4 Ideas That Will Help You Journal More Consistently

[pam]

How many of you keep a journal?  What method do you use?

If you are wondering what the best way to get start is, here are some ideas:

https://mormonhub.com/blog/life/4-journal-ideas/

[zil]

The biggest problems with all electronic formats are:

• Access tends to be limited to the writer - unless you make extra effort to ensure your descendants can get at it
• The software eventually dies without a way to print or migrate to another format (for all the fancy journaling apps out there); and then the point is lost, unless it comes back in the resurrection...
• People can't seem to organize and track such things (thus, descendants will never get it).

I think one of the biggest inhibitors of journaling is that we have become a 140-characters-or-fewer culture - in other words, we have zero attention span and nothing meaningful to say.  One way to overcome this is to read journals written before computers were an option.  E.g. The diaries of Sofia Tolstaya (wife of Leo Tolstoy) are fascinating while also being rather mundane.  Find journals of your ancestors (if possible) and read them (more than a couple pages).  Soon you'll get a feel for it and figure out either that you need to get a life, or how to write about your life (or maybe not to write that way about your life ).

[The Folk Prophet]

13 minutes ago, zil said:

The biggest problems with all electronic formats are:

• Access tends to be limited to the writer - unless you make extra effort to ensure your descendants can get at it
• The software eventually dies without a way to print or migrate to another format (for all the fancy journaling apps out there); and then the point is lost, unless it comes back in the resurrection...
• People can't seem to organize and track such things (thus, descendants will never get it).

Well that's easy enough to solve. Every so often...print it.

[Guest MormonGator]

16 minutes ago, zil said:

The biggest problems with all electronic formats are:

• Access tends to be limited to the writer - unless you make extra effort to ensure your descendants can get at it
• The software eventually dies without a way to print or migrate to another format (for all the fancy journaling apps out there); and then the point is lost, unless it comes back in the resurrection...
• People can't seem to organize and track such things (thus, descendants will never get it).

I think one of the biggest inhibitors of journaling is that we have become a 140-characters-or-fewer culture - in other words, we have zero attention span and nothing meaningful to say.  One way to overcome this is to read journals written before computers were an option.  E.g. The diaries of Sofia Tolstaya (wife of Leo Tolstoy) are fascinating while also being rather mundane.  Find journals of your ancestors (if possible) and read them (more than a couple pages).  Soon you'll get a feel for it and figure out either that you need to get a life, or how to write about your life (or maybe not to write that way about your life ).

The Tolstoy marriage was a miserable one, especially as they got older. We all know he left her when he was 80+ and died a few days later. 

I agree totally with @zil-her diary entries are boring and fascinating at the same time. 

I'd rather not read journals written by my direct relatives. Sometimes ignorance is bliss and you don't want to know what they'd think because it would shatter what you think of them. 
 

[zil]

18 minutes ago, The Folk Prophet said:

Well that's easy enough to solve. Every so often...print it.

Which was kinda my point - paper survives and doesn't need migration to another format.

[The Folk Prophet]

Just now, zil said:

Which was kinda my point - paper survives and doesn't need migration to another format.

My cloud based dropbox journal will survive the house fire though.

[zil]

Just now, The Folk Prophet said:

My cloud based dropbox journal will survive the house fire though.

Yes, but will anyone else be able to get to it after you (or dropbox) are gone?

The better point, perhaps, is that if you want your journals to survive you so descendants can read them, you should make a viable plan to ensure that can / will happen.

[The Folk Prophet]

2 minutes ago, zil said:

Yes, but will anyone else be able to get to it after you (or dropbox) are gone?

The better point, perhaps, is that if you want your journals to survive you so descendants can read them, you should make a viable plan to ensure that can / will happen.

Sure. My point is to do both if possible.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, zil said:

The biggest problems with all electronic formats are:

• Access tends to be limited to the writer - unless you make extra effort to ensure your descendants can get at it
• The software eventually dies without a way to print or migrate to another format (for all the fancy journaling apps out there); and then the point is lost, unless it comes back in the resurrection...
• People can't seem to organize and track such things (thus, descendants will never get it).

zil,

Come on and admit it.  Your real gripe with electronic format is that you can't use a fountain pen in cyberspace.

