I'm big on journaling. Whether it's about my reflections on musical exploration and direction, planning my goals, expressing what's on my mind as an outlet, or anything else of that sort, I value writing as one of the most important practices for progress and development in any given field. The supporting evidence through studies and statistics regarding the improved performance between writers and non-writers in their given fields are everywhere. If you're not journaling, you really need to - especially if you aren't seeing any progress despite your best practical efforts.
A novel thought occurred to me recently. Instead of journaling in English, it's possible that I express my thoughts in notation instead. I do feel some kind of resistance to this practice, as I value writing in natural language so much and feel that I rely on this practice so much to record ideas in a way that information can be interpreted objectively.
To give an example of what I mean, imagine the reflections I would like to record are something like "focus on emotional expression and personal conviction in my practice", but instead of writing that in English I decide to write musical phrases with that intention instead. It may not be possible to return to those phrases a few months later and interpret the same meaning that I originally intended.I've decided to go through with this anyway. I'm convinced that this practice will really improve fluency in notation on so many different levels. I always have a lot on my mind, and thoughts reach their full potential when they are put into action, so what better way to utilise this potential musically by translating all of my thoughts from English into music?