writeonafrica

What is a Brand Identity?

Brand identity is not one specific aspect of a business. It’s comprised of multiple factors, such as company values, communication style, product offerings, logos, color palettes, and more. All of these elements help portray your brand to the outside world. But the world’s perception of those factors ultimately becomes your brand identity.

The McDonald’s identity starts with the golden arches. But it’s much more than that. What do you think of when you see that logo or hear the name? Some of you might think of Ronald McDonald. Others imagine the tastes and smell of a Big Mac and fries.

Regardless of what you think of, specifically, McDonald’s has established a global brand. Everyone knows exactly what to expect from this company; they are the epitome of a fast food chain.

Why Put Effort Into Building a Brand?

Branding builds credibility and establishes trust between businesses and consumers. It’s what entices people to buy from you in the first place, and keeps them coming back for more in the future.

Whether you’re in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, or Rome, you know exactly what you’re getting when you walk into a Starbucks. You could get a bigger cup of coffee for a fraction of the cost at a gas station or small local doughnut shop, but those places don’t have the same branding power as Starbucks.

What makes that shirt worth more than a $5 shirt? Why is an iPhone worth so much better than a $100 smartphone? Are Nikes really worth five times more than a generic pair of sneakers?

Why is it important to have a cohesive brand?

Since your brand identity flows through all aspects of your business, it’s important that it possesses a cohesiveness that conveys a unified message to consumers. Doing so generates the following benefits to your business.

Strong brand identity

Imagine meeting a fun, happy-go-lucky guy at a party. A few days later, you meet him again, but this time, he’s dour and unfriendly. It’s unsettling. You don’t know which is the guy’s real identity.

Customers have the same experience with an inconsistent brand. A cohesive brand creates consistency, reinforcing the image established the first time a consumer encounters your brand.

Apple, for example, exudes imagination, design and innovation in its brand. This is exemplified in its “Think different” tagline. Apple consistently presented this brand image over decades, building such a strong identity that Forbes declared Apple last year’s most valuable brand.

Improved trust

Customers have to trust you before they’ll do business with you. A cohesive brand builds that trust. If your brand isn’t presented consistently, consumers become confused or even suspicious about what your company and offerings represent.

Look at a brand like Disney. Since its focus is children, the brand must put trust above all else. From characters like Mickey Mouse to its theme parks, Disney is very protective to ensure its brand is consistently portrayed, and its integrity preserved. It’s so determined to maintain consistency and trust that Disney launched a completely different brand, Touchstone Pictures, for films targeted to adults.

Better recall

When customers experience your brand repeatedly in the same way, your brand sticks in their minds. When it’s time for them to make a purchase decision related to your industry or offerings, they remember your brand, increasing the likelihood of a sale.

Take Coca-Cola as an example. Its brand identity is so connected to its namesake soft drink that consumers at a restaurant will ask for a Coke even if options are limited to competitor drinks. That’s because Coca-Cola is often the first brand that comes to mind when thinking about soft drinks. Such is the power of brand recall, and it only happens when a brand is consistently presented on an ongoing basis.

3 ways to build your brand in Singapore

We live in a world of change. In a city like Singapore, there is no exception. Sacrifices would have to be made and we must change in order for us to progress and take the next leap either in our professional or personal lives.

We are one way or another marketing ourselves as a brand name and creating awareness. We market ourselves during interviews; we engage ourselves in small talks and networking sessions. We are branding ourselves in one way or another.

Singapore is a hub for budding entrepreneurs and most of us have what it takes to become an entrepreneur; but what are the assets of becoming an entrepreneur and a successful one at it. That is the burning question that we are faced with each time we think of taking that leap of faith

It is more important for us to employ an integrated and focused brand strategy in order to be successful. And this is no different for businesses, big or small – in fact, it might just be more important for any small businesses or entrepreneurship.

In a world of business or organization, we rarely have the time, the financial support, or recognition in the marketplace to simply challenge us to greater heights. In a world where manycompanies and products are vying for consumers’ attentions, it is vital to make sure you are positioning your product or service to attract their attention.

When creating a product, or thinking about how to market a service, it’s not enough to just “dive” into the marketplace. It’s estimated that the average consumer is bombarded by over 6,000 marketing messages every day.

It’s no wonder then why consumers tend to develop habits that they stick with – especially when it comes to investing in products or utilizing services. It’s our job to shift these habits and loyalties over to our organization, and you do that first through differentiation.

You have to be different. In your particular industry (unless you’ve created the next light bulb) there are probably several competitors within a whisker of your location. More when you consider social media means, newspapers, magazines, etc.

Here are some quick questions to ask:
A) Identify your main competitors in your industry – what makes your products or services different from theirs?
B) Why would consumers or others want to use your products or services over your competitors?
C) Make a list of how your products or services are similar to your competitors. Now make a list of how they are different. How can you exploit the differences to draw attention to your brand and away from your competitors?

Is your product or service relevant to the industry’s needs and requirements? As important as it is, you can’t just be different. It’s not enough to offer your potential customers more choices – you have to offer them a clear and better choice.

Your brand must be relevant in today’s needs and technological advancement. Your brand has to matter to the consumer – otherwise, you may have the most unique product on the market, but nobody will buy it because you have not been able to convince them on the need to invest in your product or service.

Take Bubble Tea for example. Bubble Tea came up with a bang and had a great creative idea to it. It was a craze a few years ago and many of them were hooked to it. I would say it was a fad at that time and you could see teenagers especially enjoying that sip of tea with gelatin bubbles to chew on.

Even the elderly had a sip of it when I was making my way to bubble tea shops. Someone came up with the idea and the product in the early 2000s and it made a big splash initially.

How could something taste like Bubble Tea and be very clear about its uniqueness? It was clearly a unique product. However, the craze for Bubble Tea had one missing ingredient. It missed out on one important part of the puzzle, and as a result, the brand flopped a short time later.

They didn’t make the product relevant. People didn’t care. They figured, if it tastes like Bubble Tea, why not just drink it for the sake of it and have fun? Or maybe they liked other copy cats that taste similar to Bubble Tea.

The bottom line is that Bubble Tea created a unique product that people just didn’t care about. And it wasn’t successful. In the same say, you have to position your brand in such a way so that people will care about it enough to shift their purchasing habits.

Some questions to ask:
A) Why should consumers buy your product or use your service?
B) What will make the average consumer shift their habits and loyalties from your competitors’ brands to your brand?
C) Why can’t the average consumer live WITHOUT your brand?

