I used to have this problem too. Look into "the Ayurvedic day". It's a school of thought that there are legitimate health benefits to aligning your schedule with the planet's natural circadian rhythms. It explains WHY some people are seemingly night owls and how you can tap into that energy during the day instead of at night while also being more productive. Seriously life changing. The Circadian Code and Change Your Schedule, Change Your Life are good books if you want a layman's explanation of how to do it.
This is the thing I was discussing with my psychotherapist as well. Turns out if you shift your day into really early bird routine, like waking up at 6am, you can have both. Night creativity has to do with hormones and brain waves - you're basically in half awake state at his time, so your brain is somewhat dreaming while being awake.
@@VincentPride1986 That makes a lot of sense. I enjoy the dark quiet morning and following the sunrise, seeing everything come to life and taking in all that energy. The problem is that would mean I'd have to sleep really early at around 9pm and many social or recreational invents go pass that time. Just a few times of staying up will make me wake up later and sleep later.
I appreciated the fact that you’re journal was so “ugly”. I tried to journal before and making a system but i got really frustrated by the fact that my journal didn’t look like those “perfect” ones in the youtube videos.
being pretty has nothing to do with productivity, my sister tried to journal and spent like 3 hrs in a single day just to make it look nice but barely got shit done, mean while mine looks like a chicken had ink on his feet and ran all around the pages and i got everything i wanted done and then some lmao
I’m Spanish and I have always thought of “siestas” as a thing only lazy people did and I refused having siestas for that reason. Well, last year between studying periods in the afternoon I found myself lacking energy and tried having siestas. Turns out, it was exactly what I needed, and whenever I feel a little tired I lay down on my bed, and sleep either for 30 min or 1 hour. If I can’t sleep, I’ll just rest for 25 min, thinking with my eyes closed. It has the same benefits and you’ll feel refreshed. I often do this when I’m tired or when I’ve been studying for 2 hours aprox. only until 17:30 pm. I won’t sleep later than that as it messes up my sleeping schedule at night. But bear in mind that you should listen to your body and you should prioritize sleep, it’s not being lazy, but rather mindful. You should give it a try!
There is one method call the power nap, which is pretty much like the siesta. However, all you need to rest is 20 minutes max. Now that i just saw this i will implement this month of january to try it out.
absolutely. Big misconception is needing to fall asleep. Just resting for 20-30 minutes can flip my day completely. Even just reading a book for that time laying down helps a ton.
To balance my productivity with my creativity I challenged myself to go to bed at the same time EVERY night - including weekends. It was not easy because I'm a night owl and love to watch movies with my hubby. I'm 68 years of age and I've never been a 'morning person'. Since Dec 2019, I've been tracking my bedtime and wake time (plus hydration and steps) I now start my bedtime routine around 9pm and I wake up naturally between 6am and 7:30am, without an alarm clock. It's great. I'm productive (working on projects in my home office - journaling, bible study, planning, reading, organizing, etc.) as soon as I rise for a few hours before breakfast. During the day, I do household chores inside or outside in our gardens. After dinner (around 6pm), I am creative in my home art studio. I feel better mentally and my depression is history. oh, and every night before I fall asleep I write a full page in my diary (draw a little if I feel like it) and read in my current bedside book until I drift off. (I'm a 'serial' book reader. I read multiple books concurrently.) BTW, I only answer email once a week on Wednesday.
I recently started getting back into journaling. I always find that unless I keep track of things, my mind becomes a useless mess. I started by planning out my daily routines, then by breaking down my day into smaller tasks. This has been immensely helpful for motivating myself to make and improve my own RUclips content. Thanks for sharing your process :)
I was never able to build this habit and I truly think it's not for me. I completely agree about the messy mind unless I provide it some structure. I use simple notes on my phone or calendar, this keeps me on track with to dos and goals.
I completely agree about becoming scatterbrained. I tend to keep the habit up for a month or so and then start feeling imprisoned by it an becoming frustrated by the fact i need to rely on such a thing to feel ok with myself. So i'll stop doing it, feel free for about a week or so and then start feeling like life has gone completely off the rails. And so the cycle continues...
Journaling is an underrated form of meditation. I've journaled for 20 years, and it really changed my life, including 10 years of time doing travel journals around the world. i also just wanted to speak to my heart and made this video for sharing my experiences with audience from my channel. ruclips.net/video/9C_FmHA25h4/видео.html
Personally, I benefited from some of the latest mood-tracking apps such as MoodScriber which come with mood calendars and journaling features to give a view on the progress I've made and identify potential triggers behind stress and anxiety. You could give it a try!
Thank you for the simple, and straightforward tips. I've started (and stopped) many types of journals over the years and enjoyed them all. I want to start journaling nor for mental health, so I bought a journal and started watching videos for tips. You'll probably ever read this since your video is 2 years old, but I have 2 tips for you in regards to to finding creativity in the morning and napping. 1- Start your day w/ a low-effort, hands-on task while you're drinking your morning beverage. It can be a low-effort creative task like zentangling or journaling, but it could also be something physical (like yoga) or useful (like cleaning). The point is to "prep" and "reward" your brain for creativity & productivity. I've started doing this recently and it has helped me a ton! 2- Don't lay down for a nap w/ the intention of sleeping (which we can often only do if we are exhausted or sick), think of the time as a way to rest your body and rest your mind. Set a timer for 20m-45m and lay down for a "rest." You can listen to music, meditate, do slow yoga the floor and end in "corpse pose," or just sit in silence watching a candle until you feel ready to close your eyes and rest. Hope those help someone!
@@sattva6089 I have been told by my paternal uncle who swears by it, to do it over and over again, over the years to meditate. I gave it a try about 30 yrs ago, but that was it. My uncle on the other hand is into all those things and yoga, I believe. To each is there own. Anyway, there's a beautiful song in Tamil, old is gold, from the olden days. Translated: should legs go in the direction the eyes went, should hearts go in the direction the legs went, should men go in the direction the heart went, and should you forget the path men went? It's a very beautiful song full of wisdom! An example would be: If you didn't look at porn 👀 in the first place, then you would be taking the next step and or steps. In Tamil: Kan pona pathayil Kal povalama, Kal pona pathayil manam povalama. Manam pona pathayil manithan pogalama, manithan ponapathayah maranthu pogalama? Just meditation alone won't aid you to fight your desires. You got to take precautions and seek the aid of the Almighty Lord above the Heavens and the Earth the Owner of the Majestic Throne.
I like how you aren't hesitant on displaying your vulnerabilities. There are a lot of RUclipsrs who pretend to have figured everything out and force their ideals onto their viewers, claiming their ways are the best. You seem genuine, it's nice. Good stuff 👍
I started journaling on June 2019 and here is how I am journaling right now: 1. I usually start the month dedicating a page for a minimalist calendar in which I write the number date and the initial of the day next to it. This is merely to just to keep track of activities that you think that are interesting (1S - Company dinner) ->just keep it simple. 2. Then In the second page I create 2 tables. One for the habit tracker, and the second for the mood tracker. - Habit Tracker: Just recreate the same calendar you did but adding an extra layer to write down the initials of the habits you would like to practice this month. And then as the days goes by, just mark an X on the habits you have done that day: M S C BJ 1 X X X 2 X X -Mood Tracker: The idea is to subjectively grade the day from 1-10 based on your mood. This way at the end of the month you have a picture of how productive and emotional it has been. 3. Then I left as many pages as I want to put reviews that I might consider important. I simply write the day of the Reflection and write the thoughts fo that day. (i.e: some days of lower productivity I might have reviewed that and explained my thoughts) Tips: 1. I have found that the less habits you want to practice the better. Started with 7 on June, and now I practice 4 with daily dedication (i.e: Sport, Study Chinese, Meditation, Bullet Journaling). And then, seeing that you have been very productive also encourages you to keep it up. 2. I found that months that I have been more productive are related to a better emotional state of mind. This can be due to better sleep schedule, hydration, food, etc. That is it! Hope I can help others with my way to go. Of course we are constantly changing, therefore, 3 months from now I might be doing something slightly different hahaha :) Nathaniel I want to thank you again for all the humble work you are putting out there. Keep it up. And I wish all the best for you in this 2020.
Loved the way you structured habit and mood tracking together. I'm using Evernote in almost the same way, using a calendar (table) to keep track of my habits, and putting green or red on the habit's row. Could you help me with the mood tracking part?
“What gets measured gets managed” Found this channel yesterday and it sent me on a real rampage of inspiration (so hardcore), which helped lift me out of a recent depressive episode 🙏 I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with journaling. Gonna give this a shot!
