像任何习惯一样，写日记说起来容易做起来难。我试了好几年（童年卧室里所有半空的笔记本都可以证明这一点），直到我在国外读大学并在一份旅游日记上写文章时，我才形成一个持续的习惯。在那段时间里，有些东西发出了咔嚓声，我回到美国后一直保持着这种声音，在那里，它从我去过的地方和吃过的食物的目录演变成了一个通过感受工作、扩展问题或随机观察并为自己设定目标的地方。

尽管如此，我还是不想每天都写作，即使我确实有什么想说的话。有时我打开日记，盯着空白的页，希望能有一些聪明的想法发生在我身上，这样我就可以为后人写下来。

如果你偶尔也很难弄清楚你想写什么，我建议你阅读本杰明P。哈代，这是充满了伟大的建议，如何建立和坚持的习惯。我特别喜欢这三个提示，当你在页面上找不到任何东西时（强调我的）：

• Start with gratitude and appreciation for everything happening in your life. Take plenty of time to reflect on and write about all the details of your life and relati***hips. Write about all the people who matter to you. Write about how far you’ve come. Write specifics about what is happening, and what has happened, since the last time you had a recovery session. Recording your history is a crucial component of journal writing. It provides context to your ideas, goals, and plans.
• Be radically honest with yourself about what’s going on in your world in your journal. After you’ve just expressed gratitude and appreciation for the brilliance (and struggles) in your life, you need to be honest with yourself about where you’re not showing up. While in a peak state, you need to commit to making specific changes. Write down the key changes you need to make to achieve your dreams and ideals. Write down everything that comes to mind. Journaling is a powerful therapeutic and healing tool. While writing about the things you need to change, openly write about the frustrati*** and difficulties that have led you to where you are. Write about why you’ve struggled to make these changes in the past. Be very honest and vulnerable with yourself. No one else is going to read what you’re writing. The purpose of this writing is for you to get clarity, and to re-establish your priorities and focus. If you can’t be honest in your own journal, how can you expect to be honest in the rest of your life?
• Write about your big picture dreams. These could be framed as your life vision, your 3–5 year goals, or your goals for the next 3–12 months. It’s good to take some time and think about what you’re trying to do from the big picture before you zero-in on the specifics right in front of you. A key component of writing big-picture is that it reconnects you with your ‘why.’ It’s very easy to lose sight of your why during your daily routine and busyness. Additionally, there is a huge difference between ‘means’ goals and ‘ends’ goals. And your ends goals are the things that truly matter to you. They are the things you want in and of themselves, not because they will enable you to do what you really want. For example, getting a college degree so you can get a great job is a means goal. But what is the end? The end is what really matters, and you can save a lot of trouble by beginning and continuing with the end in mind. You can avoid pursuing goals that are societal expectati***.

我想指出的是，虽然我在日记中写下了我的目标，哈代强调日记是为自己设定目标的一种很好的方式，但你不应该感到有压力去利用自己的目标来提高工作效率。这可能是一个好处，如果你选择这样使用它，但最好的方式使用你的日志是你想要的。没有规则，正如哈代指出的，没有人会读你的日记。

你可以做你自己，或者弄清楚自己是谁。在这样一个时代，生活的方方面面似乎都能发挥作用，最大限度地提高效率，这就是自由和治疗。

自由撰稿

如果你想要更抽象的东西，可以试试自由写作，自由写作是一种日记形式，你可以连续写一段时间，而不必担心拼写、语法，甚至，如果你想“主题化”的话，你可以一直写到一个固定的时间结束。

当我没有太多的话要说，但仍然觉得有必要写日记的时候，我会使用Writelight，这是一个网站和应用程序，可以给你随机提示。你可以选择你想连续写作的时间（比如5分钟、10分钟甚至20分钟）和一个主题（以符号的形式呈现，比如手电筒或咖啡），Writelight会给你一个句子长度的提示。

例如，当我选择七分钟和小鸟时，提示是“我应该关注什么？我现在应该把注意力集中在这些事情上的原因是什么？“如果我选择10分钟和一只猫，提示是“如果我整个上午都是自己的，我会把它花在做……”（老实说，我不确定第二个选项有多重要，但选一个很有趣。）

一旦你放松了，继续写作就更容易了，不管你是在Writelight提示符上超过了时间限制，还是换了更个人化的东西。别担心，如果你每隔几天或几个月只写一次日记，这毕竟是你的出路。