For how long have you kept one? What do you write in it? What is it's purpose? How does it help you? What does the book look like? Do you read your old journals/notebooks? Do you have an organizational method?
EDIT: Here is a quick sketch of what my current journal organization looks like. I am so sorry my handwriting is pooh.
I've been keeping a journal loosely based on the bullet journal system for a few months now and it has been great for me. I use it to keep track of tasks, write down ideas, take notes or write down interesting passages from the books I'm reading, tell about stuff that happens in my life, etc. It's a nice system, but maybe a little too organized for me. However, I find myself using the journal a lot more now than I used to when I was keeping a more unorganized, idea-based journal.
I use a variation of the bullet journal system in the header of my journal. Here's a digital sketch, sorry about my handwriting
This is a very cool system that I am going to try. I always love notebooks and will often buy them with the intention of keeping a journal but I never manager to keep up with it. This system seems simple enough that I could actually maintain it. Thanks for posting this!
Interesting system! Thank you for sharing. I occasionally journal, and it helps me a lot. I'll definitely be trying this out. Right now, I basically just right down a few paragraphs about life and such. I'm pretty inconsistent in my journaling, but it is there for me to fall back on whenever I need it. I'll be giving this a try!
I never used to, but I've been keeping one since January now. I've been struggling with mental health for the past few months, and sometimes it helps ground me. Sometimes it just frustrates me because I end up writing in circles. It's not organized, sometimes I'll draw in it or make lists. It just looks like an ordinary black notebook. I don't reread it; it frightens me a little.
I have three journals that I'm currently keeping up: A dream journal, which really is interesting and helpful (for evaluating the health of my psychological state, hah). I've only really started focusing on maintaining it for this last month. A day-to-day journal, which just holds my average retelling of my daily encounters. I've had this one for several months, but never had the patience to maintain it. I also throw in any poetry or stories I write, and I keep it on me most of the time for that purpose. And finally a reading journal, which isn't really as sophisticated as it sounds. I mostly just use it to keep track of books I'd like to read, and crossing them off as I finish them. It's satisfying to see my progress on the list. I've had this one for over a year, and it's the one I use and read most frequently.
I'm a big fan of the multiple journal approach. I keep one with me at all times to write down thoughts that occur to me over time, and then I also keep a journal to keep track of thoughts related to books I'm reading. I've found that the biggest benefit to keeping a daily journal is that it helps me be more observant. I'm more aware of events and places surrounding me. I've noticed more in the past year than ever before.
I used to keep a dream journal! While it was a lot of work to force myself to scribble out everything I could remember whenever I woke up during the night or first thing in the morning, it was one of the most interesting things I have done. I found myself beginning to remember multiple dreams every night. After probably 100 entries I finally was able to realize when I was dreaming and become lucid, but I always woke up shortly afterwards. I was never able to gain control of my dreams or change things, but that was my goal. If I hadn't experienced it myself I don't' think I would have believe lucid dreaming was real. I stopped when work became busy and I wasn't getting enough sleep and needed to just focus on that. I should start again though. Have you ever had lucid dreams?
I definitely have, but I can't seem to tell if that was from keeping the journal or not. I've had several dreams where I'd perform reality checks that would lead me to the conclusion I was dreaming. The concept is that if you make a reality check (like checking the number of fingers you have) a normal, frequent part of your life it will logically begin to appear in your dreams, making you realize that you are in a dream and ultimately lead to becoming lucid. I wanted to try this out, but I never was able to maintain the constant reality checks, and dream journalling has always led to vivider dreams I could actually remember (and requires a bit less commitment).
I started a journal because I couldn't get up in the morning. I needed two days to finally leave the apartment for groceries. I just layed in bed with closed curtains left for school and layed down again. also my go to reaction was crying. At some point I had worked myself up to get outside. No place to go, no friends to meet so I bought a blank scetchbook. Since this day, it's my journal. one page is one day. I date the pages 2 weeks ahead, first thing in the morning is to write thw weekday in the first language that comes to mind next to the number. I've made that a routine. The idea is to fit that mess in my head on to one page. I keep the bottom edge clear and usw that as calender/tasks. I feel that keeping this journal is most I've ever helped myself. I'm just into the second Moleskin, haven't skipped a day yet.
I've been keeping an almost daily journal since the new year, though I've been journaling regularly for almost three years now. I mostly record the days events and use it to sort out problems I'm facing. My past journals especially are helpful to look at past thinking and emotional patterns. Finally, I use my journal to help remember writing ideas, either from real life, or just recording rudimentary ideas which may take me a few days to develop into something I can actually write. I also keep a (homemade) pocket notebook. It pretty much has everything besides the steady record of my life. From poem parts to story titles to to-do and shopping lists, from room design land to phone numbers. It's always with me, so it sees a lot of different uses.