Journaling is an underrated form of meditation. I've journaled for 20 years, and it really changed my life, including 10 years of time doing travel journals around the world. i also just wanted to speak to my heart and made this video for sharing my experiences with audience from my channel. ruclips.net/video/9C_FmHA25h4/видео.html
Personally, I benefited from some of the latest mood-tracking apps such as MoodScriber which come with mood calendars and journaling features to give a view on the progress I've made and identify potential triggers behind stress and anxiety. You could give it a try!
Thank you. I told about this "Journal for Mental Clarity" to my therapist and She suggested me to follow your instruction and now the "your" journal is part of my therapy. Thank you for your suggestion!
I like to split my sleep cycles- 8 hours sleep, starting between nine and ten in the evening (I set an alarm because I cheat otherwise), waking in the middle of the night - usually around half two or three- if you don't know your sleep cycles, track that then work to that- working on something creative (and non-digital, without blue light) before remaking my bed and sleeping. Those early morning hours are quiet, focussed, and you are still in that half-awake state that makes for some great drawings. It captures that 'creative state' around sleep more carefully, while also making use of sleep as a learning aid- using a technique before and after sleep seems to anchor it much more firmly for me. Its been lovely seeing you working on this stuff- very inspirational. I hope my experience helps some.
@Rashed Arman Sure, sleep quality is important too. I used to be useless for a couple hours after I got out of bed- to the point that some days I was sleeping or lying in bed for 11 hours. It turns out it wasn't one big problem but a lot of smaller ones.Its why there is the whole 'sleep hygine' trend kicking around. Its also worth checking that you have the precursors for seratonin/melatonin conversion in your diet. A good environment (no weird noises/smells/temprature changes in the middlge of the night), Making sure your body is running properly (turn on night light on PCs, gentle exercise, make sure you aren't low-key allergic to a food in all your evening meals), and maintaining a routine so your body can prepare for sleep consistantly. Above all else, test and trust your own results. Its why the journaling, even in a basic form, is important. It help makes patterns obvious.
So do you go to sleep around 9-10 and wake up at 2-3 that's like 5 hours of sleep, at which time do you get those 2/3 hours left? Loved this comment! I'm an artist and it's so hard for me to work in the morning but I really need it and at the same time I feel more focused/ creative at night/very early in the morning when everything is quiet. Thank you so much for the tips!!
Journaling is an underrated form of meditation. I've journaled for 20 years, and it really changed my life, including 10 years of time doing travel journals around the world. i also just wanted to speak to my heart and made this video for sharing my experiences with audience from my channel. ruclips.net/video/9C_FmHA25h4/видео.html
8:31 you mentioning trying to stray away from outcome based goals and focusing more on systems and processes..wow everything comes into full circle, i just recently learned this from Atomic Habits by James Clear 😭
That's because these gurus offer no novel information. They're all just saying the same thing while trying to make it seem like THEY have THE answer for YOU.
And that's because people don't need novel information; they need tried and tested information that is synthesized and explained in a way that speaks to them. None of these people are acting like they made it up.
Vincent Auduc this. Some people use iPads for school, but I can’t ever see me doing that. Paper is so versatile and customizable. You don’t really have to think about it.
@@Milark Of course you do. You not only have to think about the word, but their style and clarity. When I'm typing I don't have to worry about my text readability. Besides, people can think a whole lot faster than you can write, so writing just slows you down.
@@richardjohnson2446 Because even if you have all the time in the world, most people around you don't. Nobody want to wait forever for you to "get to the point". Put up the CC on a newscast. The words will still be running after the video has concluded and gone to commercial. You end up missing the last part. If it has to do with business, you most certainly will get left behind.
Nathaniel, thank you so much for your content. It’s so difficult to find high quality content on RUclips. I am amazed by your beautiful soul and awareness of yourself and the world around you. There’s no doubt you inspire a lot of people from all over the world. Again, thank you for such high quality content you provide us and for taking time to do this. Cheers from Brazil!
Hey! I have a tip for your sleep tracker: instead of writing 1, 2, 3, .. at the left side of the page, you can start with 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3, ... That way, your "sleep-line" will be one line instead of two parts😊
I started a similar form of journaling 2 month ago. But I'm having it digitally in Excel, so it's easier to import weather conditions or moon phases to check on the actual effect it has on you. Also I have found a website which publishes daily information about the effect of the weather on weather-sensitive people. Besides my daily habits und daily achievements, I include some 1 to 10 scales about my mood, stress level, energy-level, ego-depletion, ... stuff like that. What I have noticed is that writing things down at a later time kinda distorts the picture as the memory retrospectively makes everything brighter than it actually has been 😁So writing the diary promptly is one of the habits I keep tracking. I actually like to sacrifice my evening's "creativity" for the morning's clarity. It's a good deal for the mental health. Also I believe you can bring both together by just limiting your evening. Just like you are already trying by turning the lights off at 10:30pm. I would go even earlier, since my creativity time starts at about 8pm. For me, going to bed late has a bitter taste, since I only THINK, that it's some kind of productively spent time. Whereas it actually is not. At least not for me 😅 For me, the journal is not about improving myself. I don't intend getting a push, even though it does have this effect. My intention is to figure out how my energy level develops over the day with a specific workload and working-model. I'm no freelancer, but I do have quite a freedom of how to arrange my own time. No one will force me to get up in the morning, nor hinder me to stay up late 😆 Therefore I'm first trying to find out my optimum work-life-time distribution over the week and I already did have some mind-blowing insights from that! So it's definitely worth of having such a tool and using it regularly! Thanks for you video! Based on the title I was just hoping you actually found some way to organise your thoughts in a better and more stuctured way than I did 😅 My main problem is that I focus on too many things at the same time, whereas in fact there is only one most important thing at a time. Unfortunately the journal doesn't provide a solution for this kind of mental obscurity.
I journal for the ability to dig into my mind and record it for later reflection. It's always cool to see where you were mentally on a topic even a couple months ago.
I've started a few journals (diary's) in my life. I tend to forget things that happen to me, or that I even think about, because I spend most of my time basically thinking and inside of my mind and I kinda let go of stuff very quickly. I like to call it selective memory, where only a fraction of things actually make it into the main-storage. I know, that I read a few diary's of mine and I couldn't even remember writing that down... mostly I remembered, I had a journal and wrote in it, but reading in it was as if I'd read someone else's journal... that can be kinda creepy... I don't even know why I started writing this comment, so I better conclude it here :D
Honestly he's changing peoples lives in elegant ways. We all need reminders to do the things we tell ourselves are important. I can't fathom the amount of times I've told myself I need to journal! Thank man !
yeah, i can agree... Even though I'm totally a typewriter and app-afficianado (having a food-diary, sportstracker, and some more tools I use) I can't even imagine having some sort of journal or diary on my PC or phone... At least starting from the point, where you would write down something personal... Data like daily goals or everything structuring, okay, can still be done on PC, but the way he just does it: writing it by hand seems so much more natural for it...
Watching this three years later and hearing him say “I’d like some more stability in my life…” and then realizing he uploaded this about a month before the world shutdown is wild. Great video Nathaniel. Thanks for all the wisdom you put out.
I'm Mexican and we do siesta everyday here. Other cultures think we are lazy but our ancestors knew a few things about life. It probably started as a way to skip the hotter hours of the day were you are not very productive because of it, then you continue working in the afternoon with an energy boost. Also notice that we start our day earlier than other cultures and try to work as much as we can before the sun is at the top of our heads.
I'm Italian from the North, so we don't have to take a break in the middle of the day like in the south for temperature problems. But my parents (freelancers) always laid down for 30 to 60 minutes after lunch. They said sometimes they slept, sometimes not, but they always did it. I don't like napping but I think it definitely makes sense. And also here in Europe people from other countries make fun of us for taking a break at lunchtime saying that we're lazy. In the northern countries they stop working at 4-5-6 in the afternoon, in Italy people stop at 7-8.
I rarely comment on RUclips, but I feel this is important to share. I’ve watched so many videos on how to set up my journal or even try a planner. Everything was so overwhelming with the designs and different setups. I was ready to give up on the research, and then this video pops up and changes my mind. Simple, easy, sustainable for my lifestyle. Definitely starting this asap! Thank you!
