
How to Keep a Journal - lermontov
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/07/15/how-to-keep-a-journal/
======
aerovistae
I started journaling in high school and found a very effective medium for it:
a dedicated gmail account.

I created a new account _only_ for this, and periodically send emails from
that account to itself, each email representing a day and having a subject
line of the form "July 20, 2016".

Since the account has never been used in any other way, the inbox becomes a
pure index of dates, and the account receives no other messages because no
person or service is aware it exists besides me.

Advantages:

    
    
        --nobody can find it lying around    
        --inherently passworded    
        --nobody can ever even know it exists unless I tell them    
        --indexed, searchable.....can't tell you how wonderful it is to be able to type in a person's name and find the day I met them, years and years later.
        --never gets damaged or lost: it'll go down when gmail dies. not anytime soon.
        --infinite "pages"
        --accessible from anywhere
    

It's been wonderfully rewarding. It isn't until you start keeping a journal,
and have had it for quite some time, that you start to realize just how much
of your life you forget. As soon as you reread something from a certain day,
you might think, "Wow! I totally forgot about that!" but now the memory is
reawakened, fresh as yesterday. The memory was still there, hibernating. It
might have been lost if you hadn't dusted it off.

But then there are many other memories, from 7 and 8 and 9 years ago, the
small day-to-day interactions, the smaller subplots in the greater
storyline....that may as well be from someone else's life. I know the places
and people they're describing, but I have no memory of having done these
things anymore. It's a little sad in a way.

I'm glad I keep a journal. 10/10 recommend even if you only update
occasionally.

~~~
brianliou91
Great idea thanks for sharing! Using gmail as a journal though does seem to
contradict the message in this article because by using Gmail, while it is
extremely efficient, it's not 100% private. Maybe it's just my own paranoia
but I feel like you would even more fall into that disconnect "between what I
thought I was supposed to feel (what a normal person would feel) and what I
actually felt." Or maybe I'm interpreting this article incorrectly?

~~~
aerovistae
I didn't actually read this particular article, I was just making a related
comment. So I can't really debate it with you!

But what do you mean it's not really private?

IF you are referring to Google having access, this is my response, otherwise,
not sure what you meant:

I mean....I believe in anonymity through numbers.

Even if there were employees at google for some insane reason sitting around
reading private gmail accounts, what are the odds mine would come up for
notice among _more than a billion others_? It's pretty ordinary. It's not full
of child porn. It's like worrying someone would notice a particular grain of
sand on a beach just because it's sitting right there in the open.

------
DarkTree
When I started journaling, I promised myself that I would be honest with
myself, because the purpose of journaling was to chronicle what I was thinking
at that time in my life. I not only write out moments that stand out in that
day, like things that went wrong or went well, but how I feel about those
events. Most of the time this revolves around my interactions with people, or
lack of interactions with people. I also write about what I am especially
grateful for that day, what I'm looking forward to, and what I'm doing today
to get me there. It is a very cathartic experience to go back months/years
later and read it. You get such an insight into the person you were, but more
notably, realize that you do actually change over time even if sometimes it
doesn't feel like it.

~~~
Fraterkes
This is what I find appealing about journaling, but I just find the thought
that someone might find mu journal and read all my thoughts over the years
kinda scary. Do you do anything to protect your journal?

~~~
tgb
I sometimes write in encrypted files through vim for this reason. :X does the
trick.

It feels juvenile to hide it when I know no one will care, but the idea that
it can be entirely personal opens the option to being more honest. Future self
can still be judgemental, but the only way to avoid that is to pipe it to
/dev/null instead.

~~~
thro1237
And the equivalent for emacs is?

~~~
ColinCochrane
You can encrypt org files pretty easily. [http://orgmode.org/worg/org-
tutorials/encrypting-files.html](http://orgmode.org/worg/org-
tutorials/encrypting-files.html)

------
ideonexus
I started keeping a journal after my wife's family got scans of her
grandfather's journal and seeing the fun all the aunts and uncles had reading
them.

The journal I keep is for my family. It's very brief, just date-events and
(mostly) happy memories. I want to keep and share with my kids in the future.
I find it's great for keeping track of my kids' developmental milestones, a
perspective on time, and seeing just how much life my family squeezes in to a
year. There are notes for myself, but I use a cryptic code so only I
understand them (my wife's grandfather apparently had a similar system that
the kids have never deciphered).

Google Photos has been a big enhancement as well. I make it a point to take
gigs of photos every month, keep them backed up, and also enjoy them in the
Google Photos timeline and scrapbooks it algorithmically generates. Before
Google Photos, I was using Flickr, but that was a more manual process.
Additionally, my wife and I combine our photo collections every quarter, which
makes the digital family photo album a huge library of videos and moments in
time that I visit all the time.