1 hour ago, zil said:

The better point, perhaps, is that if you want your journals to survive you so descendants can read them, you should make a viable plan to ensure that can / will happen.

OH! As if on cue.

EDIT: oops.  I thought you said "viable pen".  But then I realized that didn't make sense and re-read.

Edited July 5, 2017 by Guest

[Iggy]

I wrote journals for decades. They were my venting during a bad, abusive marriage. I still have them, and one day I will go through them and cherry pick out what I wish to put into my new journal, then I will ceremoniously burn the original journals. 

My new journal is put out by Roots Magic. I also purchased their family history software  https://www.rootsmagic.com/

Roots Magic is owned and operated by an LDS member. I don't think they will go out of business and if they do, I think they will still continue to offer support, since they already had upgraded and offered me a reduced cost to upgrade since the original format was greatly improved on and I felt that $20.00 was easily afforded. Yes it is on my computer. Yes I have to enter a password. BUT in my will I have catalogued all of my user names & passwords. Hubby has the password to open my computer, and he knows how to access my will that is a file in my computer. Thus that problem is solved.

One little hint about if you are having trouble with what to write - treat your journal as a best friend that lives 1,000's of miles away. Write about current affairs in your life. Add in memories. The memories don't need to be related with current affairs - just a memory or two. If it turns out that there are a dozen or so memories, YEAH, it is working. Write away.

Later when you hit a big SLUMP [and you will], go through your journal entries, copy and paste those memories and enter them into their own time frame. One thing I have done is at the end of each memory entry I put the date I remembered it. It helps when you read through them all and it tends to trigger more memories.

That is what a journal is. A record of your memories.

[zil]

23 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

zil,

Come on and admit it.  Your real gripe with electronic format is that you can't use a fountain pen in cyberspace.

OH! As if on cue.

EDIT: oops.  I thought you said "viable pen".  But then I realized that didn't make sense and re-read.

For me personally, a good pen on good paper is more pleasant.  But I work in IT, so I see all its flaws.  Corrupted storage media.  Providers who go out of business.  Abandoned software that eventually won't install on the latest operating system (and doesn't have a migration path).  Users who can't keep track of files, passwords, storage media.  Users who don't comprehend backups or off-site storage.  People who don't think to document what accounts they have, let alone the login credentials and email associated with those accounts.  Etc.

Meanwhile, that paper journal is sitting there on the bookshelf for decades or even centuries in some cases.

Whichever way you want to go, you should make a deliberate effort to ensure posterity have access to your journals (assuming you want that).  And odds are worse for electronics than for paper.  Yes, bad things can happen to paper, and it's better to make a deliberate effort there, but paper doesn't actually require deliberate effort because it's physically present - you die while your journals are on the shelf and no one needs to be told to check for journals - they'll trip over them when cleaning out your house; no one needs a password, or to know what software to use, or anything else - open it up and read.  With electronic journals, no one can see them.  If you didn't tell someone that they exist, how would they know to look?  If you didn't document the software, location, login credentials, etc., how would they ever get at them?  And what if your children never get around to it and the hardware is beyond hope when your grandchildren want them?  Also, ever try figuring out what's on another person's computer / phone / tablet?   (Holy big, fat mess, Batman.)

Can it be done?  Of course.  Does it have advantages in some ways?  Of course.  But it's not like the movies.  So if you want your electronic journals preserved and accessible to the future, you'll have to take extra steps to ensure that.

Meanwhile, your old 3.5" floppies will make good coasters.

PS: More care (than is common) should be taken with the paper and ink used for paper journals too, but you all will virtual-dog-pile me if I go there....

Edited July 5, 2017 by zil

[Guest]

18 minutes ago, zil said:

For me personally, a good pen on good paper is more pleasant.  But I work in IT, so I see all its flaws.  Corrupted storage media.  Providers who go out of business.  Abandoned software that eventually won't install on the latest operating system (and doesn't have a migration path).  Users who can't keep track of files, passwords, storage media.  Users who don't comprehend backups or off-site storage.  People who don't think to document what accounts they have, let alone the login credentials and email associated with those accounts.  Etc.

