| 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? |