What is breadcrumb journaling??
Breadcrumb journaling is a type of journaling in which, rather than sitting down for a set period of time and reflecting on a past day or week, journaling is woven into every step of the day as an ongoing activity, effectively creating for thejournaler a proverbial breadcrumb trail of their thoughts, activities, and accomplishments.
Breadcrumb journaling is medium-agnostic. I personally use both my paper journal and Notion to journal throughout the day. It has been incredibly helpful for me because it allows me to look back over my day with crystal clear memory and compare how things are going versus how I intended them to go. This way, I can always pull myself back on track if I ever get a little bit turned around throughout the day.
In fact, breadcrumb journaling is what inspired the subtle fantasy adventure design theme of my website and blog because of the effect it has of making me feel as if I am writing my story/adventure in real-time as I go. In other words, I find it makes life feel like an adventure.
Who is breadcrumb journaling for?
Breadcrumb journaling is for anyone who would benefit from tools that allow them to have a better understanding of where they came from, where they are, and where they are going in a figurative sense.
For me personally, as a bootstrapped founder of a D2C product business, a blogger, freelancer, and someone who just generally bites off more than they can chew at any given moment, breadcrumb journaling allows me to stay on track and forces me to set clear, defined goals for the day. At first, I was worried that journaling constantly would slow me down. But when you account for the drastically reduced number of missteps that I make on a daily basis because of my heightened awareness of what exactly I'm doing at any given moment and why, it has actually drastically increased my productivity.
As someone with what's called Pure O OCD, an obsessive thought disorder form of OCD that manifests more as obsessive thoughts than as compulsions, it helps me to silence the voices in my mind that would have me believe that I'm not working hard enough or question whether or not I got anything done. Rather than relying on my subjective memory, I now have a comprehensive breadcrumb trail that has been increasing in granularity since roughly fall of 2021 to hold up to any negative voice, internal or external.
I should also mention that breadcrumb journaling is best suited for those who work on a computer due to how adding in links and images from your virtual travels is what I think is responsible for the feeling of being on an adventure. I often use voice dictation for breadcrumb journaling, and in fact, that's how I'm writing this right now.
Benefits of Breadcrumb Journaling
Self-Conversation
Two brains are better than one. Well, without another person to talk to 24/7 as interested in what you're working on as you are, breadcrumb journaling provides a solution by allowing us to converse with ourselves.
In fact, one of the reasons why these chat AIs such as Claude and ChatGPT are so valuable, I would suggest, is simply because they force you to serialize your thoughts into a clearly worded externalized query. How many times have you sat down to ask ChatGPT a question and then, simply by typing it out, realized that you might already have an idea of how to get the answer yourself before the AI even responds? This also happens in conversation, can you remember a time recently that you asked someone a question only to have the answer pop into your head the moment the last word left your lips?
A big part of breadcrumb journaling is conversing with your recent past self then your past. When you can clearly see your figurative path, you can apply critical thinking much more easily to your chosen course of action, avoid fallacies, missteps, and time sinks.
Content Creation Aid
Breadcrumb journaling is also fantastic for bloggers and content creators because it gives such a comprehensive screenplay of your daily life, which can then be queried using tools like Notion's built-in AI question and answer functionality. Or one may want to add their breadcrumb journals to a Claude project, which would have much the same effect in giving you the ability to ask questions about your past self, what you have done, etc.
Journaling Components
One key aspect of breadcrumb journaling is the use of journaling components. These are collections of pre-designed journaling prompts or templates that you can easily paste into your daily journaling practice. You can think of them like miniature worksheets.
Here’s my free cloneable Notion journaling template that includes examples of these components. Even if you don't use Notion, I encourage you to check it out as the concepts can be applied to any digital journaling platform. The daily log template, found at the bottom of the page, contains components such as check-in, problem frame, pros and cons, and end of day reflections.
Think of these journaling components as tools to help guide your thoughts and decision-making process throughout your day. To illustrate this concept, let's use a fantasy adventure metaphor:
Imagine a group of heroes traversing a mystical forest. They can't see their destination, but the mage in their party can cast spells to illuminate the best path forward. Similarly, when you're unsure of your next steps, you can use these journaling components to gain clarity and make informed decisions.
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You might not know the best way forward; it may become unclear. Consider pasting in a pros and cons component and weighing two options or directions side by side on how best to continue. Perhaps, weary traveler, it's the end of your day, and you'd like to wrap up your work session. Drop in the end of day component and work through the prompts to quickly and effectively wrap up your work, leaving it nice and tidy for your future self the next morning.
I encourage you to make your own components and evolve this method of journaling to meet your unique needs. I've included some real life examples from my daily log for you to check out.
My Personal Journaling Practice
I personally journal in my paper notebook as well as in Notion. I find that journaling on paper in the mornings and evenings allows my mind to fall into a more restful state. Since I'm an extremely passionate person with a constant drive, if I were to hop directly onto my computer each morning, I would often be unable to resist the temptation to pick up immediately where I left off the night before on my work and start editing some minuscule detail of the style of my website rather than following my morning routine.
A special kind of component, which I don't have in the daily log template, is the routine component. You'll need to make this yourself. Shortly I will post and link here to a post on how to make a morning routine spell so strong getting everything you need done will feel like a breeze.
I hope that you found this helpful, and I'm very excited to hear your feedback, questions, suggestions, and anything else you'd like to throw my way. If you enjoyed this please consider subscribing to my weekly newsletter or, if you are already, think of a friend who may benefit from this journaling technique and send it to them. xoxo
KOii