I kept a journal when I travelled around Australia with my family in 2014. It was a great way to keep track of my various experiences, plus it gave me "someone to talk to" during those periods when we were 1,000s of kilometres from anywhere and I'd had enough of my family ;) I don't keep one since I've gotten back, however. I'm currently studying in Melbourne, and I don't really feel the need to talk to a journal now that I see my mates regularly.
I've been wanting to start a Journal for a while now. In all honesty, I just want an excuse to use a badass Fountain Pen and practice my handwriting. After reading about the bullet journal in this thread, I think I'll go ahead and take the plunge. My life suffers from some pretty mild disorganization, anyway. Any tips on what to keep in it besides daily tasks and maybe a handwriting practice to watch it get better over time (Hopefully). I'm not a big fan of the whole "relive daily encounters" stuff, but any suggestions would be great.
I've kept very inconsistent journals at many points throughout my life. Somewhere around here is an old notebook with a few dreams I thought were worth writing down. I have a folder with Google Docs of random poetry, lyrics, thoughts, etc. At one point, I had a personal blog I couldn't keep up with. The cycle usually starts off creating something that's "just for me", followed by writing a piece I actually want to share with others, followed by forgetting about both things.
Not anymore. I used to write a lot about my day in the agendas I had during high school. I would go home and write longer entries in some private blog. I had so much more free time back then as well. However, these days, I feel like writing by hand is too slow and I can't get my thoughts down fast enough compared to typing with a keyboard. Also, I think I've learned to avoid reflection in the past couple years because hurts more than it helps. I don't end up learning from my mistakes in the past. The mistakes just get magnified. A part of me misses writing every day, but knowing that my thoughts are down somewhere and reading over them is just not worth it anymore.
My journal used to be accessible to the public for over a decade (transitioned across various platforms over the years), but no matter how much effort I put into keeping the journal anonymous, I would invariably run into some problem with the wrong people finding it, stalkers and whatnot. Also, I found that keeping it online, publicly accessible, I would run into the Facebook Problem: where you start custom-tailoring your content to appeal to a wider demographic, starts feeling fake, identity angst, etc. I found that removing it from public view (currently: wordpress), I feel more freedom, more comfortable, not as stressed. Additionally, as an experiment, I tried Tumblr out, my query being: if I tried to transform my written journal to visual/image based content instead, taking the words away... Astonishing results. Transformation, switching genres can be quite nice. Ties into neurolinguistics, the relationship between words, thought, how each transforms the other.
I've been keeping a journal since 1976. I don't write every day, just occasionally when the mood strikes me. It started because I wanted to be a writer when I was a child and it seemed like something a writer would do. I now have about 15 books in various colors, the kind that you buy in stationary stores. About two years ago I sat down and started reading them from the beginning to kind of get a midlife perspective on myself. It was pretty entertaining and depressing to see the things that I have spent my life focusing on and it gave me some ideas as to how I would like to move forward.
For the past couple of years, I have had poetry notebooks where I write poetry or poetry ideas. Currently, I have also led a notebook where I write short stories and essays. I do read back my words to see if I can get some new inspiration from old ideas.
I kept a journal semi-daily back in middle school, where I'd write about my day and various angsty musings. I continued keeping a journal into high school and college, but it's become a less regular thing. Sometimes I write daily (or more), but often I'll go weeks between writing. My journal is sometimes for deep thoughts, sometimes for writing down stories (fictional or nonfictional), and sometimes for to-do lists. I always say I'm going to start journalling more regularly, but I'm not sure if that's because I actually think it will help me, or because I'm holding onto the romantic notion that my journals are literature that will be read and admired years after my death, and therefore I need to write more.
I keep a digital journal that resides on a thumb drive that's always on me. I've been writing it in for close to ten years. Sometimes sporadically, sometimes multiple entries a day, sometimes it goes without entries for a few months. But it always calls be back. I use it to record anything and everything I want. From memories, stories, blips of thought all the way to doodles and silly poetry. It's a companion I plan to take with me to the grave. One question I have for you other journal/diary keepers is: how private is your writing? Do you keep lock and key, password protected? Or do you leave open for anybody and everybody?
I don't, but I'm trying to get one going - the only thing that holds me back is that there's too high a likelihood of it being read, and that makes me extremely deeply uncomfortable.
