Hello friend 👋🏼

In the last few days I have intensively started to write diary again. Whenever I travel in a public transport, such as by train or streetcar to work, I now write diary.

📏 Why length matters

I think it's amazing what happens when I just let my thoughts run free. At first, when I start with the first few sentences, they are still a bit muddled. However, most of the time, when I get over the 200 word mark, I get into the flow and just when I think I should stop (usually at a good 800 words, if I had to estimate) things really take off. This is where the real valuable ideas come in, like things I still need to do and completely forgot about or insights about a conversation I already had a few weeks ago.

💭 Written words become thoughts

What I also find really good is that after I have done such a brain dump, I usually continue thinking for half an hour or an hour. That means I can really observe my thoughts as they flow more slowly. This often allows me to coach myself and think about what the reason is that I am having these thoughts.

A diary is like a psychiatrist, only free of charge. - Luke Z.

🍏 New School (Digital Diary)

Personally, I like having a digital diary that I can access on my computer and cell phone. It syncs permanently, so I can pick up where I left off on the computer. Personally, I think Day One is a really great app, but unfortunately it is only available for iOS users. I tried all the diary apps and finally fell in love with Penzu. This is also available for Windows and Android users. The entries are 100% private and you can protect them with 128-bit encryption. (Pro even 256-bit) 🔐

📕 Old School (pen and paper)

Of course, there is also the "old school" variant, for which I unfortunately have too little patience. I'm a bit faster with a keyboard. Maybe you prefer pen and paper? I also sometimes write with pen and paper and would like to share with you my favorite notebook, Leutturm 1917 Notebook and favorite pen, the Pilot VBall. I think the notebook has such a beautiful design and replacing the normal solid lines with dots has something unique. I also don't know of any pen that glides smoother across the paper than the Pilot VBall.

🐌 Tips for the start

Last but not least, two tips if you also want to enjoy getting many great insights from journal writing:

Even if you can't think of anything at the moment, sooner or later you will come across topics that are important to you or from which you can draw something. Sometimes I just start something else in the middle of a sentence.... I wonder if other people feel the same way or if it's just me who has such mixed thoughts. Anyway, I write it down because it keeps you in the flow and you usually disrupt the thought process by editing 😉.

In Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way, the author writes that at the beginning of the day you should simply write down all your thoughts on a total of three A4 pages. This helps to get all the negative thoughts out of your head to give more space to positive thoughts.

I wish you a wonderful week and many insightful diary entries. 📖

All love,

xx Luke

P.S. Sorry for the late newsletter. 🙈

I was able to successfully complete my NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) trainer at Landsiedel this weekend. After little sleep and with a lack of energy, I unfortunately didn't manage to finish my 1000 push-ups in one day challenge. I finally managed 500. But I am still very happy with it. If you like you can read more about my 31 Days Challenge here. (you are also welcome to join 😀)

💎 My favourite Things

📱 App Ai Writer Perfekt um ohne Ablenkung zu längere Texte zu schreiben

🎬 Video von Ali Abdaal I Journaled Everyday for 90 Days. Here’s What I Learned

🎁 My New Content

🎙 Podcast Episode 31 Insane + Nice Things I Will Do In The Next 31 Days
🙂:

"From Thursday, the 22.09.22, for the next 31 days I will do one thing/challenge (I actually don`t want to call it a challenge because there are some nice things I actually really really want to do) each day.🎯 I'm doing this because I want to get myself out of my comfort zone. I also find it great for prioritization and focusing on only one thing a day.

🎙 Podcast Episode 31 Insane + Nice Things I Will Do In The Next 31 Days (Part 2) Here I talk about what things I'm going to tackle in the next 31 days.

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS

🎬Youtube Video All my Podcast Episodes are now available on my Youtube Channel

🧾 Blogpost The 31-Day Challenge

🧾 Blogpost (Nr. 32) Draw a picture and sell it on eBay The first task already takes me out of my comfort zone.

🧾 Blogpost (Nr. 26) Write down 100 things that make me happy

🧾 Blogpost (Nr.24) Stare at the ceiling for 1 hour

✍🏻 Quote of the week

In other words, you are not the product of your circumstances so much as your circumstances are the product of your thinking.

From As A Man Thinketh by James Allen.