Yes I keep a journal and have done so for over 5 years now. It's interesting to be able to go back in time and see what exactly I was thinking. However the most

Yes I keep a journal and have done so for over 5 years now. It's interesting to be able to go back in time and see what exactly I was thinking. However the most useful benefit is immediate/short-term introspection. I tend to first just dump my stream of consciousness into text form, and if it's an interesting topic I'll take another pass and read through it and start shaping those thoughts with critical thinking. This leads me to more balanced opinions and also helps me deal with personal issues. I use plain text files where I just prefix every entry with a timestamp. Whenever some major topic starts reoccurring I create a separate file for that topic. For example I have separate files for various project ideas, a file with a list of things I want to teach my children, a file with a list of things to consider when choosing a residence country.