A few years ago I realized my days all kind of blurred together.
So I started journaling. I eventually built a good habit of doing it once a week. Every week, I read the previous entry and then write a new entry. Around the end of the year, I go back and read the whole year.
I prefer to use a physical journal with nice paper and a decent pen.
It has been very transformative for me. I write about my experiences and I write about what I read. I also write about what changes I want to make, and reflect on how changes I wanted to make are going.
Reviewing my thoughts in this way has led me 1) to be more forgiving of myself, focusing more on growth instead of failure and 2) to make incremental progress on objectives I have.
This is wonderfully inspiring! I think journaling forcing you to write about things that matter. While you could write on what you had for breakfast every morning, often journaling draws attention to the moments that resonated with you.
I do this because I have really strong automatic negative thoughts, and always have. These can be really harmful to general flourishing, in particular by disrupting sleep and undermining self-confidence.
I don't really read these back. Rather, the writing itself is a kind of practice which aids processing of difficult emotions.
When I'm having difficult feelings, putting negative thoughts down in writing "gets them out of my head" which means I can let go of them, in turn easing the difficult feelings associated with them.
When I'm having positive feelings, putting a description of them down in writing forces me to notice them more than I would otherwise, which in turn inflates them.
Creating a balance of positive feelings to negative thoughts is one of the ways to take negative thoughts under control and manage them. What fires together wires together. Spiralling rumination is a seriously harmful thing to do to your own brain. Journalling is one way I manage this.
Totally the same for me RE negative thought processing. I find that I can really dive deep on the negativity and it doesn’t end up being all that helpful. I find that I have to be mindful that I’m not just wallowing in it but moving towards processing it. It feels like that intention is what helps me get what I need to put of the activity.
I've been journaling since 2015, one text file per day and have not missed a single day. However, quite often the daily consists of the single word "Working.", so the bar is not exactly high. I usually write about what I spent my day on, and impressions about the media I'm consuming. I also collect interesting quotes and links. The longest dailies occur when I try to analyze my direction in life, progress with personal projects, the frustrations of a day job, and such. I originally started journaling as a form of brainstorming to help writing fiction, but I since moved that content elsewhere because its format clashes with the rest of the journal.
I sometimes read old entries randomly, but rarely find it enjoyable. However, every New Year's Eve I skim through each daily from the previous year and make a list of "all the things I forgot I did this year", and the list always surprises me very pleasantly with lots of things I totally forgot about. Honestly this alone makes it worth journaling — I feel really bad about not being able to reliably recall things I did prior to 2015.
Looking at the entries from the earlier years, my writing has definitely improved a lot. I always write in English although it's not my native language. I also like to write on paper but it makes organizing the documents a pain.
To answer the question, yes it has improved my life and I don't plan on stopping journaling.
Journals ? No, it's just a mess of a bunch of unrelated things that only have date in common. I'd definitely consider doing one for travels, could be a nice thing with attached picture but for day to day things I prefer different kind.
Logging and notes? Yes. I am fond of "personal wiki" idea.
Project gets its own page with all relevant info. And links to all the other relevant things. Search makes sure I can actually find it. at worst if I wanted to look at history I could git blame so "when I wrote that" feature of journal is also filled in.
I use QOwnNotes which is absolute overkill feature-wise for me but I use it coz it keeps files in markdown which means I can edit/view it in many other things if required. Then syncthing to sync to other devices.
I'd only want for better integration with todo/calendar tools.
My ideal would be ability to write a calendar event (org-mode style) anywhere I want. And a feature to be able to express "put this event on my to-do list after date X". So I could, for example, put a maintenance thing year ahead on to-do list but without a concrete data and calendar alerts to bother me
I did use org-mode for a long time and it was great when only using editor but weak integration with anything else made me eventually leave it. Like, I love the featureset but non-emacs implementations always miss something (like spreadsheet-like table handling with formulas) and I grew tired of it.
it is not about the content or knowledge. Journaling is a tool to help you reflect and refine your thoughts. The thought process that came out of writing is more important than what gets writtern. In short, it helps you think better and more self aware.
For the first three months of the year I was religiously journaling. Pretty much every single day, with weekly and monthly reviews. Then towards the end of the quarter when it became apparent that I wasn’t going to get my project finished on time and that I was miserable I completely burnt out and stopped journaling and haven’t gone back to it yet. Journaling felt like work and it also felt like it was making my mental head space worse - it was constant, hyper focused reinforcement of negative energy and would just remind me of everything I was failing at or failing to do. I was succeeding at many things at the same time and writing those down but the journal was something of a relentless OODA loop for self improvement which meant I was constantly dissatisfied because my life was fixated on achieving the next goal rather than trying to enjoy the process. It didn’t help that the main problem I was working on was a frustrating nightmare.
I do want to start journaling again because it can lead to insights but I might have to experiment with it to find something healthier but I’m not sure what that would look like. All that being said I’m not sure my biggest insights come from journaling so who knows if it is that valuable. They probably come when I respond to questions like this on the internet or interact with people.
