This week you’ll practice guided journaling by following a set of questions—either Seneca’s, Epictetus’s, or your own. We’ve reproduced both of the ancient versions, and left space for you to devise your own three questions if you’d prefer.

A tip on writing your own questions: Remember that the goal of the exercise is to focus on your virtue. It can be easy to slip into a project management system (“What’s left undone? Well, I need to drop off the dry cleaning!”) or performance review (“I’ve gotten much better at getting my reports in on time”), but that’s not the point. Instead, keep in mind ways to improve your character and the four virtues (wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance), both when doing the exercise during the week and if you write your own questions.

With that out of the way, note down which set of questions you’d like to work with this week, or write your own using the table below.

To print a blank version of this exercise, please go to our web page for the book: theexperimentpublishing.com/?isbn=9781615195336.

Seneca’s questions	1. What bad habit (i.e., physical action) did you work on today?	2. What vice (i.e., mental action) did you work on?	3. In what respect are you a better person?
Epictetus’s questions	1. What did you do wrong today?	2. What did you do right today?	3. What should you work on in the future?
Your questions (optional)

Now that you have your three questions at hand, your goal for this week is to answer them each night.

Seneca claims that this type of reflective journaling leads to sound sleep and peace of mind. That may sound a little strange. How can meditating on our character flaws put our minds at ease? First, remember that this exercise should be accompanied by self-compassion; your past actions are in the past, and therefore out of your control. You are meditating to improve your character. Second, thinking about past mistakes can help you generate action plans for improvement, which will allow you to mold yourself into the person you’d like to be. Finally, both Epictetus’s and Seneca’s prompts explicitly encourage acknowledging what you’ve done well over the course of your day. Take some time to appreciate your decisions—again, not for the sake of vanity, but in order to learn from yourself, and to feel that some good has come from your day in the process.

Did Seneca’s claims about sleeping more soundly after this exercise hold true for you this week? Did you discover any additional benefits? Take some time to reflect on your experience journaling the Stoic way.