Connect with us

Success Advice

To Be an Effective Leader, Keep a Leadership Journal

Published

on

Image Credit: Unsplash

When you observe many famous people including Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, John Adams, Andy Warhol, Winston Churchill, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, they kept their journals. Many eminent personalities in all walks of life from entrepreneurs to authors maintained journals. Journaling is one of the habits great leaders possess. We will discuss journalizing, advantages, and how to inculcate this great habit to excel as an achiever and leader.

Journal versus Diary

A Journal is different from a diary. In a journal, you record the events in your life, your feelings, experiences, struggles, and sacrifices at different moments. A diary is a place where you record events while a journal is a place where you analyze and evaluate them. A diary is a focused personal booklet containing a date, time, and place. It is considered to be confidential. A diary is a subset of a journal because the diary is limited to writing about your daily happenings while a journal is a repository of the things that interest and inspire you. 

A diary is more of day-to-day writing while a journal is more topical. A diary contains your personal information while a journal includes your professional and other information. A diary helps you do activities daily while a journal helps you reflect on your thoughts and serves as feedback for your behavioral improvement.  Succinctly, a diary has a log type of format with external events while a journal is feelings and emotions oriented in approach, and diary writing is a focused type of writing while journal writing is a content-oriented type of writing.  

Additionally, journalizing enhances self-awareness. For instance, Warren Buffett has an interesting routine to increase his self-awareness. He writes down the reasons for making an investment decision as well as anticipated results. Once the decision is implemented and in play, several months or years later, he reads his initial thoughts about a decision and compares the actual results with what he expected. Explicitly, Warren Buffett assesses the outcomes of every decision he makes.  Therefore, you must maintain a diary to jot down the lessons you have learned and a journal to analyze and evaluate to take things forward for execution.

Advantages of Journaling

People often find it tough to journal the important activities regularly because they think it is a wastage of time or they may find it uncomfortable to jot down the things.  Some people don’t find time to write and neglect the journal. It is a myth if people think that it is a waste of their precious time.  

When you journal, you manage your time as you stay clearly focused on your tasks. It aligns and guides you in your desired direction. You learn to prioritize and become disciplined to take it forward what is important to you. It enhances your focus and inculcates patience and perseverance. It helps you build your vision, organize effectively, and make better decisions. These are the days of information overload and it is essential to prepare a ‘To-Do’ list to work on only what is essential. Here are some more advantages of journaling:

  • It helps you remove negative thoughts from your mind and replace them with positive thoughts. 
  • It helps you manage your time effectively as you know how to prioritize your tasks and schedule your priorities. Stephen R. Covey rightly remarked, “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule but to schedule your priorities.”
  • It helps you capture your ideas and record for execution thus enhancing your execution skills.
  • It helps you disentangle your thoughts and provides you clarity with priority in your mind.  
  • It helps you differentiate between wanted and unwanted activities by differentiating the cheese from the chalk.  
  • It helps you go back and refer to the important information whenever you want. You cannot bring back your past but you can recall your past happenings by reading the past events in your life. 
  • It unlocks your creativity. It relieves you from boredom. You don’t feel lonely because you feel that you are with a reliable, trustworthy, and confidential friend.
  • It helps your thoughts become fodder for other work. 
  • It helps you develop the habit of writing and the words will flow naturally. You can write articles, blogs, and author books. You can improve your writing skills and become a successful professional.
  • It helps you relieve your stress and anxiety because it serves as an outlet for your mind. The University of Texas at Austin psychologist and researcher James Pennebaker contends that regular journaling strengthens immune cells, called T-lymphocytes. Other research indicates that journaling decreases the symptoms of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. Pennebaker believes that writing about stressful events helps you come to terms with them, thus reducing the impact of these stressors on your physical health. When people are stressed either they talk to their near and dear ones or write. When they write, the things remain confidential and relieve the tension to ensure sound health.  
  • It fosters resilience. Resilience is the ability to handle stress, volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity effectively. 
  • At times, people forget things. They struggle to recall past events. The journal helps overcome this challenge.
  • If you become a consistent journaler your chances of success are higher as you stay focused clearly on your goals and activities. Brian Tracy rightly said, “Goals in writing are dreams with deadlines.”

Journaling avoids keeping things bottled up because it serves as an outlet for your feelings, emotions, stress, and anxiety. We get around 50,000 thoughts in a day. A few are pleasant while many are unpleasant. We will be able to capture fascinating ideas that pop up in our minds during the day. It helps us analyze our attitude, personality, and behavior. We will be able to assess how we have transformed from time to time.

“I don’t journal to ‘be productive.’ I don’t do it to find great ideas or to put down prose I can later publish. The pages aren’t intended for anyone but me. It’s the most cost-effective therapy I’ve ever found.” – Tim Ferriss

My Experience in Journaling

I have inculcated several habits since childhood. I included more habits after I joined the Indian Air Force when I was 18 years old. Journaling is the habit I cultivated since my childhood, and hitting the gym is the habit I cultivated when I was 15 years old with a dream to join the Indian Air Force. 

