Journaling And Me
My mom bought me a Harry Potter-themed journal when I was 7 years old, and my friend Maddie gave me a colored pencil to go with it. I had no idea what to write in it, but write I did. Many entries were quick blurbs about:
- the hardships of life (03-26-2004: “My life is Misrible!!!!!!!!“)
- major life events (03-19-2004: “Got the chickenpox!“) (08-02-2006: “Hard level on Luigi’s
MasiMansion.”) - short prayers to God (03-24-2003: “God, make the one who [sic] stool my mom’s money give it back”)
- ponderings of life (12-20-2003: “How old is [Uncle] Michael?“)
- some pretty deep stuff (03-13-2007: “I wish we hadn’t moved I want things to be normal sigh”)
- (Most of these should have a [sic] next to them since I didn’t English or Spelling well as a youngster.)
Journal: $6 | Multicolor Pencil: $2 | Personal Value: Priceless
7 year old David really needed to vent
Eventually, I began to journal a little more seriously, and it became my way of checking in with myself. Around once a year starting in 2008, I wrote in that Harry Potter journal as a sort of timestamp of who I was at the time. I would write down how old I was, what I wanted to be when I grew up, what hobbies I had, what activities I was involved in, what my personality was like, and what had happened since I last journaled.
As I grew up, I added more details: what things I owned, what car I wanted, what my prayer life looked like, my favorite quotes of the past year, any significant memories, a quick thought about how I’ve changed, and more. Before I wrote a timestamp, I would read through all the previous timestamps just to see how I had grown and changed, and then I added another entry for the year.
It is quite an adventure to see how my past desires and personality affect my present self and how much or little can change in a year.
But, timestamping once a year wasn’t enough. There was something more I wanted in my journaling. So starting freshman year of college, I committed to a daily journal of my day talking about what I did, who I hung out with, and anything I was thinking about.
Pretty soon, however, I got tired of writing the same things over and over (“went to class, did homework, hung out with friends, got dinner, etc…”). So, I stopped daily journaling for 2 years. However, I recently picked it back up because there is still something I want to capture about my everyday life.
Why Journal?
Ultimately, that something is what keeps drawing me back to daily journaling: the ability to learn from today and prove I was living the present moment.
I really like to Carpe the heck out of every Diem, and that includes “learning” something every day. It doesn’t have to be something new; maybe it’s something that I remembered, something I understood differently, something that impacted me. I want to write it down, lest life move on and I eventually forget it.
Later on, as I reflect over the day or the week, I can look back and see that I learned something, even if it was something small. Also, daily journaling proves to me that I was paying attention, that I was not on autopilot mindlessly going through the motions, that I was living in the present moment. These things help me stay grounded in today and live a thoughtful and intentional life.
My yearly Harry Potter journaling is my touchstone to my past and future self to see how I continue to grow and change. My daily journaling is my touchstone to my present self to learn and live today.
How I Journal
That Harry Potter journal sees action about once a year, and it takes about an hour or so to thoughtfully and thoroughly timestamp myself. For my daily journaling, I take small notes throughout the day whenever something sticks with me.
I use the Google Keep app to basically keep a sticky note on my phone’s homescreen. Whenever I want to record something, all I need to do is open my phone, tap the note, record the tidbit of info via typing or voice-to-text, and move on.
At the end of my day, I use the Diaro app to write more completely about those notes and why they stuck out to me. Diaro syncs across my devices and is backed-up to Dropbox, meaning I can journal wherever I want and know that it’s safely stored away.
Finally, I set up a new blank note for the next day and repeat. This whole process takes up roughly 10 minutes of my whole day, and is broken into 1-2 minute chunks throughout the day with 5 minutes of journaling before bed.
My phone’s homescreen. Keep has my ToDo list, and right below it is my list of Daily Notes. This setup makes taking notes super fast and easy.
Diaro is a digital journal that I’ve been using for the past 3 years. I found Diaro after lots of research and trial/error with journaling apps, and Diaro is the best one out there.
A Few Weeks Of Journaling And Reflections
I started doing daily journaling for the past few weeks, and it’s been very fruitful in retaining information and also in giving me material to bring to God in prayer.
First, it started as only journaling about what I learned that day. But, I started including small God moments, questions I wanted to ask in prayer, or reflections on my day or what I was receiving in prayer. It’s a practice that has proved to me the power of daily journaling and daily reflections (much like the examen prayer from St. Ignatius or the Liturgy of the Hours).
I really do recommend everyone give it a try for a week or two, whether through an app or a scrap piece of paper in your pocket. You might be surprised at how much happens in a single day.
A quick look at some of my reflections. None of them are theologically ground-breaking, but they are little things that literally make my day.