Journaling Just Works

I have been journaling for almost 50 years and...

Wait a minute. What absolute non-sense did I just wrote there? I have been journaling for how long? Almost fifty years? Fifty effing years? LOL. No way. I'm not that old. No, I am… That’s a lie! I am…

(Here, we should listen to some relaxing music while we let my poor brain process the fact that, indeed, I started journaling as a little 7-year old boy and that was almost 50 years ago. That may take a while, feel free to check your inbox or your TikTok while waiting.)

So, what was I saying? Oh, yes that I have been journaling for a certain time which makes it quite realistic to say that I have used many of the journaling medium one can think of.

Ranging from the good old pen and paper to whatever digital tool one can think of (from the desktop, to the smartphone, including various PDA, laptops, tablets). I have also typed my journal in various word processors and text editors, in various journaling apps, even in… spreadsheets or in a real database. I have also used a blog . Cassette and digital recorders. I even used my grand-father’s typewriter, the wonderful Olympia SG1. Heck, back in my thirties, I learned bookbinding (and to use a traditional press) so I could make my own journals with my choice of paper.

Despite that, I don’t think there is such a thing as 'the right way' to keep a journal or a better way to do it. There are ways that work better, for each one of us. Obviously, I have my preferences but they're just that: preferences.

I like the freedom a paper journal gives me. I like how I can doodle in it, and have fun with page layout or lettering, taping, stapling or gluing stuff on the page too. I like how I can change ink in my fountain pen and expriment with different types of papers. I also like that I am not tied to any app or devise. I like how cheap it can be too. And I like that, privacy-wise, neither the maker of my fountain pen or of my notebook can read what I am writing — unlike what may happen with a digital journal.

But I also like the comfort and peace of mind digital is giving me. The ease of using my phone and its portability. I like being able to instantly find any content, and to have it backed up on some cloud.

That said, very recently, I decided to switch back to a full analog journal. Why? Mostly, because of privacy concern.

I used to use DayOne (and I loved it) but what follows can be said for most if not all apps/services.

For quite a few years already, I had started worrying about the lack of privacy. My journal contains my most intimate thoughts, no one but me should be able to read it. I mean, I would not care if my spouse was to read my journal (she would never, we trust each other like that, but if she was to ever do it I would not care). It's just that nobody else should be allowed to.

So, when I heard the devs at DayOne consider adding an AI-assistant in their app (it was around the same time Apple announced their own AI-powered journaling app), I realized the future of my journal could not be digital. If I can still vaguely trust human developers to be... reasonable, AI has been created to read through text and to process it. So, that day, after 15 or 16 years (?) using Day One I downloaded a PDF of my journal and deleted all my data from their servers and I switched back to pen and paper (I kept my DO account because it was grandfathered many, many years ago when they introduced their subscription model and I never had to pay that sub. So, even though I doubt it, if one day things change back I may want to use it again).

BTW, that’s similar doubts that pushed me to come back to using a paper agenda and the reason why I quit reading ebooks for printed books, as I explain on my blog: Am I Reading That Ebook or Am I Being Read by That Ebook? & Who Owns the Ebook I Purchase?

Since the, I sometimes miss some of the comfort of a digital journal, but I have so much fun sketching and having, well, fun in my paper journal that I simply don’t care.

I also devised working solutions as far as searching and backup are concerned, but that could be another discussion, if anyone is interested?

What about you? Are you analog or digital or, like I was up until very recently, are you ok with mixing both?

Do you think ~~I’m a moron~~ I’m being a bit excessive in giving up on digital in the name of privacy? (As a matter of fact, if my paper journal was to be stolen, that person would be able to read it and to share its content with anyone, right? Isn't that a worse situation?)

What do you think?

While we're waiting for reactions or comments regarding the future of the community, here is a nice prompt I just stumbled upon on the r/journaling.

If I had this power, I would wake up as… me.

