For two decades I've been a heavy "event-driven journaler" (i.e. I journal when events occur in my life that I need to think through by writing, vs. journaling as a routine daily practice).

This has been an immensely helpful way to structure my thinking, in the way PG writes about. It also develops a record of thoughts that I refer back to and reflect on. It's driven my personal growth, and helped me uncover personal blindspots.

In more recent times, life is busier, and journaling the way I used to is harder to make time for. (Either that, or the Day One app just isn't doing it for me anymore, I'm not sure.)

Instead, I've started to use the voice memos app to voice dictate my thoughts, as if I'm being interviewed on a podcast. My tone is that of an interviewee, providing their answer, sharing their reasoning on a topic, debating the pros and cons, and arriving at a conclusion.

I use this format for both personal matters or thoughts related to professional endeavors. It's really working for me. It's a higher velocity way to get my thoughts out, yet still keep them structured. Thanks to increased playback speeds, I can go through my past thoughts more easily too. I highly recommend more people try this, especially if writing/typing it out seems like a chore.