There are a number of reasons that you might consider journalling. This is not a comprehensive or theoretical guide, but a first-hand account.

For 3 years I've carried a simple A6 notepad with me, everywhere. I hook any pen I can find to it. Whenever I try fancier gear it adds more anxiety than worth, so I choose to keep it simple.

• It's the fastest most flexible inbox. I can get ideas on paper in seconds, in any format. If the thought requires a diagram, I can sketch one. Notepad apps might come close nowadays, once you've unlocked them & ignored distracting notifications.
• Slower is better. I'm a slow writer, but I've gotten only upside from that. It's easy to be rash in your mind. So I make all important decisions hand-written. It's harder to tolerate nonsense at 1 mile an hour. Many times I've avoided procrastination by journalling on the reason why.
• Hard space limits. I write out my focuses for the day, most mornings. This is more deliberate and constrained than an auto-populated smart list. The notebook isn't big. Nor should my priorities be.

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Apply everywhere. Sport, learning, personal growth. Step a little out of your comfort zone and stay there until it's easy. I shared more of my learning on progressive overload here.

When the difficult is easy, adjust & repeat. Progressive overload originates in weightlifting. Lift a weight that's difficult but manageable, until it becomes easy. Then you bump the weight up, and go again.

Progress appears discrete. Increments might take days, weeks, or months to become comfortable. This can make progress seem like long plateaus, then random jumps. In fact it's continual incremental improvement.

1 million x zero = zero. To grow we have to reach just beyond the comfort zone. Too far, and overwhelm prevents us from adapting & learning. If you tried to lift too heavy, you'd actually not be able to lift the weight at all. A beautiful metaphor for the fruitless-ness of overwhelm.

The immersion myth A lot of people try to “immerse” themselves in a new language: news, podcasts, even going directly there on holiday. This is too much too soon. Your brain will be overwhelmed with a lack of comprehension.

The 80% rule. Start smaller. Find the slowest simplest audio tape you can. Understanding the growth zone is vital for learning. Understand 80% to leave room to figure out the rest.

We don't take 5 year olds to calculus lectures. We know that you have to learn maths in steps, one logical deduction at a time. You can't bathe in maths and absorb it. Growth happens in small steps, slight stretches outside our ability.

One thing I learned as a Software Engineer is that, when you design anything, you should take care to pick good defaults. 90% of people never adjust them.

This made me question what my personal defaults are. In life, what I have I designed, and what defaults have I accepted? Most importantly, where aren't these defaults serving me well?

Defaults are the things you fall back on when you can't think of a better option.

My "I'm tired" default was to watch TV. That was a bad default, because that didn't serve any part of what I wanted to be. It wasn't that I actively wanted to watch anything -- it was just that I couldn't think of another low-energy activity.

I substituted reading. It was as simple as that. "I'm tired." Okay here's my book / kindle. I switched my default to serve my priorities.

My "I'm bored" default was a mix of scrolling news & eating bad snacks. I switched that to learning Italian. Whenever I'm bored, and I open my phone, Anki flashcards are right there. Every time I think "Ugh I've got nothing to do?" I answer -- Italian.

My legitimate "I'm hungry" default was to go to the chocolate cupboard. Now, I plan and buy specific, healthy and easy snacks. When I'm hungry, now I always have a good option.

A lot of life happens on auto-pilot. Every once in a while, check those settings, and opt for simple redesigns for more intentional responses to common situations & states.

Create better options. Raise the baseline.