Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Has journaling improved your life?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 75 posts

Re: Ask HN: Has journaling improved your life?

#51

Post by sndwnm »

I've been journaling since 2015, one text file per day and have not missed a single day. However, quite often the daily consists of the single word "Working.", so the bar is not exactly high. I usually write about what I spent my day on, and impressions about the media I'm consuming. I also collect interesting quotes and links. The longest dailies occur when I try to analyze my direction in life, progress with personal projects, the frustrations of a day job, and such. I originally started journaling as a form of brainstorming to help writing fiction, but I since moved that content elsewhere because its format clashes with the rest of the journal.

I sometimes read old entries randomly, but rarely find it enjoyable. However, every New Year's Eve I skim through each daily from the previous year and make a list of "all the things I forgot I did this year", and the list always surprises me very pleasantly with lots of things I totally forgot about. Honestly this alone makes it worth journaling — I feel really bad about not being able to reliably recall things I did prior to 2015.

Looking at the entries from the earlier years, my writing has definitely improved a lot. I always write in English although it's not my native language. I also like to write on paper but it makes organizing the documents a pain.

To answer the question, yes it has improved my life and I don't plan on stopping journaling.

Re: Ask HN: Has journaling improved your life?

#52

Post by wduquette »

I don't do a whole lot of the kind of long-form journaling most people are taking about here, but I've been keeping a pair of bullet journals for several years now, one for home and one for work.

The home one helps me keep track of where I'm spending my time, and of habits I'm trying to acquire, so I can make adjustments when things get out of balance. It's also a good place to keep notes on things I'm studying or working on.

The work journal is where I log what I'm working on each day; it's also where I plan, brainstorm, solve problems, and record solutions. I've found it to be especially effective when I'm blocked/stumped/tired: I open the journal, and take stock of what I know and what I can do about. It's also a great place to record ideas for later.

I expect to continue doing this indefinitely.

Re: Ask HN: Has journaling improved your life?

#53

Post by jamilton »

I journal infrequently. Used to use physical journals and still do occasionally, mostly use the journal plugin in Zim (https://zim-wiki.org/) now, plus git for edit history. I also use Zim for non-dated notes.

I have a poor memory, so I like having minor life events documented, and documenting them probably helps me remember them in the first place. It's also good for working through and solidifying whatever I've been thinking about lately.

Re: Ask HN: Has journaling improved your life?

#55

Post by jjice »

I used to. Started during the pandemic and wrote about every third day. I've fallen out lately, mostly because the machine I store it on is wonkier these days. I really love it though. It was hard being alone in a new state at the beginning of the pandemic, but writing my thoughts out and having to acknowledge them in a clear way helped a lot. It's helped me process a lot of emotion to help me understand why I felt a certain way. The past two years have been very good and I should journal more.

Something I started doing that helped me was to stop worrying about my grammar in my journal entries. They're mostly write only and off the cuff so I tried to make it a brain dump with more thought and not too much more.

Re: Ask HN: Has journaling improved your life?

#56

Post by frollo »

I've been trying journaling in one form or another for about 15 years now and found it completely, utterly useless. I've lost count of the number of journals, either physical or digital, I've thrown away in the past. Be them partially filled or just turned into something to rip pieces of paper off whenever I needed to write on something.

I keep some track of stuff I'm working on in my day job, so I can reconstruct what I did the day before before the standup, instead of during it as I used to, but beyond that, I just forget stuff when I don't care about it anymore. No need to keep it around in a different format, if I don't care about it enough to keep it in my mind.

Re: Ask HN: Has journaling improved your life?

#57

Post by nXqd »

I did take note everyday at 8pm, now around 12pm since I work later. It makes my day much clearer and knowing exactly what to do the next day is important and much more productive. I often do 2 most important things: 1. Review my day, what did I do well, what not so well and how to improve. 2. What to do next days, important tasks which will make me close to my goals.

Re: Ask HN: Has journaling improved your life?

#58

Post by nicbou »

It's both a record and a tool for thought.

The "what I did today", or "done list" is a good way to remember what you were up to, and to assess your own progress. It can be used to justify a promotion, or to have a look at your past self. They're the most satisfying to re-read.

The "how I feel about things" kind is more of a debugging tool, to process your thoughts and understand your feelings. They're a good way to structure your thoughts.

It's also good to keep a protocol, because it's hard to track things that happen over a longer period, like the synptoms of a sickness or the transgressions of a loud neighbor.

My travel journals ended up being far more interesting than my photo albums. They tell much more interesting stories rich with anecdotes.

I personally love mixing journal entries with to-do lists, notes, sketches and doodles. It paints a richer picture of my life at a point in time. I can see what I'm working on, my design process, and the influence of various events in my life.

Re: Ask HN: Has journaling improved your life?

#59

Post by DoingSomeThings »

I use a notecard method. 365 notecards, 1 for each day of the year. Every night I write the year and 1-2 lines about what I did that day. When the next year rolls around, I add another line below

The space constraint encourages brevity and lowers the activation energy

At first it provided little value. Now, 4 years in I can look back and see how much my life has changed (or stayed the same). It's amazing how many thing I do that totally slip my mind.

This method does lose out of the "What am I thinking about" and deeper reflection. But I've often found that type of journaling just gets me into a head spiral

Re: Ask HN: Has journaling improved your life?

#60

Post by swaggyBoatswain »

I only journal if I'm undergoing a lot of changes professionally (public blog) or personally (private journal), mostly by externalized factors as a form of reflection/processing.

Sometimes I reflect a lot other times I don't. Not really any consistency to it - it's a done by needs basis

Helps me look at myself from a third person perspective - as if a friend were commenting on things I'm going through

It has improved my life - and help me look at things more logically especially if I'm in the weeds of things

Post reply on HN