In your small business or organization, you must think long term. You must employ strategies and initiatives that not only keep your brand in the forefront of your customers’ minds from a unique and relevant perspective – they must see your brand as one that is not affected by change, but rather as one that AFFECTS change.

Sources:

https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/how-to-build-a-brand/
https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/small-business/cms/articles/how-to-build-a-brand/
https://sbr.com.sg/media-marketing/commentary/3-ways-build-your-brand-in-singapore

7 Steps to Manifest Something By Writing It Down

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Personal and professional growth can happen faster just from knowing how to manifest something by writing it down. Does this surprise you? If so, keep reading to learn more about this powerful tool.

Writing is thought made permanent. You also see your thoughts on paper. I read that in a book as a teenager and those statements have been etched in my memory ever since. I’ve used those notions to my advantage to accomplish many life goals, including becoming a writer and paralegal.

In addition to making them visible, penning your thoughts on paper is almost like engraving them on your brain. A 2021 study found there’s a greater chance the information will stick in your memory longer. More importantly, you’re able to visualize your thoughts, emotions, plans, and goals and take action to achieve the desired outcome.

How To Manifest Something By Writing It Down

Worry not, it’s nothing complicated. You will not have to do voodoo magic to manifest the life you desire. All you need to do is define your goal(s) and follow these simple steps to make it a reality:

1. Choose your manifestation journal and template

Once you have your manifestation journal, start thinking about templates. By this, I mean that you can choose to write stories about your future life, turn your journal into a gratitude journal, or create a simple manifestation list of your goals.

From personal experience, I think it’s best to combine all of these templates. That way, you’ll make sure to make it a fun experience, and you’ll increase your chances of manifesting.

2. Sum up your thoughts

Keep in mind that if you don’t know what exactly you want, the Universe will be confused. That is why you need to be clear and concise when it comes to your desires.

3. Expand your desire

Tap into your subconscious mind to get a clear picture of your inner desires. Now is the time to write things down in great detail. Define what exactly you want, how much of it you want, etc.

Now that I finally met someone who will love me unconditionally, I feel so happy and fulfilled. Thank you, Universe. Our relationship is filled with respect, trust, and undying love. I feel appreciated and loved. I’m so grateful for all their declarations of love and effort…

The main point here is to write as if the thing you desired already happened to you, and as you’re writing it, you’re actually experiencing it. Why should you do that?

4. Back up your desire

You will create a positive environment that will attract more positivity into your life by thinking about your intentions. However, if your desires are negative, you won’t succeed in tapping into high vibrational energy.

5. Convert negative thoughts into positive ones

By this, I mean converting any negative thoughts into positive ones. You’ll do it by first writing down negative things that come to mind and then turning them into positive statements. Consider this also as a form of self-care.

6. Use the power of positive affirmations

Sometimes, the only reason we have difficulty attracting something in our lives is that we think we don’t deserve it. If we think that, how will we be able to manifest it, right?

Writing down these affirmations will evoke positive feelings and put you into higher vibrational energy. Yup, this is one of my favorite manifestation methods, and it definitely works.

When I don’t have time to write them, I stand in front of a mirror and repeat these affirmations. I immediately start feeling the flow of positivity through my body, so that’s how I know that they totally work.

7. Repetition is the key

The secret to manifesting and living your dream life is in repetition. Funny, I know. This means that writing down your desires once is often not enough to attract something.

You need to do it repetitively for some time, and then you can take a pause. What’s also important is the feeling after you’re finished writing your desires that day.

8. Act in alignment with your desired life

Acting in alignment means living your life as if you already have all the things you desire. For example, if you wish to have a happy love life, you need to tap into those emotions.

As you’re writing them, focus on imagining how you would feel if certain things happened to you. Pretend that you’re in a movie and have the power to create different scenarios.

9. Detach from the desired outcome

Detaching means surrendering yourself to the Universe. You see, sometimes we don’t get what we desire, and that is not because our manifestation failed. It’s because the Universe or God has something better in store for us.

Source:

https://www.developgoodhabits.com/manifest-something/
https://herway.net/how-to-manifest-something-by-writing-it-down/
https://icytales.com/tips-on-how-to-manifest-something-by-writing-it-down/
7 Steps to Manifest Something By Writing It Down

7 Steps to Manifest Something By Writing It Down

There might be affiliate links on this page, which means we get a small commission of anything you buy. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Please do your own research before making any online purchase.

Personal and professional growth can happen faster just from knowing how to manifest something by writing it down. Does this surprise you? If so, keep reading to learn more about this powerful tool.

Writing is thought made permanent. You also see your thoughts on paper. I read that in a book as a teenager and those statements have been etched in my memory ever since. I’ve used those notions to my advantage to accomplish many life goals, including becoming a writer and paralegal.

In addition to making them visible, penning your thoughts on paper is almost like engraving them on your brain. A 2021 study found there’s a greater chance the information will stick in your memory longer. More importantly, you’re able to visualize your thoughts, emotions, plans, and goals and take action to achieve the desired outcome.

How Do Writing Things down Help them Manifest?

Dozens of thoughts race through our minds each day. We forget most of them unless they have some significance. Even important thoughts and plans can slip our minds, regardless of whether or not we verbalize them. Writing changes words into a living force that’s capable of becoming something real.

Did you scribble your dream of becoming an artist as a child then forgot about it? Today you’re an artist. As you reflect on it, you can see how writing it down could’ve inspired your career. That’s the connection!

Not only does jotting things down serve as visible reminders, doing so also provides clarity of thought, and enables you to reflect, focus, and take action. Having the confidence and inner drive to vigorously pursue what you want means your dreams can manifest faster.

The Unexplained Connection Between Spirituality and Manifestation

So, whenever we manifest something with pure faith, we signal our inner soul (God) that we require that thing. Further, our inner soul takes the role of the creator and fulfills our requirements.

Once you level up spiritually, your power of manifestation multiplies because spirituality helps you gain better self-control. Further, improved self-control helps you have better control over your thoughts and navigate them in a positive direction.
Finally, as soon as it becomes easy to have positive thoughts in your mind, it becomes easier to practice manifestation.

How to Manifest Something By Writing it Down in 9 Steps (Turn Your Desires into Reality!)

1. Be Accepting.

The first step is to open yourself to the universe so that you can receive what the universe has to offer. You have to create a mindset that is open to opportunities and ready to accept things.

