[abhaynayar]

Started journal-ling in 10th class, ended after graduating college.

I think it depends on how and why you journal. I used to write a page in a notebook whenever I felt like writing. In my case don't think it has improved my life in a very tangible way, however it is interesting to look into a journal entry 5 years ago and see how different I was. So while it was not tangible self-improvement, it was very emotional and revelatory, both good and bad. However, I barely read that journal anymore, I will probably read it once a year maybe.

Perhaps if you are more specific with your goals it could help. These days I just use a daily habit tracker where I tick if I performed an action towards my goal for the day. Other than that, I write my thoughts on an online blog just to release the cognitive load. But that's intermittent. There are so many things that fall under "good habits" but we need to choose carefully what we want to spend our time on based on the reward/effort ratio. I have 2-3 max habits that I focus on completing daily at any given phase in my life. I may pick up journal-ling maybe when rest of my higher priority habits are more deeply ingrained / their goals achieved.