Strange thing is... before the digital camera on my phone and starting my
journal on Google Drive, I have this big semi-empty place in my life history.
I've tried to fill it in by sifting through old emails, scanning my parents'
photo-albums, etc, but it's much thinner and the memories are therefore
somewhat dimmer. I have a friend who said he will not start a journal of his
daughter's life because he would feel so bad about not documenting her first
two years and all the memories he would realize he'd lost. I didn't think
about using my phone camera on a daily-basis until my first son was over a
year-old. As a result we have much less of his first year documented, and I do
feel a significant loss for failing to preserve that.

~~~
ashark
You may already be aware of this, but, from the experience of watching old
home movies while my mom digitized them: if you're recording video or taking
pictures at least _in part_ for your kids, be aware that they may care more
about seeing _old you_ and other relatives than they will _old them_ , so try
to turn the camera on yourselves once in a while.

~~~
BooneJS
Many people in the world do not have trouble turning a camera on themselves,
but this is solid advice for those with introspective tendencies.

~~~
ashark
It can be really easy when filming/photographing your kids to forget this, in
my experience, at least. Parents seem to focus on the kids to the exclusion of
everything else. I make a conscious effort to get my wife or other adults in
frame with the kid(s) when possible, now that I know what it's like to watch
old home movies when you're all growed up. Also the occasional slow sweep of a
room or other context before/after a shot so maybe they'll get a few more "oh
wow, I remember that chair!"-type moments than they otherwise might. No one
ever thinks to film the furniture :-)

~~~
ideonexus
These are all great points and ideas. And I'm instantly thinking of things I'm
not capturing enough of in my videos and pictures. Thank you all!

------
BooneJS
I love reading about the people of history, and most them are written through
organization and analysis of letters and journals. Theodore Roosevelt was a
prodigious writer (sending a few letters per week from your ranch in the
Dakota to Europe was possible when you were a Roosevelt), and Ms. Kearns
Goodwin[0] was able to pull together an incredible story of the lives of
Presidents Roosevelt and Taft as told through their journals and letters, not
just what was written about them in the newspapers.

What book will historians write about me from my git log (assuming historians
figure out git's interface)?

[0]: The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden
Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin

------
viral_krieger
I have been keeping a journal and taking a picture every day since my first
year of college. Before I moved out of my parents' house I looked at a few
family photo albums. There were countless times where I thought, "I would have
never remembered that without seeing this photo." That thought both scared and
excited me. I don't what significant memories I have lost throughout my life,
but I can make sure to write down every future one I deem important.

Writing down my thoughts also forces me to reflect on my conversations with
other people. I often find myself seeing someone's point of view more clearly
and better understanding their thought process. I thought I was open-minded
before, but dissecting someone else's seemingly convoluted opinion makes you
accept almost any possibility.

I also make sure to write as honest as possible. When I look back at my
journals in the future, I want to think, "This is exactly how I perceived the
event given my knowledge at the time." I write what happened, my thoughts on
what happened, and how I reacted.

------
slowmovintarget
Actual title: "How Not to Keep a Journal"

Summary: Write about how you felt, what you thought, and why. Don't simply
catalog events.

------
kerrsclyde
Something I feel passionate about. One of my very few regrets is that I didn't
start my daily journal until my 30's. Chatting to friends who are about to
become parents, the only advice I could think of was to take the
pictures/videos (which you will do) and keep a simple journal - it's the
little stuff which years later provides so much joy.

I started a basic journal in my early 20's but it was really just a list of
important things that happened to me, no embellishment or feelings, I should
have taken the time to do more.

My journals are private, I use Evernote now but could do the same in a .txt
file which I used to do. The technology is not important, setting aside a
little time each day to document what happened and what you thought about it
is. Start today people!

------
greggman
I am __not __saying don 't keep a journal but ...

I wonder how important it is for most people in the world of today. I have
every email I've written since about 1995. If I go read heart felt
correspodence with close friends I effectly get at least some resemblance a
journal. Before email I wouldn't have likely kept copies of letters I sent but
now that's effectively automatic.

Similarly many people take an order or two more pictures than they did before
digital picture and smartphones. Several times a year I stumble on my photo
collection usually when searching for an old picture and I end up seeing a
large percentage of my entire collection back to about 95. I've also had
scanned all my dad's slide collection and my grandmother's photo collection.

Of course a dedicated journal would probably be better. I'm just pointing out
that I get some of the benefits automatically.