Don’t expect your desires to get accomplished 100% according to your plan. You might receive your manifestations in a different form!
For example, Imagine you manifested a job that would pay you well. So, you might get a job that pays exceptionally well but is non-permanent (contract-based).

2. Pick a Fresh Journal and Your Favorite Pen.

A “new journal” or a “journal with dedicated sections for manifestation” would make it much handier to access your manifestations. You need to keep those manifestations handy as they are your topmost priority!

3. Dive Deep into Your Desires.

Ask yourself questions like- “What do you want?” and “Why do you want it?”
The answers to these questions will help you prioritize your needs and eliminate the desires that are actually useless.

4. Clarify Intention & Get Rid of Any Uncertainty.

Also, for effective manifestation, you need to have complete faith that whatever you want will definitely come true. Don’t be double-minded or uncertain whether your aspirations will come true or not because this way, you’ll send confusing energies and signals to the universe.

5. Imagine a World Where Your Desires Existed.

Just close your eyes and visualize how your life would be if your desires turned into reality. Think of what you’ll feel and how your life will change for good.
Allow your imagination to go wild and thoughts to flow freely.

6. List Down Affirmations.

They play a vital role in manifestation because they make you feel that you’re getting one step closer to your desires each day. Further, they also help you maintain a strong belief in your aspirations.

Coming onto how to use affirmations, you can choose to write them down, recite them in your head, or speak them out aloud (whatever works the best for you). Just make sure that you use them daily.

7. Use Your Resources Wisely.

It’s time to take some positive actions towards your manifestations. Don’t think that a miracle will happen without doing anything, and your aspirations will automatically come true.

You must also note: Don’t get so obsessed with your manifestation journal that you waste your time looking at it for the whole day. It will only lead to fear and stress related to accomplishing your desires.
Instead, once you’ve completed writing your manifestation journal, put it into a drawer, fly away, and don’t open it until the next day.

8. Check Your Journal Daily.

Daily writing of your manifestations will help you align your energies, tasks, and set intentions for the day. It will help you keep the feeling of accomplishment alive and stay motivated throughout the day. It will also remind you and the universe about your desires.

Also, make sure to use affirmations that will provide you the boost needed to maintain the positivity of your thoughts by making you feel that you’re getting closer to your desires each day.

9. Review Yourself Weekly.

A weekly review is necessary to check that your energies and thoughts were aligned perfectly with your desires during the whole week.
It will also help you track yourself on the manifestation journey and identify your “fulfilled” and “yet to get fulfilled” aspirations.

So now that you know how to manifest something by writing it down, how many times do you write something to manifest it?

Write it everyday if it’s all you can think about and don’t feel silly for doing it. True story, when I was studying for the bar exam to become a lawyer, I wrote “I will pass the bar exam.” On whatever piece of paper I could find. I wrote it all over sticky notes and put them everywhere around my apartment. I mean they were everywhere from my Keurig, to my TV, to the bathroom mirror.

I drove my roommate nuts. I even wrote it like 40 times on a poster board and taped it to my door. Needless to say, I passed the bar exam and my roommate changed her tune and asked for my stick notes and then took my poster board and taped it to her door when it was time for her to take the exam.

Resource:

https://www.developgoodhabits.com/manifest-something/
https://uprisehigh.com/build-yourself/how-to-manifest-something-by-writing-it-down/
https://heycrystallace.com/how-to-manifest-something-by-writing-it-down

7 Ways to Be a Better Listener

If you’ve wondered whether you could be a better listener, the answer is almost certainly “yes”—especially if your frustrated spouse or a close friend have out-and-out told you as much before. Even if you think you’re pretty good at lending an ear or a shoulder to cry on, making sure the people in your life feel truly heard is something that everyone can improve upon. Whether you’re communicating in person, on Zoom, over text, or on the phone, staying receptive is a crucial part of any healthy relationship.

Marriage counselor Dr. Lisa Marie Bobby says that listening and understanding each other is necessary to stay in sync. In a marriage or in a platonic relationship, “problem-solving and meeting a partner’s needs requires having had the opportunity to absorb what your partner’s telling you they need, or hope for, from you.” Though that’s often easier said than done.

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Being a “bad listener,” or repeatedly misunderstanding what the other person is saying, or appearing disinterested when you don’t mean to, can chip away at that person’s trust in your bond. Listening and responding with respect makes all the difference. Here are 7 ways to be a good a listener at work, to your spouse, to a friend, and anyone else who’s important to you.

Becoming a Better Listener

A participant in any conversation has two goals: first, to understand what the other person is communicating (both the overt meaning and the emotion behind it) and second, to convey interest, engagement, and caring to the other person. This second goal is not “merely” for the sake of kindness, which would be reason enough. If people do not feel listened to, they will cease to share information.

Getting good at active listening is a lifetime endeavor. However, even minor improvements can make a big difference in your listening effectiveness. Here’s a “cheat sheet” with nine helpful tips:

1. Repeat people’s last few words back to them.

If you remember nothing else, remember this simple practice that does so much. It makes the other person feel listened to, keeps you on track during the conversation, and provides a pause for both of you to gather thoughts or recover from an emotional reaction.

2. Don’t “put it in your own words” unless you need to.

Multiple studies have shown that direct repetition works, even though it may feel unnatural. Rephrasing what your interlocutor has said, however, can increase both emotional friction and the mental load on both parties. Use this tool only when you need to check your own comprehension — and say, explicitly, “I’m going to put this in my own words to make sure I understand.”

3. Offer nonverbal cues that you’re listening — but only if it comes naturally to you.

Eye contact, attentive posture, nodding and other nonverbal cues are important, but it’s hard to pay attention to someone’s words when you’re busy reminding yourself to make regular eye contact. If these sorts of behaviors would require a significant habit change, you can instead, let people know at the beginning of a conversation that you’re on the non-reactive side, and ask for their patience and understanding.

4. Pay attention to nonverbal cues.

Remember that active listening means paying attention to both the explicit and implicit information that you’re receiving in a conversation. Nonverbal cues, such as tone of voice, facial expression, and body language, are usually where the motivation and emotion behind the words is expressed.

5. Ask more questions than you think you need to.

This both improves the other person’s experience of feeling listened to, ensures that you fully understand their message, and can serve as a prompt to make sure important details aren’t overlooked.