Thinking about it, in a way maybe it has helped. After burning out I kind of came to the realisation that I really am sick of being where I am and doing what I am doing which has lead to me selling up everything I own in order to go travelling. So maybe the journaling served its purpose of hammering home to me how dissatisfied I was with life and how I needed to make a radical change. The insight didn’t come whilst I was journaling but the journaling indirectly lead me to the insight. Maybe I’ll take it up again when I finally get out of the country in a few months.
>> I kind of came to the realisation that I really am sick of being where I am and doing what I am doing which has lead to me selling up everything I own in order to go travelling. So maybe the journaling served its purpose of hammering home to me how dissatisfied I was with life and how I needed to make a radical change.
First of all - good luck, I hope traveling will help you clear your head and find that change you are looking for. It worked in my case. Also, you reminded me of two other things journaling can help with - as you point out, it can lead to insight. Trying to formulate your thoughts clearly in writing can be very potent. And journaling can also work as a storage of good feelings - for example, I walked multiple paths of Camino de Santiago [1], each of them was a few weeks of great times... and I was journaling them. Every now and then, when I feel down after especially long and dark winter, I re-read those journals and they make me feel good. Áh, nostalgia strikes... I am gonna read them right now.
I have been writing a journal for about 6 years now. I usually write 3 entries a week spanning from a few sentences to hundreds of words.
Personally, I feel there are many benefits to it, mainly:
1. It gives me time to think, to process my thoughts, explore ideas, and handle emotions. I often learn a lot about myself, what I did well, and how I can improve.
2. It is a great way to preserve memories. Only after I started writing my journal did I realize how much I forget about my past. I've always taken photos throughout my life, but those only capture a very small part of my life. My worries, the music I listened to, the TV-series I raved about, my dreams, my thoughts on the books I've read, the deep talks with my friends, are all preserved in my journal. It is easy to remember your vacations to exotic locations, but do you remember your everyday life from years back?
3. It can be meditative. It feels great to be able to sit for up to an hour and write without any barriers. I don't have to stress about my writing style, the words I use, embarrassing stuff about myself. I truly feel I can express myself to the fullest.
I'm really happy that I decided to write my journal in Markdown. This format can be opened pretty much everywhere, even on my phone or my moms computer. Furthermore, it enables me to do some crude formatting for code, create headings, and even attach images. And since it is digital, I can search in it pretty easily.
Could you elaborate on where exactly you save or store your entries to make them universally accessible? For instance, do you use a specific application or cloud storage service?
Writing simply helps me to think clearly. So journaling is just a way for me to crystalize my thoughts. And it works great for that. It also helps me see patterns I might not be aware of over time.
Mine tends to be stream of consciousness, just one level above brain-dumping on scratchpaper, until I hit on something I want to explore. Then it becomes more structured (and sometimes ends up very structured indeed in mindmaps or various project folders, etc).
It works great for me. I get ideas down in useful forms. I don't have to continually consciously think on ideas to keep them alive, reducing cognitive load. I have a tool for effective reflection. I feel like it's helped me lead a more intentional life. Simple as that.
Journaling has fundamentally changed my life in almost every measurable facet. It is the single habit I can point to that helped me accomplish things like in my personal life - stop biting fingernails, run a marathon, run the Boston marathon, be a more engaged Dad. It has also helped diagnose lots of professional patterns - good bosses, bad bosses, understanding that everyone has value and has flaws.
My approach is to read journal entries written on this date from previous years. For example, this morning, I read what I wrote on 5/16/20, 5/16/21, 5/16/22.
Best improvement: I realized that I always feel awful after meetings with some people and cut or heavily limited some relationships.
Not having a journal, it was a regular pattern for me. To be invited, have a meeting, feel so-so after that, forgetting gradually about the experience, and sometime later, when the same person called, agreeing to another dreadful meeting.
Having a couple of entries like:
"met with X, felt terrible after the meeting, wasted time, X was bragging about sth all the time."
It helps to avoid repeating such mistakes.
Started journal-ling in 10th class, ended after graduating college.
I think it depends on how and why you journal. I used to write a page in a notebook whenever I felt like writing. In my case don't think it has improved my life in a very tangible way, however it is interesting to look into a journal entry 5 years ago and see how different I was. So while it was not tangible self-improvement, it was very emotional and revelatory, both good and bad. However, I barely read that journal anymore, I will probably read it once a year maybe.
Perhaps if you are more specific with your goals it could help. These days I just use a daily habit tracker where I tick if I performed an action towards my goal for the day. Other than that, I write my thoughts on an online blog just to release the cognitive load. But that's intermittent. There are so many things that fall under "good habits" but we need to choose carefully what we want to spend our time on based on the reward/effort ratio. I have 2-3 max habits that I focus on completing daily at any given phase in my life. I may pick up journal-ling maybe when rest of my higher priority habits are more deeply ingrained / their goals achieved.
I’ve been doing it for many years now and I’d recommend it to anyone.