A much younger me, though. Aged 11 or so, when I started making real life-changing decisions. I would wake as this young-me but with all I know and all I have experienced during the almost 50 years that have passed since that time.

I’m not talking about knowing in advance what to study and what job to get (and which ones to avoid) nor where to invest some money (even though that would not be a bad idea :p). Just the intimate knowledge of all I did wrong, and why I did it. What I did well, and how I could do it better. Simply put, I would try to help younger-me become a better person.

Making wrongs rights would be top-priority. Helping me hurt less people around me. Hurt myself a little less, too. I would also encourage myself to care a lot more about a few of those people. And to tell them much more loudly they’re important.

I would not advise myself against those few real bad persons I have met along the way. Most of them, even if unknowingly, helped me learn valuable lessons. Maybe except one, that did real long lasting harm. Maybe.

Lastly, I would tell myself to not waste as much time as I did. Life is short and I wasted so much of it. Not as much because I was being lazy (I was, at times) but because I always wanted to experiment as much as I could in life, I wanted to have lived something before deciding if that something was worth it. I would instead encourage young-me to focus much more on a selected few meaningful experiences, ignoring all the others.

Maybe I would fail at changing myself, stubborn as I was? No idea ;)

What about you? Who would you be? And why?

You may have read my previous post, announcing I would be trying to revive this community by posting regularly in it?

This morning I mentioned this project in another discussion on Lemmy and someone rightfully pointed to me I may want to be able to moderate said community and that probably I would need to create one from scratch.

I don't want to make a new community if there is no need too, Lemmy is already short on participants without creating even more separated and smaller communities. I also don't feel any personal urge to be an admin myself. But I also don't want to encourage people to participate in a community that no one would be able to keep civil.

Before doing anything, I would like to hear your opinion and suggestions if you have any. What do you think I should do or, much better, what should we do?

And if the admin is reading this: what do you say about all of that?

While I wait for your comments, I will also ping the admins on my very own instance. We're a French speaking one, so I want to ask them if that would be OK to host an English speaking community. Whatever happen next, I’ll let your know.

I know from personal experience how great and how fun journaling can be. And also how helpful it can be.

I have been keeping a journal for almost 50 years. oh. my. fucking. god. Forget I just wrote that, because I can't be that old. No way. Not me. I can't be...

(Here, you should have heard the soft noise of my now unconscious body collapsing on the floor like some old wet rag, after my poor brain went off realizing I was really starting to get old)

What was I saying? Something about me having been keeping a journal for quite some time and how fn and helpful it had been.

And that is something that makes me sad when I see no activity going on in our little journaling community, here on Lemmy. Even more so, knowing that our cousin from reddit r/Journaling is doing quite well.

But I also know how daunting it can be to start writing in a journal — what am I supposed to write about? Nothing happens in my life! Why? How? And how can I prevent people to read my most intimate thoughts? How can I make it interesting? How can I not screw the page by making mistakes!? — and I know how it can be intimidating to post personal stuff online, and alone, too.

I started wondering if maybe all we needed was someone to start sharing stuff, talking about stuff and maybe start asking questions in order to get others to do the same?

To the best of my (limited) abilities, I want to ry that and maybe encourage people that may still hesitate to start journaling to do it, and also to encourage anyone to discuss about journaling. And to do it here, not on reddit.

So, even though I have no clear idea what I will post beside the next couple posts, I will try to regularly post stuff, hopefully encouraging others to do the same, or to comment, or to laugh, or whatever — as long as it’s done with a positive spirit, we should all get something out of it.

At the very least, the more we post here the more likely we are to encourage others to join and to participate.

BTW, if you don't speak French, the picture of my journal used as an illustration to this post is asking a very simple question right next to the tin can phone I sketched, which is: Allo?... With who (will I be discussing)?

This is a question I just read on the reddit journaling sub. If I quit commenting on reddit a few months ago, I still regularly read those subs I consider interesting and enriching, and I think this is an interesting question.

That for me, is the shortest entry possible.