6. Minimize distractions as much as possible.

You’ll want to avoid noise, interruptions, and other external distractions, but it’s important to minimize your internal distractions as well. If you are preoccupied with another topic, take time to re-center. If you know a conversation might be upsetting, calm yourself as much as possible before going in.

7. Acknowledge shortcomings.

If you know going into a conversation that you may be a subpar listener — because you’re exhausted from a dozen intense conversations earlier that day, unfamiliar with the topic under discussion, or any other reason — let the other person know right away. If you lose your footing during the conversation — a lapse of attention or comprehension — say you didn’t quite get it, and ask the person to repeat themselves.

8. Don’t rehearse your response while the other person is talking.

Take a brief pause after they finish speaking to compose your thoughts. This will require conscious effort! People think about four times faster than other people talk, so you’ve got spare brainpower when you’re a listener. Use it to stay focused and take in as much information as possible.

9. Monitor your emotions.

If you have an emotional reaction, slow the pace of the conversation. Do more repetition, pay attention to your breathing. You don’t want to respond in a way that will cause the other person to disengage. Nor — and this is a subtler thing to avoid — do you want to fall into the easy defense mechanism of simply tuning out what you don’t want to hear, or rushing to discount or argue it away.

Why Listen?

To increase my own ability to listen, I started to observe and talk to good listeners. I discovered they are motivated to listen because they’ve learned that listening affects human behavior powerfully, and therefore they have patiently trained themselves to listen.

In a small notebook I began to record my own findings on the key role listening plays. First, I learned that listening affirms people. Indeed, it is one of the highest forms of affirmation. When we listen, we invite another person to exist. A boss who pauses at his secretary’s desk to ask her opinion, a mother who switches off the vacuum to listen to her child, a customer who stops to say “How are you?” to a sales clerk — each of these is acknowledging someone’s personhood.

Jesus did this often. In Mark 10, he was surrounded by a huge crowd as he left Jericho. Yet when he heard a blind beggar calling out to him, Scripture says, “Jesus stopped.” He called Bartimus to himself and listened to him. I learned secondly that we strengthen each other through good listening. Reading the gospels, one senses that even Jesus sought the encouragement that comes from sharing inner feelings with those who would listen.

In Prescriptions for a Tired Housewife, James Dobson observes, “For some strange reason, human beings . . . tolerate stress and pressure much more easily if at least one other person knows they are enduring it.” If we learn to ask perceptive questions and then wait for answers, we can be that “one other person” someone needs to share the burdens of his life.

Third, listening helps the speaker clarify his or her thoughts. Dawson Trotman often said, “Thoughts disentangle themselves when they pass over the lips or through the fingertips” — that is, by talking and by writing. As we give people an opportunity to talk, we help them sort out tangled thoughts. “The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters,” Proverbs 20:5 reads, “but a man of understanding draws them out.”

Jesus drew people out. For example, he was not in a rush when he initiated dialogue with the woman at the well (John 4), knowing it would take time for her to shed surface layers of theological questions.

The same kind of unrushed talk-time helps me when I’m trying to sort out an issue I am struggling with. At my job, my supervisor has created an atmosphere in which I am free to talk with him at any time. Last week when I sensed pressure, we talked. In the process I found myself identifying the source of the pressure. Expressing feelings encouraged me to be honest with myself, something not always easy for me. His willingness to listen helped me to take an accurate reading of where I am and to commit myself to some corrections.

A good listener gives us the opportunity to express our views without being judged, interrupted, or redirected. We feel safe and unhurried, so we are more likely to express what is really going on within us.

The fourth point I discovered is that good listening improves the accuracy of our responses to what other people say. In Proverbs 25:11–12 (NASB) we read, “Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances.” Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear.

While I was in the earlier stages of “burnout,” and quietly fighting depression, I attended a retreat with other missionaries. A friend and I were making beds one morning, and I asked her, “How do you handle depression?”

I’ve learned since that many people are often in the same situation I was in that day: Behind their question is a statement, and behind the statement, hidden from view, is a feeling. When I asked my friend, “How do you handle depression?” I was trying to say, “I’m depressed.” And crouched behind that admission was a feeling even harder to express: “I’m afraid.” I needed to express all this, but couldn’t.

How does good listening help in such a situation? First, good listening encourages the speaker to continue talking. The first problem mentioned is rarely the real one. Only as the speaker continues does the conversation head toward root issues.

Listening long enough will help us hear the real statement or question and to uncover the feeling behind it. Unfortunately, many of us are too preoccupied with ourselves when we listen. Instead of concentrating on what is being said, we are busy either deciding what to say in response or mentally rejecting the other person’s point of view.

In Proverbs 18:13 we read, “He who answers before listening — that is his folly and his shame.” I cringe when I recall the times I’ve poured out advice only to discover I was answering a question that hadn’t been asked. Such mistakes are costly because they leave the questioner feeling misunderstood and apprehensive.

Also, good listening often defuses the emotions that are a part of the problem being discussed. Sometimes releasing these emotions is all that is needed to solve the problem. The speaker may neither want nor expect us to say anything in response.

How to Improve

One of the best ways to learn to listen is to study the life of Jesus. Read through the gospels and watch this masterful teacher affirm people, draw them out, and accurately speak to their real needs. Jesus motivates us to listen better.

Second, I’ve stopped thinking of listening as only a passive activity. “Listening,” says former Senator S.I. Hayakawa of California, “requires entering actively and imaginatively into another person’s situation and trying to understand a frame of reference different from your own.” To do this means fighting distractions, and forcing myself to ask, “What is this person saying to me? What does he or she mean?” I don’t want to be like the fool in Proverbs 18:2, who “takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion” (RSV).

Third, I consciously withdraw so as to create space for another to open up and talk. In The Wounded Healer, Henri Nouwen quotes James Hillman, director of studies at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland: “For the other person to open and talk requires a withdrawal of the counselor. I must withdraw to make room for the other. This withdrawal, rather than going-out-to-meet the other, is an intense act of concentration.”

After listening I used to make comments such as, “I know just how you feel.” Then I would recount something similar that had happened to me. Sometimes my stories helped, but many times they were just a distraction. I’m learning to put myself aside when I listen.

Fourth, I put more emphasis on affirmation than on answers. When I listened in the past I had a compulsion to rush in and “fix things,” as if the other person were asking me to “do something.” I’m learning that, although there are times where I need to give an answer or help direct someone, many times God simply wants to use me as a channel of his affirming love as I listen with compassion and understanding. As the other person finds security in this acceptance, he begins to believe God loves him. In this atmosphere of affirmation, God is able to work with this person, and the results are much better than anything my feeble tinkering could do.

