The diary, we are no strangers, what can be called a "tool"? Maybe we all wrote when we were young, usually in the teacher, parents, under the requirements of the "running account", will record some things, if the diary to stay until after the adult to see, it is also quite interesting thing, the goal is mainly to improve the writing ability of the composition and accumulation of material, but for the guidance of the study of life, generally do not play a particularly big role.
And the morning diary we're talking about here is one that can effectively manage time and improve the efficiency and quality of your work life, so what diary would have such a great effect? I began to write a diary two years ago, began to use the general text of the record, feel that the life change is not big. Until September last year, studied the time management course of Mr. Ye Wubin, also read the teacher recommended "the miracle of the morning diary" (Sato biography) this book, changed the method of keeping a diary, and only really make the effect of time management is reflected. This nearly a year, I average daily fitness not less than 1 hour, insist on practicing guzheng, calligraphy, reading, learning, etc., of course, I am a nine-night-noon office workers, sitting time is outside of this. I am able to allocate and manage my time more reasonably, thanks in large part to the morning diary. Said so many benefits, must let the protagonist on the stage:
Morning diary, first of all, is a diary, but its recording method and "running account" type of different, we use "nine grid" type of form to do, and the nine grids, on behalf of the different types of events. The determination of the type of event is closely related to our own life goals. Setting goals is another important topic in time management, and we will discuss it in a separate article when we have the chance, so here is a brief introduction. First determine my dream, life goals; in order to achieve my dream, I am concerned about, the implementation of several major matters, these concerns listed in the grid, for example, work, family, learning, interpersonal relationships, these can be divided into a grid, depending on the focus of personal attention, for example, I like the guzheng, calligraphy, the "talent" in a single grid;
Every day I see this form, I can compare it with my own goals and find out what changes I have made, or what has not changed for a long time.
With a theme for each cell, journaling is less likely to be pie-in-the-sky or completely clueless, and generally speaking fill-in-the-blanks are always better than essay questions, right?
The main role of the diary in time management is to "plan and reflect", plan, that is, to do things every day to make arrangements, such as the priority of things to be done, the approximate time required, etc. This is also the main role of the diary to "plan and reflect", to "plan", to "plan", to "plan", to "plan", to "plan". This is also a diary to "morning" a reason, the morning clear-headed, emotional good, this time to arrange a good day's work, life, head clear, it is easy to control the rhythm of life, the sense of control is very important psychological feeling, if you feel that everything is in their own control, the mood will be happy, things are easy to push forward; while the "feeling of powerlessness". "A sense of control is an important psychological feeling. If you feel that everything is under your control, your mood will be happy and things will move forward easily; whereas a sense of powerlessness and disorganization will lead to frustration, affecting your mood and the completion of events. Early morning is a time when we are more in control and undisturbed, which is conducive to writing consistently. I left the time, weather and other common elements of the diary in the middle of the table, and then the plan for the day, and the allocation of the "tomato clock" (tomato clock is also a common tool for time management, we will have the opportunity to talk about it in detail later, if you do not understand, it is the first to the allocation of their own time for each task is good). People have "self-fulfilling prophecy" ("communication psychology term used to describe the secret environment on human behavior", translated into human language, that is, people will take the initiative to take action to verify their own predictions), in the diary to write down the things you want to do, more than the The fuzzy idea in the head, more can let us have the motivation to realize it, if you write "I must achieve this thing today", the executive power will be improved oh! Through the diary to make plans, the event according to the importance of the difficulty of sorting, this is an important function of the morning diary;
2, summary
And another important function, that is - "summary and reflection", the ancients said that "I day three times to save my own", we We may not have time to "three provinces", but "one province" is still necessary, and accustomed to reflect in the diary, often in the process of work, life, naturally there will be reflections jumped out, the formation of a A kind of self-observation and introspection. Why "morning" to do this summary? One is to save time, summarize at night, the morning plan, then, divided into two blocks of time, more trouble; more importantly, to the second day, the previous day's events are still remembered clearly, but not too subjective, written out of the diary will be more objective, logical. Nine grids each grid records, is a summary of the previous day's work, after the record, it is best to have a special grid, used to "punch card", that is, their own goals to be completed on the list of things to be completed on the record "1", not completed on the record, so that the cumulative total will be This way, you can see whether you have invested enough time in your goals. Every day you face this punch card, self-monitoring, can be very good to urge themselves. For example, my goals have fitness, piano practice, etc., listed in the punch card grid, to the end of the month, inventory of their own completion, and will play a monthly card sent to the circle of friends, so that friends to monitor me (daily punch card in the circle of friends will feel more disturbing to friends, once a month is much better), this grid is the practice of the comparison area, practice every day, look at the number of growth, will improve the self-confirmation, increase The grid is the comparison area of the practice. In this way, I have increased the number of morning exercises from 0 a year ago to about 28 a month. The specifics are different for each person and time of day, so it's up to you to decide. For example, I recently realized that I often can't help myself from eating in the evening, so I put "no snacking in the evening" on my punch card, and I've been able to reduce the number of calories I consume in the evening. "insufficient", fill in every day according to their own situation, if not, leave it blank. Here, in addition to the "three provinces", there are also give themselves "praise" content, their own affirmation, but also very important, if you do well, there is progress, fill in here, "good job place If you are doing well and making progress, fill in "what you did well" here to give yourself motivation to move forward. These can also be adjusted according to their own stage of need, for example, after I learned emotional intelligence class, I think I should pay more attention to emotional control, so I put "today have emotions have out of control?" Listed in, every day to their own emotional score, slowly can always pay attention to the changes in their emotions, and then control their emotions. If you can notice when you are about to get angry and say to yourself, "I'm angry now, my emotions are bad," you can effectively control yourself and reduce emotional outbursts. The "praise a person every day" is also something that I think I need to improve after learning EQ. I am not very good at praising people, and this grid allows me to remind myself every day that I need to find more strengths and virtues in other people.
