EP 202 - The Entrepreneur's Guide to Journaling - Science-Backed Benefits for Business Growth

In this episode, Maggie Perotin explores how journaling can be indispensable in your high-performing CEO toolkit. From Bill Gates to Sarah Blakely, successful business leaders use journaling to foster creativity, solve problems, and maintain peak performance.

What You'll Learn:

• The science-backed benefits of journaling for entrepreneurs
• Four powerful journaling methods that boost business performance
• How handwritten journaling improves memory, creativity, and problem-solving
• Simple techniques to incorporate journaling into your daily routine

Key Benefits of Journaling Discussed:

• Emotional regulation and stress reduction - Process emotions to reduce overwhelm
• Enhanced self-awareness - Gain deeper insights into your thoughts and decision-making
• Improved problem-solving and creativity - Create space for breakthrough business ideas
• Health benefits - Boosted immune function, lower blood pressure, and better sleep
• Increased productivity - Better organization, goal-setting, and motivation

Four Journaling Methods for Business Owners:

1. Mindset Maintenance Journaling - Daily gratitude and celebration practice (10 minutes before bed)
2. Idea Development Journaling - Brainstorming solutions and developing intellectual property
3. Organizational Journaling - Weekly planning and project management
4. Transformational Journaling - Brain dumps and prompted reflection for personal growth

Featured Quote:

"As business owners and leaders, our business cannot outgrow us. We must first grow for the business to deliver the results we want."

Resources Mentioned:

• DREAM-PLAN-DO Journal
• Research by psychologist James Pennebaker
• Mueller & Oppenheimer Research (2014)
• Baikie & Wilhelm Research (2005)
• Michigan State University research

Take Action:

Ready to transform your business through journaling? 

Join Maggie's journaling challenge!

Book a consultation to learn how to combine personal development with business coaching for maximum results.

Connect with Maggie:

Visit stairwaytoleadership.com to learn more about coaching options and the Diamond Effect Group.

Transcript

Hello. Welcome everybody to Diamond Effect Podcast, Episode 202. today I wanna talk about the power of journaling and how journaling is an indispensable. Tool in your high performing CEO toolkit. If you think about big CEOs and very successful people, they all do some sort of journaling.

I remember seeing one, a post from Sarah Blakely, who is the founder of Spanx, showing all the books, really notebooks and journals that she used over the years to work through different things.

Even the former CEO of Microsoft, bill Gates, I remember reading an article when he would go away for a week or two, to a cottage where he would be completely, cut off from media and his phone, and he would take that time to reflect, read, [00:01:00] journal.

And during the time some of his biggest ideas and transformations happened. And because I'm about to launch a journaling challenge in June for my clients in the Diamond Effect Group and for some of my one-on-one clients, I decided to do a podcast episode on benefits of journaling; and also different types of journaling that I personally use in my day to day.

For my business, my growth as a person and CEO, my personal development, and encourage you to do that. And if you've never journaled or you don't do it on a regular basis, even if you start one of the method that I would teach you today, it's a great start.

I believe in small steps, starting small and then growing the habit.

Okay, let's talk about science-based benefits of journaling. So why does [00:02:00] journaling work? And by journaling, I mean definitely primarily pen and paper.

Yes; even putting your thoughts electronically works and is better than nothing. But the most powerful way to journal is pen and paper.

So according to Emotional Disclosure Theory by James Pennebaker, a psychologist at the University of Texas in Austin. When you write about your emotional experiences, it helps you process the events, even the traumatic events that some of us might have experienced in their life, and it also helps organizing chaotic thoughts and releasing the emotions that our body holds.

So there is a plethora of benefits of journaling, and I'm going to spend a few minutes to talk about them. But I can't possibly, dive into all of them. I. Encourage you to [00:03:00] do your own research. If you like science, if you like to, read research papers. But the first one is really related to processing the emotions.

Emotional regulation and stress reduction. When you journal, it helps you express and process your emotion, which then reduces the distress, which then reduces the overwhelm and stress, and overall improves the wellbeing.

And when you use journaling to take your thoughts out of your brain, it increases your self-awareness and therefore insights into your thoughts. That when I teach my clients how to use their thinking to the benefit of achieving their goals, then you can redirect more negative thoughts into thoughts that are more positive and serving you. But first you need to be aware what's in there. So the act of writing really encourages that self-reflection and help you gain deeper [00:04:00] understanding of your thoughts. And how those thoughts have affect your actions and emotions.

Then such a self discovery really grows you personally. I see it in me every step of the way as I up level, and I also see it in my clients who use journaling on a regular basis.

Journaling can be also a mindfulness practice that grounds you. And with it, it also increases your self-compassion and better view on who you are, which then helps you with confidence.

