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Thousands of thoughts visit us every day. Some of them are useless, some relate to short-term tasks. But there are some that would be very useful to us in the future. These are ideas for improving the workflow, creative ideas, things that we would like to do.
The only way not to lose these reflections is to fix them in some form. After all, this is valuable information that will help in making decisions and improving the quality of life.
Here are five types of thoughts that are worth writing down every day. It's good if you manage to fix at least one item of each type, but if there are fewer of them, it's okay. For convenience, ideas of different types can be marked with different symbols: triangles, squares, spirals, ticks, and so on.
It happens that dozens of interesting ideas come to mind during the day. They should be recorded. Richard Branson, one of the richest people on the planet, is sure that his success is largely due to his habit of recording all the unusual thoughts that appear in his head.
If you want, you can also include other people's inspirational quotes or ideas here. But choose carefully. Be guided by the question "Can these ideas inspire me to make some important or ingenious decision in the future?". If the answer is yes, then they have a place in your notebook.
This point is especially important for perfectionists and people who always feel that they are not doing enough. Record your biggest achievements of the day. For example, you have collected a package of documents for a visa, completed a complex project, did the cleaning, went to the gym for the first time or finally met a friend you have long wanted to see.
Even just recording these things is nice, but these records will bring the most benefit if they are re-read once every couple of weeks or even more often.
You will see that your days do not pass aimlessly, your self-confidence will increase, and your anxiety will decrease.
A lot of events and situations happen to us every day that affect our emotional state, productivity, way of thinking, and so on. Sometimes we may not notice these changes, but they always have signals — emotions or behaviors that differ from the usual ones.
For example, you suddenly realize that lately meetings with friend do not bring joy. This means that something has changed in your relationship. After analyzing the situation, you realize that he has become passive-aggressive and communication does not stick because of this.
By noticing such signals and fixing them, you will be able to find cause-and-effect relationships between your living conditions and your psychological state. This means that you will know what needs to be changed to make life better and you happier.
Sometimes we suddenly realize some very important things about ourselves and our lives. Suddenly we realize that we don't want to work in the current field anymore, or we wonder what prevents us from being happy. Such thoughts also need to be recorded.
Perhaps some of them are just fleeting trends that do not reflect your real desires. But in any case, they are useful for self-knowledge and self-development.
It is necessary to periodically remind yourself of the meaning of life, values and aspirations in order not to stray from the planned path.
This category should not include routine work or household chores, but those tasks that will help make life better. For example, the changes that you decided to make based on the detected signals. Or unusual productivity techniques that you would like to try.
Actions that bring you closer to an important life goal will also come here. For example, if you want to move to another country, write down "see the cost of renting a house". Even small decisions have weight, because they help you achieve more.
To make the desire to complete these tasks stronger, you can mark them with squares. You will subconsciously want to tick them off every time you reread the entries.
