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Journaling Prompts: Faux Japanese
Although I crossed 3 years of daily journaling, my workflow has changed over time. Some of it has been fine-tuning — but for the most past, it has been to find ways keep it interesting and doable. Over the next 3 posts I’ll share my latest setup and thinking.
Domo Arigato Mister Roboto
Ending my entry with: a) something I’m grateful for and, b) something I regret (or wish I have done better), has always helped frame the day. Many days they’re so useful that I start the journal with those two items.
So I wanted to expand on these prompts with a few more daily ones. However, I hate writing I’m grateful for… or today I regret… over and over everyday. Not out laziness, it just seems to get in the way writing somehow because it makes me sound like child saying a fake apology.
I experimented with emojis, and acronyms, but it lacked context. As usual when I search for inspiration, I headed to the land of the rising sun1. I had already used Kaizen as a question to track improvements in the past, and after a few days of playing around I arrived at the following:
- 改善 (Kansha): appreciation
- 改善 (Kaizen): improvement
- 後悔 (Kōkai): regret
- 最高 (Saikō): the best
These are not so much faux as probably grammatical incorrect. But they work for me. Now I’ll always end my entries with this closing section:
- Kansha: Something I’m thankful for, like ice on my night water.
- Kaizen: Something I know is compound work, writing in this blog.
- Kōkai: Anything that looking back on the day makes me cringe, such as losing patience while driving.
- Saikō: Highlight of the day.
The mere act of remembering the words helps me mentally review the day. And having the Japanese words as cues looks fine in the document overall, which is important since I don’t tire of it and helps me come back to journal another.
Actually I went to Google Translate, but the inspiration still stands.↩︎