Getting Started With Your

Self Journal

Congratulations on purchasing your Self Journal - A powerful yet simple daily planner to help you optimize your day, tackle your goals, and be happier. You’ve joined a community of over 500,000 high achievers who are reaching their goals with the help of their Self Journal, and we can’t wait to see what you accomplish!

The Guiding Principles of the Self Journal

During the creative journey of crafting the structure of the Self Journal into what you’re holding now, we focused on several guiding principles that became the blueprint for the design.

Goals are meaningless without a plan that sets out how you’ll achieve them. If you want to achieve your life goals, you must build a path towards them. Our 13-Week Roadmap is designed to help you break down your life goals into actionable steps, measurable milestones and small weekly and daily actions.

In this way, the Self Journal fills the gap between goal setting and goal achieving by giving you a system of execution that will guide your performance and track your progress. And if you’re wondering why 13 weeks? A three-month horizon is short enough to curb procrastination yet long enough to reach real performance gains.

All tasks are not created equal. Planning your day and prioritizing your tasks is the difference between having a reactive day and a proactive day. With the Self Journal, you begin your day with your most critical tasks first.

By planning your day the night before (or early in the morning), you can prioritize your workflow and ensure you’re getting the important things done.

Planning is the most crucial part of the formula we call “time management”. That’s why we’ve added the timeline tracker for each day. It’s broken down into 30-minute segments to allow you to optimize your day from sunrise to sunset.

Practice leaving ZERO white space on the planner so that you have no unaccounted time. This may sound overwhelming at first, but the objective here is to learn how to spend your time consciously and optimally.

Much like with budgeting money (where we give every dollar a job), aim to do the same with your time. This will help you transition easily from one task to the next with laser-focus and no wasted ‘in-between’ time or decision fatigue.

We left everything undated so you can start planning your goals and becoming your best self today. This isn’t about waiting until January 1st to make a change, it’s about empowering you to start now.

If you go on vacation or take time off, you can just start back when you return without any awkward blank pages. The Self Journal was designed to be flexible and friendly to work with.

Your success in life is the sum of the habits you create. Whether it’s a new habit you want to add to your life or tracking what you’re already doing, you’ll find space for monthly tracking, daily reflection and notes in your Self Journal.

Using proven positive psychology fundamentals, we’ve created space to cultivate a habit of gratitude. Starting your day with gratitude will give you a happiness boost before any negative thoughts or worry can take hold.

This daily practice will help you eradicate negative thought behaviors and help you adopt a positive outlook where anything is possible.

If you want to crush your goals and reach greatness, you must focus on consistent and long-term personal performance.

In the book Great by Choice, author Jim Collins shares the story of two explorers, Amundsen and Scott, who each led separate teams on an expedition race to the South Pole in 1911. The journey there and back was roughly 1,400 miles, which is equivalent to a round-trip from New York City to Chicago.

While both teams would travel the same distance through extremely harsh weather conditions, each took an entirely different approach to the journey.

Scott’s strategy was to walk as far as possible on the good weather days and then rest up on the bad days to conserve energy.

Conversely, Amundsen’s team adhered to a strict regimen of consistent progress by walking 20 miles every day — no matter what the weather. On good days Amundsen’s team was very capable of walking further, but Amundsen was adamant they walk no more than 20 miles — to conserve their energy.

Which team do you think succeeded?

It was Admundsen’s — because they took consistent action and this same principle will be true for your goals.

As with anything new, you’re bound to have questions and maybe even some uncertainty. But don’t let that put you off from getting started. Perfection is not required. Instead, experiment with your journal. Personalize it and figure out what works best for you because it’s all about YOU!

Remember, the best day to start your Self Journal was yesterday. The next best day is today! Every day you delay means one less day to create the life you love.

So what are you waiting for?!

Commit To & Believe In Yourself

Having the right mindset is important before you start on your journal to set yourself up for success. Have high expectations. Expect the impossible. Be open to opportunities and trust you can do whatever you set out to do.

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Define your 13-week outcome goal(s): The BIG picture

Studies have shown that the simple act of writing down a goal increases your chances of reaching it. However, writing it down is only the first step. The most important part is defining the milestones and creating the path that will get you there. Here’s how…

Define your S.M.A.R.T. outcome goal
Your S.M.A.R.T goal should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based. Also indicate which life area(s) this goal will improve and why you want to achieve it (your “motivations”).
Outline your progress milestones
These are clear, trackable objectives, which can be measured so you can celebrate your advancement. Track your progress by checking them off as you achieve them.
Determine your critical drivers
Outline the actions you need to take to close the gap on your progress milestones and outcome goal.
Hold yourself accountable
Accountability is key for success. What will you do to hold yourself accountable?

Plan for the week ahead

Start your weekly journey each week by filling out the Weekly Planning pages. This exercise is key to framing your week. If you jump into your week without a plan, it’s easy to become unfocused or stuck on the things that aren’t important. So let’s jump into the different sections of the weekly planning page...

Define your weekly objectives
What are the three big objectives that if completed would make this week a win? Use your milestones you identified with your outcome goal(s) to help you focus on what will move the needle. Give them time estimates and check them off as you complete them. It’s also helpful to document the actual time you spent on them.
Outline key activities for the week
These could be events, deadlines, important meetings, birthdays, errands, etc. Anything that you’d like to have a birds eye view of for the week.
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Now, let’s get into planning your day!

The key to a kick-butt day is to leave ZERO (or as little as possible) white space on your planner. Remember, unallocated time is more likely to be squandered. You can plan for your day the morning of, or take some time the night prior to map it out. Whatever works for you!

Start each day with some simple morning practices
Write down what you are grateful for to start your day with positivity; Outline your goal for the day or this could be a reminder of a weekly, monthly or 13-week goal; In today’s targets, jot down what would be your 3 biggest wins for the day.
Plan your day leaving no time unaccounted for
Start by entering any meetings/appointments you have. Then time block your today’s targets first and then plan secondary tasks/activities in any remaining blank space, both personal and professional. Remember, what gets planned gets done!
Utilize the freedom page
The freedom space is yours to use any way you'd like - from notes, to gratitude, quotes, doodles, ideas, anything goes!
Rate your day
So, how’d your day go? Give yourself a “Plan to reality” score, where you rate out of 10 how close to reality your daily plan was. Did you fill out your habit tracker? How was your mood? Rate your “WIn The Day Score” indicating how well you feel the day went as a whole.

Reflect on your week

In addition to planning your week ahead of time, it’s important to check in on your progress at the end of each week to ensure the needle is moving and the wheels aren’t just spinning.

If you keep your eye on the ball, you can get back on track more quickly if you go off course. Weekly reflections can provide clarity and perspective that helps keep you motivated. You’ve got this!

Summarize your week
Transfer your “Win The Day” and “Plan to Reality” scores from your daily pages to get a sense of how your week went. Reflect on why your week went the way it did. Also, jot down any Bucket List items you may have completed.
Reflect on your week
Reflections give you the opportunity to celebrate your wins, capture lessons, and remember what you accomplished with your time. This essential practice helps you stop the things that hold you back and do more of the things that move you in the right direction.
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So, ready to get started?

As the saying goes, there’s no better time than the present!

Self Journal + You = More Goals Achieved

You've Got This!

But that’s not all…

Want details about what’s inside your beautiful journal, the importance of setting habits, hidden gems within the journal, FAQs, and more? Check out the videos below. If you’d like to see anything else, let us know.