Thank you, Nathaniel. For letting me see the light in days of darkness, push myself to be a better version of myself and find comfort in writing things down.
i really like your videos, thanks for making the effort! and i was poked when you were wondering how to enjoy the night and the early mornings... so let me just ponder for a bit. My ex partner used to play around with sleeping patterns a lot. Like if they had a lot to do (big assignment coming up) they would sometimes work until 4am, and make it really cosy. With tea, and candles, and music and blankets, and i remember them really enjoying this time of solitude and work, when the world is quiet. They would schedule a quiet day the next day, to rest. Also, (and this was really annoying for me ;-)), they'd sometimes wake up around 2am, and feel like it would be a good time to study for an hour or 2 and then come back to bed. It was this kind of ¨go with the flow" and use the quietness of the night sometimes for your work, that i found quite inspiring. I've tried it a couple of times and it was nice. I guess its more about feeling into what you need in a specific moment, and not to be so rigid about sleeping patterns.
The cycle I fall into, I journal, I set goals, I end up succeeding as a result, the workload increases, I have less time to journal & analyse what I write, I lose momentum with it, I restart at 0.
I never thought that Journaling can have any sort of impact on my day, until I started doing it by total accident, from taking notes from the books that I read to writing down my thoughts on them into what it is today, a mixed journal where I keep track of my daily habits, of the highlights of my days or week and sometimes I take some time to do an Introspection/Reflection. It is so therapeutic since it gives me the chance to write down my thoughts and emotions. Today Meditation and Journaling are one of the most important habits that I've been lucky enough to built (gradually still not that regurlarely) and that made a big impact on my journey of growth and self-discovery, one gives me mindfulness, awareness and presence the other mental clarity and sense of organization. Both of them go hand in hand with the practice of gratitude and thankfulness that I genuinely try to manifest. I love everything about your videos so much !
Honestly his playlist is sooo good I recommend everybody to listen to it. It puts you in such a chill vibe or coffee mood whatever u wanna call its that great
Thank you for outlining this. Due to the quarantine and my mental health recently, I decided I needed a new process to progress into the future. I have never been goal focused and I find every time I’ve found I needed to change a habit, I regress when something is not achieved. Which just adds to my depression. I hope that changing my focus to just tracking and spotting trends will help me take things in a little more forgiving. To hopefully just note the small progress and not focus on my failures. Please keep posting content. It truly is helpful and uplifting to see things in a different perspective for people like myself, who constantly find themselves struggling. 🤗
Dont ever worry about making a journal pretty...you do whatever works for you...the individual....be as creative or simple as you want. I will say that journaling and using a planner has made a huge difference in my life! Nathan...you ROCK!!!
I’ve been struggling so much emotionally lately because of everything I have to do which in turn decreases my productivity down to almost zero which drains me even more emotionally and so this viscous cycle continues...I’m so glad you showed up in my recommended...I hope I can apply some of your tips in my life to maybe end this cycle
Thank you Nathaniel, you mentioned the rabbit hole, I have spent hours looking at bullet journaling videos, and until this video, it did not get through to me that what I want from bullet journaling is not artsy pages, or endless habit tracking, but a record of struggles and hopefully successes. I love your honesty, vulnerability. If you conquer the how to be creative during late nights and waking up at an early hour in the morning, do a video, I think that is really good question that a lot of us have.
I think the answer for you morning productivity and night creativity conundrum was covered in a previous video. The answer is the Uber-man sleep schedule like in your Da Vinci experiment. I would recommend trying that again with a more open mind and more flexible rules adapted to your lifestyle and how you are feeling and what you expect to achieve
I find that adaptation to nap routine works best when I don’t stress over it (naturally sleep is one of my most consistent stresses) if I just decide: the next 20 minutes my eyes will be closed I am 1000x more refreshed than when I tell myself “I need this nap to feel ready again”.
Thank you Nathaniel, I'm going to try journaling this year and see how it goes, I always watch this kind of videos but never try anything at all, so I'm going to start doing it, thanks again
On January 1st, I re-downloaded Evernote and put a table resembling a calendar, and put the 5 habits I wanted to build and keep a track of during this month, using the colors green if I did the habit or red if l didn't. One thing that helped me a lot is using the 'Two days rule' (Matt D'avella's rule), where you can give yourself a break but you have to get back onto it the next day and making the habit as effortless to do as possible, like reading for 2 minutes for example. EDIT: I guess l'm going to start a journal about my feeling and week reviews as well, since it'd complement the habit tracking l'm already doing.
i get daily siestas, i work a very physical job on purpose because it combines fitness with making money and catching up with podcasts or reviewing language lessons. the job causes me to crash about 2pm, the job only takes 4 hours per day so you can easily work as a freelancer around it, and its extremely flexible work so you can take time off for projects.
Productivity of the mornings and creativity of the evenings: After completely cutting out caffeine, I've found that the creativity is more dispersed throughout the day. Caffeine/coffee gives me a slight tunnel vision effect in my mind. On coffee, the mindset is: this is the goal, I have to work let's go. Whereas when I'm sober, I can enjoy the present moment much more. I can't help but feel like this persists even after I've gotten rid of most of my tolerance to caffeine.
At 68 and retired and enjoyed the video. I wish this forum existed when I was raising my son. Never too late for those of us that will live forever. 👍✌🥃 thanks
hey Nathaniel! i loved this video like every one you make :) something i wanted to point out was how i appreciate the importance you put onto the Keeping Simple aspect of bullet journaling. something i noticed in the bujo community is how much some people put priority on keeping it pretty (calligraphy, doodles, decorations), not that there’s anything wrong with it if you enjoy it and if you still benefit from it, but i find all of that very time consuming and distracting from the very point of journaling! especially if you’re a perfectionist, focusing on how perfect your journal looks is not sustainable and i found for myself that it makes you give up eventually :’)
Love it man! I definitely agree with the journaling. I find that a lot of my time is spent on screens and computers, so it's nice to keep it traditional sometimes and just physically write down your thoughts and emotions. It definitely feels more real journaling like this.
Hearing that you struggle with waking up is almost reassuring to hear. I am 18 and have to get up for college for a couple days a week but I find myself struggling to set my sleep in place on my days off. I have found that giving yourself a time to sleep and then turn off anything stimulated around an hour or an hour and a half beforehand just to allow your brain to relax and prepared to sleep. I usually come off my computer and have a shower then try and read a bit before doing some stretching or something. It really helps separate my nights from my evenings and it feels that the shower helps divide the two
Get more tired during the day through hard physical activity. Don't eat late. Don't drink caffeine after about 2 pm. Don't watch your phone or tv before bed. That's the recipe. Highly likely to work.
So true. Controlling my sleep schedule and my random bursts of creativity at night are hard... then guilt sets in as i lay my head down... only to make waking up harder. Thank u for being honest
If you sleep suffers, everything about you suffers, e.g. physical, psychological and metal health. So fix it. Full disclosure: my sleep sucks. And yes, I'm working on it. Good luck
I really enjoyed this video. I’ve been thinking that I want to journal more, but have been intimidated by the idea of it needing to be “perfect” or meet a certain standard of some sort. Your method of doing a weekly and then monthly review of only one page each is a lot more manageable. I think I’m going to try this!
Journaling is very powerful. Writing down the things you want in life will definitely help you manifest them. I am living proof of how Journaling works!🤗☺
Thanks for sharing. I took a few tips from tips this. I’ve been keeping a journal since 2014 and find it very effective. Waking at 6AM has been a game changer for me, started at 7:30am for a week, then 7:15, 7am and so on until I got to 6AM. Didn’t see the point in rising up early if I couldn’t do it consistently.
Starting this today, really want to get organized so that I’m not a bumbling, cluttered mess after High School (last year, whoo!). I’m also switching to a flip phone to detach myself from Social Media and RUclips (which are both major time sinks for me) and figure out what it is God has planned for me and to figure out what it is I need to do in my life. Thanks for making these, I really do believe that this will help people like me out in the long run!
I just started my journal thanks to your videos, it's kind of hard to get used to it but it actually helps me to reflect more in what i'm doing, it feels like it helps me to be present in my own life instead of letting days pass by without notice what happens. It has also helped me to be a little bit more consistent in healthy hobbies and go back to writing, which i stopped doing for a long time. Your videos are truly inspiring and helpful, thank you!
My kind of a perfect "siesta" is: never to sleep in a bed (I like to do it in my couch, just shoes off) and never use an alarm clock (rest a much as you need, in my case is always around 30 mins). Thanks for sharing your thoughts and ideas!
Loved this video. Thanks for the insight on your journalling process. This is exactly what I needed, as I found my bullet journal becoming cumbersome and bloated. Your method is efficient and effective. I'll definitely try it out! Thanks Nathaniel!
