I have been journaling almost daily since the first day of high school. Most of it amounts to pages of rambling about my day and anxiety over what’s to come. In more recent years, I’ve also added daily to-do lists in an effort to better track habits, tasks and events. The new format, in a grid Moleskin notebook, works fairly well, but I consistently fall short in certain goals. However, two podcast episodes that I listened to in the first week of the New Year has been reconsidering my style. Maybe these new techniques will help me accomplish what’s eluded me for many years – eating less processed sugar and drinking more water, having less anxiety over spending money.

Brett McKay had Campbell Walker on his Art of Manliness podcast, and they discussed Campbell’s seven techniques for journaling. One of the relevant ones is a “lifestyle audit” where you list your actions each day and categorize them into actions that align with either your best or worst version of yourself. This concept reminds me of the “votes” for different identities that James Clear (famous Atomic Habits author) talks about on Tim Ferriss’s podcast. Not only would this technique force me to reflect on my daily activity but may also spur me to act in a way to avoid “votes” adding up in the worst version of myself category. The other similar style is to write a statement about a habit or trait you are trying to adopt. Everyday you write however many things you did in support of that statement. This second version is friendlier to the self as you don’t clearly mark what you did “wrong”. It also seems easier because how do you decide how granular you go for the actions you list in the “lifestyle audit”? What if I just make up enough actions to have the positive votes outweigh the negative ones? That doesn’t seem to be an objective audit.

For these reasons, I’ve decided to give the “statement” technique a try. I have a page in my moleskin journal divided into two sections: “eating less sugar / drinking more water” and “socializing/exploring the world more” as the two areas I want to focus on. I am going to track what I do in support of those identities every day. Maybe this exercise will be the secret key to me realizing my annual resolution in 2023.

And just for fun, here are some other resolution ideas that I have for 2023: publishing book/podcast notes on my blog, improving my history knowledge, focusing on flexibility, strength and mobility as I recover from my car accident injuries, picking up a creative hobby (maybe painting) and revamping my apartment.