You Should Really Start a Journal

I’ve been keeping a journal for the past couple of years. These are the main reasons I do it and how it helped me.

Why I Started#

I started journaling a couple of years ago as a new year’s resolution. Since I knew I wanted to do it long term, I knew that writing literally every day was not possible, even though I wanted it to be. So I created the following rules for myself:

There’s been some days when I didn’t get to write in my journal. Mostly when I got home late, or sometimes when I just felt too tiered. But I stuck to my rule. I never skipped more than 2 consecutive days.

How It Helped#

Writing a journal helped me rationalize my emotions and made me more aware of how I actually feel.

Another great benefit is that I can look at a snapshot of what I did in the past, literally whenever I want. If I’m curious what I did or how I felt a couple of days ago, weeks, months, or even years at this point, I can easily find out.

I’ve seen some apps that try to somewhat emulate this benefit of looking back by simplifying the process. They ask you how you feel at the end of the day then put a certain color mark in a calendar. I feel like they’re lacking detail.

If you have a journal and look at what you did on a random day last year, you’re going to relive those experiences a little. If you look at the color green on a random calendar day, you won’t know shit about that day. A simple chain of colors don’t tell you much.

How I Do It#

I use Obsidian to write my journal.

The Obsidian Vault is hosted in a private git repo. I push and pull to that repo from both my computer and my phone (through Termux). This way I can sync my data without paying a monthly subsciption.

At the time of writing this, I’m on journal entry number 887. At the time of publishing I’m at journal entry number 894.

You can get to such numbers too. All you have to do is start.

How You Can Do It#

The great thing about a journal is that it’s truly yours!

You can write whatever you want. You can write whenever and wherever you want. You can write long or short entries. You can write about how you feel, what you did during the day, or some gossip you’ve heard while out for coffee. Pick your own journaling app, or write on paper. There are no limits. There are no rules. You can do whatever you want.

If you feel like it, you can do it the way I did it. If you don’t, then don’t. Choose your own adventure!

All I ask you to do is start.