Journaling for Leaders and Learners

A journal is a powerful tool for leaders to carve out time for active reflection and learning. Let's see how.

Welcome!

In this edition, we explore how journaling can be a powerful tool for leaders and learners to process experiences, notice patterns and make things happen - plus there’s a special bonus sketchnote video explainer for the paid subscribers.

But before we go further, consider:

• Visiting my work and blog at QAspire.com (blogging since 2006)

• Registering for the upcoming Visual Thinking and Sketchnote workshop happening on 21st March, 2025.

• Checking out Visual Leadership Pack of HD Sketchnotes – a compilation of high-resolution sketchnotes covering 90+ powerful (and timeless) ideas to elevate your leadership and learning game. Ideal for coaches, leaders and learners.

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Journaling to Process Experiences

In a constantly evolving world where we experience so many different things professionally and personally, journaling can be an excellent tool to process these experiences and make sense of the world around us.

I remember starting a small journal when my daughter was born in 2006. Each night, I would write about my day and each entry would end with one thing I was grateful for on that day.

As she and I grew, my journal kept growing with experiences, anecdotes and observations. In 2006, I experimented with online journaling (blogging) to record and share my experiences on the professional front on a weekly/monthly basis. Today, when I see blog posts from 2006 or my personal journal entries, I can clearly see how I have evolved over these years.

A journal can be a wonderful companion that helps clarify our thinking, process our emotions, express ideas and notice patterns that emerge from it all.

The patterns that emerge from simple act of writing a journal can also become important guideposts along the way. I started blogging about quality in 2006 but as I explored various dimensions of quality, I realized that people were at the center of it all. That brought me to write about leadership and learning and change. The themes kept expanding as I kept exploring and practicing.

Journaling and Leadership

Leaders are constantly navigating the fast-paced lanes of change and disruption today. Amidst all the noise around, it is very easy for many leaders to lose the sight of what truly matters and choose accordingly.

Many leaders I have coached are overwhelmed by the sheer number of priorities that they are responsible for.

Constant busyness and engagement is like a treadmill - keeps you busy but doesn’t take you anywhere. Journaling is a great way to step off the treadmill of busy work, slow down, reflect, and make sense of it all, even if for a few minutes in a day.

During my stint of leading a large organization a few years ago, I had a practice of ending my day with 10 minutes of reflection time. This was the time that I would slow down to notice everything we accomplished, stuff pending to be done, the direction we are going as a team and things that we might be missing - and write it all in a work journal. A task list is recording of priorities - a journal is reflection on the those priorities and everything that goes with it. This processing of priorities on a daily basis kept me on track, enabled me to notice patterns of systemic behaviors and facilitated adaptation of my approaches in line with the patterns I observed.

Moreover, when I end my day with a short reflection about work and life, it helps me sleep better after offloading a lot of my thoughts on a piece of paper.

Journal essentially answers the question, “How do I feel about..?” It is an active reflection and not just passive recording.

Ideas to Bring Your Journal to Life

• Choose a medium to process your thinking. Paper and pen is the most potent medium to journal because writing by hand creates neural pathways of possibilities.

• If daily journaling overwhelms you, try weekly frequency. The key is to set aside time to write the journal consistently, and make it fun.

• While I love free form journaling, many people prefer prompts for journaling. You can use simple prompts like “What did I learn today?”, “What am I grateful for?” etc. to kickstart your thinking. There are wonderful resources online to help you find the right prompts for your journaling.

• A journal is for the self first - and if something from it has the potential to help others, you can choose to share. But keeping it honest is the key since it is a conversation with the self.

• Once you find a rhythm, take time to revisit your journals to observe how your context is evolving. It can be fun to revisit how far you have come along.

• Beyond recording of your thoughts, use the journal to reflect on ideas and document your feelings and emotions. It can be very cathartic.

• Make it fun by making it visual. You can draw simple shapes, diagrams, and people figures to synthesize insights. I see my pursuit of creating sketchnotes as active method of journaling ideas I consume and apply.

Here’s a sketchnote summary on how journaling can be a powerful tool for leaders and learners.

From My Journal

Since we are at it, I love using my Instagram feed to share selected handwritten entries from my journal. The value is not as much in sharing as it is in the act of writing it. Writing an insight by hand internalizes it, and we are more likely to act that way.

Here is a recent entry from my journal:

Sketchnote Video: Attributes of a Powerful Question

Today, you can prompt AI to get all the answers. However, it is our ability to ask right questions that can truly propel us forward. Here are a few attributes of a powerful question - explained in a sketchnote video form.