As you can see, even if it’s blurred, I have written some more stuff below that. But it just happens to be the case there. Often, I won’t.

What is it all about? It’s written in French (I journal in French and in English), but that doesn’t change much:

• I put the date and the day of the week. Why bother with the day since I know perfectly well it was written on Monday (lundi) and on Tuesday (mardi)? In a few months, or even a few weeks I will not remember what the day was. I quickly realized I missed not having that information when I was browsing through my journal. So, now, I systematically write it down.
  And what about the lettering and coloring? I don’t always do that, but it’s also a lot of fun so I try to do it as often as I can — like adding small sketches using watercolors to illustrate whatever. It only takes a minute or two.
• I also write how I slept, which is another info I learned to value as I was getting older.
• The weather when I first went out that day. I will do long walks at least twice a day and this quick note about the weather maybe all what’s needed to trigger a lot of other memories for that day. Be it when I read it later on, or right when writing it down.
• My mood. I spend years trying to control my (bad) temper. So, for me it’s great to jot that down too.

Once again, I think it’s clear from what I said, those are just three things I value enough to write them down. Write your own stuff. It doesn’t matter what it is, well, it will matter to you obviously.

Imho, what should matter to all of us is to be fine with the fact that we won't do it every single day, that will not happen believe me, and that's fine. Like it is fine to try to note some info and then realize they're not that important, and try with others. These attempts can also be a legit part of your journal, like crossing stuff out instead of erasing them or tearing the page out.

So, that’s how I do short entries in my journal.

How do you do yours? And if you have not started yet, how would you like doing it?

It's almost the end of June and that means it's time for your mid-year review/reset. Regular reviews are important in planning, because it helps you keep track of what's still important and how you're getting on in approaching your goals.

There are a few steps to consider.

1. Flip through your past pages looking for tasks that are not yet done. For each task, ask yourself three questions. Is it vital? Does it matter? Are there any negative consequences of not doing it? If the answer to any of these three questions is "yes". migrate the task forward into July. If all three answers are "no", then this task probably isn;t important enough to bother with any more, so bin it.

2. Take a look at your goals. Are you making progress towards them? If not, why not? What needs to change so that you can? Do you have too many goals? You can also apply the same three questions to your goals too, and maybe shelve the ones that don't matter. On the other hand if you've made good progress and have cleared your goals with ease, you can consider some new ones to add in.

3. If you're tracking habits, take a look at those and see where your successes and failures are. If you find you're blasting through with ease, drinking 8 cups of water or doing your 30 minute daily workout without even needing to think about it, you can probably stop tracking those habits. You got them. For ones you're never achieving, consider again whether they really matter, and if they don't, consider dropping them.

4. If you have an end-of-year review from December 2022, take a look at it now and see if there are any insights there into what was important for you at that time, and whether anything has changed 6 months later.

5. If you're working in a bullet journal or customised planner, consider your spreads too. Are the ones you have working for you? Do you want to make any changes for July? Uncompleted spreads are a sign that they're not working for you so try to figure out what you dislike about the spread and why it's not useful, then decide whether to either dump the spread altogether, or re-design it. Also consider if something was missing, and whether you want to add anything new.

6. Finally (and this one applies equally to long-form journalling as well as planning and bullet-journalling) think about the past six months and how it's gone overall for you. What were your great successes so far this year? What have you learned? What memories do you particularly cherish? What didn't go so well and how could you have handled it better? If you're working in a planner or BuJo you can answer these questions in a mid-year review spread. If you're journalling long-form, you can write a page or two to answer them. Either way, don't forget to put the page number into your index, because you'll want to refer to it at your end-of-year review too.

A comment from u/foxtrots reminded me of Everbook, which is a simple system of journalling on loose-leaf pages. I haven't tried it myself but I might, when I've filled my current bullet journal).

I think you all know what's frustrating me 😆

And, just a reminder, it's not expected to respond in comments to these prompts; you're supposed to write your answers in your own journal 😊

If you did and only have "English" highlighted then any comment that didn't specify its language won't appear.

