| I'll answer these questions one by one: > Do you keep a personal journal? For the last two years I've written a journal entry almost every day. Some days I didn't write, like during travels, but I added information about these days afterwards. Sometimes those entries were pages long and contained conversations or dreams, sometimes it was just: "1. Dezember - 3. Dezember: much work, travelled to Budapest" I stopped writing about three weeks ago. > If yes, do you find it useful?
> When journaling, do you try to track any specific aspects of your life or just write about anything that is currently occupying your mind? My purpose of the journal was to keep track of my motivation and good mood, so I put mostly positively worded events in there, like "* Went to training, despite mismotivation of the last days". I also recorded things that I never / seldom do. It served that purpose well. I don't need it anymore, that's why I stopped, but I'll probably pick it up again someday. > What tools would you recommend? Plaintext Files. Or MacOS Notes. It doesn't matter really. Finding the perfect journal is procrastination to prevent having to write a journal. > Is there any specific methodology that you follow? Write an entry for every single day, no matter when, no matter how short it is (but make it at least one grammatically correct sentence). If you forget, just write the entry for yesterday.
Mark the entry with date and time. > Any advice on how to get the most out of personal journaling? After doing it for a while, you will develop a feeling about whether and how it benefits you. Follow that feeling. Apart from that: Keeping a journal will always enable you to reconstruct and remember details of your life 10 years from now. One key sentence is often enough to help you remember the day. That is why I'm going to pick it up again. |