You have heard or read many times that writing or journaling is a great idea. But have you heard that it is a good habit for business success? Maybe not.
Many leaders suggest it, quite a few artists and people we admire talk about the benefits of maintaining an everyday journal. Most of these said benefits point towards better personal lives and self-development. But I think that writing’s ability to fast track the growth of your business or career(along with your personal life) is undervalued.
If implemented, it can help you grow your business and career in a rapid manner. Here’s why.
Clarity of thought:
Spend 15 minutes journaling every morning or night. This could be about your learnings at work, things that you did well, and the ones that you could have done better. Over time, this habit can have a massive impact on your learning and growth,
Though many of us reflect on our lives and work, there is no discipline in this process. Internalising what we learn happens in a much more effective way when we write about it regularly.
Let’s say that you are in the poor habit of reacting to your team rather than responding to them. It is something that you are aware of, but haven’t been able to do away with.
If you start noting down every time you behaved against your own expectations, you will be a lot more conscious of it. In fact, it may also be your best chance of getting rid of unwanted habits in the shortest possible time.
Internalising information:
We live in a hyper information age. We consume a lot more information than we are aware of.
Most people in business and career read up or watch videos about their domains on a regular basis. But how much of it do we actually retain? Are there examples or references from what we watch or read that are available to our memory at will?
My guess is most of the time they aren’t.
That is because we treat information like entertainment. We consume one piece of it after another, without taking the time to internalise it.
Conscious learning is one of the best skills that can help you grow as an entrepreneur or as a professional. And there is no better way to internalise what you learnt than writing about it in your own words.
I was facing this problem. I was reading a lot, but not remembering or putting things that I learnt into action.
It was then that I adopted the practice of making notes and eventually writing about what I read or watched.
Now I have a designated time when I read and I do not do it without my notepad.
The notes I make while reading or after, help me understand concepts better. Also, they stay in my accessible memory as a summarised form of what I read.
Many people agree that writing is a great way to retain ideas, thoughts, directives or just about anything. Srinivas Rao, who runs The Unmistakable Creative podcast, describes The Power Of Writing What You Read.
His blog also mentions that the technique is recommended by Cal Newport, the author of the book for our times, ‘Deep Work’. Cal also mentioned to Srinivas in their interview that students with great track record are active learners, they write about the concepts and theories they have learnt in their own words.
This approach takes learning a few steps further than just reading and attempting to memorise something.
From a player to a coach:
Here is a peculiar problem that a lot of people face.
They are great at what they do, but unable to coach others. Such people lack the ability to have an ‘outside-in’ view into their skill or business.
I m sure we all agree that as entrepreneurs or as leaders in an organisation, coaching and helping others achieve excellence is the key to our success.
Breaking down your craft, and documenting it so others can benefit from is a valuable skill for any leader.
Take, for instance, Aashish Chopra who leads content marketing at Ixigo. He is a passionate professional who has delivered one viral video after another over the few years for his company. While what he has achieved in itself is outstanding, what makes Aashish a rare professional is his ability to share the science of viral content.
Aashish consistently looked at his craft as an outsider, observing what was working and what wasn’t. He was able to observe and describe a process which is now beneficial to countless others.
This habit of making notes and consciously understanding what produced best results helped him write his insanely popular book ‘Fast, Cheap and Viral’. Aashish is now, in a way, coaching an entire generation of content creators.
Now imagine that most of our successful business leaders, artists and entrepreneurs documented their learnings and narrated the science behind their crafts. Wouldn’t many of us benefit from their journey? Not just that, wouldn’t it give their companies, startups and personal brands a massive positive rub-off?
I am certain that it would.
Blogging for business:
Benefits of writing every day do not stop at developmental and coaching aspects of our work. It is a good habit for business success in the direct sense as well.
Making notes and writing about your business every day can also help you develop content or blogging strategy for your business.
We all know that blogging is a prime tool for low cost-high ROI marketing. I love writing, but it also puts The Story Co’s services in front of a lot of people.
Writing every day also helps you come up with new content ideas for blogs and videos. Also as the leader, if you are able to lead content, it just makes marketing so much more effective.
Content and marketing strategy aside, blogging definitely means meditating on your customers’ problems, their aspirations and successes. For all you know, this everyday process can lead to newer and better products and services.
This is not to say that writing is the only way to be successful. There are many routes to the same destination and writing every day is one of them.
But one thing is for sure, some of the world’s best leaders, thinkers and entrepreneurs have used writing to build success for themselves and their communities.
So could you. And you know what’s the best part? There is no downside in trying it out.
