Daily Journaling: From Psychic Diarrhea to Polished Turds

emotional intelligence , how igor ticks , productivity
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I’ve been doing daily stream of consciousness journaling since 2011, writing over a million words. Here’s how I think about processing and analyzing my journal entries. While I don’t always achieve this perfectly, this represents my aspirational process that I strive towards.

Handwriting vs Typing

Automated Analysis

Weekly Report

Process for 2025

I’ve always loved handwriting my journal entries - there’s something special about the tactile experience and the way it helps me think. However, I previously switched to typing because being able to analyze and search my daily journals was incredibly valuable.

Now, thanks to AI transcription capabilities, I can have the best of both worlds. Here’s my Current Daily Workflow (this is my aspirational process - I don’t always achieve it perfectly, but it’s what I strive for):

  1. Check yesterday’s TODOs in OmniFocus and yesterday’s Habit Tracker in Streaks app to prime my daily journal
  2. Create a new notebook in my Kindle Scribe, named with the current date
  3. Spend 10 minutes handwriting my stream of consciousness
  4. Send the handwritten notes as an email
  5. Use AI to convert the handwriting to text
  6. Copy the transcribed text into my daily journal file
  7. Extract TODOs and move them to OmniFocus

This process preserves the benefits of handwriting (better thinking, more personal) while maintaining the ability to search, analyze, and process my journal entries digitally. It’s a perfect blend of the analog and digital worlds.

Journal Structure

Each journal entry follows a consistent template with sections that help me reflect on different aspects of my life:

Commitments

  • What I committed to yesterday, and if I did it
  • I don’t do this but should
  • This would be great to build a review cycle into my workflows

Day awesome if

  • Listing out things I want done today
  • TODO: Really think through what matters, and only put it in if I’ll do it

Yesterday was awesome because

  • Remembering what made yesterday great
  • Specific events and accomplishments that made it special
  • Building momentum

Journal

  • The main stream of consciousness section
  • Where I process my thoughts and feelings

Grateful for

  • Daily gratitude practice structured around:
    • God
    • Others
    • Self (Igor)
Loading (/grateful)

Affirmations

  • Reinforcing positive beliefs and mindsets I want to cultivate
  • TODO: Reflect on how I lived these affirmations yesterday
Loading (/affirmations)

Psychic Weight

  • Processing any mental burdens or concerns weighing on my mind
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This structure helps ensure I cover key areas of reflection each day, from setting intentions to practicing gratitude and processing any mental burdens.