Do you keep a journal?

These days you might feel like you don’t have time or you don’t want to keep up with another “thing” like a paper journal. I hear ya…

But journaling is still important. A journal helps you reflect on what you did right. It helps you learn by reminding you what you did wrong so you can avoid the same mistakes in the future. It is also great fun to sit down and read your own history and how far you’ve come.

In my early 20s, a 70-something British friend of the family gave me my first journal. It wasn’t a big journal.  It was slightly larger than a book of matches – which surprised me.  His method of keeping a journal was brilliant in its simplicity.  Even lazy students like me could keep up with writing every day.

My friend Maurice’s journals covered his World War II experience as a foot soldier, his dating life, marrying his true love and 100 years of life details until his death two years ago at the age of 99.  He explained how those journals were such a great addition to his and his wife’s life.  How simple it was to reminisce.  How easy it was to remember when everything was written down.

Again, his method was simple.  Keep a tiny, pocket sized or smaller date book in your pocket at all times.   Each day has only about a 1 inch by 1 inch space to write.  That means you can’t write a whole book.  You can only write 2 or 3 of the most important details.  “You’ll remember the details, just write down the important topics and the details will come back to you.”

I was on my way.  I kind of liked keeping a journal this way.  Every night before bed, I’d write down the most important events of the day.  But eventually, I ran into trouble.

Maurice would sometimes ask me how my journaling was going. I’d sheepishly explain that while I did ok keeping a journal sometimes, there were sometimes months, and possibly years of gaps in my record keeping.

You see, I tampered with his method. I tried doing a ‘traditional’ 8 x 10 journal here and an ultra thin month-only journal there. Since both these types were harder to keep on hand and easier to misplace, I got slack and would skip days and weeks worth of entries.

What worked and still works for me is still the small, pocket sized datebook. I know Moleskine makes one and they are nice.  It’s their Moleskine Weekly Notebook 12 Months Hard Red Cover Pocket version.  But it is a little too bulky for my tastes – and that bright red has got to go! Why not stick with black like their other journals?  I prefer something more the size of the Mini Weekly Planner.

Turns out nothing beats having a journal in your back pocket at all times.

Keeping the years in line

Maurice shared another tip with me for keeping your years in order when the journals start piling up.  After all, when you have 50 or so of these books lying around or on a bookcase, it might be tough figuring what happened in what year.  His method?  Every New Year’s day, he and his wife (now deceased) would go through the prior year’s journal and type up a 1 page index of the most important happenings from that year.

There as an additional benefit to indexing the prior year.  It helped to reinforced the memories of the events.  At the end of the year, almost like studying, he’d review his notes and make a cheat sheet.

He would then fold up the index and tape it to the inside cover of the journal so it would be handy.

99 Year Old Man Keeps 100 Year Journal?

So how was my friend Maurice able to get 100 years of the Journal from 99 years of life? His secret was that he went to the library and pulled the microfiche of the newspapers that existed that were planted at the time of his birth. So here you had someone 99 years old and from the time of its conception there was a historical record of his life from conception on.

I think this is a pretty cool way to share your history with your family. If you’re going to create a unique life worth living, it is worth recording and sharing with future generations.

Don’t you agree?

What are your opinions? Do you keep a journal? If so tell us your insights in the comments.

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