Got a nice notebook for Christmas but don’t know what to use it for. This is a thread to show or tell people about your journal if you’re into that sort of thing. Do you keep a diary? A recipe/food journal? Maybe a notebook where you write down opinions on music or films?
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Write down every album that’s new to me in a journal every year but I’ve lost last year’s and I’m losing my mind trying to think of where it is.
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I also purchased a journal app and then realised i don’t have much to say
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Have been journaling in the filofax that @AutumnBeech got me, really helps me organise my thoughts.
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This is my worry! Haha. Think a template or formula for what to write would help. Think previously I’ve tried to keep a journal / diary in the evenings but as @Squandered says maybe the morning would be a better time to write it
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Quite envious of one of my colleagues in my research group who has a gorgeous vintage notebook that he’s always scribbling in with nice fountain pens, so chic
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I was looking at apps last night and decided I hate all the free ones. Guess that’s why they’re free. I don’t like the idea of a subscription one though and the price to buy them seems steep. I think it might be good for my mental health to keep one though.
Maybe I should get over the hatred of my handwriting and buy a nice physical one.
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i kinda wish id done that from the off with new films per year, or books ive read, or gigs - with like a mini review and date. love to have more physical stuff and be less reliant on The Apps
but then i love being able to easily and quickly search through my watching/gig/etc history, harder with a (potentially missing) physical journal
I desperately need to use the apps less and this is a way to do it. I actively despise looking at my phone now, I just hate it.
I have a fantastic memory for music but it’s nice to have a record of it all too, plus it gives me a better idea of what LPs I want to pick up if I like an album enough to write it down somewhere. This Bill Evans album is a good example of that, will absolutely be hunting down a copy.
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yeah i mainly wish i had more of what my thoughts were from the time, in the moment. Easy to reminisce about how great something was, and forgot that on the day you saw X thing you were actually tired and that aspect kinda pissed you off and you left thinking it was well overrated
Really like this album, and how ahead of its time is that cover art?
I write most of it on my phone notes app and on my digital notepad. Havent done it for quite a few months now though, not sure why but need to get back into it
I started journaling last year to help with my mental health and it’s been kinda life-changing. (sorry to sound like an influencer)
I basically would write whatever came to mind - what was bothering me, silly things that made me laugh, creative ideas, little lists of stuff to remember or trying to organise life admin stuff, and it was enlightening to put stuff down and think about it instead of trusting the nebulous wasteland that is my brain and memory.
I was able to pick up on bad habits, times I’ve been ungenerous, keep track of my personal projects (seeing progress in the form of writing on paper is fab) and also work on my punning abilities. Since I lost three dear family members last year + went through a breakup it was perfect to help process my grief. It was also satisfying to take my ratty journal from ASDA, slap a 2022 sticker on it and put it away after a garbage year.
Also realised that a lot of what I was putting in there would have been stuff I would tweet or post on Facebook back when I was on social media, and it’s nice to work on that kind of thing without getting wrapped up in the attention economy.
Asked for a new 2023 journal for Christmas and got this lovely number with a detachable leather case so I can use it again next year.
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Hiya!
I’ve done this pretty consistently since 2015. It took me a while but I found a groove which worked very well for me, which is:
- Find half an hour at the same point each week (either Sunday night or Monday morning) to write
- Just write about whatever I want in that particular week…
- …but mostly summarise the events of the past week, sometimes with a bit of reflection on how I feel
I use an app - Bear - to do all my writing and my journal’s a section within that. It’s at the point now where it’s genuinely really nice to select a random week in a random year and read about the trivialities that were concerning me and gives me perspective about the worries I have right now. Because it’s digital I throw some photos in sometimes, or little voice memos if I don’t feel like writing.
Here’s the thing I’d recommend most of all: set aside some time every day/week/month to write. Flex it as you like. Maybe you want to write every day and find you run out of stuff to write about and switch to writing weekly. Maybe weekly’s not enough and you do it twice a week. The main thing is to find some time and actually write without worrying what you’re saying or how you come across. It’s writing for future you, and future you will almost certainly appreciate it.
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Kind of, I use evernote to scribble down stuff but it’s mostly things I’m researching/learning. I do need to get better at sorting it out though because there’s a tonne of unfinished blog entries and stuff like that.
Used to do it every morning for therapy, did help with getting anxious thoughts down on paper and allowing me a new perspective. Think with my meds my mind has calmed a bit so the therapeutic side of it is not so needed, but it is a useful tool.
I try to convince myself I would do more journalling or get back into poetry if I had one of these, really just trying to find an excuse for the fun toy - https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-2?region_id=000826&gclid=CjwKCAiAk--dBhABEiwAchIwkZ73dV7v9SNEsXQlFOjYVX7c1iBkXeRvGqDZtw7-7CvLDusj9iXkOBoCHA4QAvD_BwE
I have 2 notebooks as usual trying to organise my life and inevitably dropping it by mid jan but my notebooks are really adorable this year and adhd friendly with removable pages and no dates so its structured and not intimidating like an empty notebook but not as pressuring as one thats got all the dates and that inside
I’ll be trying to start this when I get back from vacation. We’ll see how long it lasts - never got on with typing on computer or phone so just going to try making time to handwrite and see how it goes.
I think I’d like to do this. Sort of thing I’d love to do. My mom started a little journal where she writes about the walks she talks with friends or my dad or myself - it’s great, there’s drawings of deer and squirrels and stuff