In this way, we use the diary, complete the planning, summarization, reflection, through the diary with their own spiritual dialogue , to determine and implement their own goals. The first thing you need to do is to get the core of your time management right, and then you'll be able to manage your time more easily. The purpose of the diary is to set up a grid, which allows us to effectively follow the set goals.
Second, the choice of tools to write a diary
1, EXCEL table
The choice of tools for the diary, the "morning diary" in the paper diary, EXCEL table format, of course, and now there are a variety of diary software in the phone. I personally recommend EXCEL table format, relative to the paper diary, the table is easy to copy, portable, not easy to lose, and a lot of cumulative, vertical and horizontal comparison. Diary software in the phone, I have not used, now the era of big data, shopping, dating information are taken away by large companies, do not want to diary also dedicated to them, feel very insecure, diary is to be true to themselves, no sense of security, a lot of things do not dare to write, then the effect will be greatly reduced; and writing on the phone is not as convenient as the computer operation.
2, an EXCEL workbook, with a lifetime diary
With EXCEL table diary, nine grid, 3 columns of 10 rows merged into a grid, repeat three times to do a good job of a line of three cells, and then copied two times, the formation of a nine grid, the following rows used for reflection, according to their own need to add can be. In order to make it easier for you to understand, I cut the table header also to the following picture.
The table to the back of the line has been copied to 30, 31, is a month of the diary table, and then you can copy dozens of columns of the table below, you can get the next year the same month of the table, that is to say, a table is only the month of the first column of the nine-panel grid is a year, the next is the next year, in the diary after more than one, you can always see the last year, this time, their own! What are you doing? What do you want for yourself? Compared with the present, is it progress, or in the same place, or even regression? At a glance. There is also a little side benefit, see the previous years of the day to do things, it is not easy to forget the anniversary of it! 12 tables, you can do N years of diary, has been used, save money and worry Oh!
With EXCEL table to do, there is a benefit is that you can set the formula, such as the date, set up in the year after the first of the month, the next day set to "= * +1", it will become the date of the second day, do not need to repeat the input (as shown below, O13 = D13 +1); Similarly, the second day of the punch card is also set up! for the cumulative number of the previous day plus the day of that cell, there is a cumulative number, we only need to enter the day of the "1", or leave the white space, we get the results, reducing the time to enter and calculate. The form on the computer is also easy to retrieve, because we only have 12 tables in a ****, if you do not know which month, set up a search "the entire workbook", you will be able to find the content you want to check.
Well, this is the morning diary I want to share with you, by way of the nine-grid, personal dreams, goals as a starting point, to identify a few major concerns, to plan and summarize. In the way of punching cards, the specific matters will be realized into daily actions to improve the execution; with daily reflection, "praise" and "save" combination, change their own actions and thinking way. Mr. Ye often says, "How you live this day is how you live your life." When we implement our concerns every day, we will be one step closer to our dreams, and eventually we will be able to live our lives the way we want to live them! Come and try it together!
In order to make the morning journal more effective and to look at myself from a longer perspective, I've put together a Morning Journal Continued - Monthly Review - , which you're welcome to click around.
PS: The Miracle of Morning Journaling has a lot to say about journaling in the morning, what it means, how to get up in the morning, and so on, so if you're interested, you can find the original book and read it.