Outside of the emotional and mental health benefits, journaling has also cognitive and learning benefits.

When you hand write on paper, it can improve your memory and learning. You have better memory retention. And I can see that when I actually plan my week. I do my weekly planning, [00:05:00] both in a paper journal and also in my digital calendar. And once I do the weekly planning, that takes me like 30 minutes every weekend, I actually remember my tasks and activities each day. Then I rarely look into my journal back to know what am I supposed to do.

I just go with my meetings from my calendar, and then in the times that I need to focus on creating something, I actually remember what I planned.

Another benefit is enhanced problem solving and creativity. Because journal provides a space for " brain dumping." And it allows you to freely explore ideas and think of solutions and organize different thoughts into logical sequence that can lead you to finding solutions to problems and very often business problems.

So it can lead to new insights and breakthroughs, and that's why [00:06:00] I recommend it to. Every business owners, because in your business you want to be innovative. You want to create solutions for different types of problems in your business, whether it's the problems you're solving for your clients or whether there are challenges that you're dealing with at the stage of the business growth you're in.

The next set of benefits are actually health related. And that's definitely, and that's a type of benefits I didn't fully realize that they're physical health benefits, for example, boosted immune function. So research led by psychologist James Pennebaker again, showed that as you write out negative situations that happen to you, and also you do expressive writing, it can strengthen your immune system. It somehow increases your antibody production and [00:07:00] helps your body control viruses. Who knew?

It also helps you lower your blood pressure and improve other health outcomes, which makes sense if it reduces your stress, your blood pressure automatically, reduces as well. And it also helps with sleep. Our last group of benefits for journaling is organizational skills and productivity.

Because it helps you organize your thoughts, it helps you track progress, set goals plan, so that can also improve productivity and with certain reflection, journaling you can improve your motivation.

These are the top benefits of journaling. Now, if you want to check those studies and sources, there are James Pennebaker’s Research, Mueller & Oppenheimer Research from 2014, Baikie & Wilhelm Research 2005, and Michigan State University did some research as well.

Now let's get [00:08:00] into four types of journaling that I personally do, that I teach my clients. That I see are great help in personal self-development, in growing them as CEOs. And also stress reduction, organization productivity, self-confidence and even better sleep.

So let's get onto that.

The first type of journaling that I personally do daily, and it's embedded in my DREAM-PLAN-DO journal is called Mindset Maintenance. I did a podcast episode on that quite a while ago. The podcast episode is number 52 from July 1st, 2022. So it's been couple years. You can dive deeper into that concept there, episode 52.

And if you love it and you want to use the journal, then I'll also share the link to Amazon where you can purchase this [00:09:00] journal for yourself.

So mindset maintenance concept is that if you do certain activities that help your brain stay at a better emotional state. To maintain it. Then what happens is a, when we're at positive emotional state, we're more motivated to go after our goals. We're more productive. We have better ideas. Now, that doesn't mean that we never get a bad day or that we never feel like low, but when you maintain your mindset, what it means that even if you have a off day and you're not feeling great, you can get yourself out of that state faster.

And those low kind of days don't last as long. I've noticed that on myself when I started doing this type of journaling, and I really, encourage my clients to do it. And they see those changes too. It's like when you maintain the car, right? [00:10:00] If you put fuel into your car, and if. You change oil on a regular basis, get the tires rotated and so on, that car will last much longer, will run better, will break, not as often.

So it's the same with our mindset. So one of the key parts of my daily mindset and maintenance is gratitude journaling. And celebration slash being proud of myself, journaling, and I do it before bed. So one of the research actually says that if you do gratitude journaling before going to bed, it increases the quality of your sleep.

So without specifically knowing that until today, I realized like that's what we experience with me and my clients. So what I do. Every day through this journal is I write down five things that I'm grateful for for that day. And they could be [00:11:00] very simple things like the fact that me and my family are healthy, or the fact that we had a good meal together, or they could be other things. Even a sunny weather that allowed me to be outside in fresh air.

So there could be very small things. It doesn't have to be anything big. The trick is that while you are writing it, you want to really think about those things and feel. The gratefulness in your body. You want to bring that feeling and feel it when you write it for five, five things maybe last a minute or two.

You're failing yourself with that feeling. And then the second part of the mindset maintenance, journaling is there. Write three things that you are proud of yourself that you accomplished that day. Don't have to be big, but you are proud of yourself and you're celebrating. It could be if you're a business owner, maybe you followed up on that lead that you've been.

Postponing and [00:12:00] procrastinating on following up for two days, or maybe you did sign a client or a new contract, or maybe you implemented a change in your business that you've been waiting for and working on for some time. Or it could be something personal. You're celebrating and you're proud of yourself, right?

