I got this idea, from all places, the Twilight !Rationalist! Fanfic "Luminosity" ( which is really really enjoyable, this particular flavour of fanfic is right up my overly-idealised-intellectual alley ). Simply put, it's a mental exercise where I just write down in a little notepad anything that goes through my head.
I've tried journals before, but the preconceived notion of required structure always seemed stifling. Here I'm just doing random stream of thought type entries, and it's SO RELAXING. It's also really revealing of my character. The entire point of this exercise is to externalise the bajillion thoughts circulating in my head, and an unspecified amount of time later, read back on them and try and understand what gibbering mind wrote down this crap. What I've found is that I'm not a naturally analytical person. My thoughts are very emotive, dealing with reactions to things, rather than the things themselves. Most of my writing is just personal affirmations reminding myself to keep a certain attitude, as well as sincere attempts at honest self-expression.
Does anyone else do this? It's genuinely a great way to relieve stress, and practice your observational skills. Since none of us have a Sherlock Holmes brain ( and if you do why haven't you conquered the world yet ) having an external storage space for raw data that doesn't need an internet connection or a lot of space beyond your pocket just frees up so many possibilities.