
Ask HN: Do you keep a journal? - hellofunk
If so, how long have you done so, and has it had any effect on your life? I&#x27;ve been keeping one for a couple months now, and I still find it to be a bit of a &quot;chore.&quot; I document my daily work, thoughts, feelings, vent frustrations, confide to it, and monitor progress in various ways. But I have not found it to be useful other than as another distraction and pull on my time. I&#x27;ve read that journal-keepers are usually more productive, but I&#x27;m more productive on days I don&#x27;t spend thinking about my journal.
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halpme
I use a composition notebook at work. Every day I write down a list of things
I'm going to discuss at the scrum meeting, a list of things to do that day, a
list of goals for that week to remind myself what I'm supposed to be doing,
and then take notes on the bugs I'm working on. I'm a huge fan of diagrams and
mindmaps so I fill up the pages with those, as well as notes of ideas that pop
into my head or something my coworkers/boss mention that might be useful
information later. At the end of the day I write a summary of what I
accomplished and make any quick list of things I want to get done the next
day.

I can flip through pages and actually see how my progress with certain things
evolves over time. Sometimes, as a self-esteem booster, I look at my notes on
something I've been struggling with a few months ago, and compare it to my
current state of knowledge. I also have a bad memory and get somewhat nervous
during scrum, so having notes to reference when its my turn to speak is super
helpful.

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a_lifters_life
I do, I update it a few times a year (then its not a chore), but i can go back
and look at what i was thinking about certain topics in the past (job, rel,
etc).

