Always Be Journaling (2018)
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Always Be Journaling (2018)
1–10 of 76 posts
Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)
#2I did that for a good 3 years, writing every day. Started out as a few sentences, and then turned in to bigger depending on how I was feeling that day. I absolutely love(d) being able to look back and read what I wrote and what happened on those days.
It did get difficult at times to force myself to write. Many times I hated having to open up the computer and use that to type. On the other hand, typing was much better than writing because of the amount of words I was able to get down.
In the article, it says to write about work and side projects, and I get that the article is career based, but really, skip that, don't write daily about work and side projects. If you're journaling, write about personal life. That's what's important to have logged.
Something happened that caused me to stop, which sucks because it almost feels like I've lost the last 3 years of my life because I don't have anything written.
Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)
#3I love writing. As I write a bit every day, it gets very easy to write, and to express my thoughts, or what's in my mind. One great benefit is that when I am emotional or tired it is not too difficult to write that down somewhere because I already have the habit, and it does get easier with practice. Afterwards when I'm at a better or more aware mood I come back to read what I had written, this helps to see what sort of things affect me in different states of mind. This has resulted in many revelations towards understanding myself and also others. It also produced some interesting creative results too.
Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)
#4The latter part of this article presents a much more structured regime than I think is necessary. The crux is, write shit down. I carry a moleskine notebook and scribble my thoughts. I don’t doubt that the more rigorous approach suits the author.
On reading the title, I thought “oh jolly good this will be a solid discussion of log structured filesystems, RDBMS transaction streaming, and double entry book-keeping etc” so I am twice nonplussed.
Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)
#5I wonder if anyone has advice for someone like me who thinks writing a journal is probably a good idea, but I rarely write because I can hardly bear to read what I've written. I always want to edit it for clarity or just throw it out because I don't like it. I've been able to overcome my perfectionism in a few areas of life, but not this one. I like to read other people's words, but rarely my own.
Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)
#6I wonder if anyone has advice for someone like me who thinks writing a journal is probably a good idea, but I rarely write because I can hardly bear to read what I've written. I always want to edit it for clarity or just throw it out because I don't like it. I've been able to overcome my perfectionism in a few areas of life, but not this one. I like to read other people's words, but rarely my own.
I have similar tendencies. What changed for me was using journaling to understand and cope with my emotions during a very difficult time in life. By writing out my thoughts they were more complete and I could better asses them so it helped calm racing thoughts and patterns of rumination.
Ive come to enjoy the process materializing my thoughts into something concrete, as a thought isn't really fully formed until you write, speak, or type ot. I continue the practice as part of my morning routine and when I read at night.
I don't review what I've written or share it or have any plans to make a blog or something. I just use journaling to enjoyably process my thoughts.
Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)
#7I wonder if anyone has advice for someone like me who thinks writing a journal is probably a good idea, but I rarely write because I can hardly bear to read what I've written. I always want to edit it for clarity or just throw it out because I don't like it. I've been able to overcome my perfectionism in a few areas of life, but not this one. I like to read other people's words, but rarely my own.
I've struggled with wanting to write for the past couple of years. The biggest aspect that allowed me to get started was realizing I don't need to write for an audience. After that realization, I soon discovered:
1. I like to write because it's therapeutic, and 2. I don't do it for others to read, only myself
To touch on the second point, rarely do I go back and read my own work. I don't think it's necessary outside the initial editing/revising for grammar mistakes. Personally, I'm just happy to be able to create something as opposed to always consuming other media.
Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)
#8I love writing. As I write a bit every day, it gets very easy to write, and to express my thoughts, or what's in my mind. One great benefit is that when I am emotional or tired it is not too difficult to write that down somewhere because I already have the habit, and it does get easier with practice. Afterwards when I'm at a better or more aware mood I come back to read what I had written, this helps to see what sort…
> This has resulted in many revelations towards understanding myself and also others
Same here, and I find the perspective of "discovering yourself" fascinating; I always thought I knew myself but it wasn't until I started journaling that I realized how much I didn't know.
There's just so much going on behind the surface. I highly recommend taking up journaling as a habit!
Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)
#9I wonder if anyone has advice for someone like me who thinks writing a journal is probably a good idea, but I rarely write because I can hardly bear to read what I've written. I always want to edit it for clarity or just throw it out because I don't like it. I've been able to overcome my perfectionism in a few areas of life, but not this one. I like to read other people's words, but rarely my own.
Then don't read what you write, keep turning to the next page. It's fine also to throw away what you write, until you think something is good enough to keep.
One reason for not throwing them away is: once you get a little bit better you can see the past as the past and see how much you have improved in contrast rather than identifying what you think is bad with "yourself". If you think you are not good enough, say this: you are not good enough "yet". The yet is very important. Know that you will improve. It's fine to improve. To be able to improve you need to accept that you are imperfect.
This exercise is a wonderful opportunity to not get so attached to impermanent things.
Eventually your writing will get good enough.
Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)
#10The latter part of this article presents a much more structured regime than I think is necessary. The crux is, write shit down. I carry a moleskine notebook and scribble my thoughts. I don’t doubt that the more rigorous approach suits the author. On reading the title, I thought “oh jolly good this will be a solid discussion of log structured filesystems, RDBMS transaction streaming, and double entry book-keeping etc”…
After evaluating tools and stuff, finally settled with Dropbox synced plain markdown files. I have a generic file per week (making one per day was too much hassle), also separate files for specific projects.
I also recommend G.M.Weinberg's the Fieldstone Method on Writing.