In order to improve, I’ve asked those I work with to help me by pointing out times when I fail to listen. I also use the time driving home from work to review the day. I think back through my encounters with others at the office, over the phone, at lunch. I make mental notes of situations I bungled, times when I failed to listen. I relive conversations and mentally phrase the questions I wish I had asked, the responses I wish I had given. This mental practice prepares me for the next time.

It takes time and practice to learn to listen. And it takes a caring heart. A fourth-grade teacher once asked her class, “What is listening?” After a few moments of silence, one little girl raised her hand. “Listening,” she said, “is wanting to hear.”

Resource:

https://www.oprahdaily.com/life/relationships-love/a33014448/how-to-be-a-good-listener/
https://hbr.org/2021/12/how-to-become-a-better-listener
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-to-become-a-good-listener

How can you tell if the economy is in good or bad shape?

• GDP – Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a measure of all the good and services produced in the UK over a set period of time. An increase in GDP means the economy is growing.
• Inflation – This is the rate at which the prices of goods and services increase. The government think that 2% is the ideal rate of inflation. Low inflation suggests that the demand for goods and services is lower than expected. This can tends to slow economic growth and depress wages. High inflation means we all get less for our money, which can stop people spending and slow down the economy.
• Unemployment – Usually shown as a percentage, this is the amount of people who want to work but can’t find a job. Lower unemployment figures point to a stronger economy.
• Inequality – This is a measure of how the UK’s wealth and prosperity is distributed. High inequality is usually a sign of an ‘unhealthy’ economy. The bad news is that figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) suggest that the levels of income inequality in the UK are among the highest in the European Union.

But no matter how your business is performing, it’s fair to say that the last decade has presented businesses with more than their fair share of challenges, from the banks going bust to question marks over Brexit.

Small business owners have had to cope with an increase in consumer price inflation (CPI) and a dampening in household real income growth, which has led to cuts in consumer spending.

And then there have been the challenges posed by the pandemic and the current energy and cost of living crises. Inflation has recently hit at a 30-year high, but wages have been stagnating for more than a decade, which means spending power is low and the economy is suffering.

And then there’s the fact that the UK economy has been underperforming compared to those of its European neighbours. The government’s austerity programme clearly hasn’t worked, and it seems to finally be recognising that the key to growing the economy is to support small business growth and stimulate consumer spending.

How do small businesses affect the economy?

Small business turnover helps shape the UK economy

Turnover is typically one of the first metrics that springs to mind when measuring the economic contribution of a small business – it’s far from being the only metric, but it’s very important.

Small and medium-sized businesses in the UK had a combined turnover of £2.3 trillion in 2021. Those businesses with fewer than 10 employees – classed as microbusinesses – contributed the most, at £953 billion. While this is a significant figure in itself, it’s even more impressive when you consider that it amounts to a whopping 52% of the private sector’s overall turnover.

SMEs make up around 99% of all the businesses currently operating in the UK, employing millions of people, which means their collective successes and failures have an enormous impact on the UK economy. So it’s no surprise that SMEs are generally seen as the key engine of growth and sustainability.

Small business employment figures impact the UK economy

Although the majority of small businesses are not employers – the UK has 3.2 million sole traders, which make up 56% of private sector businesses in the UK – SMEs still make a huge contribution to job creation in the UK.

Small business growth affects the UK economy

The business population increased by 61% from 2000 to 2021, when 2.1 million new businesses came into being. But this trend was halted by the pandemic, which helped to cause at 6.5% drop in the number of businesses operating in the UK between 2020 and 2021.

Even so, estimated employment rates in the UK currently stand at 75.5%. Although this figure is 1.1 percentage points lower than before the coronavirus pandemic (December 2019 to February 2020), it is 0.2 percentage points higher than the previous three-month period (June to August 2021). So things appear to be moving in the right direction.

When it comes to business growth, our figures show that SMEs have been performing well – employment rates are at a record high, with 50% of SMEs saying they’ll expand their operations this year. The outlook is positive, even with the uncertainty of Brexit still looming large.

Small businesses account for a huge 99.5% of the businesses in every main sector. The highest volume of small businesses is in personal services, such as beauty and wellness, as well as professional services like financial services or consulting.

The small and medium-sized firms of the UK have a mutually beneficial relationship with the country’s overall economy – SME contributions are vital to economic health, and the state of the UK’s economy impacts small business growth.

Our Findings on the Current Small Business Landscape

1. Large numbers of small businesses have shut down and laid off huge numbers of workers.
In our sample, 45% of small businesses were temporarily closed due to Covid-19. Total employment by these businesses declined by 40% since the end of January. The economic carnage was particularly acute at the epicenter of the American pandemic: the mid-Atlantic region that surrounds New York City. In that area, more than 55% of small businesses had closed and employment had fallen by 44%. The Pacific region, with statewide closures in California and an early outbreak in Washington, has seen equally dramatic employment reductions.

The magnitude of the shock to demand for small businesses is hard to overstate. When we launched the survey on March 26, roughly 49% of the U.S. population was living under some sort of shelter-in-place or stay-at-home order. One week later, roughly 87% of the U.S. population was living under a stay at home order. This highlights both the severity of the situation, and the pace at which things are evolving.

The vast majority of small businesses had less than two months of cash on hand to deal with shocks. The median business with monthly expenses over $10,000 generally didn’t even have enough cash to cover two weeks of their spending. These results suggest that without a credit lifeline or cash infusion, businesses will have to either cut their spending drastically or fold.

For banks and policymakers, this highlights the importance of not just getting money to businesses, but also in streamlining operations to the extent possible and getting money to businesses quickly. Delays in deploying aid will likely have a significant negative effect on business resilience.

Roughly 60% of respondents expect to be able to reopen by the end of 2020. However, nearly 30% view it only as somewhat likely that they will be able to reopen, and almost 10% find it unlikely or extremely unlikely that they will be back in business by year end. Businesses with more cash on hand were more bullish on making it through the year.

Perhaps the biggest unknowns for businesses (not to mention the rest of us) is precisely how long the ongoing disruptions will last. More than a third of businesses in our survey thought that disruptions would be over by June. But another third thought that the disruptions would last beyond August.

