GenX kids like me who went to public school during the 70s and 80s were often told we should “keep a diary”. This was reinforced in English class (aka Language Arts) with a journaling project being assigned at least once a year from first grade through high school.
I found the journaling projects tedious. I’d write about my daily activities like what I ate for dinner, what I did on the weekend and what I read. I always got 100% on these assignments because I was able to write coherent sentences using proper spelling, punctuation and grammar. As for content and usefulness of the journal, nobody cared.
The only people I knew who actually kept a diary as kids were girls. It was a total nonstarter for me.
As an adult, I was encouraged by AA, therapy, self-help books, and business leaders to keep a journal. Some of these sources I respected. I made several attempts. None lasted more than a few days because I found myself either whining in the journal or writing the same banal stuff I wrote back in grade school. I had no epiphanies.
This changed for me when I started writing my business blog in 2017. For the first time in my life, I discovered a way of using writing to organize my thoughts, process ideas and understand the world.
Initially, I wrote about sales management, using personal stories to make my posts more relatable. After a year, the business blog hadron its course and I shifted to writing about family, life, frugality, finance and fitness. That was six years and 1500 posts ago. This blog morphed into the stories of my life. It’s part business, part memoir and part diary.
I find myself referring back to old posts periodically. It’s helpful when I read something that I wrote just a few years ago and see how much I’ve changed – often, thankfully for the better. For instance, I was really not thinking straight after my wife died. It’s crystal clear when I read posts from that first year how many rash decisions I made. I also can see how I made decisions that turned out to be the right ones – which I attribute to a combination of sheer luck and relying on past experiences to guide me (like buying the house I’m in today).
Other times, I’ll write a draft about something that’s bouncing around in my head only to search old posts and find that I’ve already written a post (or multiple posts) on the same subject. Almost always, my draft post doesn’t include any new ideas that I hadn’t already written. It’s just repeating what I already wrote (often whining about something). These drafts get deleted. Seeing the pattern of whininess sometimes encourages me to take an action about an issue that I obviously haven’t addressed or accepted yet (eg. dating, pool closures, family issues).
Having my posts visible to the public makes me a better writer. I often edit and re-edit them for clarity, readability and length. Writing with a reader in mind helps me focus on one topic at a time. It also keeps me from going off the rails and turning my “diary” into a bitch fest.
I have another “diary” that I’ve been using for several years. I call it my daily log. Only phone, I have an app where everyday while working out in the morning I make quick notes on my physical, mental and emotional condition. I’ll log any digestion issues, health concerns & injuries. I log my weight, my workout s and how I feel. I’ll note any concerns on my mind regarding me, the dogs, my home, family, friends, the world, etc.
This snapshot journal has been incredibly helpful for comparing today with previous years. It gives me a baseline when I am dealing with an injury. It helps me manage my allergies – which become problematic the exact same days every year. It helps me manage my mental state when I read about other days when I woke up on the wrong the side of the bed and how I pushed through it. It gives me perspective when I think the weather is abnormally cold or hot or shitty.
Frequently, I forget about about specific details like dates, times and degrees. This log provides historical perspective.
So, perhaps you’re wondering if you should have a diary, a journal or a blog. fIf you’re thinking about it, I suggest giving it a shot and see what happens.
You might – like I did- stop after finding it not to be worthwhile. Or you might – like me, decades later – end up writing over 1500 posts and logging every day for years because it became useful.