Most people don’t like it. I think this is because they haven’t given it an honest try or considered the critical importance of being able to talk to yourself openly about what’s happening in your life and mind.
This would probably seem strange to a lot of people, or perhaps they believe they already do it with an internal monologue. Chances are pretty good that without a book to reflect on and the intent to do difficult things, your mind will readily distract itself and prevent you from doing difficult things that a journal might facilitate better.
For me it has made that personal exchange a lot more natural and easy. When I do foolish things I can talk to myself about it and figure out why I did it, what I can do differently next time, and feel better having put energy into doing better next time. When I do good things I can be grateful, consider what went right and why, and set intentions to do that more.
I also write about people I care about so I can be more intentional about how I’m present in their lives. I have ADHD and without being very intentional, I can figuratively and literally vanish from people’s lives due to getting in my head about things or being sucked into work or hobbies too much.
But I also know I’m happiest when I do things for people, I thrive on socializing despite being so good at being a hermit, and at the end of the day, I don’t think life is particularly worthwhile without a significant focus on being prosocial. So, I keep track of this stuff with the journal and make sure I’m staying on tracking with my goals and value system.
I can’t attribute all life changes to journaling, but I’d say it has made me a far better friend and parent since I started taking it seriously. I also know it has lead to me being better to myself, which is really important. Overall I’d say my personal affect is generally more constructive and positive, and I look at problems in my life as something I can engage with more now, whereas before I was far more avoidant.
There are other paths to similar practices, so journaling isn’t the only option. I highly recommend it to anyone willing to try, though. We should all be better at talking to ourselves. Our past, present, and even future selves.
Thanks for sharing. I resonate with so much of what you say, particularly this:
>>or perhaps they believe they already do it with an internal monologue.
This is the typical justification I use for when I'm not in the mood to journal.
And your comments about ADHD, being more intentional with people, and living a prosocial-oriented life. I too could easily veer down a hermit-like path but deliberately effort not to. And I used to think that a personal CRM was overkill and such detailed tracking of others a waste of time. I haven't implemented anything yet, but I see the value of it now. Relationships are cumulative, interactions build off of each other. Remembering salient details in prior interactions (e.g. from my recent life, little tidbits I could find useful: Rachel deeply loves her mom. Ana is aware that I get car sick easily and made an accommodation for me, etc etc...)can enhance future ones.
It comes and goes for me. I’ll do it every day for a month and then Forget to do it for a month.
I journal exclusively on a computer. I find I can get my thoughts out much faster on a keyboard and that helps the process be a lot lower friction for me.
In my journaling, I’ve found it really amazing how much I forget about situations and things I’ve done. It also helps me reflect on my day and my relationships. I am a strong proponent of journaling. When I write, I have 3 audiences in mind: myself, my descendants, and anthropologists. That is, partially just fun, but I also really appreciate there were people who wrote about themselves 6000 years ago such that we have that information.
I use Day One as a journaling app, though I don’t pay for it (I am frustrated by app subscriptions). I often try to include a picture with my entry. I’ve thought about getting my journal printed and bound so it’s not exclusively digital, but I haven’t made the effort yet.
I started journaling a few months ago and it's been horrible for me. Around the end of February I decided I wanted to lose weight, and decided to use a food and exercise journal. I have a channel on Discord I write in whenever I eat or work out, and I keep a running total of the net calories for the day.
Did it work? Yes, I've lost almost 30 pounds.
Was it worth it? A solid no. It's given me some kind of eating disorder, which came with fatigue, occasional blackouts, and all sorts of problems with my GI tract.
Not a doctor, I've had similar experiences in the past, overweight and poor concentration (despite being "gifted"). I tried journaling.
The accountability etc is almost magic in its effect but I had found it really hard to do. Then 12 weeks ago I started on Ozempic, almost no effort required - 30lbs lost. 3 years earlier I started taking 54mg methylphenidate and on the days I take it, concentration is not a problem.
I don't do a whole lot of the kind of long-form journaling most people are taking about here, but I've been keeping a pair of bullet journals for several years now, one for home and one for work.
The home one helps me keep track of where I'm spending my time, and of habits I'm trying to acquire, so I can make adjustments when things get out of balance. It's also a good place to keep notes on things I'm studying or working on.
The work journal is where I log what I'm working on each day; it's also where I plan, brainstorm, solve problems, and record solutions. I've found it to be especially effective when I'm blocked/stumped/tired: I open the journal, and take stock of what I know and what I can do about. It's also a great place to record ideas for later.
I started journaling in November 2019 using the Day One app on Mac. I haven’t missed a day. That’s 1273 days of consecutive journaling.
Has it changed me? Not really. It’s nice to look back and see what I wrote or pictures I took but that by itself isn't life changing.
Why do I still continue to do it then? Mostly as I developed the habit and it’s automatic now. Every morning I make a new entry for the day when I get on the computer then I finish every day writing in it, adding pictures etc.
It’s a nice way to clear out my brain at the end of the day. I guess in some way maybe it helps me organise my thoughts at the end of the day. Also planning the next day (or few days) is quite helpful to do in the evening vs in the morning for the day ahead.
