Minimalist Journaling System: 1. The First Step

MINIMALIST
JOURNALING
SYSTEM
The No-Bullshit,
30-Second Habit Tracker
That Will Motivate You To
Stick With Any Habit
journalsmarter.com
Have you ever tried to track your habits

in hopes that it would help you become
healthier? Happier? More productive?
If so, have you ever found yourself

demotivated after a few weeks
1. The First Step
wondering “why am I even doing this”, “What is the most important thing I need
and giving up? to start doing in my personal life that
would have the greatest positive impact?”
That’s probably because:
—Stephen Covey, in The 7 Habits of
1. Your habits are not built on a strong Highly Effective People
purpose;
Take a moment to answer this question.
2. You are being too hard on yourself. This will help you follow your intuition as
you define your first habit—you already
The Minimalist Journaling System helps have it inside of you, just allow yourself to
you pick the right habits and grow them access it.
one step at a time. If you do it right, the
process itself will become so much fun
that you can’t possibly fail.
So, let’s do it!

2. The Squares 3. The Habit
Grab your journal, open it on a new spread Now, it’s time for action.
and fill it with squares, just like this:
Do your habit every day.
Remember, you are doing it because it is the

one thing that would have the greatest impact
in your life right now. So aim at doing it
every day (a tip: if you skip one day, get back
to it the next day without fail—skipping two
days in a row is often the breaking point for
many people)
Each time you do it, mark a square with the

symbol.
At the end of each day, commit to taking

Each square will be one day of your life. 10 seconds to open your journal on the
From now on, this is your command Minimalist Journaling System page. If you
center—your operating system, waiting for did your habit, draw a symbol. If you didn’t,
you to install new apps. leave it blank.
But you don’t want to get distracted—that’s This step is crucial to help you build
why your OS looks so simple and clean, and consistency. It will not only help you build
that’s why you will begin with installing one the habit you chose, but also the habit of daily
app only: your first habit. journaling itself, which is crucial for this
method.
Choose a symbol to represent it—something
that’s easy to draw, but also visually Repeat this process until you feel you are
appealing. This is important, as you will come consistent enough—until this has become a
back to this page every day and you want to habit (hopefully, you’ll be doing it every day).
enjoy looking at it so that you keep coming
back.
Whenever you’re ready, let’s move on.

5. The Growth
4. The Deepening
Once you get comfortable with the system,
you can add as many habits to your tracker as
you want.
The previous step will help you build consistency,
but also trust in yourself. Careful, though, not to overdo it: you want to
keep your OS free of clutter—the purpose of
Once you trust yourself, you will have more this system is not only consistency, but also to
clarity over your goals and next steps. Also, you give you an expanded perspective over your
will become gradually stronger. life (if you have 70 squares in one spread,
that’s over two months in one glance!)
Therefore, it’s time to ask yourself this question
again: Take it gradually. Don’t push yourself to go too
fast. True growth takes time, but it’s worth it!
“What is the most important thing I need to start
doing in my personal life that would have the
greatest positive impact?”
Out of ideas?
Feel free to change fields of life is you want (for
example, if your first habit was productivity Here are some elements/habits you might want to add
to your tracker to make it more coherent:
related, now it can be connected with your
health), or keep it within the same field.
ADD-ONS:
- A few keywords describing what made that day
Then repeat the process with that one. memorable (make it easier to scan and find info with a
title)
You have two powerful habits now. - Day of your life (if you’re 27, today might be 9889—
this will help you broaden your perspective over how
much you have lived and still have to live). You can
Two apps in your OS. calculate it here.
HEALTH
Food amount (eg: from 1 to 5)
Substances you consumed (eg: c=coffee, a=alcohol,
s=sugar, etc.)
Exercise (eg: y=yoga, r=running, s=strength), etc.)
Meditation
PRODUCTIVITY:
Productivity grade (from 1 to 5)
Reading
Writing
Working hours
WELL-BEING:
Your overall mood that day (you can use emojis)
Time you woke up
Time you went to bed
For more journaling inspiration, visit: Number of meaningful interactions
journalsmarter.com

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MINIMALIST

Have you ever tried to track your habits

If so, have you ever found yourself

So, let’s do it!

Remember, you are doing it because it is the

Each time you do it, mark a square with the

At the end of each day, commit to taking

Whenever you’re ready, let’s move on.

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