2 years ago i was so lost in life, i started writting a diary everyday. Nowadays i write it each 3-4 days and i really recommend to anyone, it helps you to value each day, to value all the people that is around you and to value yourself in case you have lack of self-esteem. At first it can seems so hard to follow it up but, 2 years later i cant be more grateful to myself that i started writting my feelings and objetives and my happynes really improved a lot. Good luck to everyone and thank you for the ideas of the video!!
Emmy Noether i on the other hand was distracted by the beautiful visuals in the video x). If he learnt all of it from Those videos on Skillshare, then probably it is actually very good 🤔
Just found your channel and couldn't be happier! I need a doctor on note taking! I literally spend HOURS thinking how to start my notes.. just sitting there and overturning the wheels while sweat drips down my pencil in the stress until i burn out, pass out and go to work again and forget I had a dream outside just existing and paying bills barely on time.
Thank you for this video, Nathaniel. My english is not that good, but I can say that this is what I need to improve my productivity, and also learning to stay focused for long periods of time, like months or even years. It seems like something difficult for me because I use to enjoy inmediat things like checking social media and stimulagive things but I'm actually lefting and being a bt more productive. Thanks a lot so
Great video! I do the same things just in a different format :) Habit tracking is on a separate page, printed grid, however, I tick it with a pen. Weekly / monthly reviews are done in Evernote. Simple project status check could be: 3 points: working great, 2: going ok, 1: needs to be adjusted. I try to built a habit of journaling every morning now. I feel if I skip journaling for a few days, I don't feel so well. Although I've started stretching every morning and I'm literally moving a lot more than before and feeling very amazing since!
I have been following you while ago, and now i'm watching your videos more often because of how much i can relate to every word you say. I love how much realistic you are.
I've been bullet journaling for the past 3 years and although at times I love investing time and creativity into the actual process itself, I get frustrated in other seasons where I don't want to sit hours just to set up a week/month. I think you've found a really powerful solution for that and focusing only on the reflection & preparation for what you want to accomplish. Thanks for this video man.
I started a journal and started writting every day. I was consistent for something like 1 a a half weeks... this method looks so much more clean and doable. great content :)
I dont do siestas everyday but today I was feeling down and laid on the sofa with my thoughts. Thinking and cheering myself up really helped me overcome those feelings and get back on track.
Thank you so much Nathaniel. Finally I found one of the detailed video on how to declutter mind in a journal. I often have too much in my mind and without shedding off daily , weekly or monthly. I have not been shedding loads off my shoulder which makes me sleep deprived with lot of health issues every now and then. I was not getting to know how to manage journaling well. Keeping many different journals was not working for me. In my gratitude i am gona mention ur name this time for this wonderful guide on journaling.
Not sure if you’ll see this, thanks a lot for the like btw. You’re my favorite youtuber. But, how do you integrate language learning into your bullet journal? I’ve started learning Italian in part due to your videos on it. And I wanted to use a bullet journal for my studies. But I don’t really know where to begin.
'i think this is about being honest, and seeing who you are, and what you're actually doing' thank you so much for this. I was really focused on the outcome/on the idealistic version of 'my self', then I beat 'me' up if these goals weren't met (which happens most of the time). now I know how to better manage my journal/habit tracker.
Nice video :) I journal since 2020 and found it a very powerful tool being a freelance musician. I also got rid of the daily logs eventually, landing on a weekly log - something you are actually encouraged to do as a bullet journalist: customize. Regarding the balance of creativity during night hours and productivity during morning hours: I implemented the habit of not using any device with a display anymore from 8pm on - which is 2 to 3 hours before my common bed time. I did so in order to improve my sleep cycles. And it worked. Apart from that I found that this leaves me with three hours on my hands that I often use for writing music, writing lyrics or drawing. So this habit helps me with creativity that is not relying on a computer AND improves my sleep. :)
I feel like waking up just before sunrise and going to sleep not to long after sun down is definitely natural rhythm. Getting our toes in the grass with a hot beverage in the morning or opening window for fresh air. Jah good stuff
everything was going SO well till 3:58 hit me & my brain broke for a couple of seconds bc i was listening very intently to you speak English, yet i couldn't help being distracted by what you'd written in my native language lol btw your videos are always super helpful, grazie mille! :)
Yes i would love more on how to journal for self improvement and also self reflection, love the idea of finding one self and continuously bettering one self.
Folks, there's no absolute answer to this thing, it's an ongoing process. As long as you're following any particular regime/routine it's absolutely fantastic. The main point is to be aware/conscious of your time-energy usage! BTW this vdo is super great!
In top of that mathematical thing 'EARLY TO BED EARLY TO RISE MAKES A MAN HEALTHY WEALTHY AND WISE' Nathaniel in video 'I'm productive at late night' :V it was epic
I don't think what time of day you get up matters so much. What does make a difference is not having to jump straight into your "have to's" the minute you get up. I lived that way for a long time and after reading Miracle Morning I retrained myself. I do get up early now (not a morning person at all) but I have to leave the house by 7:30. So it's that or jump straight into my day. I have found my days are much happier when I give myself that time. When I oversleep/sleep in I notice the difference. I also make myself go to bed early enough that that's possible :D. I love the weekly/monthly review ideas. You can see what's working and what's not and adjust.
![[#2024MAMA] G-DRAGON - 무제(Untitled, 2014)+POWER+HOME SWEET HOME+뱅뱅뱅+FANTASTIC BABY | Mnet 241123 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ox29z5Nf1Uk/mqdefault.jpg)
" I havent found a way to enjoy the productivity of the morning and the creativity of night. ". I felt that so much.
SAME! It’s hard to choose one when you’re naturally a night person and love creativity but lack productivity.
true, I only realised that I have the same issue when he said it
I used to have this problem too. Look into "the Ayurvedic day". It's a school of thought that there are legitimate health benefits to aligning your schedule with the planet's natural circadian rhythms. It explains WHY some people are seemingly night owls and how you can tap into that energy during the day instead of at night while also being more productive. Seriously life changing.
The Circadian Code and Change Your Schedule, Change Your Life are good books if you want a layman's explanation of how to do it.
This is the thing I was discussing with my psychotherapist as well. Turns out if you shift your day into really early bird routine, like waking up at 6am, you can have both. Night creativity has to do with hormones and brain waves - you're basically in half awake state at his time, so your brain is somewhat dreaming while being awake.
@@VincentPride1986 That makes a lot of sense. I enjoy the dark quiet morning and following the sunrise, seeing everything come to life and taking in all that energy. The problem is that would mean I'd have to sleep really early at around 9pm and many social or recreational invents go pass that time. Just a few times of staying up will make me wake up later and sleep later.
I appreciated the fact that you’re journal was so “ugly”. I tried to journal before and making a system but i got really frustrated by the fact that my journal didn’t look like those “perfect” ones in the youtube videos.
i think messy is the right word here.
tbh honest , i kinda like it . It has some charm to it. And in the end of the day it is "your journal" . It will be unique and personal.
Nezunish - offtopic but do u watch john fish?
@@aniket8357 Not messy or ugly, just simple & minimal
being pretty has nothing to do with productivity, my sister tried to journal and spent like 3 hrs in a single day just to make it look nice but barely got shit done, mean while mine looks like a chicken had ink on his feet and ran all around the pages and i got everything i wanted done and then some lmao
I’m Spanish and I have always thought of “siestas” as a thing only lazy people did and I refused having siestas for that reason. Well, last year between studying periods in the afternoon I found myself lacking energy and tried having siestas. Turns out, it was exactly what I needed, and whenever I feel a little tired I lay down on my bed, and sleep either for 30 min or 1 hour. If I can’t sleep, I’ll just rest for 25 min, thinking with my eyes closed. It has the same benefits and you’ll feel refreshed. I often do this when I’m tired or when I’ve been studying for 2 hours aprox. only until 17:30 pm. I won’t sleep later than that as it messes up my sleeping schedule at night. But bear in mind that you should listen to your body and you should prioritize sleep, it’s not being lazy, but rather mindful. You should give it a try!
Me paso lo mismo, baje a comentar lo mismo jajaja soy muy productivo de noche y me gusta mucho levantarme temprano, asi que la siesta ayuda MUCHISIMO!
There is one method call the power nap, which is pretty much like the siesta. However, all you need to rest is 20 minutes max. Now that i just saw this i will implement this month of january to try it out.
absolutely. Big misconception is needing to fall asleep. Just resting for 20-30 minutes can flip my day completely. Even just reading a book for that time laying down helps a ton.
Sometimes I just rest for 5/10min, then I'm fresh. That's micro siesta for me lol
Sleep regualarly and well enough and you didn't need them.
