Keeping a journal: Your preferred method?

[GanChan]

I want to hear from those of you who keep regular journal entries, and what methods you prefer for making/keeping them.

I have kept written journals for about 15 years now. They have always served as a grab-bag of writing project drafts, diary entries, personal thoughts, grocery lists, general brainstorming, etc. I have always written them out in 9.5"x6" spiral notebooks. I've collected several boxes of them over the years, as you might imagine.

I'm considering switching to a computer-based journal system, since most of the time I seem to be seated in front of my desktop or laptop computer these days, and because I can type (somewhat) faster than I write. There are downsides too, though -- a spiral notebook requires no power source, weighs just a few ounces, and lets me doodle in the margins without opening a new application.

I'm not sure I could, or should, use both methods in parallel because I keep track of all this stuff by date. I guess the ideal thing would be to buy a scanner and scan new handwritten entries in as needed, then import their images into my "journal master file," whatever form that would take. Obviously scanning 15 years' worth of old notebooks is ridiculous, but I could start with my present spiral at least.

Software-wise, TextEdit would do the job for writing entries, but maybe not for archiving or sorting them. I have Scrivener and Word, but they both seem like overkill. Am i wrong? If you have a favorite journal writing app, I'd like to hear about it.

 

[furcalchick]

mori. i've been using it for six months now and it's really got me into journaling again.

 

[jng]

Real journal writing (as opposed to blogging) is cathartic for me. So I use pen and Moleskine.

As for a system, I wouldn't use text edit, maybe a blogging software instead and just leave everything private.

 

[goodtimes5]

Journler. Great at organizing your thoughts, and has great iLife implementation tied in. Multimedia journals galore.

 

[Lyle]

Journler. Great at organizing your thoughts, and has great iLife implementation tied in. Multimedia journals galore.

I'll second the vote for Journler, though Mori's pretty good too as I recall.

 

[janey]

i blog - livejournal *sheepish grin* i write stuff that others may want to read, and my friends hardly know how to deal with rss and rss feeds, but livejournal friending is easy enough for them to use.

i pdf'd my scant paper journals and dumped them in yep, and any private stuff also gets pdf'd and dumped in yep. i love devonthink (where all my livejournal backups go...) but yep is nicer for pdfs.

 

[iRachel]

I still prefer pen and paper - a nice pen and a moleskine notebook.

 

[imac/cheese]

I still prefer pen and paper - a nice pen and a moleskine notebook.

I agree. There is an art to journaling that is lost when the pen is replace by the keyboard. It is like the difference between canvas painting and computer grapics.

 

[huperniketes]

I want to hear from those of you who keep regular journal entries, and what methods you prefer for making/keeping them.

While I do keep info in (several) computer-based journals and PIMs, my perspective is a bit different. I'm the president of Apokalypse Software Corp. which just purchased the digital notebook/organizer app Mori.

I have kept written journals for about 15 years now. They have always served as a grab-bag of writing project drafts, diary entries, personal thoughts, grocery lists, general brainstorming, etc. I have always written them out in 9.5"x6" spiral notebooks. I've collected several boxes of them over the years, as you might imagine.

The nice thing about digital notebooks such as Mori is their flexibility. The current generation supports much richer content than previous ones. And their ability to structure and organize your notes can be applied to the same types of uses.

I'm considering switching to a computer-based journal system, since most of the time I seem to be seated in front of my desktop or laptop computer these days, and because I can type (somewhat) faster than I write. There are downsides too, though -- a spiral notebook requires no power source, weighs just a few ounces, and lets me doodle in the margins without opening a new application.

There is a definite richness in handwriting which isn't matched with current generations. However, there's a richer set of tools for structuring, organizing and retrieving information in a digital notebook than you'll find in a hardcopy one. In addition, you can easily back up and duplicate digital notebooks.

I'm not sure I could, or should, use both methods in parallel because I keep track of all this stuff by date. I guess the ideal thing would be to buy a scanner and scan new handwritten entries in as needed, then import their images into my "journal master file," whatever form that would take. Obviously scanning 15 years' worth of old notebooks is ridiculous, but I could start with my present spiral at least.

Your decision will be highly dependent on what you find most satisfies what to you is the ideal and the practical. And on what's out there.

Software-wise, TextEdit would do the job for writing entries, but maybe not for archiving or sorting them. I have Scrivener and Word, but they both seem like overkill. Am i wrong? If you have a favorite journal writing app, I'd like to hear about it.

While you might find some apps to be overkill for the time being, you might find yourself wanting to use more of their abilities when the need arises. I have my own favorite , and you're welcome to visit our forum and add your two cents and personal requests (and complaints too), but it isn't perfect and will be getting better very quickly. In fact, this category just got exciting and will remain so for a long time to come, so keep your eyes on it.

Alfonso Guerra
President,
Apokalypse Software Corp.

 

[Lyle]

... I'm the president of Apokalypse Software Corp. which just purchased the digital notebook/organizer app Mori.

Cool. I knew that Jesse had been considering selling it but didn't know that was a done deal.