Blogocentric Formulations

Journaling

Day 2402 ▼

Do you do any other journaling besides your WdC blog? Private or public? Why or why not? Also, what could be some helpful tips you can give to others who want to start a daily journal of any kind?

I used to journal pretty regularly; I had a physical journal that I would use and it's a habit that I picked up from both my grandmother and my mom. My mom kept a daily diary for years until my brother and I were born and life got hectic. And my grandmother faithfully kept a daily journal for most of her life, well into her eighties. There are volumes and volumes of diaries that I assume one of my aunts now have, detailing her daily life from growing up in the 1930s all the way up through at least the turn of the century, I think.

I loved the idea of having some kind of a daily record of what I was doing and/or thinking on a given day; something that I could go back and review years later and remember what had happed at that point in my life. Unfortunately, it's not a habit that I've kept up with very well, and there are a couple of reasons for that.

First and foremost, life has become more digital. I don't really need to sit down at the end of the day and write a paragraph about what I did, because I carry a phone around with me all the time that has a picture and video camera embedded in it. Especially when I'm doing something memorable or noteworthy, I have a habit of snapping a couple of quick pictures or filming a quick video or two as a way of memorializing what happened, which kind of negates the need to chronicle the day's events in writing on a regular basis.

Second, I've had two bad experiences in the past where someone has read my journal without permission. And as someone who at one point in his life kept a journal to chronicle my inner thoughts, feelings, etc. rather than just objectively document the days, that was a huge breach of trust and something that has made me wary about writing private thoughts down. I've thought about keeping a journal on a password-protected file on my computer, but that just doesn't have the same "journaling vibe" to me as physically writing things down on paper. I've also considered a daily journaling habit where I just shred the pages after I commit them to paper.

The best advice I can give to someone who is interested in journaling is the same advice that I have to keep giving myself... don't give up on the habit, and find the exact way of doing it that works best for you. Because it is a valuable habit to have. When the new year starts, I'm honestly considering giving it another go in some way, shape, or form. It might actually dovetail with my other goal of getting back into the habit of writing things by hand. Over the past several years, my handwriting has gotten atrocious because I simply don't write things by hand much anymore. I'd like to get back into the regular habit of doing that, and daily pages might be a positive way to work on that goal at the same time.