This highlights the value of transparency and clear guidance from policymakers about what to expect in terms of disruptions for the months ahead. The government can’t promise that the Covid-19 pandemic will be over by any certain date, but it can be realistic about timelines and also commit to a course of economic medicine that will enable the economy to reopen after then pandemic ends.

While many businesses are in dire need of a cash infusion, our survey also found that many businesses do not plan to seek assistance. Businesses were concerned about whether they would qualify. They were unsure about whether they would be able to repay the loans, or whether the government would end up forgiving the loans. They were worried about the complexity of the process and the hassle involved in getting a loan. And they feared that they wouldn’t get the money in time. Their concerns highlight the importance of the loan process and implementation.

Sources:

https://bionic.co.uk/business-finance/guides/the-role-of-small-businesses-in-the-uk-economy/
https://hbr.org/2020/04/a-way-forward-for-small-businesses
https://cumberlandbusiness.com/news/how-small-businesses-impact-their-communities/

How to Publish an eBook

While print books have been the backbone and primary format for traditional publishing for… well, forever, that’s not the case for indies. Typically, indie authors are ebook first, focused on ebook sales and then audio and print. So how do you actually publish an ebook? The Alliance of Independent Authors extends thanks to Ebook Advisor, Linh Thoi, for her contributions to this post. This is how to publish an ebook.

If you’re an author looking to turn your print book into an eBook, or just wondering how to release a solo digital title, you may be pretty baffled about where to begin. Many—if not the majority—of self-publishers will turn to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing for the creation and distribution of their book, whether it be print or digital. Amazon does hold the majority share of digital sales (67% as of February 2021) and 50% of print sales. It’s a natural route to take, but knowing which platform to use is just the beginning. It’s important to first learn about the basics of digital books.

Step 1: Edit the manuscript

Readers might be hungrier for ebooks than ever before, but their appetites aren’t indiscriminate. If you want to entice them into reading your work, you’ll have to serve up something mouthwatering — prose that’s good down to the last drop.

Okay, enough culinary metaphors. The point is, whether you’re self-publishing a fantasy novel or an actual cookbook, quality matters. Before you even think about publishing your ebook, you’ll want to make sure there’s not a comma out of place.

A word of warning here: self-publishing an ebook is fast — so fast it can be dangerous. An impatient writer can turn a draft into a bona fide ebook in under an hour and see it go up for sale the next day. This greased-lightning pace is exactly why so many indie authors prefer digital releases. But the convenience of ebook publishing has a downside: it’s all too easy to send your work out into the world before it’s ready.

Don’t jump the gun and publish as soon as you type out the last sentence, or even as soon as you finish a thorough round of edits. Instead, put your manuscript away for a while, so you can come back refreshed enough to spot mistakes you missed on the last pass. Then bring in another pair of eyes — ideally, a trained editor who will leave your manuscript spotless.

Step 2: Design a book cover for your eBook

Remember, your cover is your ebook’s first and best marketing asset. It should look great in ads, draw likes on social media, and, above all, grab attention on crowded online marketplaces. Whether you attempt to DIY or hand a professional designer the reins (which we recommend), it’s important to use cover art to do your book justice. Phoning it in with a hastily produced, clip art-heavy image would be like shoving a priceless gem into a burlap sack.

Give your ebook the cover it deserves

If you want a deep dive into the world of book cover design in general, we’ve got a post that covers it (pun absolutely intended). But here’s one crucial, ebook-specific consideration to keep in mind. Unlike a print cover in brick and mortar bookstores, your cover needs to look good — and make sense — at full scale and in miniature.

Ebook publishing platforms require you to upload large, high-resolution JPG images for your cover. If you outsource your cover art to a professional, your designer will send you an image of appropriate size and quality. But if you’re going it alone, consult this guide to make sure your homemade image has the right dimensions.

Now, your cover image may be big, but on retail platforms like the Amazon Kindle Store, potential buyers will first encounter it as a tiny thumbnail — often no more than 100 px wide. This fateful glimpse can turn a virtual window-shopper into a devoted new fan.

A cover that’s gorgeous at full scale but a meaningless blur in miniature won’t do you any favors in the sales department — so make sure you invest in art that shines at any size.

Visibility

There are a lot of books out there. And so once your books are on sale, you have to make sure that people can find them and read them — and, hopefully, ask for more. This is often referred to in the self-publishing community as visibility.

If you’re going to use KDP Select, then a good place to start is to investigate all the various tools that Amazon makes available for promoting and marketing your book; for example, the ability to run limited-time discounts or free book promotions (which can be especially useful if you want to build up a series). But outside of that — and no matter how you’re selling your books — there are other services that have sprung up.

One popular site, BookBub, helps readers find books through recommendations, updates from favorite authors, and other means; it also offers marketing tools to authors such as book launches, preorders, and promotions. Book Funnel and MailChimp both offer help with promotional mailing lists, an important way for independent authors to sell their works. There are also sites for reading enthusiasts where you can join discussions and otherwise promote your book, such as Goodreads.

In the end, Rogers says, it’s all down to old-fashioned marketing. “You can do it with banner ads, with all kinds of online advertising. There’s places like BookBub that send out newsletters. You can talk to fan groups and you can go to conventions. Anything else you can think of that might qualify as marketing.”

Take responsibility for your books

Producing and selling your own work without a publishing house behind you means both the freedom to create your book the way you want to, and the responsibility to make sure it’s done as professionally as possible. “Understand that everything falls on your shoulders,” says Aukes. “You are accountable for the success of the publishing process. By taking on the kind of freedom and flexibility of self-publishing, you’re also taking on the accountability.”

In short, the process of publishing your own book can be both very simple and very complex. The actual mechanics of publishing an ebook, or even a print book, has become relatively easy, especially if you give yourself to the Amazon ecosystem. However, doing it well — and gaining a following of readers who will enjoy and buy your books — is not as easy. It takes trial and error, patience, and work. But if you’re a writer, and you want people to read your books, it’s certainly worth it.

McPhail urges new writers to stick with it. “There is disheartenment that can come along with reading reviews or the book isn’t selling quickly,” she says. “You have to have a lot of fortitude and conviction about your work so that you can stay the long haul — long enough to develop an audience for your work.”