I really wish I could fully backup and download my Facebook entries, comments,
chats. Same with Line and Whatsapp. I used to backup all my SMS messages back
when I used SMS.

~~~
SyneRyder
Whatsapp has a way to backup as well, but I think you need to be using an
iPhone. There's an option to store everything on iCloud, and from there you
can access the iCloud backup folder via your computer. I don't remember the
exact process, but it is possible - I had a few months of audio Whatsapp
messages I wanted to backup/keep and was able to do it.

------
to3m
I never kept a journal or diary. I'm 39 now, and I don't regret it. I do
regret not having more photos of myself when I was younger though!

Assuming my old emails from 20-odd years ago are representative - if you read
your thoughts from N years ago, they'll probably seem stupid and gauche, and
you'll realise that in N years' time you'll probably think exactly the same of
your thoughts today. Not a positive thing, I say, if you wish to project a
general attitude of confidence, especially if you have have a natural tendency
to second guess yourself anyway.

On the other hand, if the few old photos I have are anything to go by, when
you look at a photo of yourself from N years ago, there's a fair chance you'll
look attractive and youthful - no matter how pedestrian (or worse) you thought
your looks at the time. And then the same line of thought applies... but
hopefully with an opposite result.

~~~
dredmorbius
I don't formally keep a journal, but I've written a great deal that's still
accessible, mostly by virtue of being online in various personae.

Yes, there's a period of your life when much of your writing _is_ juvenile. My
experience has been that there came a point where what I was writing took a
distinct tone and clarity and actually managed to be _good_ at times. I still
catch myself liking and/or being amused by my various thoughts.

There's also the evolution of ideas and interests. Mine have evolved quite
distinctly as I've passed through some five decades, almost, and watching
what's changed, and what's remained constant, in that evolution is also
fascinating. Well, for me, anyway.

------
gglitch
How do HNers keep a diary? I feel like I've done it all: pleb notebooks, fancy
notebooks, private blog, public blog, apps (DayOne), Emacs modes, text files
in a dir, photos, plaintext, markdown, html. Seems like everything comes with
a compromise. I love the custom Emacs mode I made, but then it doesn't include
photos and I can't easily do it with a phone. I loved DayOne, but then they
forced a change on their storage policy, which reminded me of the stupidity of
paying a business for a proprietary system. I've used Apple Notes, but then I
wonder about getting the data out of Apple Notes. Pen/paper are great, but
slow, and (comparatively) fragile (I know, I know, pen/paper will last a
thousand years; but believe me, you don't want to drop your paper journal out
of the canoe). Etc etc.

~~~
hellameta
I actually make private Facebook wall posts to myself. It's great, easy to see
and scroll through any time, and I can also add my friends individually (or a
list of them) at a time when it's appropriate to share. The interface is
great, I can comment on my own thoughts... I know this won't get any fans in
this crowd but I think it's great.

------
pnathan
I keep a journal; entries arise about every two weeks. I want to record things
I want to tell my future self. Or thoughts worth thinking about that I don't
want to encode into the internet. I did keep an ad-hoc one for years, and I
regret not writing in it more.

Because of that ad-hoc experience, I do a mm / dd / yyyy for each entry -
because I've journaled literally years between entries! (do not recommend)
These bits and pieces of trivial information do provide a regularity, a
structure, a ritual to the matter. Anyway.

I highly recommend keeping a reflection on what you do. It provides
introspection now and later.

------
0xCMP
What is the point of journaling? To remember the past and how we felt.

So with all these online services where we're living our lives we should save
these in a kind of journal. Twitter, pinboard, flickr, etc.

I am really interesting in Camlistore[0] for this and the fact that you can
add normal files of any size to it as well. Now I can archive my old notes
which aren't useful right now, but I wouldn't want lost somehow.

[0]:[https://camlistore.org](https://camlistore.org)

------
znpy
Only tangentially related: I find the concept of laboratory journal
fascinating.

I wonder if someone keeps such a thing, and how would it be.

How could the concept of lab journal apply to computer science and/or software
engineering ?

~~~
xerophyte12932
Debugging Journal. Though to be honest, it's hard to stick to this habit. When
I _do_ make entries, they are of the form:

\- Symptoms (how is the bug manifesting) \- Initial Observations (This is
where you dig into the code/debugger and write down all the weird things that
are happening) \- Guess (A statement of what you think is causing this based
on your observations) \- Fix (what change you made) \- Result (Did it fix the
bug? Did some new bug pop up as a result?) \- Repeat till bug resolved

Obviously, it's hard to keep writing so meticulously about bugs, but it sure
does help when something similar pops up again.

------
arvinsim
Choosing the medium to store journals is pretty easy when all you want is
plain text. But when you include photos, that is where the problem starts.

~~~
jmnicolas
HTML seems the most time proof format to me.

