For the last year I have written in a journal every day.
I started writing in a journal for a couple of reasons
- In today’s fast paced world it easy to forget what was going just the other day.
- I felt I should stop to reflect on what is going on. If live is worth living taking a few minutes every day to record the import things is a good idea.
- My journal may give some insight into my life for my children and grandchildren.
- I realized some of the most important people in history left journals – Teddy Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, Benjamin Franklin, Lewis and Clark and many others.
- I like to look back and see where I have been from time to time; the journal helps provide the information to do that.
My journal today is a simple leather-covered notebook that cost me about $12. A single book lasts about 6 months.
What do I write about? I write about anything that is important going on in my life. I have written about important accomplishments, ideas for how to solve problems, some changes I’d like to make to my diet. I figure just about anything that is taking up cycles from my brain is good enough to go into the journal. I find if I am working on a problem that going through the logic of how to write about it causes me to think differently.
After diner I usually set aside 20-30 minutes to write. At least once a week I like to look back over the 7-8 days of entries. On several occasions I am interested in a particular time and go back to that time to see what I was thinking.
In the past I have tried other methods to journal but found that putting pen to paper seems to be the most natural, relaxing and productive.
- Audio Journal – I have tried using a voice recorder to record a daily journal but found that it is very hard to go back and listen to a week’s worth of recordings. I investigated having my computer transcribe the recordings to text but that didn’t work well. Although an interesting experiment it just didn’t relax me. Talking it not my favorite type of communication. I used a Olympus Voice Record similar to this one.
- I tried using the computer to write my journal but found that it just didn’t relax me. I work on a computer all day so the extra 30 minutes sitting in front of a computer seemed more like doing extra work. I did really like most of the journal software I used. I feature I like the most was being able to search for keywords and dates very easily. I have found that taking a computer on vacation or camping is difficult. Some of the tools I tried Microsoft One Note, Evernote, The Journal, and LDS Journal
- I tried using a spiral bound notebook but found it did what every spiral bound notebook does. The spiral binding gets squished and pages became difficult to flip. The standard 8 1/2″ x 11″ notebook just seemed too large to write in, I prefer something about half the size (it is easier to pack it too).
