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Do You Write in a Journal or Diary?

Do You Have a Journal or Diary You Write in?

  • Yesh.

    Votes: 10 27.8%

  • Nope.

    Votes: 26 72.2%
  • Total voters
    36
HappyDude20

HappyDude20

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jul 13, 2008
3,688
1,479
Los Angeles, Ca
Earlier today I grabbed a sheet of paper and did something I hadn't done in months...Write.

I poured out my thoughts, everything from school to relationships to future events and it felt good. Naturally getting it out of my mind is a good thing but realized its been years since I had any sort of Journal that housed my thoughts.

Years ago I had a leather bound journal that I wrote in about once every 2 weeks, describing life's events.

Then I tried Blogger, where I set it up as private but going online just wasn't too motivating; I've always believed pen and paper are much more personal and intimate...though I do love typing away on my Mac considering it guarantees my writings are secured for years to come with all my backing up and whatnot. While that leather bound 5 yr old journal has been lost forever i'm sure.
 
I've kept journals/diaries on and off since I was a kid. I'm not always consistent with it (don't always write regularly) but writing can be very therapeutic. I enjoy it.
 
Mom made me keep a journal when I was little.. part of the whole "home schooling" thing I guess. I hated writing it, but as I've gotten older I still write - not a journal or diary, but poetry and novel ideas that never go anywhere. I wrote a series of kids' books a few years ago - finished them all - but never sent them anywhere.

I do have a Moleskine but I only use it for sketching and doodling :)
 
I started to when I was in college, but only lasted about a year. I go back every now and then to read those things and realize how truly messed up I was back then!

I also started to "blog" before blogging even really became known. I had my own website in 1997 when I went out on tour with family ice shows and theater, and kept a detailed daily account of my life on that website for years. I LOVE going back and reading it.

I really wish I had kept a journal through my life. Going back and reading about things that have happened in your life and seeing how you felt about them at the time, as opposed to how you might think about them now, is very interesting. Plus, it reminds you of little events or people you might have just forgotten about. Same thing with photos. I'm jealous of the people who think to take pictures all the time...I always forget until it's too late.
 
My teacher of last year made us write every other week on friday. Hated it. Never could think of anything to write about. But I do have a moleskine where I draw and sometimes do very little sentences and what not with little drawings. Wouldn't really consider it any of the choices but it does help to let it out every now and then.
 
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I had an online journal for years, spanning through high school through most of university. The entries were all private, it was just a place for me to write and reflect. One day about a year or two ago I deleted everything. I regret it now. It was a good record of my feelings throughout HS.
 
In the twenty years since I've owned Macs I've kept up a journal on a semi-regular basis. No, not daily, at times barely weekly, but it does form a nice overall record.

A few years back, I went through some old Zip disks, and found a Hypercard stack -- "Personal Log" -- that I had completely forgotten about. Although I no longer had HC, I was able to open the stack up with Word, after a fashion, and extract nearly two years worth of entries. It was like finding buried treasure.
 
I've been journaling for a long time. It started over 20 years ago when I started using a Franklin Planner. It was nice keeping a daily record in the planner. Over the years most of my journaling has moved to technology. For awhile I was using a great app on the Palm platform and PC called DayNotez. It was great because the two platforms could be synced.

On the iPhone I started journaling with an application called Notebook from Appigo. It was a nice app since it synced with Toodledo, which I started using when I got another Appigo app for tasks called ToDo. Now I could essentially write in my journal from either my iPhone or on any computer with web access since Toodledo is web based. I now have over 2 years worth of entries in Toodledo.

Last year the iPad came out and I found an app called Daily Notes which works and looks great, but does not sync to anything so I copied and pasted all my notebook entries from Notebook/Toodledo to it.

Now I have just gotten a MacBook and am contemplating getting Day One for both the Mac and iPhone so that I can once again enjoy the ease of use of syncing between my phone and computer without having to go through a web based product.

Reading through the old entries in all my previous formats is fun and brings back memories of what I was doing, thinking, or feeling in that period of time. I recommend writing a journal or diary.
 
Think about this. Journal writing is not just for youself. Its a history of who you are. It's something that after you pass on, your kids will read, then your grandkids, then your great-grandkids and so on. Writing in journal is important regardless of the medium. Just make certain it can be used by "future" generations.
 
I used too, but not anymore. I just don't have the time, energy or wherewithal
 
Can't believe it's been almost a full year since I created this thread.

Since, I've migrated to DayOne which is an elegant and seamless solution for my needs. The original appeal was the application was available for my iPhone, iPad & Mac with easy DropBox syncing. This was huge, allowing me to not be restricted into typing my thoughts onto only one device. That and the application interface itself looks quite nice.

Admittedly, I've only been using DayOne for a 3 weeks now but already have over 30 entries. I'm foregoing the rule of writing in a journal/dairy once a day and rather am typing away my morning thoughts to freshen myself for the day. I also will write in my iPhone at any random part of the day how i'm feeling concerning my exercise and nutrition. This helps quite a bit after going for a run and meditation; I like to reflect on the workout itself, whether good or bad. Finally, I jot down my thoughts on the day, at the end of the day. This allows me to recollect myself in terms of progress and procrastination. i.e., a pat on the back for a job well done or back to the drawing board if I could've done better.

It's not the Diary/Journal aspect of things for me, but rather just having a location to type out my thoughts and free my mind by putting it all down, outside my head is what truly is of value...and for me it came in the form of an all around application that allows me the simplest of tools; to be able to jot thoughts down from any device, anywhere, anytime.
 
Nah. I'm writing all the time I'm not looking after my child or working as I enjoy to write novels. Writing a journal would be boring, nothing in my life is at all interesting. It'd just be pretty much:

Woke up. Scratched balls. Showered. Ate. Received Amy off her mother. Watched Amy play with cars (or whatever toy she is into that day) as I'm typing my next novel. Ate more. Handed over Amy to her mother. Went to work. Came home. Went to bed.
Click to expand...

Everyday.
 
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