Source:

https://selfpublishingadvice.org/how-to-publish-an-ebook/
https://blog.reedsy.com/guide/ebook/how-to-publish-an-ebook/
https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/1/18285875/self-publishing-ebook-amazon-kindle-epub-book-how-to-editing-art-sales-strategy
How to Publish an Ebook (in 9 Easy-to-Follow Steps)

How to Publish an eBook

While print books have been the backbone and primary format for traditional publishing for… well, forever, that’s not the case for indies. Typically, indie authors are ebook first, focused on ebook sales and then audio and print. So how do you actually publish an ebook? The Alliance of Independent Authors extends thanks to Ebook Advisor, Linh Thoi, for her contributions to this post. This is how to publish an ebook.

If you’re an author looking to turn your print book into an eBook, or just wondering how to release a solo digital title, you may be pretty baffled about where to begin. Many—if not the majority—of self-publishers will turn to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing for the creation and distribution of their book, whether it be print or digital. Amazon does hold the majority share of digital sales (67% as of February 2021) and 50% of print sales. It’s a natural route to take, but knowing which platform to use is just the beginning. It’s important to first learn about the basics of digital books.

Step 1: Edit the manuscript

Readers might be hungrier for ebooks than ever before, but their appetites aren’t indiscriminate. If you want to entice them into reading your work, you’ll have to serve up something mouthwatering — prose that’s good down to the last drop.

Okay, enough culinary metaphors. The point is, whether you’re self-publishing a fantasy novel or an actual cookbook, quality matters. Before you even think about publishing your ebook, you’ll want to make sure there’s not a comma out of place.

A word of warning here: self-publishing an ebook is fast — so fast it can be dangerous. An impatient writer can turn a draft into a bona fide ebook in under an hour and see it go up for sale the next day. This greased-lightning pace is exactly why so many indie authors prefer digital releases. But the convenience of ebook publishing has a downside: it’s all too easy to send your work out into the world before it’s ready.

Don’t jump the gun and publish as soon as you type out the last sentence, or even as soon as you finish a thorough round of edits. Instead, put your manuscript away for a while, so you can come back refreshed enough to spot mistakes you missed on the last pass. Then bring in another pair of eyes — ideally, a trained editor who will leave your manuscript spotless.

Step 2: Design a book cover for your eBook

Remember, your cover is your ebook’s first and best marketing asset. It should look great in ads, draw likes on social media, and, above all, grab attention on crowded online marketplaces. Whether you attempt to DIY or hand a professional designer the reins (which we recommend), it’s important to use cover art to do your book justice. Phoning it in with a hastily produced, clip art-heavy image would be like shoving a priceless gem into a burlap sack.

Give your ebook the cover it deserves

If you want a deep dive into the world of book cover design in general, we’ve got a post that covers it (pun absolutely intended). But here’s one crucial, ebook-specific consideration to keep in mind. Unlike a print cover in brick and mortar bookstores, your cover needs to look good — and make sense — at full scale and in miniature.

Ebook publishing platforms require you to upload large, high-resolution JPG images for your cover. If you outsource your cover art to a professional, your designer will send you an image of appropriate size and quality. But if you’re going it alone, consult this guide to make sure your homemade image has the right dimensions.

Now, your cover image may be big, but on retail platforms like the Amazon Kindle Store, potential buyers will first encounter it as a tiny thumbnail — often no more than 100 px wide. This fateful glimpse can turn a virtual window-shopper into a devoted new fan.

A cover that’s gorgeous at full scale but a meaningless blur in miniature won’t do you any favors in the sales department — so make sure you invest in art that shines at any size.

What about piracy?

• Most readers are not pirates. Most readers are wonderful people who are happy to support authors. Why miss out on the real market for fear of the pirates?

• Piracy will happen if your book is popular. There’s really no way of stopping it, but what do you think the most pirated books are? Harry Potter and other big sellers, of course, and does that impact their sales? Most people who pirate books are not going to be your readers anyway. It’s more important to consider obscurity, then piracy. More authors suffer from being completely unknown than from being famous enough to be significantly pirated.

• Some authors have used piracy as a marketing tool.Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist, released his book in Russia on the pirate sites and his sales picked up after word spread about him. Tim Ferriss launched The Four Hour Chef with a promotion on Bit Torrent which resulted in massive sales.

• Stay aware just in case. You can set up alerts with sites like mention.net around your book title or lines from your book. There are ways to get your books taken down, but in my experience, they pop up again all over the place. If you are seriously worried, then check out The Self-Publisher’s Legal Handbook by Helen Sedwick.

OK, we’re done. Now you can go and self-publish an ebook!

Need more help?

Source:

https://selfpublishingadvice.org/how-to-publish-an-ebook/
https://blog.reedsy.com/guide/ebook/how-to-publish-an-ebook/
https://www.thecreativepenn.com/how-to-self-publish-an-ebook/

How to write a diary

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How to Write a Diary

Have you been thinking about how to write a diary? A diary is usually a collection of private entries that report what happened throughout your day. It usually includes experiences, thoughts, and feelings you have on a daily basis.

The Purpose of a Diary

The main purpose of writing in a diary is to document what happens in your daily life. It gives you a safe and private place to capture your thoughts. It can also provide great insight into a person’s life after they are no longer with us.

Top 10 Benefits of Keeping a Diary

Many experts say that keeping a diary has a long list of benefits. Here are the top 10:

Great for Mental Health

A diary offers you a safe place to vent about things and reflect back on them. You don’t have to worry about how anyone will react to what you’re saying because it’s personal and just for you. You can record your thoughts and your feelings without censoring yourself.

Helps Improve Writing Skills

They say practice makes perfect, right? If you’re writing on a daily basis, your skills are bound to improve. You don’t get caught up in making things perfect for anyone else, so you learn how to be more creative with your writing.

Jogs Your Memory

When you learn new skills or life lessons, a diary is the place you can write them down. Then, if you need reminders along the way, you can go back and read about those things. You can share your hard times, as well, and make sure you don’t make the same mistakes again.

Boosts Self-Esteem

Helps You Hit Your Goals

Improves Emotional Well-being

Promotes Self-Discipline

You’re setting aside time each day to write in your diary. That requires discipline. You commit to doing one thing, and that can lead to you forming better habits elsewhere in your life.

Sparks Creativity

There are no defined rules on how to write a diary. There is no structure. You can write whatever you want, whenever you want, and however long you want. This causes you to be more creative because you’re not bound by any rules.

Relieves Stress

Ideas are Recorded

BEST Tips On How to Write a Diary

Here are some of our best tips to get started & keep you inspired:

Which is Better: Paper or Digital?