I have been maintaining these two habits for many years. By going to the gym, I maintain sound physical health; and by journaling, I maintain sound mental health. Gym releases negative energy and builds positive energy, and journaling eliminates my negative emotions and feelings.

Journaling helped me focus clearly on my goals and follow-up activities. It enhanced my perseverance. I could reflect myself how I have improved my behavior and thoughts over some time. I recall how I felt in those days. Journaling is the best way to bridge the gap between the past and the present and create your future action.

By journaling, you can capture your ideas and jot them down immediately. You will be able to refer them when you need them. For instance, I journal regularly and divide them into different areas. Whenever I have to deliver leadership development training programs, I refer and incorporate them into my training programs. It becomes easy for me to deliver the content effectively and ensure takeaways to my audiences. When I view films, I have the practice journaling the dialogues that are well-punched. I customize them for my training programs.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was surely one of the most prolific notebook-keepers in history. He kept 263 notebooks on a variety of subjects and for a variety of purposes. His notebook collection became so unwieldy, it required a 400-page index to help Emerson find what he was looking for. And then he made indexes for specific subjects too and an index just for references to people in his notebooks-839 in all. He even had indexes for his indexes. 

Cultivate the Habit of Journaling

Here is how you can start cultivating this habit. Initially, you may find it challenging to write but it is easy to journal once you start writing. Ernest Hemingway once remarked, “I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, ‘Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence that you know.’ 

So finally, I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say.”  Set aside a specific time or place to write to enable the words to flow naturally. Don’t think of grammar, structure, or syntax. Jot down whatever pops up into your mind. You may write on your bed before you go to sleep. 

For instance, Mark Twain wrote in bed. You may consider writing your journal in the morning as it is the time you will be more organized and the creative juices flow freely. Bruce Rhoades remarked, “Write in a journal in the morning to be more organized during the day.” Remember, when to journal depends solely on your mood and biological clock.

Write a few words regularly as it helps improve your writing skills apart from serving as a reference and record for the future.  Additionally, it is better to ink than to think as things will vanish when you keep in your mind whereas whatever you journal remains on record forever and assists you to follow-up. Above all, remember that a short pencil is always better than a long memory.

Don’t wait for an auspicious day to start a journal. Today is the time to start journaling to bring out improvement in your behavior, personality, and attitude. 

Journaling Makes You Immortal

Journaling makes you immortal. It makes your mark. It leaves your ideas and insights for others. It leaves a mark for others to follow you even after you departed from this world. People are born and die but they are soon forgotten. When you journal and leave it to others, people remember that you lived and loved this world. When you observe eminent personalities they maintained their personal journals. Hence, adopt the tools and techniques to cultivate the rich habit of journaling regularly to excel as an extraordinary achiever and leader. 

Professor M.S. Rao, Ph. D., is a 21st-century Philosopher and the Father of “Soft Leadership.” He is an International Leadership Guru and the Founder of MSR Leadership Consultants, India. He has forty-four years of diversified experience, including military, and is the author of fifty-four books, including the award-winning See the Light in You.

Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Change Your Mindset

The Secret Daily Routines Behind History’s Most Brilliant Thinkers

Uncover the daily rituals and hidden habits that powered history’s most brilliant minds to success.

Published

on

productivity habits of great minds
Image Credit: Midjourney

Why Daily Rituals Matter

Every great achiever has one thing in common: discipline. Behind the novels, inventions, discoveries, and masterpieces are small, consistent habits repeated daily. (more…)

Continue Reading

Did You Know

How to Turn a Simple Link-in-Bio Into a Powerful Brand Hub

Transform your forgotten bio link into a high-impact gateway that fuels engagement, clicks, and conversions across every social platform.

Published

on

link in bio best practices
Image Credit: Midjourney

Social media is one of the greatest marketing tools in 2025. According to a recent study, some 86% of marketers globally use platforms like Facebook and Instagram for advertisements, while 94% use it for content distribution.  (more…)

Continue Reading

Personal Development

These 11 Habits Will Make You More Productive, Successful, and Confident

Boost your focus, confidence, and results with 11 powerful habits successful people use every day.

Published

on

how to build self-confidence through action
Image Credit: Midjourney

Successful people love to help beginners. They have an incredible work ethic and rarely complain. As a result, others naturally look up to them and want to follow in their footsteps.

But here’s the truth: there’s no success without sacrifice. You’ll need to give up comfort, excuses, and sometimes even social approval to accomplish your goals.

Value comes from solving problems, and these 11 powerful tips will help you become more productive, successful, and confident, starting today.

1. Take Short Breaks After Finishing a Task

Psychology shows it’s important to reward positive behaviour.

