How to Use Secret Code Journaling for Improved Balance

Yesterday I gave you some reasons to journal and tips on how to choose a journal. Today I’m going to share my method for “secret code journaling” to improve balance.

Anthony Robbins, Steven Covey and others have talked about the need for balance in our lives. Anthony illustrated our values as slices of pie on a wheel. How well does a wheel turn when it’s not round? If the segments of pie on your wheel of life are out of balance, then things don’t run smoothly.

So you can start defining what you want in your wheel by asking yourself the following questions:

What’s bare basics must I have? For me, I just started with the base of the pyramid of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. These are the bare-bones basics. Physiological: I must have food, shelter, health, and sleep. If any of these are lacking, I’m in deep trouble. I can’t skip ahead to doing great things or even expanding my social life if I’m worrying about having food to eat and a roof over my head.

What really makes me uncomfortable if I let it go? I might survive if I let the dishes pile up and don’t change the cat litter, but I’m going to be miserable soon. The same goes for getting a shower every day.

What are things that are forward-looking? Think about your goals. What do you want to be doing in a year or five years? I would like to make money from my writing, and in order to do this, I need to read much of the type of material I want to write. I also want to complete my English degree, which is primarily stalled because of (1) lack of money and (2) lack of proficiency in a foreign language.

So here’s where the journaling and secret code come in. I slowly started coming up with my own “secret code” that I use to represent various things I spent time doing every day. The goal is to get as many of them in during the day as I can. If a few days go by with any area neglected, I start feeling the stress.

So some of my categories:

C - cleaned and/or decluttered at least 15 minutes per day

RF - read fiction

RN - read nonfiction

S - studied Spanish

W - wrote

E - exercised

M - meditated

V - visualized

F - spent time working on my finances, balancing my checkbook, recording expenditures, paying bills

I have a few more categories, but I can’t share them all or it wouldn’t be secret code, now would it? :-)

So every day, whether or not I feel like journaling, the goal is to at least write the date, day, and time. The next line is reserved for my secret code:

September 24, 2008   Wednesday   8:30 p.m.
W, RN, M, V, E

And then I begin my entry. If I’m too tired to write an entry, then that is all that gets recorded that day.

I also record my dreams in my journal. I’ll usually do this with a different color pen just to help differentiate the type of entry.

What’s the benefit to all of this?

• Motivation. We still want to earn that golden star that we earned in grade school. If you practice this, you’ll find yourself wanting to do a particular activity just to earn your code.
• Awareness. As you record a few days in a row, you may find you’ve neglected a particular area. Perhaps you haven’t exercised. Or maybe you have a pile of receipts accumulating because you didn’t record them in your financial software. By having these right in your journal where you are recording the events of the day, you can start to see some cause and effect. Did you not exercise today because maybe you were too tired since you didn’t get to bed on time last night? When you read that you’ve been stressed out lately, check the top and see when the last time you meditated or read for fun was.
• Balance. As you practice this method of recording the “balance of your day,” you’ll be motivated to spend a little time in many different areas of your life. Your life roles and values will all receive some attention, and it’s amazing how much simpler and peaceful things become at that point.

So put the secret code to the test in your journal. Use any code you like—you’re not limited to letters. You could use pictorial symbols, stick figures, whatever you like. And feel free to let me know in the comments how it’s going for you!

Photo courtesy of Careless whispers thrown away

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