Having said all that I started journaling at an amazing time. I captured the few months building up to the pandemic and reading back on my entries in the first half of 2020 is pretty wild. For a while I captured headlines and data on cases and deaths which are quite shocking to read with hindsight.
The lockdowns are quite interesting too. I can see when I started to struggle with different aspects of the pandemic and how I managed those depressive episodes.
So while it hasn’t changed my life I would probably say it does give me something to look at and learn from to hopefully be better in the future. I guess you could argue that is a change although not quite what people generally mean when talking about life changing habits.
My guess is you're asking if I feel journalling is worth it as you're interested in doing it? I would say yes. Don't do it expecting to change your life but it something I would suggest pretty much everyone do.
Looking back on happier or sadder times can be quite powerful in helping deal with any struggles of today. I have had a few health issues the past few years and being able to look back gives me a lot of positive mental energy when dealing with the next thing to come along. I can read and feel again how I felt during the harder times and track my progress even when things got harder for a while. This gives me the hope I often need when struggling in the present.
Hey there, fellow journaler! The way you describe it, you could be me. I also use DayOne. I started about a month after you and am on day 1,236. TBH, I think the streak feature is very motivating.
I say the same exact things to others about my experience. I love that it captures a snapshot of my life a truly unique period in US history. It captures my adventures jogging through the center of NYC busy streets during the lockdown, and all sorts of other adventures. I can tell you in reasonable detail every single notable thing about my last holiday trip, or any other place I've been.
I've also become the de-facto historian in my household. When my wife remembers something and wants to know a detail about it, I'm usually able to give at least a general summary of the experience.
In order to get over any resistance, I made a deal with myself that I could put as little or as much in as I want, and that I wouldn't be too personal. I guess you could say it's somewhat of an everyday travelog. It's the first time in my life that I actually carried through with journalling.
I've also been able to pick out trends when I compare the data on my Whoop vs activities and meals on a certain day. I don't always capture my meals, but I do often enough that it provides help when I'm trying to find a trend.
Here's a really strange random trend I discovered: On nights where I eat burrito bowls from Chipotle, I get measurably more deep and REM sleep.
I could go on all day about the ways my journal has been useful. I'll leave it there.
Edit: Just for fun, I send a link to this thread to my wife. She mistook your post as being from me at first. LOL
I’ve been journaling for over a decade in one form or another, more in the last several years than ever before. I write short blurbs almost daily to describe my state of mind, what’s been going on, gratitude, notes about what I’m working on. Every week or so I write something longer, when I feel like exploring something that’s on my mind.
The act of recognizing what I’m preoccupied with and examining it closely has been incredibly important for me. I can see that so many of my journals many years ago were negative, down on myself, frustrated, feeling stuck that I couldn’t get past things. Those have changed to be more accepting, exploring the positive side of things, reframing. Some of this is, of course, the effect of getting older and working on myself in other ways but journaling has definitely been a part of that.
I also have two young kids so I spend some time writing about things we’ve done, letters to them annually, important moments. I don’t share my personal life on social media but I try to keep a regular record of milestones and trips. My photo roll does most of that work but it’s nice to add a bit of color while I still remember the details.
One tip I’ll share … make sure you write it for yourself. I do a lot of writing in my job and on my blog and I often get into this trip of “does this sound good” or worry about other people reading it. Let go and just write what’s on your mind then write what you think about what’s on your mind.
I have at least three different kinds of journals:
1. Workout journal - I write down want I did and what was the effect. Often trends physical trends emerge after weeks, months, or years.
2. Summary of the day journal - Whenever I can, I write a short summary of the day/week. I look back to help my memory.
3. Problem journal - If I have a specific, important problem, I dump everything into a single spot. It reduces rumination, slows down my thought process, provides perspective by seeing it externally, and often solutions organically emerge.
I've been keeping a journal for about 12 years. It's in simple text files, one per day, one directory per year. It mostly contains health-related information: what I ate, any reactions to what I ate (I have various food allergies and such), any exercise I did, how much I weighed. It also contains mention of significant events, like when I finish a book, any movies I might have watched, friends I met up with, things like that.
It has mostly been useful for occasional reference. It is useful to notice long-term health trends and patterns. It is also useful to be able to confirm suspicions like whether I might have got an idea from a book I read - did I read it before or after some idea I had say six years ago.
Things I have found useful in writing the journal are to make sure things are spelled correctly, so I can easily grep through it without worrying about whether I made a typo. Ditto regarding synonyms: I strive to use the most common word to describe something and not get fancy. I use conventions for recording things, so for example my weight is on its own line in the format "Weight: xxx", so it is easy to write scripts that scrape such information to build tables and graphs.
There is very little beyond strict factual information, and I write it in prose, not bullet-form.
I hope you won't mind if I use the term "journaling" in its broadest sense as anything written about events of my life.