To balance my productivity with my creativity I challenged myself to go to bed at the same time EVERY night - including weekends. It was not easy because I'm a night owl and love to watch movies with my hubby. I'm 68 years of age and I've never been a 'morning person'. Since Dec 2019, I've been tracking my bedtime and wake time (plus hydration and steps) I now start my bedtime routine around 9pm and I wake up naturally between 6am and 7:30am, without an alarm clock. It's great.
I'm productive (working on projects in my home office - journaling, bible study, planning, reading, organizing, etc.) as soon as I rise for a few hours before breakfast. During the day, I do household chores inside or outside in our gardens. After dinner (around 6pm), I am creative in my home art studio. I feel better mentally and my depression is history.
oh, and every night before I fall asleep I write a full page in my diary (draw a little if I feel like it) and read in my current bedside book until I drift off. (I'm a 'serial' book reader. I read multiple books concurrently.)
BTW, I only answer email once a week on Wednesday.
I recently started getting back into journaling. I always find that unless I keep track of things, my mind becomes a useless mess. I started by planning out my daily routines, then by breaking down my day into smaller tasks. This has been immensely helpful for motivating myself to make and improve my own RUclips content.
Thanks for sharing your process :)
I was never able to build this habit and I truly think it's not for me. I completely agree about the messy mind unless I provide it some structure. I use simple notes on my phone or calendar, this keeps me on track with to dos and goals.
I completely agree about becoming scatterbrained. I tend to keep the habit up for a month or so and then start feeling imprisoned by it an becoming frustrated by the fact i need to rely on such a thing to feel ok with myself. So i'll stop doing it, feel free for about a week or so and then start feeling like life has gone completely off the rails. And so the cycle continues...
Journaling is an underrated form of meditation. I've journaled for 20 years, and it really changed my life, including 10 years of time doing travel journals around the world. i also just wanted to speak to my heart and made this video for sharing my experiences with audience from my channel. ruclips.net/video/9C_FmHA25h4/видео.html
Personally, I benefited from some of the latest mood-tracking apps such as MoodScriber which come with mood calendars and journaling features to give a view on the progress I've made and identify potential triggers behind stress and anxiety. You could give it a try!
Thank you for the simple, and straightforward tips. I've started (and stopped) many types of journals over the years and enjoyed them all. I want to start journaling nor for mental health, so I bought a journal and started watching videos for tips. You'll probably ever read this since your video is 2 years old, but I have 2 tips for you in regards to to finding creativity in the morning and napping. 1- Start your day w/ a low-effort, hands-on task while you're drinking your morning beverage. It can be a low-effort creative task like zentangling or journaling, but it could also be something physical (like yoga) or useful (like cleaning). The point is to "prep" and "reward" your brain for creativity & productivity. I've started doing this recently and it has helped me a ton! 2- Don't lay down for a nap w/ the intention of sleeping (which we can often only do if we are exhausted or sick), think of the time as a way to rest your body and rest your mind. Set a timer for 20m-45m and lay down for a "rest." You can listen to music, meditate, do slow yoga the floor and end in "corpse pose," or just sit in silence watching a candle until you feel ready to close your eyes and rest. Hope those help someone!
lovely!
Wonderful Liza, your experience has not gone unnoticed
The mind is a loyal servant, but a very dangerous master
How do you quiet him?
Well said
@Zach Zambuto, by not obeying his desires! If you give in, then you are his salve and he is your master!
Meditate, Semen Retention
@@sattva6089 I have been told by my paternal uncle who swears by it, to do it over and over again, over the years to meditate.
I gave it a try about 30 yrs ago, but that was it. My uncle on the other hand is into all those things and yoga, I believe. To each is there own.
Anyway, there's a beautiful song in Tamil, old is gold, from the olden days.
Translated: should legs go in the direction the eyes went, should hearts go in the direction the legs went, should men go in the direction the heart went, and should you forget the path men went?
It's a very beautiful song full of wisdom!
An example would be:
If you didn't look at porn 👀 in the first place, then you would be taking the next step and or steps.
In Tamil:
Kan pona pathayil Kal povalama, Kal pona pathayil manam povalama. Manam pona pathayil manithan pogalama, manithan ponapathayah maranthu pogalama?
Just meditation alone won't aid you to fight your desires.
You got to take precautions and seek the aid of the Almighty Lord above the Heavens and the Earth the Owner of the Majestic Throne.
I like how you aren't hesitant on displaying your vulnerabilities. There are a lot of RUclipsrs who pretend to have figured everything out and force their ideals onto their viewers, claiming their ways are the best.
You seem genuine, it's nice. Good stuff 👍
I started journaling on June 2019 and here is how I am journaling right now:
1. I usually start the month dedicating a page for a minimalist calendar in which I write the number date and the initial of the day next to it. This is merely to just to keep track of activities that you think that are interesting (1S - Company dinner) ->just keep it simple.
2. Then In the second page I create 2 tables. One for the habit tracker, and the second for the mood tracker.
- Habit Tracker: Just recreate the same calendar you did but adding an extra layer to write down the initials of the habits you would like to practice this month. And then as the days goes by, just mark an X on the habits you have done that day:
M S C BJ
1 X X X
2 X X
-Mood Tracker: The idea is to subjectively grade the day from 1-10 based on your mood.
This way at the end of the month you have a picture of how productive and emotional it has been.
3. Then I left as many pages as I want to put reviews that I might consider important. I simply write the day of the Reflection and write the thoughts fo that day. (i.e: some days of lower productivity I might have reviewed that and explained my thoughts)
Tips:
1. I have found that the less habits you want to practice the better. Started with 7 on June, and now I practice 4 with daily dedication (i.e: Sport, Study Chinese, Meditation, Bullet Journaling). And then, seeing that you have been very productive also encourages you to keep it up.
2. I found that months that I have been more productive are related to a better emotional state of mind. This can be due to better sleep schedule, hydration, food, etc.
That is it! Hope I can help others with my way to go. Of course we are constantly changing, therefore, 3 months from now I might be doing something slightly different hahaha :)
Nathaniel I want to thank you again for all the humble work you are putting out there. Keep it up. And I wish all the best for you in this 2020.
Loved the way you structured habit and mood tracking together. I'm using Evernote in almost the same way, using a calendar (table) to keep track of my habits, and putting green or red on the habit's row. Could you help me with the mood tracking part?
Thank you!! Im going to try those!
Oh. BJ is for Bullet Journaling. lol. Was confused there for a bit xD
You can write a blog post about it with some images or illustrations and share the link here. Might help a lot of people.
Thanks for sharing!
“What gets measured gets managed” Found this channel yesterday and it sent me on a real rampage of inspiration (so hardcore), which helped lift me out of a recent depressive episode 🙏 I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with journaling. Gonna give this a shot!
You and Matt D are the best discoveries I made on RUclips. Thanks for adding so much value Nathan
Real
you may also find inspiration, motivation and positivity on Unjaded Jade - she's absolutely amazing
Journaling is an underrated form of meditation. I've journaled for 20 years, and it really changed my life, including 10 years of time doing travel journals around the world. i also just wanted to speak to my heart and made this video for sharing my experiences with audience from my channel. ruclips.net/video/9C_FmHA25h4/видео.html
Are bhaisaaab aap 😍
i agree man
"There isn't an app out there that I feel makes me reflect in the way that this journaling method does"
So true.
Personally, I benefited from some of the latest mood-tracking apps such as MoodScriber which come with mood calendars and journaling features to give a view on the progress I've made and identify potential triggers behind stress and anxiety. You could give it a try!
For those brilliant minds with ADD and need these tips especially but can't focus on the whole video, read the timestamps and skim.
I love this guy.
Thank you. I told about this "Journal for Mental Clarity" to my therapist and She suggested me to follow your instruction and now the "your" journal is part of my therapy. Thank you for your suggestion!
I like to split my sleep cycles- 8 hours sleep, starting between nine and ten in the evening (I set an alarm because I cheat otherwise), waking in the middle of the night - usually around half two or three- if you don't know your sleep cycles, track that then work to that- working on something creative (and non-digital, without blue light) before remaking my bed and sleeping. Those early morning hours are quiet, focussed, and you are still in that half-awake state that makes for some great drawings. It captures that 'creative state' around sleep more carefully, while also making use of sleep as a learning aid- using a technique before and after sleep seems to anchor it much more firmly for me.
Its been lovely seeing you working on this stuff- very inspirational. I hope my experience helps some.
