Interstitial journaling is a productivity technique created by Tony Stubblebine. To my knowledge, it’s the simplest way to combine note-taking, tasks, and time tracking in one unique workflow. You don’t need any special software, but Roam Research makes it even easier to do thanks to the flexibility of daily notes. Interstitial journaling has had an amazing impact on my productivity and creativity, and I think many people would enjoy it. The basic idea of interstitial journaling is to write a few lines every time you take a break, and to track the exact time you are taking these notes. For instance: 10:04 - Going to finish the first draft of the mindful productivity article. 10:46 - I fell into a Twitter blackhole again! Back to work. 11:45 - Made good progress. Need to get ready for meeting with Charlie. 11:49 - Reviewed agenda and docs. Feeling a bit anxious, but I think it will go fine. Need to call Anna after the meeting to debrief. Notice the mix of goals (“finish the first draft”), self-awareness (“fell into a Twitter blackhole”, “feeling anxious”), self-review (“good progress”), and actionable items (“call Anna”)? I love interstitial journaling because it’s a great way to make your breaks more mindful. Proactive breaks: reflect on your previous task, plan for the next one, take your own mental pulse, jot down anything else that comes to mind so as to reduce your cognitive load.Procrastination breaks: become aware of these breaks and how long they actually take. When you create the habit of writing down all your breaks, it becomes easier to not open a new tab to “quickly” check Twitter. You don’t want to have to admit that failure to yourself. Your interstitial journal is not only a journal, it’s a to-do list, a note-taking system, and a way to track your time meaningfully. As I mentioned, you can keep an interstitial journal anywhere. Even a text file would work well. If you’re a Roam Research user, let’s see how you can easily set it up there. I’m saying “setting it up”, but really… The work has been done for you already. Keeping an interstitial journal in Roam Research In my beginner’s guide to Roam, I completely left out the Daily Notes section to keep things simple. Let’s now have a look together. This is what a daily note with interstitial journaling looks like.
Es interesante la intensión del autor que es permitirnos auto pensarnos y revisar que cosas mejorar en como obligarnos a detenernos y registrar qué estamos haciendo y hacia dónde vamos. Podría funcionar como un a terapia contra la falta de concentración que se dan por las redes sociales. También las pausas para reflexionar, aparte de esforzar la memoria, permite aprender mas allá de lo común, también se ve como autorregula el aprendizaje autónomo esto requiere disciplina pero los resultados pueden ser buenos, para conocernos y optimizar todo mejor, pensarlo como una bitácora de detalles es interesante por que nos permite auto conocernos y autocriticarnos para mejorar, eso ayuda a conocernos como aprendemos mejor y puede optimizar nuestro foco de atenciones para poder concentrarse mejor.
Yo intente lo mismo con mi calendario donde incorpore alarmas y notas pero no funcionó mucho, me funciono mas llevar una agenda y con pos-it ir llevando notas de tareas, en este mundo trajinado es bueno tener herramientas que nos ayuden a conocernos y a como aprendemos mejor y quedarnos con esa opción para sentirnos realizados y que podemos servir mejor a nuestra familia y sociedad.