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Do you keep an active journal? I have been reading about it and would like to try it it. Tips welcome!

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  • 18 votes
Spongebob 7 May 27
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12 comments

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3

I have about 3 journals going right now. One is a grandmother's journal so I can pass on my stories to the babies. I'm just really not good with consistency. No tips, sorry.

1

Just get in the habit of waking and writing. I am a bad example to follow.

1

I've been considering this myself recently because I've nearly forgotten how to write - my signature 20-years ago was perfect - today, it's chicken scratch. I've spent since 1998 - typing on a keyboard - I rarely have reason to write anything on paper - In fact, I can go years without doing so. Keeping a daily journal would likely help me restore my skills.

That being said, the real issue about daily journals is if you care that they are read after you pass. If you don't - have at it - if you do - leave instructions to torch it upon your death.

1

In a previous post reply I described the weather journal format I use. Below is copied from my entry. I've kept a journal since the late 90s.

A weather journal is a book with a page for each day of the year with space for several notes. As each day happens, the user writes down the year and the temperature/weather. Then when that day comes around next year you automatically get to compare the current weather with the that day on the previous however many years.

That's how I have my note journal set up. I have 12 text files -- Jan, Feb, etc. -- with day numbers. Whenever something notable happens (not every day), I put it with the weekday and year at the date in the file. That way as the dates cycle around I get reminded of previous years' accumulated memories. Since they're simple text files, they're not too large and they're easy to save and back up.

For example: May.txt might have

1
2017, Monday -- I did something today.
2018, Tuesday -- Something else happened today.

10
2018, Thursday -- Woo, hoo.

28
2018, Monday -- This boring month finally ended.

I'll also add that I use the Evernote application. That allows embedding images, automatically copies everything to the cloud and makes backups simple via html exporting. I'm pretty sure Microsoft One Note has all the same capability.

0

I used to and enjoy revisiting my journals to see what had been going on with my life and what my thoughts were about past events. I would love to get back into that habit. I'm pretty forgetful so having a record is a lot of fun, ha ha.

2

I found it to be too psychologically damaging

I agree

0

I did in the past but it got boring after awhile and when I went back to read them I embarrassed myself.

0

Never write things down, they can become "Evidence"

Coldo Level 8 May 28, 2018
0

I’ve tried several times but just can’t get myself into the habit.

1

Check out www.livejournal.com - you can keep a digital journal and read the public journals of others. I have a journal where I post privately, for friends only, and publicly.

1

I can't remember when I didn't have a diary or journal going somewhere. I find it helps me process my emotions and steady my thoughts. My current one is in MS Word and kept on a thumb drive; its a sloppy combination of things to do in the future (kind of an advance journal/to-do-list) and things that are happening today. So I wake up, look at my journal to see what I need to do today, delete the things I've done, comment on whatever, scroll ahead and remind myself of something to do next Tuesday, maybe scroll back to last week to remember something I jotted down the details about, and scroll back to today to jot down a thought I just had. I've been doing it that way for around a decade and keep it organized by month and year on the thumb drive.

0

I started doing volgs on my dead FB feed...Just to keep those that want updates..updated.

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