@Rashed Arman Sure, sleep quality is important too. I used to be useless for a couple hours after I got out of bed- to the point that some days I was sleeping or lying in bed for 11 hours.
It turns out it wasn't one big problem but a lot of smaller ones.Its why there is the whole 'sleep hygine' trend kicking around.
Its also worth checking that you have the precursors for seratonin/melatonin conversion in your diet.
A good environment (no weird noises/smells/temprature changes in the middlge of the night), Making sure your body is running properly (turn on night light on PCs, gentle exercise, make sure you aren't low-key allergic to a food in all your evening meals), and maintaining a routine so your body can prepare for sleep consistantly.
Above all else, test and trust your own results. Its why the journaling, even in a basic form, is important. It help makes patterns obvious.
wooow I love this!!!
So do you go to sleep around 9-10 and wake up at 2-3 that's like 5 hours of sleep, at which time do you get those 2/3 hours left? Loved this comment! I'm an artist and it's so hard for me to work in the morning but I really need it and at the same time I feel more focused/ creative at night/very early in the morning when everything is quiet. Thank you so much for the tips!!
You're first person who emphasized the importance of emotional state and not only goals and purposes...
Not a first your research power is lil small
Dude! You're channel has helped me through pretty difficult times. You're pretty awesome!
Justin Seldon 👏👏👏👏😊
How?
Journaling is an underrated form of meditation. I've journaled for 20 years, and it really changed my life, including 10 years of time doing travel journals around the world. i also just wanted to speak to my heart and made this video for sharing my experiences with audience from my channel. ruclips.net/video/9C_FmHA25h4/видео.html
8:31 you mentioning trying to stray away from outcome based goals and focusing more on systems and processes..wow everything comes into full circle, i just recently learned this from Atomic Habits by James Clear 😭
Appreciate you highlighting the point
That's because these gurus offer no novel information. They're all just saying the same thing while trying to make it seem like THEY have THE answer for YOU.
And that's because people don't need novel information; they need tried and tested information that is synthesized and explained in a way that speaks to them. None of these people are acting like they made it up.
@@nickmurdaugh9856 k
@@masonjackson6999 same much appreciated man, that really hit home.
I've never been able to replace paper by digital apps. You're absolutely not old fashioned!
Vincent Auduc this. Some people use iPads for school, but I can’t ever see me doing that. Paper is so versatile and customizable. You don’t really have to think about it.
@@Milark Of course you do. You not only have to think about the word, but their style and clarity. When I'm typing I don't have to worry about my text readability. Besides, people can think a whole lot faster than you can write, so writing just slows you down.
@@krane15 Whats the rush though? Why does writing/typing need to be done at speed?
@@richardjohnson2446 Because even if you have all the time in the world, most people around you don't. Nobody want to wait forever for you to "get to the point".
Put up the CC on a newscast. The words will still be running after the video has concluded and gone to commercial. You end up missing the last part.
If it has to do with business, you most certainly will get left behind.
Nathaniel, thank you so much for your content. It’s so difficult to find high quality content on RUclips. I am amazed by your beautiful soul and awareness of yourself and the world around you. There’s no doubt you inspire a lot of people from all over the world. Again, thank you for such high quality content you provide us and for taking time to do this. Cheers from Brazil!
Hey! I have a tip for your sleep tracker: instead of writing 1, 2, 3, .. at the left side of the page, you can start with 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3, ... That way, your "sleep-line" will be one line instead of two parts😊
I started a similar form of journaling 2 month ago. But I'm having it digitally in Excel, so it's easier to import weather conditions or moon phases to check on the actual effect it has on you. Also I have found a website which publishes daily information about the effect of the weather on weather-sensitive people.
Besides my daily habits und daily achievements, I include some 1 to 10 scales about my mood, stress level, energy-level, ego-depletion, ... stuff like that.
What I have noticed is that writing things down at a later time kinda distorts the picture as the memory retrospectively makes everything brighter than it actually has been 😁So writing the diary promptly is one of the habits I keep tracking.
I actually like to sacrifice my evening's "creativity" for the morning's clarity. It's a good deal for the mental health. Also I believe you can bring both together by just limiting your evening. Just like you are already trying by turning the lights off at 10:30pm. I would go even earlier, since my creativity time starts at about 8pm.
For me, going to bed late has a bitter taste, since I only THINK, that it's some kind of productively spent time. Whereas it actually is not. At least not for me 😅
For me, the journal is not about improving myself. I don't intend getting a push, even though it does have this effect.
My intention is to figure out how my energy level develops over the day with a specific workload and working-model.
I'm no freelancer, but I do have quite a freedom of how to arrange my own time. No one will force me to get up in the morning, nor hinder me to stay up late 😆 Therefore I'm first trying to find out my optimum work-life-time distribution over the week and I already did have some mind-blowing insights from that! So it's definitely worth of having such a tool and using it regularly!
Thanks for you video! Based on the title I was just hoping you actually found some way to organise your thoughts in a better and more stuctured way than I did 😅
My main problem is that I focus on too many things at the same time, whereas in fact there is only one most important thing at a time. Unfortunately the journal doesn't provide a solution for this kind of mental obscurity.
I journal for the ability to dig into my mind and record it for later reflection. It's always cool to see where you were mentally on a topic even a couple months ago.
Matthew Hyatt yes! Exactly!
I've started a few journals (diary's) in my life. I tend to forget things that happen to me, or that I even think about, because I spend most of my time basically thinking and inside of my mind and I kinda let go of stuff very quickly. I like to call it selective memory, where only a fraction of things actually make it into the main-storage.
I know, that I read a few diary's of mine and I couldn't even remember writing that down... mostly I remembered, I had a journal and wrote in it, but reading in it was as if I'd read someone else's journal... that can be kinda creepy... I don't even know why I started writing this comment, so I better conclude it here :D
@@CIIZARmusic Imagine if you find this comment in 50 years and don't remember writing it
Honestly he's changing peoples lives in elegant ways. We all need reminders to do the things we tell ourselves are important. I can't fathom the amount of times I've told myself I need to journal! Thank man !
Definitely an interesting share. I also finding writing, rather than typing, seems to work better when it comes to journaling and the benefits of it.
yeah, i can agree... Even though I'm totally a typewriter and app-afficianado (having a food-diary, sportstracker, and some more tools I use) I can't even imagine having some sort of journal or diary on my PC or phone... At least starting from the point, where you would write down something personal... Data like daily goals or everything structuring, okay, can still be done on PC, but the way he just does it: writing it by hand seems so much more natural for it...
Watching this three years later and hearing him say “I’d like some more stability in my life…” and then realizing he uploaded this about a month before the world shutdown is wild. Great video Nathaniel. Thanks for all the wisdom you put out.
I'm Spanish and that "siesta" moment caught me off guard. I thought we were just being lazy at the middle of the day hahaha
read the book 'why we sleep' and you'll find out that the siesta has HUGEEEEE health benefits. Everyone else is doing it wrong.
@@MyDutchproductions any truers out here?
I'm Mexican and we do siesta everyday here. Other cultures think we are lazy but our ancestors knew a few things about life. It probably started as a way to skip the hotter hours of the day were you are not very productive because of it, then you continue working in the afternoon with an energy boost. Also notice that we start our day earlier than other cultures and try to work as much as we can before the sun is at the top of our heads.
@@dobleVViolaverso what? De e dónde eres? O:
I'm Italian from the North, so we don't have to take a break in the middle of the day like in the south for temperature problems. But my parents (freelancers) always laid down for 30 to 60 minutes after lunch. They said sometimes they slept, sometimes not, but they always did it. I don't like napping but I think it definitely makes sense. And also here in Europe people from other countries make fun of us for taking a break at lunchtime saying that we're lazy. In the northern countries they stop working at 4-5-6 in the afternoon, in Italy people stop at 7-8.
I rarely comment on RUclips, but I feel this is important to share. I’ve watched so many videos on how to set up my journal or even try a planner. Everything was so overwhelming with the designs and different setups. I was ready to give up on the research, and then this video pops up and changes my mind. Simple, easy, sustainable for my lifestyle. Definitely starting this asap! Thank you!
Thank you, Nathaniel. For letting me see the light in days of darkness, push myself to be a better version of myself and find comfort in writing things down.
i really like your videos, thanks for making the effort! and i was poked when you were wondering how to enjoy the night and the early mornings... so let me just ponder for a bit. My ex partner used to play around with sleeping patterns a lot. Like if they had a lot to do (big assignment coming up) they would sometimes work until 4am, and make it really cosy. With tea, and candles, and music and blankets, and i remember them really enjoying this time of solitude and work, when the world is quiet. They would schedule a quiet day the next day, to rest.
