Do You Index Your Journals? I Do, and You Should Too!

jamiedaviswrites

Mar 25

In my daily life, I index my journals for productivity, goal-setting, and organizational reasons. At the end of the year, I index my journals for reflection, planning, and personal fulfillment reasons.

I document and make lists. Therefore I am.

I get things done. Correction. I get a lot of things done!

Organizing/Indexing Your Life in Lists at the Beginning of Your Daily Journal

Pictured below is a sample page from Page 2 of my Rise executive journal. This would be an example of how I use my journal to stay organized and mindful while on the road. I made myself a cheat list sheet of my favorite hotel room workouts that I access on demand from my Physique57 program.

I also like to keep a list of my monthly workout logs to help keep myself motivated and stay on track. Pictured below:

Organizing/Indexing Your Life in the Contents of Your Daily Journal

For instance, Page 3 of my Rise executive journal may have contained a daily entry log referencing key points from a phone call I had with a client and also contain personal notes about a book I was reading. For the corresponding index page at the front of the journal, I would have simply summarized that day's notes as "Jane Smith TC. Mr. Splitfoot notes for blog." If the entry was particularly important, or contained a task or idea that I would need to follow-up on later, I would add a post-it tab to the page as well to remind myself to clear the page.

Sample of Interior Page of Notebook Used While Traveling For and Writing America's Most Haunted Hotels

I came across this section from my notebook from Halloween weekend of October 2015, when Bob and I were staying at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado for our last chapter of "America's Most Haunted Hotels." My index log was summarized as "Stanley. Finish book. Stop with the ghosts." Wise advice indeed.

Organizing/Indexing Your Life in the Back of Your Daily Journal

Lastly, I always close out a journal by quantifying the data at the end of the book. Some of the topics I always list and summarize include: master list of travels; list of blog posts made; and list of books read.

Pages from my life.

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