A lot of professional athletes seem to keep notebooks to track their successes and failures, their physical conditioning, diet and motivational strategies. Often, I want to share these stories but there isn’t much detail and the article lacks a photo of the notebook. But here’s one that’s a bit more satisfying!

Before every game, one of the linchpins of the Yankees’ talented bullpen, Adam Ottavino, finds a spot in the clubhouse to sit and write.

To combat the six-month mental minefield of self-doubt that is baseball’s regular season, Ottavino has found solace in a daily routine of writing in a journal. In it, he tracks how he cares for his powerful right arm, how he sharpens his focus, how he plans to attack an opposing lineup and, sometimes, he gives himself a pep talk by writing such messages as, “I am a great pitcher.”

[…F]or more than seven years, Ottavino, 33, has written down what he calls mental and physical cues — basically, reminders — to keep him focused. At the suggestion of his father, Ottavino began jotting down thoughts in his cellphone in 2012 because his mind wandered too much on the mound. It later morphed into hand writing into a pocket-size black notebook, which has helped him become a bullpen star for the Yankees, who beat the visiting Texas Rangers, 4-1, on Wednesday.

And while Ottavino, whose devastating slider has him leading the bullpen with a 1.66 E.R.A., was willing to discuss his prized notebook, the exact contents were for his eyes only and he was careful to hide it in his locker. He’s on his second of the season, with the rest stored at home.

There are more details about how Ottavino uses his notebook in the rest of the article. Read it at The Secret to Adam Ottavino’s Calm: A Little Black Notebook