Also, (and this was really annoying for me ;-)), they'd sometimes wake up around 2am, and feel like it would be a good time to study for an hour or 2 and then come back to bed. It was this kind of ¨go with the flow" and use the quietness of the night sometimes for your work, that i found quite inspiring. I've tried it a couple of times and it was nice. I guess its more about feeling into what you need in a specific moment, and not to be so rigid about sleeping patterns.
The cycle I fall into, I journal, I set goals, I end up succeeding as a result, the workload increases, I have less time to journal & analyse what I write, I lose momentum with it, I restart at 0.
Same
sameeeeee
Then start again
Same
Sounds like your goal should be to not let the workload get that overwhelming then.
”Being honest and seeing who you are.” 🙏🏽 thank you 🤍
I never thought that Journaling can have any sort of impact on my day, until I started doing it by total accident, from taking notes from the books that I read to writing down my thoughts on them into what it is today, a mixed journal where I keep track of my daily habits, of the highlights of my days or week and sometimes I take some time to do an Introspection/Reflection. It is so therapeutic since it gives me the chance to write down my thoughts and emotions. Today Meditation and Journaling are one of the most important habits that I've been lucky enough to built (gradually still not that regurlarely) and that made a big impact on my journey of growth and self-discovery, one gives me mindfulness, awareness and presence the other mental clarity and sense of organization. Both of them go hand in hand with the practice of gratitude and thankfulness that I genuinely try to manifest.
I love everything about your videos so much !
Honestly his playlist is sooo good I recommend everybody to listen to it. It puts you in such a chill vibe or coffee mood whatever u wanna call its that great
Thank you for outlining this. Due to the quarantine and my mental health recently, I decided I needed a new process to progress into the future. I have never been goal focused and I find every time I’ve found I needed to change a habit, I regress when something is not achieved. Which just adds to my depression. I hope that changing my focus to just tracking and spotting trends will help me take things in a little more forgiving. To hopefully just note the small progress and not focus on my failures. Please keep posting content. It truly is helpful and uplifting to see things in a different perspective for people like myself, who constantly find themselves struggling. 🤗
Dont ever worry about making a journal pretty...you do whatever works for you...the individual....be as creative or simple as you want. I will say that journaling and using a planner has made a huge difference in my life! Nathan...you ROCK!!!
I started journaling when I was 7 and appreciate it now more than ever.
Damn! Do you keep your old journals ? (I hope you do)
simple and raw .. amazing. Having a journal in black and white/offwhite is just out of this world
I like that you always jump straight into the video, not wasting your viewers time 🙌
I’ve been struggling so much emotionally lately because of everything I have to do which in turn decreases my productivity down to almost zero which drains me even more emotionally and so this viscous cycle continues...I’m so glad you showed up in my recommended...I hope I can apply some of your tips in my life to maybe end this cycle
Thank you Nathaniel, you mentioned the rabbit hole, I have spent hours looking at bullet journaling videos, and until this video, it did not get through to me that what I want from bullet journaling is not artsy pages, or endless habit tracking, but a record of struggles and hopefully successes. I love your honesty, vulnerability. If you conquer the how to be creative during late nights and waking up at an early hour in the morning, do a video, I think that is really good question that a lot of us have.
I think the answer for you morning productivity and night creativity conundrum was covered in a previous video. The answer is the Uber-man sleep schedule like in your Da Vinci experiment. I would recommend trying that again with a more open mind and more flexible rules adapted to your lifestyle and how you are feeling and what you expect to achieve
I find that adaptation to nap routine works best when I don’t stress over it (naturally sleep is one of my most consistent stresses) if I just decide: the next 20 minutes my eyes will be closed I am 1000x more refreshed than when I tell myself “I need this nap to feel ready again”.
Thank you Nathaniel, I'm going to try journaling this year and see how it goes, I always watch this kind of videos but never try anything at all, so I'm going to start doing it, thanks again
I see alot of videos on how to maintain journal but this one is the best. Your opinion is so genuine and right one should must think about this way.
On January 1st, I re-downloaded Evernote and put a table resembling a calendar, and put the 5 habits I wanted to build and keep a track of during this month, using the colors green if I did the habit or red if l didn't. One thing that helped me a lot is using the 'Two days rule' (Matt D'avella's rule), where you can give yourself a break but you have to get back onto it the next day and making the habit as effortless to do as possible, like reading for 2 minutes for example.
EDIT: I guess l'm going to start a journal about my feeling and week reviews as well, since it'd complement the habit tracking l'm already doing.
i get daily siestas, i work a very physical job on purpose because it combines fitness with making money and catching up with podcasts or reviewing language lessons. the job causes me to crash about 2pm, the job only takes 4 hours per day so you can easily work as a freelancer around it, and its extremely flexible work so you can take time off for projects.
Productivity of the mornings and creativity of the evenings: After completely cutting out caffeine, I've found that the creativity is more dispersed throughout the day. Caffeine/coffee gives me a slight tunnel vision effect in my mind. On coffee, the mindset is: this is the goal, I have to work let's go. Whereas when I'm sober, I can enjoy the present moment much more.
I can't help but feel like this persists even after I've gotten rid of most of my tolerance to caffeine.
At 68 and retired and enjoyed the video. I wish this forum existed when I was raising my son. Never too late for those of us that will live forever. 👍✌🥃 thanks
hey Nathaniel! i loved this video like every one you make :) something i wanted to point out was how i appreciate the importance you put onto the Keeping Simple aspect of bullet journaling. something i noticed in the bujo community is how much some people put priority on keeping it pretty (calligraphy, doodles, decorations), not that there’s anything wrong with it if you enjoy it and if you still benefit from it, but i find all of that very time consuming and distracting from the very point of journaling! especially if you’re a perfectionist, focusing on how perfect your journal looks is not sustainable and i found for myself that it makes you give up eventually :’)
I LOVE YOU just take it lightly bc love is a strong word, but like sincerely and with much gratefullness
okay, i thought it’s so difficult. but i liked your style and i’m gonna to start journaling, thank you
Undoubtedly the best journaling video on the Internet. Compact, convenient, mindful. Simply perfect.
Love it man! I definitely agree with the journaling. I find that a lot of my time is spent on screens and computers, so it's nice to keep it traditional sometimes and just physically write down your thoughts and emotions. It definitely feels more real journaling like this.
This guy inspires me SO much
Bro this is exactly it. Had a goal of journaling this year, thanks for the help to get the foot out the door👌🏾
Hearing that you struggle with waking up is almost reassuring to hear. I am 18 and have to get up for college for a couple days a week but I find myself struggling to set my sleep in place on my days off. I have found that giving yourself a time to sleep and then turn off anything stimulated around an hour or an hour and a half beforehand just to allow your brain to relax and prepared to sleep. I usually come off my computer and have a shower then try and read a bit before doing some stretching or something. It really helps separate my nights from my evenings and it feels that the shower helps divide the two
Shower can also help you shift into slightly cooler body temperatures for sleeping.
Consistency in sleep. I'm striving for it too! My sleep is so messed up.
Get more tired during the day through hard physical activity. Don't eat late. Don't drink caffeine after about 2 pm. Don't watch your phone or tv before bed. That's the recipe. Highly likely to work.
So true. Controlling my sleep schedule and my random bursts of creativity at night are hard... then guilt sets in as i lay my head down... only to make waking up harder. Thank u for being honest
If you sleep suffers, everything about you suffers, e.g. physical, psychological and metal health. So fix it. Full disclosure: my sleep sucks. And yes, I'm working on it. Good luck
@Lee "Drink a lot of water" So you can be up all night going to the bathroom? That's terrible advice.
Dude i've been following this for the last 6 months and it has changed everything! Thank you!
I really enjoyed this video. I’ve been thinking that I want to journal more, but have been intimidated by the idea of it needing to be “perfect” or meet a certain standard of some sort. Your method of doing a weekly and then monthly review of only one page each is a lot more manageable. I think I’m going to try this!
Journaling has been a life saver, as soon as the problem is out on paper it no longer casts a huge shadow and becomes manageable.
Journaling is very powerful. Writing down the things you want in life will definitely help you manifest them. I am living proof of how Journaling works!🤗☺
I think this is where you include an example.
Thanks for sharing. I took a few tips from tips this. I’ve been keeping a journal since 2014 and find it very effective. Waking at 6AM has been a game changer for me, started at 7:30am for a week, then 7:15, 7am and so on until I got to 6AM. Didn’t see the point in rising up early if I couldn’t do it consistently.
