Why and how do i do micro-journaling throughout the day?

There are countless things we do in a single day, yet we often overlook the beauty in these moments. Have you ever ended a day thinking, What the fuck did I do today? or feeling like the day was wasted?

A bit of gratitude journaling at day's end can help. And in a big way. But it only captures what you can remember. For months, maybe even years now, I've been practicing what I call micro-journaling throughout the day.

What is micro-journaling?

Micro-journaling involves jotting down most small achievement or beautiful moment as they happen. Since I work a lot on my computer, I keep a doc open to note these elements. There is a beauty in stopping to realize what just happend. Then by writing it down you realize even more how beautiful this tiny thing was.

Then at the end of the day, I like to review this doc as it shows me just how much I've accomplished and how many tiny beautiful things happened in the day that I already totally forgot.

Why do I do micro-journaling?

These tiny moments of realization make me feel more mindful and present. Writing them down helps me enjoy what I've achieved, no matter how small.

This is something especially useful on the days I'm alone with my kid. For me babysitting isn't the easiest task in my life or the one I prefer. It can feel like I'm only helping my child and not doing anything for myself. But with micro-journaling, I can see that I've done plenty for myself too as there always tiny moments that I appreciate too.

How did I practice micro-journaling in the past?

Like with anything you can be super technical or minimalist about it. Here are a few tools I've used in the past to micro-journal:

Notion

In the past, I used a Notion database to track these moments. This system made it easy to look back at what made me happy or thankful last month or last week by sorting elements by their date of creation.

What I like about this approach is how easy it is to resurface elements from the past automatically which then also shows you:

• How your life has progressed (for example the win of the day a few years ago might have been that your kid only woke up 5 times during the night).

• Inspiration for things you stopped doing but that could be helpful again today.

• Elements to be thankful for that you totally forgot about.

Apple Notes

These days, I use Apple Notes and categorize elements as I write them.

What I like about this approach is how quick it is, especially if you add a widget of your desktop that open the note very quickly.

Photos

Another method I used was taking photos of each tiny achievement throughout the day and adding them into a document at the end of the day. It created a sort visual timeline of all the beautiful things that happened in that day.

What I like about this approach is how this doesn't even need words. And at the end of the day you have a very visually rich journal.

Other tools to create a micro-journal

What this shows is that the "how" is not so important, and that it can even evolve through the different phases of your life. And there are many other ways you could create a micro-journal, for example you could:

• Record tiny audio notes

• Use sticky notes

• Have a small business card sized piece of paper in your pocket

• etc.

Made with the help of AI

I've recorded an audio note of this blog post on my Watch and then turned it into a first draft using AudioPen. Then I've reviewed that first draft and added a few elements to it.