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I am about to start my 11th journal. I have been journaling for about 10 years, but I have only been consistent for about 5. As an aside, I would define “consistent” as leaving fewer and fewer days unwritten. I mostly journal about events from my day. I used to journal about general ideas as well, but I began to separate recounting my experiences from using writing as a way to think things through. To write about live events I use a physical notebook and to write about everything else I use Obsidian. Overall, I have experienced some great benefits, mostly regarding how I organize information in my own head and how well I remember things.

- I now find it easier to put events from my day-to-day life into a structure. If you ask people about their memories, you will find that many of them have a single moment they remember well. But what happened right before and what happened right after? Sometimes we forget the sequence of events that led into something or how we “got out of it,” so to speak. Journaling helped me know how A led to B and then C.

- It’s a good way to keep (somewhat) accurate records. If I ever wonder something along the lines of “hm, I wonder when it was that I started doing x thing,” it’s very convenient to check the journal and know right away.

- It helps me see how often the future recontextualizes the past. Some things that seem unimportant in the present become important in the future and vice versa. I mean this both in a philosophical/emotional sense and a practical one. The more you notice the general way things develop, the better you become at predicting what will be relevant and what won’t. It makes it easier for me to see facts in terms of what future things are implied in the current conditions.

- It’s a good way to understand your own feelings. There is a catharsis that comes with writing quite a few pages about something that has been bothering you or that you otherwise want to reflect more about. It has definitely helped me.

- It’s a good way to avoid getting stuck in a frame of mind. Whenever I read back my journals, I see how many things I have already gone through – which, ironically I thought were completely new experiences / thoughts. I see this in other people as well, where someone will make a grand declaration about something and forger the other times they said the exact same thing. There is a Roger Ebert review of the 63 Up movie that mentions that “whenever one of the subjects. . . brings up a past statement or event, the movie cuts to a sequence of shots or moments illustrating that the character has always been preoccupied with that thing, or done that thing, or denied being worried about that thing.” I think this is relevant to everyone.