Ask HN: Has journaling improved your life?

I've been journaling for more than 15 years. I don't know if it changed me, probably not. I use it mostly in a braindump kinda way. I almost never read old entries. Sometimes, I search for stuff though and it's interesting to read about it (for example, about milestones of my kids, but also themes that interest me).

If you want to get into the habit, here are a few tips:

- Remove friction as much as possible. I use Day One for Mac and iPhone, but started with a text editor. Don't use templates, don't setup anything complicated. Forget tagging or any kind of structure. You can optimize note-taking and journaling for two things: fast input, slow retrieval or slow input and fast retrieval. You certainly want the former, not the latter.

- Don't beat yourself up about frequency. I have weeks where I journal more and months with zero entries.

- Write in a braindump-kinda way, just to get it off your chest. This is for you, not for an audience. It's not even for you, because you probably won't read it anyways. I mostly write staccato-style. Sometimes I use lists with one bullet point per sentence, because it helps to me braindump misc thoughts without a coherent structure.

- I don't focus on "big thoughts" or "big insights". Surprisingly, stuff I did that day, what I ate, people I know right now or hang out with, a movie I watched or a game I played is much more interesting later than having life-changing insights through journaling. So, if I read that my weight was 70kg in 2015 and now it's 67kg, I find this a lot more interesting than some presumably philosophical big thought I think I might care about later. Big thoughts will stick to your mind anyways.

- I usually search for stuff like what year I have been on a particular vacation or when I was sick the last time or sometimes, when one of my kids said this or that for the first time.

- But: Sometimes, you find patterns. I sometimes are surprised that the idea of "start a blog" goes back for more than 10 years and I never did it. Make what you will with that information, but for me at least, it puts my own thoughts into perspective: I carry stuff a lot longer around than I'd think if you just asked me.

- As a small test: Do you ever read your old HN comments? Probably not. Journaling is similar. Writing stuff down helps, but can you really tell if participating in HN changes who you are?

I started journaling in November 2019 using the Day One app on Mac. I haven’t missed a day. That’s 1273 days of consecutive journaling.

Has it changed me? Not really. It’s nice to look back and see what I wrote or pictures I took but that by itself isn't life changing.

Why do I still continue to do it then? Mostly as I developed the habit and it’s automatic now. Every morning I make a new entry for the day when I get on the computer then I finish every day writing in it, adding pictures etc.

It’s a nice way to clear out my brain at the end of the day. I guess in some way maybe it helps me organise my thoughts at the end of the day. Also planning the next day (or few days) is quite helpful to do in the evening vs in the morning for the day ahead.

Having said all that I started journaling at an amazing time. I captured the few months building up to the pandemic and reading back on my entries in the first half of 2020 is pretty wild. For a while I captured headlines and data on cases and deaths which are quite shocking to read with hindsight.

The lockdowns are quite interesting too. I can see when I started to struggle with different aspects of the pandemic and how I managed those depressive episodes.

So while it hasn’t changed my life I would probably say it does give me something to look at and learn from to hopefully be better in the future. I guess you could argue that is a change although not quite what people generally mean when talking about life changing habits.

My guess is you're asking if I feel journalling is worth it as you're interested in doing it? I would say yes. Don't do it expecting to change your life but it something I would suggest pretty much everyone do.

Looking back on happier or sadder times can be quite powerful in helping deal with any struggles of today. I have had a few health issues the past few years and being able to look back gives me a lot of positive mental energy when dealing with the next thing to come along. I can read and feel again how I felt during the harder times and track my progress even when things got harder for a while. This gives me the hope I often need when struggling in the present.

I’ve been using 5 minute journal for about 8? years.

I think the gratitude journaling has helped a lot. I started while working as a VC and basically needing to send rejections to about 800 companies a year. I noticed that I started to look for errors automatically, including when I got home from work. Gratitude in the morning and things that went well before bed seems to have helped my brain optimize for looking for good, instead of finding mistakes.

I recently started using penzu to actually journal. I mostly use it when I’m upset. It does help me calm down and also organize my thoughts before an argument (usually with my wife).

I see most people here use apps for that. I think the crucial part of it is doing it with pen and paper. For me the biggest perks come from slowing down and taking a break from technology. Your computer or your phone are distraction machines.

I just use journaling as a way to converse with my brain, complain about what's difficult and remind myself what's important to me. Sometimes I analyze things that happened or will happen.

Helps when I'm overwhelmed.

Journaling has fundamentally changed my life in almost every measurable facet. It is the single habit I can point to that helped me accomplish things like in my personal life - stop biting fingernails, run a marathon, run the Boston marathon, be a more engaged Dad. It has also helped diagnose lots of professional patterns - good bosses, bad bosses, understanding that everyone has value and has flaws.

My approach is to read journal entries written on this date from previous years. For example, this morning, I read what I wrote on 5/16/20, 5/16/21, 5/16/22.

I wrote down my methodology here: https://mcook.fun/journaling