The Stoic Evening Journaling Review
End each day with three questions on what you did wrong, right, and could improve
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 88%
Practised by Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius, whose Meditations was essentially his own journal, this is a brief nightly review. Before bed, in a quiet spot, you write about the day's main event and ask three questions. What did I do wrong: not to self-flagellate, since the past cannot be changed, but to extract a lesson and then, as Seneca advised, immediately forgive yourself. What did I do right: to reinforce progress and give you a second reference point. What could I do differently next time: because life is largely routine and similar situations recur, so mentally rehearsing a better response prepares you for the repeat. Over time you drift away from the wrong reference point and toward the right one, doing fewer wrong things and more right ones.
Origin
Rooted in Epictetus' Enchiridion, Seneca's On Anger, and Marcus Aurelius' Meditations; taught by Pigliucci on Modern Wisdom as a few-minutes nightly exercise.
Core principles
- 01The past is outside your control, so do not beat yourself up over it
- 02Learn from mistakes, then forgive yourself immediately
- 03Track what you did right as well as wrong, as two reference points
- 04Life is mostly routine, so rehearsing recurring situations pays off
- 05A prepared mind deals better with situations than an unprepared one
How to run it
- 1
Set the scene
Before going to bed, find a quiet moment where you can concentrate for a few minutes. Do not do it in bed or you will fall asleep.
Pro tip Aim for most nights, but several times a week is enough to benefit.
- 2
Write the day's main event
Jot down the major thing, or even a single thing, that happened during the day. It does not need to be comprehensive.
- 3
Ask what you did wrong, then forgive
Note where you went wrong to learn from it, then deliberately forgive yourself and let it go. The past is not under your control.
Pro tip Seneca: you have the power to forgive yourself, so use it and stop replaying the event.
Watch out Do not use this question to beat yourself up; that only wastes emotional energy.
- 4
Ask what you did right
Record what you did well to reinforce progress and give yourself a positive reference point to move toward.
- 5
Ask what you could do differently
Since similar situations recur, rehearse how you will handle the next instance so a prepared mind is ready.
In the wild
Walking in lower Manhattan, Pigliucci bumped into a woman not looking where she was going and knocked her large coffee everywhere. Both said sorry and moved on. Reflecting that night, he judged it was mostly his fault and that offering to pay for the coffee would have been the right gesture. The moment had passed, but since bumping into people recurs, he rehearsed offering to pay next time, so he is now prepared.
→ A trivial miss became a rehearsed response ready for the next similar encounter.
Common mistakes
Turning the review into self-punishment
Dwelling on the wrong you did without forgiving yourself just generates bad feeling. The point is a lesson plus release, not guilt.
Only logging the negatives
Skipping what you did right removes one of the two reference points, so you lose the sense of progress that keeps the habit going.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone wanting a light, sustainable nightly practice for steady self-improvement.
Not ideal for
People prone to rumination who would use it to punish themselves rather than learn.
From the transcript
“Ask yourself three questions. Number one, what did I do wrong? Number two, what did I do right? Number three, what could I do differently…”
“Seneca says, immediately forgive yourself. You have the power to forgive yourself.”
From the episode
5 Exercises From Stoicism To Improve Your Life - Massimo Piggliuci - #170
Massimo Piggliuci