Lemmy's language implementation is weird right now.

Apparently, people are leaving comments to my posts but I can't see any of them, save for one that I replied to a couple of days ago. To everyone else, I can only apologise, if you are waiting for a reply I am unfortunately not able to give them.

If anyone knows how I may resolve this, please advise by creating a new post (if you reply to this one, I may never see it).

I had never heard of a commonplace book until I started to follow the journaling community on Youtube. When I discovered it, I realised that it's something I'd already been keeping for years.

A commonplace book is essentially a repository of information that you find, and want to keep or remember. Quotes, maxims, proverbs, shower-thoughts, notes on books you've read, even recipies, reference tables, letters, poems... it's like a scrapbook of words. Or a personal encyclopedia. I've heard it described as the writer's equivalent of an artist's sketchbook, and as I'm both an artist and a writer, I think this analogy is perfect.

It's not just for writers though. It's for anyone. Readers, researchers, students, anyone who has an interest in just about any topic. You're a keen cook? Keep a commonplace book of recipes you find. A gardener? Keep one for information about plants you're growing or interested in growing. Avid consumer of Netflix? Keep track of series you're watching and what you learn from them.

Commonplace books have a long history, going back to Roman philosophers such as Marcus Aurelius (Meditations), and they rose in popularity during the Rennaissance. With the advent of the printing press, many were published.

A commonplace book is a type of journal but it's not a diary (which is the most usual way a journal is structured). It differs from a diary in that its content is not chronological, but rather, categorised by topic. Thus, the most critical part of your commonplace book is the Index. I keep mine in loose-leaf binders which makes searching and categorising even easier.

For those looking for a digital solution, the rise of information management apps such as Notion, Obsidian and Logseq are absolutely perfect for this purpose. Commonplacing is exactly what these apps are created for, even if the creators of them weren't aware of it.

Bullet journaling is a complex topic and I can't explain it any better than the man who invented it, Ryder Carroll. In this video, he shows what it's all about and how to get started.

It's often said that paper journaling forces you to slow down and be more mindful, but on the other hand it's less portable; it can't fit in your jeans pocket like your phone can.

Digital options are easier to take with you, and in many cases it's easier to find information that you've put in there, but do they get overlooked amidst all the "noise" we're exposed to every day?

What's your preference, and why? Do you stick exclusively with one or the other? Or do you mix them up? If you combine them, how do you do that? Do you duplicate posts on paper and digitally? Or do you use them for different purposes?

I'm currently on paper only, but some of the digital options intrigue me. I used to use Evernote but I dropped it when many of the features I wanted and used went behind a paywall. lately I've been looking at both Logseq and Obsidian but the learning curve is steep and I'm not ready to launch into them as part of my regular journaling practise yet. I suspect it'll be my Commonplace book that goes in there first.

I've been journaling and diary-keeping for many years, but I really got seriously into it in around 1998 or so. I've used both paper and digital journaling (I was on Livejournal for around 10 years, until it jumped the shark) but now I mostly use paper.

I have three journals on the go at the moment. My most important one is a bullet journal, though I have diverged from the "official" format and work mostly in weekly spreads. I find that it helps my ADHD brain keep track of the structure of my week better. For this, I use an A5 dot-grid book. Weirdly, although I'm quite artistic, I keep my journals minimalistic and mostly un-decorated.

I have a daily long-form journal, though in practise I only write long entries a few times a week rather than every day. I'm into the Tarot too, so I also use this one for my daily card pulls and weekly/monthly spreads. For this I use an A5 lined book, because I fill them faster and lined notebooks tend to be cheaper than dot-grid ones.

My third is a Commonplace book; this is where I keep a record of things I've learned that I want to remember, books I'm reading (and my thoughts on them), quotes I want to keep, notes about research I'm doing, and stuff like that. I use loose-leaf binders for this, so I can more easily rearrange pages and keep entries on specific topics together.

How about you?