phrase “keep a diary”? A gray-haired old man who wants to perpetuate his wise thoughts for future generations? A writer who forms prototypes for his works? A teenage girl who trusts her school notebook with her girlish secrets of her first love?
You are right in all these cases! And add to this list people who have made an invaluable contribution to science, achieved success in various areas of life, and survived in extreme situations. Keeping a diary helped many of them with this. By the way, a diary as a way of survival and coping with stress deserves special attention.
What does an Effective Working Day mean to me?
Before moving on to the recommendations, let's define for ourselves what an effective working day means. It doesn’t matter whether you work for yourself or have a hired job, there is only one principle by which you can distinguish a good day from a bad one - Do you feel satisfied with how you lived this day?
Many people believe that the daily routine of every successful person is based on creating a minute-by-minute schedule of what needs to be done and when. This makes sense, but it is absolutely not the point. I approach this issue completely differently. Strict deadlines for getting up, going to bed and eating are not suitable for me personally, since I cannot work effectively if I do not get enough sleep or, conversely, I cannot quit work for lunch when inspiration comes.
What matters is what the day is filled with, not the hours and minutes written down in a notebook. Each person’s life is individual and each of us has our own priorities - what is important to us (health, family, work, business, etc.). These are the things you need to build on - they should all be included in your routine.
Diary formats
As you understand, the diary format is not limited to just text or pictures. All this can be systematized in chronological order or united by a single theme, giving preference to recording events or emotions, writing down quotes and ideas that caught your attention, or recording the same ideas and emotions, but in the form of a drawing.
In this regard, such a relatively new form as an art diary is very interesting. This is a kind of sketchbook (from English sketch - sketch and book - book), where you can record ideas in artistic form. Moreover, these do not necessarily have to be new fashion collections, like Yves Saint Laurent, or sketches of a new painting by an aspiring artist.
Collages, applications made of colored paper, fabrics, and other materials can be used to... record your emotions and thoughts on eternal topics. This greatly helps the process of self-knowledge, understanding one’s true goals and values, and finding ways to achieve them. Psychotherapists who practice art therapy recommend keeping an art diary for those patients who find it difficult or not very comfortable to admit some of their weaknesses or find it difficult to understand themselves and others.
In this case, topics for the art diary are selected by a psychotherapist in order to reveal all facets of a person’s personality and find an approach to solving his problems. In particular, the patient is asked to depict in artistic form his “I” and how others see him, his places of peace, protection and restoration, his past, present and future, his color of life and abstract fantasies. Also, a person is often asked to fantasize and visualize what he would look like if he were a vegetable, flower, animal or insect.
In general, the practice of self-knowledge is a useful thing for achieving harmony within oneself and success in life. And if you take our Self-Knowledge course, you will learn much more about such techniques.
And you can start by starting your own personal diary. Moreover, there are a lot of ways to keep a diary, and you can always choose what you like. The main thing is to start. I think you’ve already seen the benefits of keeping a diary, but let’s generalize.
Top 10 reasons to start keeping a personal diary:
- Reduces stress levels.
- Teaches you to formulate and organize thoughts.
- Develops creativity.
- Creates a stock of ideas for future implementation.
- Allows you to save the most vivid impressions.
- Promotes self-knowledge.
- Serves as a source of inspiration.
- Helps develop observation and intuition.
- Helps you find answers to pressing questions.
- Facilitates the restoration of a person’s biography for his descendants.
Don't let the last point confuse you. If you are a philosopher in life or are simply bursting with ideas, even sometimes crazy ones, this is just an additional argument in favor of you starting to keep a diary. What seems unnecessary today may be interesting or useful to future generations.
After all, there are a great many examples of scientists, philosophers and artists receiving recognition only after their death. However, recognition became possible solely because they took the trouble to transfer their thoughts and ideas onto paper, images into paintings, music into sheet music.
We sincerely wish you great success and unambiguous recognition during your lifetime. And you can take the first step towards this now!
We also recommend reading:
- Storytelling
- Stress Diary
- The benefits of keeping a diary
- Journaling
- How keeping a diary can help you become a better person
- Journal of Professional Development
- 15 tasks that will boost your intelligence
- General notebook as a tool for self-development
- Journaling Ideas
- Best Ways to Journal
- Techniques for dealing with negative moods
Key words: 1Psychoregulation, 1Self-knowledge
What should an ideal day for a successful person consist of?
If we look at my example, the most time in my life is spent on:
- Health. I plan to live a long time and enjoy the results of my labor not from a hospital room or from a wheelchair, so I put this first. In addition, the path to success is a marathon and it will be long. I will need a lot of strength on this path.
- Creation. The work of an Internet entrepreneur is largely a creative process. Naturally, creativity requires a fresh, rested and prepared mind.
- Implementation of ideas. This is the time for the most labor-intensive processes; it is during these periods that everything that was planned is brought to life. Sometimes it is mechanical, dreary and uninteresting work, but you can’t do without it.
- Rest. Everyone likes to relax in their own way, so there are no clear recommendations here. Let me just say that spending some time relaxing can also help you stay healthy.
Now let's talk in more detail about each of the categories described above - what, when and how to do. I won’t go into detail about going to the toilet, showering or brushing your teeth separately; I’ll only focus on the most important points.
Successful people always and everywhere stand out. If you walk down the street, you can easily identify in a crowd of people those who can be classified as successful people
And the point here is not at all about jewelry, cars, clothes, or the size of the bank account.
Successful people are visible in themselves. This is felt on some subconscious level.
Surely, you have your own image, and if you meet it in reality, you will immediately classify the person as a successful person.