1. I write a training journal that consist of .fit files with extensive notes in .txt files - how I felt during and after the training (including things like "I discovered a new road next to a river, it was beautiful" or "I kept thinking about X and I was pissed), what I ate and how I slept that day, that I was observing swallows flying and that it made me feel good for some reason... writing a journal like this forces you to pay attention to little things. You notice patterns, maybe little signs of overtraining, signals that it is going well, connections that you might otherwise miss, like "I have elevated heart rate every time I eat poppy seed cookies"...
2. when I have something on my mind, I write it as an email for "someone close". This started during a difficult but interesting period in my life when I was actually sending emails to my close friend (we were on different continents and it was before Skype, mobile phones etc. - emails were the only connection we could have at the time). Nowadays I sometimes just write what is happening in my life without sending it to anyone but I usually still think about it as if I am writing to a friend. What is great about it is that this somehow re-frames heavy stuff into a funny story - it works even at the very moment when you are living through something tough; instead of just being depressed or scared you are already formulating in your head how you will write that email later and somehow your perspective changes into something a lot more positive - at least in my case it works like that.
Self-reflection increases self-awareness. When I'm anxious, I write. Just a first-person brief on whatever is on my mind.
I like doing it digitally because I tend to cut/paste things around to try and make sense of whatever it is that I'm ruminating on.
As far as tools go, I tend to write inside of Notion these days, as linking between journal articles is super handy when I want to see how my thoughts and feelings around a certain topic have matured over time.
[+] [-] jrib|2 years ago|reply
So I started journaling. I eventually built a good habit of doing it once a week. Every week, I read the previous entry and then write a new entry. Around the end of the year, I go back and read the whole year.
I prefer to use a physical journal with nice paper and a decent pen.
It has been very transformative for me. I write about my experiences and I write about what I read. I also write about what changes I want to make, and reflect on how changes I wanted to make are going.
Reviewing my thoughts in this way has led me 1) to be more forgiving of myself, focusing more on growth instead of failure and 2) to make incremental progress on objectives I have.
[+] [-] jadbox|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alex-moon|2 years ago|reply
I do this because I have really strong automatic negative thoughts, and always have. These can be really harmful to general flourishing, in particular by disrupting sleep and undermining self-confidence.
I don't really read these back. Rather, the writing itself is a kind of practice which aids processing of difficult emotions.
When I'm having difficult feelings, putting negative thoughts down in writing "gets them out of my head" which means I can let go of them, in turn easing the difficult feelings associated with them.
When I'm having positive feelings, putting a description of them down in writing forces me to notice them more than I would otherwise, which in turn inflates them.
Creating a balance of positive feelings to negative thoughts is one of the ways to take negative thoughts under control and manage them. What fires together wires together. Spiralling rumination is a seriously harmful thing to do to your own brain. Journalling is one way I manage this.
[+] [-] joshcanhelp|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sndwnm|2 years ago|reply
I sometimes read old entries randomly, but rarely find it enjoyable. However, every New Year's Eve I skim through each daily from the previous year and make a list of "all the things I forgot I did this year", and the list always surprises me very pleasantly with lots of things I totally forgot about. Honestly this alone makes it worth journaling — I feel really bad about not being able to reliably recall things I did prior to 2015.
Looking at the entries from the earlier years, my writing has definitely improved a lot. I always write in English although it's not my native language. I also like to write on paper but it makes organizing the documents a pain.
To answer the question, yes it has improved my life and I don't plan on stopping journaling.
[+] [-] ilyt|2 years ago|reply
Logging and notes? Yes. I am fond of "personal wiki" idea.
Project gets its own page with all relevant info. And links to all the other relevant things. Search makes sure I can actually find it. at worst if I wanted to look at history I could git blame so "when I wrote that" feature of journal is also filled in.
I use QOwnNotes which is absolute overkill feature-wise for me but I use it coz it keeps files in markdown which means I can edit/view it in many other things if required. Then syncthing to sync to other devices.
I'd only want for better integration with todo/calendar tools.
My ideal would be ability to write a calendar event (org-mode style) anywhere I want. And a feature to be able to express "put this event on my to-do list after date X". So I could, for example, put a maintenance thing year ahead on to-do list but without a concrete data and calendar alerts to bother me
I did use org-mode for a long time and it was great when only using editor but weak integration with anything else made me eventually leave it. Like, I love the featureset but non-emacs implementations always miss something (like spreadsheet-like table handling with formulas) and I grew tired of it.
[+] [-] ano88888|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rcarr|2 years ago|reply
For the first three months of the year I was religiously journaling. Pretty much every single day, with weekly and monthly reviews. Then towards the end of the quarter when it became apparent that I wasn’t going to get my project finished on time and that I was miserable I completely burnt out and stopped journaling and haven’t gone back to it yet. Journaling felt like work and it also felt like it was making my mental head space worse - it was constant, hyper focused reinforcement of negative energy and would just remind me of everything I was failing at or failing to do. I was succeeding at many things at the same time and writing those down but the journal was something of a relentless OODA loop for self improvement which meant I was constantly dissatisfied because my life was fixated on achieving the next goal rather than trying to enjoy the process. It didn’t help that the main problem I was working on was a frustrating nightmare.
