How to Start a Journaling Habit That Saves Hours Every Week
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Each week, I share real talk about building a life you actually enjoy—the wins, the fails, and everything I'm learning along the way.
(Prefer to listen? Throw on the audio version on Speechify and absorb this while you're doing literally anything else. Real human voice, zero robot vibes.)
Your emotions are real. They’re powerful. And they have absolutely zero logic.
And right now, they're stealing hours from your week.
Fear that you're not qualified enough. Doubt that whispers you're behind. Pride that keeps you struggling alone. They leave you overwhelmed, indecisive, and wasting valuable hours every week.
A few weeks ago, I sat down to work on a project that should have taken maybe an hour. Three hours later, I'd barely made any progress. I kept second-guessing every decision, rewriting the same section over and over and convincing myself it wasn't good enough yet.
Finally, I grabbed my journal and wrote down what was actually going on in my head.
You know what I discovered? I was afraid. Specifically, I kept picturing this one person absolutely tearing apart my work. I could see their face, hear their criticism, imagine all the ways they'd find it lacking.
And here's the kicker: when I wrote down who that person was, I realized it was someone whose opinion I don't even respect. Someone I don't actually like. But I'd given them three hours of my day anyway.
All because of a fear with no real logic.
But the moment I wrote it down, that fear lost its power. It was like turning on the light in a dark room. Suddenly I could see that my fear was based on nothing real. Just a story I was telling myself about someone whose opinion didn't even matter to me.
Emotions you haven’t named will run your day.
But when you acknowledge your emotions out loud, or better yet, write them down, you give yourself the chance to see them for what they really are. Most of the time? They're like monsters under the bed. Terrifying in the dark, but the second you turn on the light, there's nothing there.
And that’s when you get your time back.
Your Emotions Are Lying to You (And Stealing Your Time)
When you're stuck in an emotion, your brain will tell you very convincing stories about why that feeling is justified and urgent.
Fear will tell you that you need to prepare more, research longer, perfect it before anyone sees it. It sounds reasonable. It sounds productive. But really, you're just avoiding.
Doubt will whisper that everyone else has it figured out and you're the only one faking it. So you compare, you second-guess, you restart things that were already working.
Pride will convince you that asking for help is weakness. So you struggle alone and work hard to try to figure it out yourself.
And before you know it, hours (sometimes days) have disappeared into these emotional rabbit holes.
This is where journaling becomes your secret weapon. When you dump everything onto paper, every worry, every fear, every voice telling you you're not ready, something shifts. You can suddenly see the emotion separately from the facts.
The emotion feels massive until you write it down. Then you see it's just a feeling. And feelings, as powerful as they are, aren't facts.
My Exact Journaling Practice
I journal every single morning.
I’ve tried a few different time slots but have found the best approach for me is to fit it in after my workout and before I get ready for the day. It's become as essential as coffee. Maybe more so…
This practice clears my head and makes me feel focused and capable of tackling whatever the day throws at me. Without it? I'm reactive, scattered, and way more likely to waste time spiraling.
Here's my exact routine:
I use two journals every day, and they serve completely different purposes.
First, I start with The Five Minute Journal. This one is structured and keeps me focused. I write down what I'm grateful for, what would make today great, and my daily affirmations that help direct my brain into how I’d like to think about the day ahead. It takes literally five minutes and sets the tone for the entire day. Before bed, I come back to it and write down three amazing things that happened and what I learned from the day.
Then, I move to my blank journal for the brain dump. This is where I let everything flow. No structure, no judgment, no editing. Whatever's bouncing around in my head gets written down. The fears, the doubts, the pride. Any of the worries I'm carrying around and letting distract me. All of it. This is where I catch those time-stealing emotions before they derail my day.
I love this combination of structured reflection and unfiltered processing. It’s the perfect duo.
(If you want to dive deeper into why the physical act of writing in a journal is so powerful for this, I wrote an entire post about it here.)
How to Start Journaling (Without Making It Another Thing to Feel Bad About)
Look, I know what you're thinking. "That's great for you, Kara, but I barely have time to shower in the morning. Where am I supposed to find time to journal?"
You don't need to journal for 30 minutes or an hour. You don't need the perfect setup. You don't need to wait until you can create some Instagram-worthy morning routine to make it a part of.
You just need to start.
If five minutes is all you've got? Start there. That's enough to write down three things you're grateful for and name the one emotion that's been taking up the most space in your head.
If mornings are absolute chaos in your house? Don't force it. Try journaling as a transition between work and home. Sit in your car for five minutes before you walk in the door and just write. Or make it part of your nighttime wind-down routine.
The goal isn't perfection. The goal is awareness.
The more familiar you become with your own thoughts and emotions, the better you understand how you tick. And when you understand how you tick, you can actually change the patterns that are derailing you and making life harder than it needs to be.
You can't change what you're not aware of. But once you see it? Once you name it? You have a choice to change it.
The Real Reason This Matters
I’ve spent a lot of time researching and trying out many different time management tactics. The right tools, the perfect schedule, the productivity hacks that promise to save you hours.
But none of that matters if you're bleeding time to emotions without even realizing it.
You can have the most beautiful planner, the most efficient systems, the best intentions, and still watch hours slip away.
Journaling isn't just self-care (though it is that too). It's one of the most practical time management tools you have. It helps you separate what's real from what's just an emotion lying to you.
And once you can tell the difference? Everything gets easier.
So if you've been feeling stuck, scattered, or like you're constantly spinning your wheels, try this: Tomorrow morning, before you check your phone or dive into your to-do list, grab a journal and just write for five minutes.
Write about what scares you. What you're doubting. Where pride has you white-knuckling instead of asking for help. Don't censor it. Don't make it pretty. Just get it out of your head and onto paper.
Then look at what you wrote and ask yourself: "Is this real, or is this just a feeling?"
Nine times out of ten, it's just a feeling. And feelings, as powerful as they are, don't get to steal your time unless you let them.
-Kara
P.S. The two journals I swear by: The Five Minute Journal for structured reflection and this blank journal for everything else. I don't skip either one. They're that essential to how I manage my time and my mental energy.
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About Me
Hi, I’m Kara. I’m a former workaholic turned time-management expert. I help women stressed out in their 9-5 get more done, in less time, so they can get back in the driver’s seat and start living a life they love.
