Why Keep a Journal?

TechFactoid

This post was composed using Markdown in Byword and Brett Terpstra's Marked 2. I'll tell you about them sometime.

I was reading through the beginining of my current journal - a bit like tidying an attic - and became thoroughly absorbed by this past life and my brain started listing the reasons why keeping a journal is so useful. Here's a few of my thoughts.

There are so many benefits to keeping a journal.

• To record events.
• To keep track of recurring events.
• To capture thoughts and ideas and organise them.
• To collect information.
• To get your feelings and emotions out of your head.

Record Historical Events

To record what happened, events that occurred in the world. Things that you and others around you experienced. Who did what and when and where it happened and in what circumstances. What you thought about, what you said, what they said and how your felt.
A physical chronological record, so when you look back you know the what, the when, the where, the who, the how and maybe the why too.
Whether the weather. It was interesting to read in my journal that this time three years ago the weather was much the same as it is at the moment.

Record Specific Things

What I Eat

You might want to record what you eat for a variety of reasons. Perhaps you’re on a diet or you want to remember what you ate at a certain time and place. Make comments on the quality and quantity of what you ate. Maybe you eat out a lot and want to review the places you ate.

What I Drink

You might want to record what you drink to keep track of your:-

• Fluid intake
• Caffein intake
• Sugar intake
• Alcohol consumption

These are health reasons but you might be more interested in the quality of the things you are drinking like:-

• Tea
• Coffee
• Wine
• Beer
• Spirits

This could be for your own interest or as a reviewer.

Numbers, numbers, numbers

How far, how fast, how long, how much, what time? We quantify so many things in our lives because they are significant in certain contexts.

“Them as counts counts moren them as don’t count” Riddley Walker.

“Just because you can count it doesn’t mean it counts. Just because you can’t count it doesn’t mean it doesn’t count” Albert Einstein

Now make the sound of one stone clacking.

How I Felt

What sort of mood were you in when you were eating or drinking? The context is important. Where were you? Who were you with? What were you doing? Why? Did you want to be there?

Legal

If you think your employer or employee is behaving badly, a chronological record of significant events and conversations is essential if things turn nasty.

Capture Thoughts and Ideas

You always think you’ll remember that thought, idea or flash of inspiration. “Of course I’ll remember. It was such a fantastic idea” but a minor distraction shifts your attention and it evaporates leaving only the memory that you had a great idea. So, write it down when it happens.

Florilegium

Other useful things to capture are:-

• Quotes and sayings
• Recipes
• Where to find that certain thing
• Books you want to read
• Music you heard and want to buy
• Anything else you want to acquire
• Where you found wild blackberries
• Any other useful facts
• Interesting words or phrases
• Instructions
  • How to do it
  • How to get there
  • How to make it
  • Nifty tricks and shortcuts
• Names and addresses (that really good plumber)
• A good restaurant
• Places to visit
• Bits of that book you’re writing, song you’re composing
• Lists, lists, lists

This is a florilegium - literally ’a gathering of flowers - a miscellany. These notebooks were kept by 16th century clerics to gather information that might be useful when writing sermons. They escaped into the wild and became fashionable with ordinary - albeit wealthy and literate - folk.

Mind Dump

Catharsis. The benefits of dumping your thoughts, and emotions onto a page are manifold. It gets them out of your head and exposes them to the light where they are less likely to cause mischief. Thoughts and emotions can run amok inside your head but get them out in the open air and they seem different. Not quite so powerful or menacing, perhaps mundane, even ridiculous.

You’re using a different part of your brain to evaluate your thoughts when you write them down and read them. The more logical, analytical part which dampens their emotional power. You put some distance between you and them. It may be only the few inches between your eyes and the page but at least they’re not inside your head.

Writing your thoughts allows you to structure and organise them and cause other thoughts and ideas to appear spontaneously. Like walking down a street and seeing all the side streets leading off to who knows where - other places to explore that you were previously unaware of, offering new possibilities. Or walking to the end of a dead end street only to discover there’s a hidden alleyway leading into a market square.

Your scrivenings can build a map that shows you the lay of your mindscape and reveal patterns and connections you didn’t know were possible until this bird’s eye view was available to you.

Writing is therapeutic and cheaper than a shrink - who may have motives different from yours that may not be in your best interests - if you become dependent on your journal, that’s a minor problem that may - in the long term - provide you with solutions. Becoming dependent on your shrink/mentor/councillor is the path to Trouble with a Capital T.

Reflect and Review

It’s always informative to look back on the day, week, month, year, decade to see how far you’ve come - or not, to see what’s changed - or not.

What do you need or want to do? Where do you want to go? Where would you like to be the next time you sit and review?

Times of Change

Something else that’s worth recording in your journal, which is related to creating a historical record, is recording events during times of great change. For instance, when Mam became ill and died. It would have, or will be, useful at some time to read about what was happening at specific moments, to note how I felt and acted. The same for others too, what they did, said and felt.

Reading it as history might make it easier to spot patterns, trends or significant milestones. It’s easier to forget and lose track of things during times of rapid change or flux - especially when emotions are heightened - as you’re devoting so much time and effort to dealing with what’s going on. What’s pressing and proximate.

Sitting quietly and writing a few notes can be an oasis, a safe haven, a time to reflect, gather your senses, think, regroup, organise and plan. Your journal can become a map in turbulent times. A valuable navigation aid.

Keep it handy!