Starting this today, really want to get organized so that I’m not a bumbling, cluttered mess after High School (last year, whoo!).
I’m also switching to a flip phone to detach myself from Social Media and RUclips (which are both major time sinks for me) and figure out what it is God has planned for me and to figure out what it is I need to do in my life.
Thanks for making these, I really do believe that this will help people like me out in the long run!
Try putting your phone screen to black and white, you might find you look at it less.
I just started my journal thanks to your videos, it's kind of hard to get used to it but it actually helps me to reflect more in what i'm doing, it feels like it helps me to be present in my own life instead of letting days pass by without notice what happens. It has also helped me to be a little bit more consistent in healthy hobbies and go back to writing, which i stopped doing for a long time. Your videos are truly inspiring and helpful, thank you!
My kind of a perfect "siesta" is: never to sleep in a bed (I like to do it in my couch, just shoes off) and never use an alarm clock (rest a much as you need, in my case is always around 30 mins). Thanks for sharing your thoughts and ideas!
Lol no alarm clock... I would literally end up waking up at like 1am in the morning.
@@christophersurnname9967 Yeah, it could happen. But, hey, you will be energized for a good party then! 😅
Daniel Montenegro not could happen, has and does happen lol
It’s nice to hear that I’m not the only one that prefers mornings and evenings!
Loved this video. Thanks for the insight on your journalling process. This is exactly what I needed, as I found my bullet journal becoming cumbersome and bloated. Your method is efficient and effective. I'll definitely try it out! Thanks Nathaniel!
2 years ago i was so lost in life, i started writting a diary everyday. Nowadays i write it each 3-4 days and i really recommend to anyone, it helps you to value each day, to value all the people that is around you and to value yourself in case you have lack of self-esteem. At first it can seems so hard to follow it up but, 2 years later i cant be more grateful to myself that i started writting my feelings and objetives and my happynes really improved a lot. Good luck to everyone and thank you for the ideas of the video!!
Clair de lune? I see you are a man of class as well.
👌🎩😌
He also had a painting of The Kiss by Gustav Klimt in his room. He's very classy.
I got really distracted by it. It's such a beautiful piece.
Emmy Noether i on the other hand was distracted by the beautiful visuals in the video x). If he learnt all of it from Those videos on Skillshare, then probably it is actually very good 🤔
Maybe he watched twilight
Just found your channel and couldn't be happier! I need a doctor on note taking!
I literally spend HOURS thinking how to start my notes.. just sitting there and overturning the wheels while sweat drips down my pencil in the stress
until i burn out, pass out and go to work again and forget I had a dream outside just existing and paying bills barely on time.
Yessss, I wanted to start journaling this year but I didn’t really know how so this will definitely help me
Yes! Finally, a guy that does journaling! I am searching RUclips everything where guys journal, or even loves stationery. Glad to find one. 😊
Thank you for this video, Nathaniel. My english is not that good, but I can say that this is what I need to improve my productivity, and also learning to stay focused for long periods of time, like months or even years. It seems like something difficult for me because I use to enjoy inmediat things like checking social media and stimulagive things but I'm actually lefting and being a bt more productive. Thanks a lot so
i found it so very satisfying that the start of the video was so bright outside and by the end it was dark
Great video! I do the same things just in a different format :) Habit tracking is on a separate page, printed grid, however, I tick it with a pen. Weekly / monthly reviews are done in Evernote. Simple project status check could be: 3 points: working great, 2: going ok, 1: needs to be adjusted. I try to built a habit of journaling every morning now. I feel if I skip journaling for a few days, I don't feel so well. Although I've started stretching every morning and I'm literally moving a lot more than before and feeling very amazing since!
Ur content is like a breeze in the middle of a cold day. So refreshing. Thanks.
It's amazing how you can always come with video I need at this moment
I have been following you while ago, and now i'm watching your videos more often because of how much i can relate to every word you say. I love how much realistic you are.
Yes i would really like to see more videos in organization!
I've been bullet journaling for the past 3 years and although at times I love investing time and creativity into the actual process itself, I get frustrated in other seasons where I don't want to sit hours just to set up a week/month. I think you've found a really powerful solution for that and focusing only on the reflection & preparation for what you want to accomplish. Thanks for this video man.
I'm gonna start my journaling tomorrow!!! Thanks, Drew😊
I started a journal and started writting every day. I was consistent for something like 1 a a half weeks... this method looks so much more clean and doable. great content :)
song at the beginning, if anyone's wondering: "clair de lune" by claud debussy
metajaji i literally couldn’t focus on what Nathaniel has to say because of the music, so damn good
When it hit I was like, omg other people know Debussy?
How can anyone not know that legendary song
Lmao everyone knows that song, it's so popular
yd // certainly not; either way, i'm sure my comment was/is worthwhile
I dont do siestas everyday but today I was feeling down and laid on the sofa with my thoughts. Thinking and cheering myself up really helped me overcome those feelings and get back on track.
i love that i heard your rioplatense accent when you said “siesta”, i am a fan!
Thank you so much Nathaniel. Finally I found one of the detailed video on how to declutter mind in a journal. I often have too much in my mind and without shedding off daily , weekly or monthly. I have not been shedding loads off my shoulder which makes me sleep deprived with lot of health issues every now and then. I was not getting to know how to manage journaling well. Keeping many different journals was not working for me. In my gratitude i am gona mention ur name this time for this wonderful guide on journaling.
I've always disregarded journaling because it seemed to confusing. But I might give it a try now.
Not sure if you’ll see this, thanks a lot for the like btw. You’re my favorite youtuber.
But, how do you integrate language learning into your bullet journal? I’ve started learning Italian in part due to your videos on it. And I wanted to use a bullet journal for my studies. But I don’t really know where to begin.
Thank you for talking about this like a real person. This is the 20th+ video I've watched on the subject....you're the first person.
Can we just talk about how good Nathaniel's Spotify playlist is?
whats his @?
@@lizzetter there's a link in the video description
'i think this is about being honest, and seeing who you are, and what you're actually doing'
thank you so much for this. I was really focused on the outcome/on the idealistic version of 'my self', then I beat 'me' up if these goals weren't met (which happens most of the time). now I know how to better manage my journal/habit tracker.
5:53 loved seeing that you wrote that in italian! keep it up mate you're doing great :)
Nice video :) I journal since 2020 and found it a very powerful tool being a freelance musician. I also got rid of the daily logs eventually, landing on a weekly log - something you are actually encouraged to do as a bullet journalist: customize. Regarding the balance of creativity during night hours and productivity during morning hours: I implemented the habit of not using any device with a display anymore from 8pm on - which is 2 to 3 hours before my common bed time. I did so in order to improve my sleep cycles. And it worked. Apart from that I found that this leaves me with three hours on my hands that I often use for writing music, writing lyrics or drawing. So this habit helps me with creativity that is not relying on a computer AND improves my sleep. :)
Journal does not have to be picture perfect as we saw on YT, just make in your own style cause it is just the mirroring of how the day went😉
I feel like waking up just before sunrise and going to sleep not to long after sun down is definitely natural rhythm. Getting our toes in the grass with a hot beverage in the morning or opening window for fresh air. Jah good stuff
everything was going SO well till 3:58 hit me & my brain broke for a couple of seconds bc i was listening very intently to you speak English, yet i couldn't help being distracted by what you'd written in my native language lol
btw your videos are always super helpful, grazie mille! :)
Yes i would love more on how to journal for self improvement and also self reflection, love the idea of finding one self and continuously bettering one self.
This was exactly what I needed to know... Thank you for sharing your ideas!
Folks, there's no absolute answer to this thing, it's an ongoing process. As long as you're following any particular regime/routine it's absolutely fantastic. The main point is to be aware/conscious of your time-energy usage!
BTW this vdo is super great!
In top of that mathematical thing 'EARLY TO BED EARLY TO RISE MAKES A MAN HEALTHY WEALTHY AND WISE'
Nathaniel in video 'I'm productive at late night' :V it was epic
I don't think what time of day you get up matters so much.
What does make a difference is not having to jump straight into your "have to's" the minute you get up. I lived that way for a long time and after reading Miracle Morning I retrained myself. I do get up early now (not a morning person at all) but I have to leave the house by 7:30. So it's that or jump straight into my day. I have found my days are much happier when I give myself that time. When I oversleep/sleep in I notice the difference.
I also make myself go to bed early enough that that's possible :D.
I love the weekly/monthly review ideas. You can see what's working and what's not and adjust.