Recently Akuba and I have worked really hard to stay on track with our individual objectives.  So much so that we sometimes neglect the business goals and objectives we share!  No one really suffers but our businesses, so it was important for us to find something to help us foster creativity and communication but didn’t take up a lot of time. Enter the couple’s journal.  Now writing in a journal is definitely not a new thing, but with a little creativity, a simple notepad or private blog can turn into the perfect medium for communication.

See with our schedules, goals, individual businesses, social lives and families, staying on the straight and narrow on a personal level is a necessity, not an option.  But due to the nature of the businesses we share, the straight and narrow isn’t easily obtained.  In order to mitigate arguments and disagreements, and to merely stay on track, we decided to record our ideas, goals, failures, and desires in one place… a couple’s journal.  Bizzyness.com is our public journal and though we disclose a lot of what we experience in our growth together, there are just some things people don’t want to hear, so a private journal just makes sense for us.

What We Do
To make this work we sit down 2 times a week for about 20 to 30 minutes and just start to talk about our business missteps, good steps and next steps.  Next, we set mini goals that we want covered by our next journal session, almost like action items from a meeting.  Lastly, we make sure that we end an entry on a good note!  We simply highlight the successes or areas we made good progress in and remind each other of the prize that awaits us on the other side…Success!!

The Benefits
Since we love each other “this much” (arms opened wide), sharing a journal together allows us to express ourselves regardless of the topic of conversation.  As a matter of fact, recording our thoughts and concerns often times open up the lines of communications further strengthening our ability to quickly resolve relationship issues and )from a business perspective) resolve business problems or come up with new ideas.  The journal also allows us to interweave our business objectives into our personal/relationship objectives making our bond even stronger and real.  The journal also reminds us that we are not alone in this journey of business and love, so we often times find ourselves much more appreciative of each others hard work.  It just works!

Now I’m not saying that this system will work for everyone, but it works for us.  Try it out and let us know what you think. Do you and your significant other have a journal? If so how do you two use it?

- Justin

Tags: Bizzyness, copreneurs, Couples in business
Posted in Conversations, General, Idea Sharing, Work Life Balance | Comments (1)