Meanwhile, that paper journal is sitting there on the bookshelf for decades or even centuries in some cases.

Whichever way you want to go, you should make a deliberate effort to ensure posterity have access to your journals (assuming you want that).  And odds are worse for electronics than for paper.  Yes, bad things can happen to paper, and it's better to make a deliberate effort there, but paper doesn't actually require deliberate effort because it's physically present - you die while your journals are on the shelf and no one needs to be told to check for journals - they'll trip over them when cleaning out your house; no one needs a password, or to know what software to use, or anything else - open it up and read.  With electronic journals, no one can see them.  If you didn't tell someone that they exist, how would they know to look?  If you didn't document the software, location, login credentials, etc., how would they ever get at them?  And what if your children never get around to it and the hardware is beyond hope when your grandchildren want them?  Also, ever try figuring out what's on another person's computer / phone / tablet?   (Holy big, fat mess, Batman.)

Can it be done?  Of course.  Does it have advantages in some ways?  Of course.  But it's not like the movies.  So if you want your electronic journals preserved and accessible to the future, you'll have to take extra steps to ensure that.

Meanwhile, your old 3.5" floppies will make good coasters.

PS: More care (than is common) should be taken with the paper and ink used for paper journals too, but you all will virtual-dog-pile me if I go there....

Summary: Use a fountain pen on acid-free paper.  Got it.

But doesn't fountain pen ink fade over time, especially in a humid environment like the South?

BTW, that "Oracle" pen was running out of roller-ball ink.  I took my gel pen filler and stuck it in the case.  Fit perfectly!  Now I have my beloved green ink in a silvery-steel casing with comfortable rubber grip rings.

Edited July 5, 2017 by Guest

[zil]

19 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

Summary: Use a fountain pen on acid-free paper.  Got it.

But doesn't fountain pen ink fade over time, especially in a humid environment like the South?

Whether the ink fades depends on the ink.  To my knowledge, humidity is more damaging to paper than ink - it's light that damages ink.  Cleverly, when the book is closed, light doesn't get in...

There's no shortage of fade tests on fountain pen (and other) inks (on the Fountain Pen Network).  Personally, I've settled on Sailor Sei-Boku and Rhodia paper. Ballpoints and blue Sharpies don't do that well in fade tests, FYI.  Whatever you do, don't use Noodler's Bay State Blue - it'll fade if you blink at it.   There are also "document" and "archival" inks made to specific standards for color/light-fastness and resistance to various removal agents (water, bleach, etc.).  In other words, you have to pick your ink well.

Glad that pen is working for you. (it would be tragic for it to go into the trash unused)

[a mustard seed]

I write a gratitude journal, which consists of listing all the blessings of the day. It helps me keep track of the day to day and also sort of trains myself to be more positive. I have a habit of complaining especially in hand of the Lord situations that I benefit from later. Ex: "Aw! *pout* I do not like this awful thing that happened to me!" *1-6 months later* "Omg! I'm right where I wanna be! And it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't  missed that opportunity/was forced to wait by circumstances/took a different route than what I originally wanted. Thank you, Heavenly Father! -^.^- " That happens to me ALL THE TIME. Like, if I just trusted Him from the start, been positive that He had a handle on things, then I'd save myself the pout and bellyaching. I also have a blog. It was originally for art. Then it became about that and spiritual experiences. Now I just write in it about meaningful things that happen, at least once a week.

I cannot write with a pen/pencil for long stretches of time. I think way faster than the pen can move and it strains me to try to keep up. So, I type instead and leave the handwriting for the gratitude journal. One thing I was thinking of doing was using a printing service like CreateSpace or Lulu to print my blog entries once it has gotten to a decent size. They're self-publishing companies but you don't have to hit publish. you can just design and format the "book" how you want, then have them print it for you in a soft-cover book format. It appeals to my ego a little to self-design a book that would simply be a journal that I might pass on to someone someday.