I do want to start journaling again because it can lead to insights but I might have to experiment with it to find something healthier but I’m not sure what that would look like. All that being said I’m not sure my biggest insights come from journaling so who knows if it is that valuable. They probably come when I respond to questions like this on the internet or interact with people.
Thinking about it, in a way maybe it has helped. After burning out I kind of came to the realisation that I really am sick of being where I am and doing what I am doing which has lead to me selling up everything I own in order to go travelling. So maybe the journaling served its purpose of hammering home to me how dissatisfied I was with life and how I needed to make a radical change. The insight didn’t come whilst I was journaling but the journaling indirectly lead me to the insight. Maybe I’ll take it up again when I finally get out of the country in a few months.
[+] [-] honzabe|2 years ago|reply
First of all - good luck, I hope traveling will help you clear your head and find that change you are looking for. It worked in my case. Also, you reminded me of two other things journaling can help with - as you point out, it can lead to insight. Trying to formulate your thoughts clearly in writing can be very potent. And journaling can also work as a storage of good feelings - for example, I walked multiple paths of Camino de Santiago [1], each of them was a few weeks of great times... and I was journaling them. Every now and then, when I feel down after especially long and dark winter, I re-read those journals and they make me feel good. Áh, nostalgia strikes... I am gonna read them right now.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camino_de_Santiago
[+] [-] whamlastxmas|2 years ago|reply
https://medium.com/personal-growth/travel-is-no-cure-for-the...
[+] [-] malfist|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _Donny|2 years ago|reply
Personally, I feel there are many benefits to it, mainly:
1. It gives me time to think, to process my thoughts, explore ideas, and handle emotions. I often learn a lot about myself, what I did well, and how I can improve.
2. It is a great way to preserve memories. Only after I started writing my journal did I realize how much I forget about my past. I've always taken photos throughout my life, but those only capture a very small part of my life. My worries, the music I listened to, the TV-series I raved about, my dreams, my thoughts on the books I've read, the deep talks with my friends, are all preserved in my journal. It is easy to remember your vacations to exotic locations, but do you remember your everyday life from years back?
3. It can be meditative. It feels great to be able to sit for up to an hour and write without any barriers. I don't have to stress about my writing style, the words I use, embarrassing stuff about myself. I truly feel I can express myself to the fullest.
I'm really happy that I decided to write my journal in Markdown. This format can be opened pretty much everywhere, even on my phone or my moms computer. Furthermore, it enables me to do some crude formatting for code, create headings, and even attach images. And since it is digital, I can search in it pretty easily.
[+] [-] andyfos|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] clavalle|2 years ago|reply
Mine tends to be stream of consciousness, just one level above brain-dumping on scratchpaper, until I hit on something I want to explore. Then it becomes more structured (and sometimes ends up very structured indeed in mindmaps or various project folders, etc).
It works great for me. I get ideas down in useful forms. I don't have to continually consciously think on ideas to keep them alive, reducing cognitive load. I have a tool for effective reflection. I feel like it's helped me lead a more intentional life. Simple as that.
[+] [-] mcook08|2 years ago|reply
My approach is to read journal entries written on this date from previous years. For example, this morning, I read what I wrote on 5/16/20, 5/16/21, 5/16/22.
I wrote down my methodology here: https://mcook.fun/journaling
[+] [-] bogdanov79|2 years ago|reply
Best improvement: I realized that I always feel awful after meetings with some people and cut or heavily limited some relationships. Not having a journal, it was a regular pattern for me. To be invited, have a meeting, feel so-so after that, forgetting gradually about the experience, and sometime later, when the same person called, agreeing to another dreadful meeting. Having a couple of entries like: "met with X, felt terrible after the meeting, wasted time, X was bragging about sth all the time." It helps to avoid repeating such mistakes.
[+] [-] abhaynayar|2 years ago|reply
I think it depends on how and why you journal. I used to write a page in a notebook whenever I felt like writing. In my case don't think it has improved my life in a very tangible way, however it is interesting to look into a journal entry 5 years ago and see how different I was. So while it was not tangible self-improvement, it was very emotional and revelatory, both good and bad. However, I barely read that journal anymore, I will probably read it once a year maybe.
Perhaps if you are more specific with your goals it could help. These days I just use a daily habit tracker where I tick if I performed an action towards my goal for the day. Other than that, I write my thoughts on an online blog just to release the cognitive load. But that's intermittent. There are so many things that fall under "good habits" but we need to choose carefully what we want to spend our time on based on the reward/effort ratio. I have 2-3 max habits that I focus on completing daily at any given phase in my life. I may pick up journal-ling maybe when rest of my higher priority habits are more deeply ingrained / their goals achieved.
[+] [-] steve_adams_86|2 years ago|reply
Most people don’t like it. I think this is because they haven’t given it an honest try or considered the critical importance of being able to talk to yourself openly about what’s happening in your life and mind.
