I am looking to start getting into this. But I have never enjoyed writing. I also feel a little iffy knowing that my diaries are sitting around somewhere in my room and my family can find it at any moment. If I were to type it would be faster, more secure as I can encrypt it, and it would not get lost as easily as I can upload the encrypted file to a cloud.
However, is typing any less effective at making you feel better than writing?
People who keep journals or diaries, how the fuck do you remember AND motivate yourself?? I want to do this, I have tried to do this but I’ve never managed for more than like 2 consecutive days
EDIT: Thanks for all the suggestions guys! It’s really helpful
I’m very inconsistent with mine. Sometimes I write a lot frequently, sometimes I don’t for years. Sometimes i just log once a month.
The thing is why you want to write and what about. Usually when I write it’s about something that really shocked me or moved me, perhaps a very vivid dream (which I used to have frequently when I was younger) or maybe as a means to cope with depression and anxiety and some rough life patches.
Main motivation for me is to be able to access my thought process in the future. This has proven valuable, personally.
I mean, it’s hard to write when you don’t have anything to write about. Try keeping a journal of things when you move to other place or go camping, there probably would be a ton of stuff to write about and keeping a journal would be much easier
I got consistent when I got a 5 year journal. Each page is one day, divided into five sections. Seeing that I would be revisiting it next year really helped motivate me, and reading previous years entries helps even more. Now I have several journals, and for the other ones, I either write in it when I do my 5 year, or I keep it open and jot in it all the time. The trick often is to just write something in it, and then its easier to keep going.
Also think about why you are journaling. Self reflection? Set an alarm. Memories? Read back in your old entries. Planning? Make it front and center so you look at it right away.
I don’t have the privacy concerns, so this other bit might not help as much, but I also use stuff thats pleasant to use. It does’t have to be luxury, but try going up a step. For paper, skip moleskin and look for a rhodia, leuchterm, or midori notebook. For pens, try a fountain pen like a platinum preppy, pilot kakuno, ot lamy safari. If you prefer ballpoint, skip the cheap ones ans get a Uni Signo gel pen or Pentel Energel gel pen. Having nicer stuff can really help motivate cause its nice to use.
I got one of those five year ones and write an entry once I’m in bed each night. The habit is tied to going to bed and the fact that each day has its own space - I don’t want to leave gaps.
It’s more of a “thought catcher” for me. I have a private chat set up that I just jot things down in the moment. I’ll occasionally go through and react with emoji to form a few storylines running through the week. It’s pretty much a 1 sided text message conversation
Diaro sends me a notification and the end of the Day, reminding me to write something.
Use habit stacking to make it part of your routine. Just start doing it after you brush your teeth or whatever in the evening. You can also set a reminder with Google tasks or whatever your preferred app is.
I use an app called Dailyo, I added the things I do and I click on the icon to say I did it. I don’t have to write anything but I still have a bunch of entries.
Handwrite feel nicer for journaling
If you type it here on lemmy, your family won’t see it
I do, and I handwrite, for dreams and personal stuff. But I type for work related stuff. I understand what you say about your family and fair enough, that’s not my case, but if I had to be watching my back like you I’d probably also not write at all. In my experience, I’ve had more close calls with sensitive information leaking if it’s kept digitally than on paper but YMMV.
I kept hand-written journals for decades. One day I dug out some from the early 80s and thought, this is all just me whining at myself. I gathered them all up and burnt them. It was quite cathartic! I kept a couple of travel journals and I still have a notebook I whine into once in a very long while. I’ll burn it when it’s full. It’s just not interesting.
And you wouldn’t want your baby brother finding it and blabbing it to the world.
I have been typing my journals for over a decade. If you don’t have a fondness for handwriting, then it will not make you feel any better. I find it frustrating to write by hand. It’s significantly slower than my thoughts, it adds more clutter, it’s less convenient, it cramps my hand, and you lose out on the ability to search your notes to help you remember events or check your progress. You don’t have to use a fancy journaling app if you don’t want to. I just use Google docs.
I am in the minority here when I say neither. I do technically have what one might say amounts to a dream journal, the “catch” being this “dream journal” would be a favorites folder that exists on some art websites I use. When I dream, you may notice the art that most resembles the dream goes in it. I originally made the folder as a “remind me later” kind of thing but it turned into its own thing.
Reading this I recall I had real cool dreams last night but I can’t recall then at all now.
I write in cursive with a fountain pen in a Mnemosyne notebook. It’s tantamount to code due to my poor handwriting 😀
I hand write with a cipher. Even snoopers won’t have a clue what I’ve written.
That’s cool! Is it a cipher you developed yourself? How long did it take you to become proficient?
Yes it’s personally made and I’d say it took maybe 4-5 weeks before I was able to write as easily as I can normally but even before that it wasnt hard. You just have to write slower as you’re learning. I started practicing it whenever I could. Even my grocery lists are written that way, lol
I love that! I may look into this as something fun to try out. Thanks for the inspiration :D
I can’t recommend Daylio enough! It’s an app that’s constantly getting new features. It’s very customizable! You can make goals and custom moods which both help me a lot. You can also set reminders to do goals or just to make a daily entry. And all your data is stored locally unless you want to backup up to drive. Which is pretty secure. I think I also read that the backup is encrypted but I could be wrong. You can also manually backup and encrypt it then.
Id suggest staying away from apps. It might be fine if you can export it and read it in plain text.
I say that having been part of the early 2000s generation of blogging and when those sites (or apps) disappear, so will your stuff. I lost a chunk of my history.
That makes sense too. I have a backup of the working APK and backups of my stuff that I can access with or without the app. But for now this app is being actively developed and I’ve been using it for years. I’ll probably keep using it until it stops getting updates if that happens.
Writing by hand with a pen you like on nice quality paper can be enjoyable. The best for me is when I journal on my typewriter.
I use a site called Penzu. My whole purpose for journaling is to get things out and to release my anxiety, not necessarily for documenting my life, although I do go back and reflect on some of the stuff I write. Most of the time I don’t re-read any of it.
That’s why I used to maintain a blog (a secret one, whose address no one knew). Till the day I realised there’s too much there which I don’t want to be able to go through, and deleted the blog in a snap.
I don’t normally but I type into a file when I feel sick. I write down temp readings, symptoms, and medicine doses. Extremely helpful because I have recurring issues and I can just look up the treatment that worked for me last time.
I’m keeping an audio journal. I have it on my phone; it’s generally approximately 5-minutes long. I usually record them in the morning or afternoon on my way to work or home.
this might actually just get me started to journal (I hate writing 😡)
During the pandemic , I started making videos for my wife once a day to cheer her up while she’s at work. It’s just me walking around the house checking in on things and talking about my day, lasting about 3 minutes. I now have hundreds of them. And now that I think about it… These are journals too!
Audio/video recordings are Definitely helpful for those who want to journal but hate writing.
I don’t generally feel as connected to what I type as to what I write, probably because my entire job involves typing all day. Writing by hand takes longer and therefore requires me to slow down and think more.
