Why I Journal Every Day

How a 20-minute daily habit strengthens clarity, leadership, and emotional readiness

For the past six months, I’ve made a non-negotiable commitment:
- 20 minutes of journaling, every single day.

I’ve journaled on and off for 30 years and have shelves of old notebooks filled with versions of myself I barely recognise now. Sometimes I read back and think, thank goodness I kept going. You can literally see the markers of growth: what used to trigger me, what I struggled with, what I overcame, what I under-valued, and what I didn’t yet know.

But committing daily time to it hasn’t been easy. It has been worth it.

And interestingly, the more I’ve written, the more I’ve understood why journaling is one of the most powerful tools available to daughters, sisters, leaders, and business owners who need clarity in complex, emotionally charged environments.

It’s not about “dear diary”.
- It’s about leadership hygiene.

And there’s now decades of research that supports what practice has taught me.

Journaling, according to the research

Psychologist James Pennebaker and others spent decades examining what happens when people write honestly about their inner life. Across hundreds of studies, “expressive writing” produced small but reliable improvements in mental health, emotional regulation, and overall functioning.

Separately, research on reflective writing in professional fields like medicine shows that when individuals reflect on their motives, emotions, and assumptions, they make better decisions, see patterns earlier, deepen self-awareness, and learn faster.

Leadership studies increasingly frame reflection as a core competency, not a luxury. Reflective leaders navigate ambiguity better, communicate more clearly, and become more adaptable under pressure.

None of this research was done on entrepreneurs specifically but the mechanisms map perfectly to the realities of founder life.

And they align with what 30 years of my own practice has taught me.

Seven advanced insights about journaling that leadders eventually discover

These are layered insights are the things you only really understand after 10–20 years of leadership and reflection.

1. Journaling is a pattern-detecting and not a diary.

Over time, your notebook becomes a mirror that refuses to collude.

You start seeing recurring themes:
- the same hesitation, the same argument, the same boundary breach, the same point of friction.

When you track your thoughts over weeks and months, patterns stop being emotional impressions and become irrefutable data. Clarity sharpens. Priorities crystallise. Decision-making improves because the noise settles.

2. It converts emotional overload into usable leadership data.

The expressive writing research is clear: writing reduces intensity.

As leaders, we carry a huge internal load: big decisions, pressure, money, people, legacy, fear.
Journaling allows you to metabolise the overwhelm so you can think.

You’re not dumping feelings;
- you’re transforming emotion into information.

That shift alone can change how you lead.

3. It exposes blind spots you didn’t know you had.

Reflective practice studies repeatedly show that writing highlights the stories we tell ourselves.

You start noticing:

• Who consistently triggers you

• Where your ego flares

• Where you minimise your own needs

• Where you procrastinate

• Where you’re negotiating with yourself

• Where you’re repeating a script inherited from childhood or early career

Over time, journaling becomes a low-cost, high-impact method for seeing yourself more truthfully.

And from that honesty comes better leadership.

4. It builds cognitive endurance.

Mental stamina is rarely spoken about, but every leader knows how essential it is.

Daily journaling is a workout for the mind:
- sorting, organising, recalibrating, resetting.

The research shows reflective writing supports better emotional regulation and critical thinking. My experience is that it also builds mental endurance. This is the ability to return to clarity even when life is full, stressful, or chaotic.

Twenty minutes can change the quality of your entire day.

5. It reveals psychological deal-timing, long before you admit it out loud.

This one is unique to scale-ups.

Over months of daily journaling, you start noticing subtle shifts:
- fatigue that doesn’t go away, new ambitions emerging, boredom creeping in, or readiness to step back. These are emotional inflection points that influence the timing of exits, share sales, succession, or scaling decisions.

No balance sheet can tell you when you’re ready to let go.
Your notebook can.

6. It clarifies your “inner draft” before the external one.

Most leaders think they’re good communicators.
Great leaders rehearse privately.

Whether it’s a conversation with a co-founder, shareholder, family member, employee, or investor, journaling lets you shape the inner script before you deliver the outer one.

You show up clearer, calmer, and far more precise.

This practice has saved me from many missteps over the years.

7. It creates a private archive of your leadership evolution.

Thirty years of notebooks have given me something I never expected:
- a personal history of who I’ve been, how I’ve led, and what I’ve learned.

Journaling becomes a leadership archive:
- a record of decisions, dilemmas, breakthroughs, and turning points.

For entrepreneurs who one day want to write a memoir, pass on wisdom, develop a leadership philosophy, or transition into advisory or board roles, this archive becomes invaluable.

It’s your legacy library.

Why I keep going

Daily journaling is one of the simplest, most powerful tools I have for clarity, courage, and emotional regulation.

Some days the writing is profound.
Some days it’s a brain dump.
Some days it’s a quiet conversation with myself.

But every day, it moves something forward, such as a thought, a feeling, a decision, a boundary, a belief.

And across 30 years, it has quietly shaped both the person I’ve become and the leader I continue to be.

If this resonates and you’re curious what your journaling is trying to tell you, let’s talk.
We rarely need more strategy - we need clarity.
Reach out for a private conversation and let’s work through it together.