After completing a big task or finishing a book, take five minutes to walk, stretch, or simply breathe. This quick reset helps your brain recharge and strengthens focus.

Many great writers swear by morning walks, solitude, and reflection can unlock creativity.

But if you refuse to take breaks, don’t be surprised when burnout hits. Your brain needs recovery time just as much as your body does.

2. Schedule Your Most Important Tasks First

Multitasking kills productivity. If you want to get more done, try time blocking, a method where you dedicate set periods for specific tasks.

Productivity expert Caitlin Hughes explains, “Time blocking involves scheduling blocks of time for your tasks throughout the day.”

For example, if you’re a writer:

  • Research your topic at night.

  • Write your first draft in the morning (don’t worry if it’s rough).

  • Edit in the afternoon, great writing comes from rewriting.

You can’t buy more time. Use it intentionally and without regret.

3. Eliminate Distractions from Your Workspace

Focus is the foundation of success.

According to Inc. Magazine, it takes an average of 23 minutes to recover from a distraction. That’s nearly half an hour of lost productivity every time you check your phone.

Put your phone away. Close unnecessary tabs. And yes, limit your Netflix binges.

Meeting deadlines consistently is one of the fastest ways to stand out and earn respect.

4. Take Full Responsibility for Your Life

Entrepreneur Derek Sivers once said, “Everything is my fault.”

This mindset doesn’t mean self-blame; it means self-ownership. Stop pointing fingers, making excuses, or waiting for others to change.

If your habits (like smoking or drinking too much) hold you back, it’s time to make better choices. Your friends can’t live your dreams for you; only you can.

5. Invest an Hour a Day in Learning New Skills

Knowledge compounds over time.

Whether you read books, take online courses, or practise a craft, consistent learning gives you a competitive edge.

I used to struggle with academic writing, but I improved by studying the work of great authors and applying what I learned.

Your past doesn’t define you; your actions do. Every new skill adds another tool to your arsenal and makes you more unstoppable.

6. Develop a Growth Mindset

Psychologist Dr. Carol Dweck introduced the concept of fixed vs. growth mindset.

  • A fixed mindset believes success is based on natural talent.

  • A growth mindset believes success comes from effort and learning.

Choose the growth mindset. Embrace challenges. See failures as feedback. In today’s fast-moving digital world, adaptability is your biggest advantage.

7. Learn Marketing to Reach People Who Need You

I once believed marketing was manipulative, until I realised it’s about helping people solve problems.

If your work provides genuine value, marketing is how you let others know it exists. Even Apple spends billions on it.

Don’t be ashamed to promote your skills or business. Without visibility, your ideas will never reach the people who need them most.

Creative professionals who understand marketing and sales have an unfair advantage.

8. Ask Your Mentor the Right Questions

Good mentors can fast-track your growth.

While mentorship often costs money, it’s one of the best investments you can make. Great mentors don’t care about titles; they care about your progress.

If you don’t have access to a mentor yet, books are your silent mentors. Read the best in your field, take notes, and apply what resonates.

9. Build Confidence Through Action, Not Affirmations

Author Ryan Holiday once said, “I don’t believe in myself. I have evidence.”

Confidence doesn’t come from shouting affirmations into the mirror; it comes from proof. Doing hard things, keeping promises to yourself, and following through.

When you consistently take action, your brain gathers evidence that you can handle whatever comes next. That’s real confidence, grounded, earned, and unshakable.

10. Focus on Your Strengths

Your strengths reveal where your greatest impact lies.

If people compliment you on something often, it’s a clue. Lean into it.

A former professor once told me I was creative, and that simple comment gave me the confidence to go all in. I studied creativity, applied it daily, and turned it into my career advantage.

Double down on your strengths. That’s how you build momentum and mastery.

11. Identify and Challenge Your Limiting Beliefs

Your beliefs shape your reality.

For years, I believed I couldn’t be a great writer because of my chronic tinnitus and astigmatism, sensory challenges that made concentration difficult. But over time, I realised those struggles made me more disciplined, observant, and empathetic.

Your limitations can become your greatest motivators if you let them.

Avoid shortcuts. Growth takes time, but it’s always worth it.

Final Thoughts

Becoming productive, successful, and confident isn’t about working harder than everyone else. It’s about working smarter, consistently, and intentionally.

You don’t need to overhaul your life overnight. Start small: take a break after your next task, schedule your priorities, or spend one hour learning something new.

Every habit you change compounds into long-term success. Remember, true change comes from practising new behaviours.

Continue Reading

Success Advice

Why One-Size-Fits-All Leadership Will Always Fail (and What Works Instead)

The surprising truth about leadership styles that can make or break your team’s success.

Published

on

Why one-size-fits-all leadership doesn’t work
Image Credit: Midjourney

Leadership has always been as much about people as it is about performance. Ken Blanchard, in his influential book, “The One Minute Manager”, put it simply: different strokes for different folks. (more…)

Continue Reading

Trending