Being a founder is a rollercoaster. The highs are exhilarating, but the lows can feel overwhelming. A simple yet powerful tool can help you navigate this journey: journaling. It helps you gain clarity, process stress, and track your growth. Here’s why every founder should make it a habit.
Benefits of journalling
Writing is thinking
As founders we’ll often have multiple issues and opportunities pinging around in our heads like a pinball machine. Unintentional rumination is not the way to process these thoughts properly and turn them into action.
When we write, we think. We are forced to slow these thoughts down, consider them in detail, think of the practicalities and second-order effects—to take them seriously as ideas.
The process of writing connects different areas of our brains, so we bring our creative and rational/executive functions online at the same time. It will move us beyond a daydream or anxious rumination, and lead us to a properly considered conclusion.
This is shown to be especially true if we write by hand, but such an old school approach might be too much to ask for most fast-paced founder types, and there are benefits to a digital journal that we’ll come on to.
This too shall pass
However good or bad things seem to be at this moment, it’s probably not as good or bad as it seems, and this too shall pass.
When choosing a journalling app, make sure you find one that supports ‘throwbacks’ (I recommend the Journey app).
A throwback is an entry you made some milestone in the past (years or months ago).
These are extremely powerful. They will remind you how far you’ve come. You’ll be reminded that this time three years ago you were suffering great anxiety about your cash position, but it too passed and you’re grateful to be in a more stable position now. When the next crises hits you’ll be reminded that you’ve been here before and that this one, too, shall pass.
It may remind you that five years ago your product was evolving quickly, but now it’s become stagnant and is being threatened by competition. What’s changed? Have you lost energy? Has your culture changed? Have you made a bad hire?
A simple reminder that three months ago you were absolutely loving the graft, but now your energy is dipping, might tell you it’s time for a break. Whatever that looks like to you (a day off walking in the hills alone, a week away with the family, indulging in a pet project), take the opportunity to re-energise.
These data points on the arc of your journey will help you maintain perspective and recognise that your current situation is always temporary.
Smell the roses
Positive Affect Journalling (PAF – or simply ‘gratitude journalling’) is show to significantly reduce stress and anxiety.
Throwbacks are a great source for gratitude, but it can be anything, however big or small, that reminds you that your life could be significantly worse.
Examples
- Family and friends.
- Not having to catch a train to work every day.
- A kind word someone offered you.
- A positive behaviour that made you proud to be you.
You don’t need to write an essay, but you should be specific. Don’t literally write “family and friends”, instead write something specific like “watching my son play football – it made me very proud to see how well he’s progressing in his game”.
Intention setting
At the beginning of the day or week, simply setting out your intentions will make it much more likely that you deliver against them. This isn’t a to-do list and you don’t need to go back to it and tick them off, instead you’re forcing yourself to think intentionally and vocalise your intentions to yourself.
Examples: “today/this week I’m going to…”
- “see if Doug is OK, he seems off his game.”
- “get the accounts reviewed and filed, even though I’m dreading it.”
- “take some time for myself by going for a long walk.”
You’re negotiating and making commitments with yourself, which will make it much more likely that you’ll follow through.
Top tips for journalling
Don’t try too hard
This is for you. No one is going to read it. In fact, you’ll probably want to password protect it—it’ll make you feel safer and more free to write honestly.
Don’t try to be profound. Don’t proofread yourself. Just examine what’s on your mind and follow your thoughts.
Make it a habit
You’re not writing an essay each day (a 5-10 minutes will do it), but do try to be consistent.
Stacking it on top of another habit is the best way to achieve this. For me, and at the risk of oversharing, it makes for perfect ‘me time’ during my morning dump.
For you it might be something you do just after you get into bed, or when you put the kettle for an afternoon tea. Whatever it is, stack it on top of something you do at roughly the same time every day.
Find root causes
You may reflect that your energy is off, but try to examine why. How long has it been going on? Does it correlate with any changes in your circumstances? Are there any times of day you find particularly draining?
You may surprise yourself to find that your week typically goes OK until Wednesday evening, because you know you have that 121 with Malcolm in the morning. You may reflect how often you make up an excuse and cancel on Malcolm. This is signal that you should pay attention to.
Think about all of your life
Try not to make this a purely professional journal. There’s a huge overlap between all aspects of your life, and this is your chance to unify your thoughts.
You might reflect that those issues you’ve been having with your partner are caused by the stresses in the office. You may realise that your kids bring their own flavour of stress to your day, but overall they’re a huge tonic to you. You might correlate greater creativity in the office with your new sleep routine.
Look for gaps
If you really don’t have much to say in your journal other than work-related stuff, this is a gap. Find a hobby, however small. Learn something new that’s unrelated to your work. Pick up the guitar that’s covered in dust and brush up on your chords. Get back into Duolingo. Organise a curry with the lads. Whatever it is, your journal is a barometer for how balanced your life is.
Start now
And most importantly, just start. Find an app (or even a Google Doc will do – but I do recommend Journey for the Throwbacks), and begin. How do you feel? Why do you feel that way? What can you do to be more the person you’d like to be? What are you grateful for?
Journaling is one of the easiest yet most impactful habits a founder can adopt. It helps you stay grounded, make better decisions, and appreciate the journey. So don’t overthink it—just start writing.
Tango Mike 
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