Maybe you spend some great intentional quality time with your family. It doesn't matter. You want to celebrate the three things and this type of journaling I call mindset maintenance. It's very powerful and it takes me less than 10 minutes each evening.

The second type of journaling I do, and this is more ad hoc when I need it, is idea development, brainstorming, finding a solution type of journaling or.

Developing my intellectual property. So let's say if I'm coaching my clients and I'm seeing that a few of them have the same challenge and I'm coaching on the same thing over and [00:13:00] over, I might pause at some point. And during my CEO time, I will work through what I'm coaching my clients on. What is the root cause of it?

What is the concept that I can develop to be able to. Coach my client even better, and showcase them a solution to whatever they're struggling with in a way that they understand. Or if I'm working on a project and I want to organize myself and think through how am I gonna approach this project?

What are certain solution to the problems, that's when I'm journaling and writing down ideas and so on. That type of journaling can definitely lead to some innovative ideas, some breakthroughs and concepts that will move your business forward. I do it more on an ad hoc basis, or not necessarily daily, but weekly or every other week.

The third type [00:14:00] of journaling is. Organizing. So that helps me with my productivity. As I mentioned in the beginning, I do weekly planning, so every week for 30 minutes I spend, and in this journal DREAM-PLAN-DO Journal, I also have a section that helps you plan your week and align your activities with your goal or your main goals.

Another way to organize yourself it's if you do have a project, I journal - reverse engineer it from the deadline. Let's say I'm launching my offer and I have a webinar that I'm preparing and I want to promote the webinar, I wanna promote my offer.

So the launch becomes a project. I organize myself by journaling about it. Engineer the timeline, the plans, what I'm gonna do in each stage of the launch. In your business you might have different type of project, but let's say you're implementing a new CRM.

Journaling can help you organize your [00:15:00] thoughts, plan it better, and even figure out the timeline before you maybe put it into a computer system and project tracking software. Now this type of journaling can as well happen on Post-it notes. Some people love it. Whiteboard and post-it notes and put it on the wall.

One of the reasons why I keep that wall pretty white is that sometimes I need a wall to organize myself and my journaling because one piece of paper, it's not enough. So think about that as journal as well. And then the last type of journaling I do is I call it transformational journaling. And that is more reflection, insight into your own thoughts, your emotions, and how they drive your actions.

And there is many different methods to it. So the simplest way to get started is really do what it's called, the brain dumps, when you just write whatever comes to your [00:16:00] mind in the moment. So you purge your brain, all the thoughts onto the paper, and then once you've done it, you start reading it back and reflecting.

It's "oh, what's really going on in my brain"? And analyzing it. And seeing "oh, if I, feel that I'm not good enough or nothing is working, then I feel demotivated, and maybe that's why I am not doing anything and I'm procrastinating".

Awareness itself into those thoughts can already help you with realization that maybe something needs to change and shift your energy. Shift how you feel into more productive emotions and more motivating state. Now there are coaching methods and tools that I work with my clients that allow them to then, once they're aware of their own thoughts and emotions, I give them tools to really intentionally shift to something [00:17:00] that will help them achieve their goals.

We don't have time for that in this episode, so I'll invite to have a consultation call with me if you wanna dive deeper into it.

Even the first part of this exercise, " brain dumping," will give you a lot of self-awareness and will shift how you feel 99% of the time, I guarantee.

Then another way to journal and go through transformation journaling is by answering the prompts and the prompt can be really very different. It depends on, what are your goals or do you wanna move towards, or what kind of you wanna work on. So I keep the prompts usually custom to my clients as I coach them weekly.

In their journaling challenge in June, I will give them specific prompts to help them achieve their goals, and they'll be different for each day.

[00:18:00] However, if you wanted to do it for yourself, if you either, did research, Googled journaling prompts for whatever your goal is, I'm sure there is tons of resources out there.

I'm very passionate about the power of journaling because I've seen the effects it has had on me and my clients, and I really believe that as business owners, as leaders, our business cannot outgrow us. So we need to grow ourselves first in order for the business to deliver the results we want.

Why? Because. The results in our business are really results of our decisions and the actions we take. And our perspective. So one way to grow yourself is by self-development, and a great tool for that is journaling. Another way is definitely developing your business skills. They go both hand in hand.

So if you wanna join us in the journaling challenge, whether it's now in June [00:19:00] or any next challenge, you want to join either Diamond Effect Gorup or become my one-on-one client.

I combine personal development with business coaching, business consulting, business growth.

I really believe they go hand in hand, especially for entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, small business owners.

So book a consultation with me in through the link in the show notes and let's talk about it. Have a fantastic week, and talk to you n