This would probably seem strange to a lot of people, or perhaps they believe they already do it with an internal monologue. Chances are pretty good that without a book to reflect on and the intent to do difficult things, your mind will readily distract itself and prevent you from doing difficult things that a journal might facilitate better.
For me it has made that personal exchange a lot more natural and easy. When I do foolish things I can talk to myself about it and figure out why I did it, what I can do differently next time, and feel better having put energy into doing better next time. When I do good things I can be grateful, consider what went right and why, and set intentions to do that more.
I also write about people I care about so I can be more intentional about how I’m present in their lives. I have ADHD and without being very intentional, I can figuratively and literally vanish from people’s lives due to getting in my head about things or being sucked into work or hobbies too much.
But I also know I’m happiest when I do things for people, I thrive on socializing despite being so good at being a hermit, and at the end of the day, I don’t think life is particularly worthwhile without a significant focus on being prosocial. So, I keep track of this stuff with the journal and make sure I’m staying on tracking with my goals and value system.
I can’t attribute all life changes to journaling, but I’d say it has made me a far better friend and parent since I started taking it seriously. I also know it has lead to me being better to myself, which is really important. Overall I’d say my personal affect is generally more constructive and positive, and I look at problems in my life as something I can engage with more now, whereas before I was far more avoidant.
There are other paths to similar practices, so journaling isn’t the only option. I highly recommend it to anyone willing to try, though. We should all be better at talking to ourselves. Our past, present, and even future selves.
[+] [-] ambivalents|2 years ago|reply
And your comments about ADHD, being more intentional with people, and living a prosocial-oriented life. I too could easily veer down a hermit-like path but deliberately effort not to. And I used to think that a personal CRM was overkill and such detailed tracking of others a waste of time. I haven't implemented anything yet, but I see the value of it now. Relationships are cumulative, interactions build off of each other. Remembering salient details in prior interactions (e.g. from my recent life, little tidbits I could find useful: Rachel deeply loves her mom. Ana is aware that I get car sick easily and made an accommodation for me, etc etc...)can enhance future ones.
[+] [-] sircastor|2 years ago|reply
I journal exclusively on a computer. I find I can get my thoughts out much faster on a keyboard and that helps the process be a lot lower friction for me.
In my journaling, I’ve found it really amazing how much I forget about situations and things I’ve done. It also helps me reflect on my day and my relationships. I am a strong proponent of journaling. When I write, I have 3 audiences in mind: myself, my descendants, and anthropologists. That is, partially just fun, but I also really appreciate there were people who wrote about themselves 6000 years ago such that we have that information.
I use Day One as a journaling app, though I don’t pay for it (I am frustrated by app subscriptions). I often try to include a picture with my entry. I’ve thought about getting my journal printed and bound so it’s not exclusively digital, but I haven’t made the effort yet.
[+] [-] junething|2 years ago|reply
Did it work? Yes, I've lost almost 30 pounds.
Was it worth it? A solid no. It's given me some kind of eating disorder, which came with fatigue, occasional blackouts, and all sorts of problems with my GI tract.
[+] [-] etothepii|2 years ago|reply
The accountability etc is almost magic in its effect but I had found it really hard to do. Then 12 weeks ago I started on Ozempic, almost no effort required - 30lbs lost. 3 years earlier I started taking 54mg methylphenidate and on the days I take it, concentration is not a problem.
[+] [-] the_sleaze9|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wduquette|2 years ago|reply
The home one helps me keep track of where I'm spending my time, and of habits I'm trying to acquire, so I can make adjustments when things get out of balance. It's also a good place to keep notes on things I'm studying or working on.
The work journal is where I log what I'm working on each day; it's also where I plan, brainstorm, solve problems, and record solutions. I've found it to be especially effective when I'm blocked/stumped/tired: I open the journal, and take stock of what I know and what I can do about. It's also a great place to record ideas for later.
I expect to continue doing this indefinitely.
[+] [-] satysin|2 years ago|reply
Has it changed me? Not really. It’s nice to look back and see what I wrote or pictures I took but that by itself isn't life changing.
Why do I still continue to do it then? Mostly as I developed the habit and it’s automatic now. Every morning I make a new entry for the day when I get on the computer then I finish every day writing in it, adding pictures etc.
It’s a nice way to clear out my brain at the end of the day. I guess in some way maybe it helps me organise my thoughts at the end of the day. Also planning the next day (or few days) is quite helpful to do in the evening vs in the morning for the day ahead.
Having said all that I started journaling at an amazing time. I captured the few months building up to the pandemic and reading back on my entries in the first half of 2020 is pretty wild. For a while I captured headlines and data on cases and deaths which are quite shocking to read with hindsight.
The lockdowns are quite interesting too. I can see when I started to struggle with different aspects of the pandemic and how I managed those depressive episodes.
So while it hasn’t changed my life I would probably say it does give me something to look at and learn from to hopefully be better in the future. I guess you could argue that is a change although not quite what people generally mean when talking about life changing habits.
My guess is you're asking if I feel journalling is worth it as you're interested in doing it? I would say yes. Don't do it expecting to change your life but it something I would suggest pretty much everyone do.
