Feature Focus: Journal
Why use the Journal? The power of the journal.
Many people hear the word “journal” and think to themselves, “Nah. I don’t journal.” There might be a sense that journaling is for writerly types, or people who are different types of creatives.
While writers and creatives may indeed use journals, a preconception of the purpose of journaling may mean that you’re missing out on some serious benefits that a journal can have for anyone, especially content creators.
So much of a streamer’s work is happening live and under the gaze of a community. That’s INCREDIBLE. However, it also means that we’re existing in a state of reaction and outside of introspection.
Introspection doesn’t have to fill a day or even twenty minutes. It means pausing. Several minutes to jot down a few thoughts prior to a stream, can mean the difference between “winging it” and settling into your stream grounded and with purpose. The same is true post-stream. Two or three minutes to evaluate your stream, and capture a mental snapshot can help you track your own relationship with streaming.
As a streamer, much of what you do is sharing yourself with your viewers. Journaling, is perhaps one of the best ways to share only with yourself. You deserve access to yourself even more than you viewers do.
There are a few other ways to conceive of a journal that can be fun and/or useful. Nobody says it has to be musing. Remember every Star Trek episode ever, how there’s a “Captain’s Log”? Using the journal functions to annotate your voyage in the stream-a-verse, so you can remember where you’ve boldly gone already, and from there, you can plot your next course before jamming it into warp speed. And while we’re thinking of journals in modern media, remember how important the journal was for Indiana Jones? He’d jotted down all kinds of notes and thoughts, creating an overflowing resource for himself. So much so that even the baddy crew wanted to know all about it!
There is power in creating a record of your own thoughts.
Capture it!