As technology has advanced, many people have found alternative methods to keeping a handwritten diary. There are a variety of diary apps available, as well as note-taking apps, and you could always write your entries in Google docs or Microsoft Word. If you really want to put yourself out there, you could turn your diary into a blog.

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of paper and electronic diaries:

Paper Diary

Pros

Cons

Pros

Cons

How to Keep a Digital Diary or Journal

How to Write a Diary & Make it Accessible After You’re Gone

Listen, we know a diary is a very personal record of someone’s life. When most people start a diary, they don’t consider if they’ll want to share it with people in the future. However, it is something you may want to think about. After you’re gone, it could give your loved ones some insight on the thoughts and feelings behind the decisions you’ve made.

If you went the paper route when you started your diary, it’s pretty easy to turn it into a digital format. You can scan the pages using your printer, or you could take pictures of the pages with your smartphone. Then, you could upload those files securely using our My LifeJars app.

If you still aren’t sure how to write a diary, you can use My LifeJars to create your digital diary. We have a simple guide you can follow to get you started, just in case you’re not sure where to begin. We give you prompts and ideas on what moments of life you should think about preserving.

With My LifeJars, you choose who can access your digital diary and when they can access it. You have control over whether your friends and family can see and share things now, or you can wait until after you’re gone.

The My LifeJars app also makes it very easy to add photos to go along with your diary entries. You can upload the photos via the app and designate which entries you want them to go with. It’s an easy way to keep all your cherished memories all in one place, and make them easily accessible to your loved ones.

Storing Your Important Documents in One Place

As much as we don’t like to think about dying, it’s important to make sure everything is in order for the family we leave behind. That’s where we step in to help. My LifeJars offers you a safe, secure online place to store everything your family needs when you’re no longer with them. It’s the safest place to keep a digital copy of your diary, so your life story is protected and accessible to your loved ones.

Our app is the perfect place to organize and share all of your important documents, like your last will and testament, your advance care directive, your health care proxy, your enduring power of attorney, and your enduring guardian. We make it simple for you to give access to all the people who will need this information in the future.

What Are the Benefits of My LifeJars?

With this basic account store 24 memories, 24 things, 16 passwords upload file sizes up to 10MB and access 2GB of data storage. Create a life profile for yourself as well as for 4 other family members or friends and 4 legacies.

Only switch to a Gold paid account if you want to add unlimited memories, things & passwords, unlimited life profiles & legacies, upload file sizes up to 500MB including videos and store 200GB of data across all the profiles and legacies you create.

Dear Diary: how keeping a journal can bring you daily peace

Me and my thoughts: ‘There’s a lot about music in mine, and loads of gossip, much of it indefensible. There is also a fair bit about football.’ Anthony Quinn in his garden with some of his old diaries. Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Observer

Me and my thoughts: ‘There’s a lot about music in mine, and loads of gossip, much of it indefensible. There is also a fair bit about football.’ Anthony Quinn in his garden with some of his old diaries. Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Observer

I still get funny looks from people when I mention that I keep a diary. Maybe the practice strikes them as shifty or weirdly old-fashioned. It’s true that I never feel more furtive than when my wife finds me writing it at our kitchen table – it’s like being spotted entering a confessional box in church. What exactly have I got to tell this black book about a life that we share all day, every day? What secrets can I possibly be keeping?

The answer: nothing of any great note, and yet so much of my life is in it. I started writing a journal (as I used to call it) when I went on holiday. Twenty years ago I decided to go full-time and since then I’ve kept it more or less every day. Why? I suppose it began as an experiment – and became an obligation. You can’t hold back time, but you can try to save the past from being completely erased. It often feels trivial to record things as they happen (a stray remark, hearing a song, fleeting moments of doom or delight), but later they may prove useful, or instructive, or amusing. It also maintains the illusion of diligence – that you’re not just pissing away the days. A diary is good exercise for the writing muscle, the way a pianist practises scales or a footballer does keepy-uppies. During lockdown, like everyone else, I got into routines that felt numbing in their repetition and diary-wise left me short of material. I took recourse to discussing the books and box sets I was involved with – not exactly Pepysian, but it got me through.

Which prompts the question: who are you writing for? Ultimately, it’s yourself. Diary-writing is the most private form of literary creation because you are both the author and (for the present at least) the sole reader. There are great advantages to this. The first is the benefit to your mental health. The diary is a safety-valve in an age of invasive scrutiny. I should admit that I have never been on social media and don’t own a mobile phone. (Yeah, I know). Much better to confide your unworthy or unrepeatable thoughts to that book on your desk than pin them up for everyone to read online. There is no fear of being trolled or cancelled when you only write for yourself and you won’t have to live out your regret in public. Is there anything quite so pathetic in social-media manners as the line “They later deleted the tweet”?

Even the greats have used their diary as a psychological prop. James Boswell, often prey to insecurity and low spirits, would address himself in his journal in the second-person, as if he were his own mentor. Studying law as a young man in Utrecht in September 1763, he writes: “Try and be shaved and dressed by nine… Read much privately and continue firm to plan… Resolve now no more billiards. Be not hasty to take music master, and consult Count Nassau about concert. Be frugal, calm and happy, and get wine soon.” I love that last bit.

The second is more to do with existential curiosity: the long perspective of diary-writing furnishes a picture not just of what you did but of who you were. To read diaries of old is to chart the progression of the self – “the varieties of ourselves”, as Penelope Lively puts it – as it changes through time. Sometimes I happen on a diary entry from years ago and think, in genuine surprise: did I write that? If it weren’t in my handwriting I would be inclined to doubt it. We evolve, we slough off old selves and acquire new ones, and yet some essential core in us persists, a cast of mind. Memory will play us false about our past, will blur the nuances or miscarry the meaning; a diary, while not infallible, can at least claim: “I was there at the time.”

A third important advantage of the diary is as an aide-memoire to your work. History does the broad sweep of years and decades. Biography does the intricate detail of character and incident. Diaries do both of these jobs, somewhat inadvertently, and may be mined for material thereafter. Certain seismic events are noted in mine, though aside from the odd pandemic and election result there’s not much “hand of history” stuff going on there – that’s not why I write it. I have some sympathy for Louis XVI returning from hunting on the day the Bastille fell and writing in his diary, “Rien”.

Source:

https://agood.com/blogs/stories/how-to-start-a-diary
https://mylifejars.com/how-to-write-a-diary/
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/aug/21/dear-diary-how-keeping-a-journal-can-bring-you-daily-peace