Looking back on happier or sadder times can be quite powerful in helping deal with any struggles of today. I have had a few health issues the past few years and being able to look back gives me a lot of positive mental energy when dealing with the next thing to come along. I can read and feel again how I felt during the harder times and track my progress even when things got harder for a while. This gives me the hope I often need when struggling in the present.
[+] [-] rwl4|2 years ago|reply
I say the same exact things to others about my experience. I love that it captures a snapshot of my life a truly unique period in US history. It captures my adventures jogging through the center of NYC busy streets during the lockdown, and all sorts of other adventures. I can tell you in reasonable detail every single notable thing about my last holiday trip, or any other place I've been.
I've also become the de-facto historian in my household. When my wife remembers something and wants to know a detail about it, I'm usually able to give at least a general summary of the experience.
In order to get over any resistance, I made a deal with myself that I could put as little or as much in as I want, and that I wouldn't be too personal. I guess you could say it's somewhat of an everyday travelog. It's the first time in my life that I actually carried through with journalling.
I've also been able to pick out trends when I compare the data on my Whoop vs activities and meals on a certain day. I don't always capture my meals, but I do often enough that it provides help when I'm trying to find a trend.
Here's a really strange random trend I discovered: On nights where I eat burrito bowls from Chipotle, I get measurably more deep and REM sleep.
I could go on all day about the ways my journal has been useful. I'll leave it there.
Edit: Just for fun, I send a link to this thread to my wife. She mistook your post as being from me at first. LOL
[+] [-] joshcanhelp|2 years ago|reply
The act of recognizing what I’m preoccupied with and examining it closely has been incredibly important for me. I can see that so many of my journals many years ago were negative, down on myself, frustrated, feeling stuck that I couldn’t get past things. Those have changed to be more accepting, exploring the positive side of things, reframing. Some of this is, of course, the effect of getting older and working on myself in other ways but journaling has definitely been a part of that.
I also have two young kids so I spend some time writing about things we’ve done, letters to them annually, important moments. I don’t share my personal life on social media but I try to keep a regular record of milestones and trips. My photo roll does most of that work but it’s nice to add a bit of color while I still remember the details.
One tip I’ll share … make sure you write it for yourself. I do a lot of writing in my job and on my blog and I often get into this trip of “does this sound good” or worry about other people reading it. Let go and just write what’s on your mind then write what you think about what’s on your mind.
[+] [-] brian_spiering|2 years ago|reply
1. Workout journal - I write down want I did and what was the effect. Often trends physical trends emerge after weeks, months, or years.
2. Summary of the day journal - Whenever I can, I write a short summary of the day/week. I look back to help my memory.
3. Problem journal - If I have a specific, important problem, I dump everything into a single spot. It reduces rumination, slows down my thought process, provides perspective by seeing it externally, and often solutions organically emerge.
[+] [-] ilteris|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] EdwardCoffin|2 years ago|reply
It has mostly been useful for occasional reference. It is useful to notice long-term health trends and patterns. It is also useful to be able to confirm suspicions like whether I might have got an idea from a book I read - did I read it before or after some idea I had say six years ago.
Things I have found useful in writing the journal are to make sure things are spelled correctly, so I can easily grep through it without worrying about whether I made a typo. Ditto regarding synonyms: I strive to use the most common word to describe something and not get fancy. I use conventions for recording things, so for example my weight is on its own line in the format "Weight: xxx", so it is easy to write scripts that scrape such information to build tables and graphs.
There is very little beyond strict factual information, and I write it in prose, not bullet-form.
[+] [-] honzabe|2 years ago|reply
1. I write a training journal that consist of .fit files with extensive notes in .txt files - how I felt during and after the training (including things like "I discovered a new road next to a river, it was beautiful" or "I kept thinking about X and I was pissed), what I ate and how I slept that day, that I was observing swallows flying and that it made me feel good for some reason... writing a journal like this forces you to pay attention to little things. You notice patterns, maybe little signs of overtraining, signals that it is going well, connections that you might otherwise miss, like "I have elevated heart rate every time I eat poppy seed cookies"...
2. when I have something on my mind, I write it as an email for "someone close". This started during a difficult but interesting period in my life when I was actually sending emails to my close friend (we were on different continents and it was before Skype, mobile phones etc. - emails were the only connection we could have at the time). Nowadays I sometimes just write what is happening in my life without sending it to anyone but I usually still think about it as if I am writing to a friend. What is great about it is that this somehow re-frames heavy stuff into a funny story - it works even at the very moment when you are living through something tough; instead of just being depressed or scared you are already formulating in your head how you will write that email later and somehow your perspective changes into something a lot more positive - at least in my case it works like that.
[+] [-] marpstar|2 years ago|reply
I like doing it digitally because I tend to cut/paste things around to try and make sense of whatever it is that I'm ruminating on.
As far as tools go, I tend to write inside of Notion these days, as linking between journal articles is super handy when I want to see how my thoughts and feelings around a certain topic have matured over time.