Since I started teaching seven years ago, I've kept a day planner/journal. Well, it started off as a day planner and morphed into a journal, as most of my calendaring takes place using Google Calendar now. I've kept each and will be scanning them sometime this summer, as they contain good ideas that I wrote down and just plain forgot about. Each entry starts off with the current date--nothing fancy. I like the bullet journal system mentioned in this thread, but I don't think I'm disciplined enough to keep that going for the long run.
I've kept two notebooks thus far, the latest one coming along nicely. It mostly covers things I might need to remember, such as phone numbers and the odd thought that I write down before sleep.
I have a journal that I write in occasionally, and I find it helps my mental state and to work through problems. I started one when I was struggling with insomnia and having trouble falling asleep. Doing a brain dump onto the page helped clear my mind and fall asleep. I was also struggling to be happy and found that trying to write down goals and things I was grateful for was a good exercise. It's fun to look back on past events that became significant, event when they didn't feel like it at the time. I met my current girlfriend during a time when I was writing regularly and it's really cool being able to watch myself fall in love with her. I am quite bad writing in it regularly now. I will write for a few days and then have a month without touching it. I suppose that's fine but I get more out of it when I write consistently. I just can't seem to work out whether it's better for me to write in the morning or the end of the day. I'm tired and it's too easy to use that as an excuse to not write at night, but the same could be said for the morning.
I took three different literature classes all under the same teacher in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade. The teacher was great. Fair, reasonable, and strict if need be. She required everyone to have a journal and at least five entries in that journal every week. It helped our writing skills and would help clear our minds if we were working on an essay and needed to get some thoughts out. So I kept one for those three years, but since then I have unfortunately not kept up with it even though I keep telling myself I need to. This post is a good reminder of that.
As a grad student, I keep a research journal. When I have quick ideas to jot down, am working through some math, or am taking notes on a paper or lecture, I write by hand in a dot paper moleskine. I use a red ink pen for notes that need followup, like ideas for new experiments or reminders to learn more about a topic. When I'm working on experiments, I currently take notes in Evernote so that I can easily copy over commands as I run them. However, I have an unfinished project to build a better research notebook solution, that will accommodate faster math notes, based on iPython Notebook. (The main obstacle is my total lack of frontend dev experience.)
I've been keeping one pretty regularly for about two years now. I write whatever I feel like, but my main goal is to sort of organize my thoughts and get my worries out on the page so they don't infiltrate my real life. I started out writing on Microsoft Word, then a physical journal, and now I'm sometimes writing in a physical journal and sometimes in Evernote. No organizational method, just the day and date and then writing whatever comes to mind. It really helps, and I find that on days that I don't write I tend to feel worse now.
Yes. I started it when I was 14, and I'm 33 now and still writing. I don't write everyday, or every week sometimes, and sometimes a couple months will go buy in between writings. I tend to write more when my life is tough and I'm struggling with something. So my early twenties, for example, I was writing everyday for years. Now, later in life, I try to write at least once a week but sometimes that doesn't happen. I make sure to write about milestones. A new job, or a raise, or a move to a new place, or meeting a girl, a night of partying or drugs, or finding out my wife and I were having a baby; stuff like that i never miss. I have a box with about 40 some notebooks, the big mead 5 star 1 subject ones, all full. I never write a ton, and when I do make an entry I try to keep it to a page. For me, the purpose is more in the writing itself than ever reading it. Might be neat for my daughter or someone to read them someday after I pass though. But for me the actual process of writing and putting some thoughts down on paper, and my current mental and emotional state is the reward I get out of it.
I have 5 or 6 that I usually update regularly, or try to. One serves as a record of thoughts and actions throughout the day. One serves as a more general short fiction journal. The other four are all for the epic fantasy I've been writing. I'm usually making tweaks throughout all four of the journals.
I have two. One's just a journal for recording what's going on (which admittedly I don't use nearly often enough. Mainly when I'm travelling). And a Bullet Journal which has been a godsend for me. I'm absolutely terrible at keeping myself organised, but this thing pretty much handles it for me! Only takes about 10 minutes at the end of every night to get tomorrow sorted!
Being constant is really up to you. Maybe you could set a daily alarm to remind you, but it's on you to actually do it. I'm speaking as someone who is struggling to keep a journal as well. In the end when I see it and have time, I go ahead and write down whatever I remember has happened since the last dated entry. Maybe it'll become a daily routine some day!
I picked up a couple of journals from the dollar store a month or so ago. I haven't been using any of them daily but I use one of them every once in a while to just write down how I'm feeling and just get whatever I want off my chest. In another notebook, I've been practicing my handwriting. I'm going to look back at the previous pages after x months to see how many handwriting has (hopefully) improved.