1. Sidestep the blank page

A blank page can be daunting. What to say? Or maybe there’s so much to say about work and career and everything that goes around it. You don’t know where to start.

So don’t begin with a blank page.

Try writing out a favourite quote first. Then write about what you like about it, or what it reminds you of, or what it brings up for you.

Alternatively, start with a prompt. Search online for eg “journal prompts for self-awareness”. Or check out my popular article (23 Proven Journal Prompts to Unlock Your Career Change Success), which has a load of prompts for career change.

Or try starting with this writing prompt:

Writing about my work and career feels……… because………..

2. Journalling is about the journey, not the destination

Journalling is about exploration, not producing a finished piece of writing. A lot of people miss this point because we’re used, from school to college to work, to producing something whole and complete when we write – an essay, a report, an email.

Journalling is not that.

When you journal about your career, allow yourself to write anything you feel like, and any length.

Especially forget “business” writing. Journalling doesn’t have to be complete sentences. And it doesn’t need to make sense (even to you).

3. No words? No problem!

If you’re sitting there, pen and paper in hand and nothing’s coming, try doodling. Today, just getting your hand moving across the paper, making marks, is enough. No pressure. No expectations. Play with light marks and heavy marks. Scribble. See what kind of doodling feels good.

Or find images that speak to you somehow and paste them in. Then see if you can write about them.

If words then come from either of these, great! If not, also great! You’ve started sensing into something.

4. Embrace the “first draft” nature of journalling

This is the action that finally shifted my procrastination.

Set aside the fancy leather bound journals and purple ink. Grab a biro and any old notebook or even some loose sheets of paper in a ring binder. Start writing here.

You see, I realised I wasn’t writing in my beautiful journal because the stuff that was coming out didn’t feel worthy of it. It wasn’t beautifully worded or constructed. It wasn’t significant enough for the fancy-shmancy notebook.

But journalling is always a first draft. That is actually the point – to get out on paper the uncensored, the immediate, the thing you didn’t even know you were thinking. Also to write the stuff that swills around at the front of your brain all the time, in order that you can then access what’s beneath that.

(And don’t worry, once you get into the swing of it, you can always go back to the fancy stationery.)

A journal (like a good coach) should be ready to hear whatever you want to say. However you want to say it. Your journal is the place to be REAL not instagram-able.

Which brings me to point 6…

5. Forget art. Get real

Do not, repeat, do not look at journaling stuff on Instagram because mostly you’ll see images of insta-perfect, performative journals, where the point is to look creative and artsy. Which is fine – if that’s what you’re after. But you’re after something deeper, no?

It’s mostly about appearance over there and, Goddess knows, we get enough of that everywhere else.

Real life is messy, …coffee-stained, …gritty. You do NOT owe the world pretty and you, for sure, do not owe them pretty in your journal.

6. The “P” word

Sometimes I sit down to write and immediately notice 5 things that need tidying, or remember about that email I was going to send. This is where the “P” word comes into play.

Priority

You don’t need to go big and start beating yourself up about all the ways you prioritise those things that do not lead you to the changes, the self-awareness, or the career fulfilment that you desire.