But, often, this image is blurry, it does not have clear and specific definitions. Therefore, let us decide once and for all
Who are these most successful people?
So.
1. Successful people look much younger than their age. Remember Sofia Loren, Madonna, Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Posner, Maya Plisetskaya and many others. They all look 10 or more years younger than their actual age. And the older they are, the greater this difference.
2. They are energetic and cheerful at any age.
3. Successful people are not obsessed with their appearance and health. But they devote enough time to maintain vitality.
4. They work longer than others and achieve better results. For example, billionaire Donald Trump goes to bed at one in the morning and gets up at five in the morning.
5. Successful people are characterized by confidence and self-control, which are manifested in everything - their gaze, gait, voice, decision-making.
6. Successful people have an optimistic outlook on life. Everyone has problems, but the ability to maintain a smile is characteristic of them.
7. They do what they love and love what they do. In the morning they go to work with joy, and in the evening they return home with the same feeling.
8. Successful people have a family and at least two children.
9. They are financially successful and help other people.
10. Successful people know how to plan their lives and set high and difficult goals for themselves and make every effort to achieve them.
11. A successful person is happy with what he has at the moment. But he doesn’t stop there, because he knows that the best is yet to come.
12. They know how to control their fear and act until they achieve results.
13. Successful people focus on the solution to the problem, not the problem itself.
14. They believe in themselves and in their strengths and know that those who are lucky are lucky. There is luck, but to become truly successful, you also need action.
15. Successful people do not wait for the right opportunity, but create it themselves.
This list goes on and on. But the following proverb best characterizes a successful person: The one who gets up one more time than he falls wins.
I think now your image has been formed and now you really know why successful people became so.
Most likely, you have your own personal criteria that influence whether you feel like a successful person or not.
Therefore, you can complement the image I created with your own characteristics and get the final portrait of the person you would like to become. After all, successful people are also happy people.
And this will undoubtedly help you on the path to success.
All that remains for you is, without delay, to start acting right today.
How do I take care of my health?
In the morning when I wake up, I drink a glass of water. Water is very important for our life, and we lose a lot of it overnight. I say this because I know that many people do not drink enough water during the day, and this is important.
Before breakfast, I spend about 15 minutes doing exercises. About two years ago I became acquainted with Oxysize gymnastics - it is based on breathing processes combined with static strength loads - I really like it. Morning exercises help you finally wake up, shake off the remnants of sleep and prepare your body for work.
I haven't been employed for more than 3 years, so I don't have to go out every day. But it needs to be done. I don’t know how or why, but if you don’t go outside for several days, you feel like you’re losing touch with the world. Therefore, be sure to include walks in your daily routine - rollerblading, cycling, or just an evening walk in the park.
When to do creative work?
I personally have 2 periods during the day that are best for creativity. This is when the best ideas come to me.
One of the periods is before bedtime. It’s hard to control this time, but very often, as soon as I turn off the light and go to bed, my head, like a radio receiver, begins to receive a lot of useful ideas. You can turn them over in your head and safely forget them, but sometimes in the morning you won’t remember everything. In this regard, I always have something on hand that will allow ideas to be recorded. If something like this happens to you, then don’t be lazy to keep a notepad or smartphone on hand – it will pay off, believe me.
The second period of time is the morning hours, approximately until lunch. The brain has not yet been loaded with solving work problems, but after exercise and breakfast it is ready for reflection.
Immediately after breakfast, I spend about half an hour meditating. There are different meditation techniques, I don’t have anything top-secret - I just lie down and turn on calm music like the sound of a forest or the sea surf. I initially began to practice meditation to give my brain a break from the usual worries of life, but in the process I discovered that it really helps “generate” ideas that are useful for business.
Thus, in the evening and in the morning I create a lot of sketches for further development.
Best time to work
For me, this is the time when results appear. This is the least creative time, during which you need to do all the “dirty” work, sorting out and bringing to life everything that was invented during periods of creativity.
Daytime hours are best for such activities.
During the day I write articles, prepare trainings, work on websites, in general, I do all the technical work. Towards the evening I sketch out a plan for the next day.
I also noticed this nuance: the less “brains” the work requires, the later it can be done; everything where you need to think is better done immediately after lunch.
What is success?
It is obvious that each person throughout his life develops his own attitude towards success and its main attributes. For some, career advancement seems to be the main synonym for success. And someone is confident in their success if order and harmony reign in their home.
If you turn to official sources, you can find the following definition: success is the achievement of set goals, a positive result of something and public recognition. In other words, synonyms for success are achievement, result and recognition. Let's look at these components in more detail.
Don't forget to plan your vacation
I try never to schedule work in the evening hours. This is exactly the time that you can devote to yourself and your family - take a walk, watch a movie, play with children if you have them, go on a visit or do something else that interests you.
So you'll notice that my daily routine is built in large blocks. I think it is much more important for a successful person to plan what is important to do, rather than waste time scattering their trips to the toilet in five-minute intervals. This approach to your life allows you not only to gain satisfaction, but also to gain self-confidence to set new, more ambitious goals.
If you have anything to add to this article, I will be very glad to see your comments.
Was the game worth the candle?
And now we get to the result - the second synonym for the word “success”. It would seem that you can relax and enjoy the work done. But ironically, it is at this stage that most people feel despondent and empty. The first fireworks of emotions passed. The consciousness that you are a winner is organically integrated into the usual picture of the world. And a reassessment of values begins. A person asks global questions about the meaning of life and his role in it. Can such a state be called synonymous with success? Everyone decides this for themselves.
But now the next stage is approaching, breaking the shackles of doubt and satiety, demonstrating why, in part, everything was started.
