8 ms·

When I started journaling, I promised myself that I would be honest with myself, because the purpose of journaling was to chronicle what I was thinking at that

When I started journaling, I promised myself that I would be honest with myself, because the purpose of journaling was to chronicle what I was thinking at that time in my life. I not only write out moments that stand out in that day, like things that went wrong or went well, but how I feel about those events. Most of the time this revolves around my interactions with people, or lack of interactions with people. I also write about what I am especially grateful for that day, what I'm looking forward to, and what I'm doing today to get me there. It is a very cathartic experience to go back months/years later and read it. You get such an insight into the person you were, but more notably, realize that you do actually change over time even if sometimes it doesn't feel like it.

costcopizza 10y ago
Agreed, it really is a fascinating experience to look back on your thoughts. Somewhat related: http://lifehacker.com/the-psychological-benefits-of-writing-regularly-1783693547 http://lifehacker.com/the-psychological-benefits-of-writing-...
Fraterkes 10y ago
This is what I find appealing about journaling, but I just find the thought that someone might find mu journal and read all my thoughts over the years kinda scary. Do you do anything to protect your journal?
- 0xdeadbeefbabe 10y ago
  I'd also be afraid of your future self, because annoyance is the typical reaction to past self, at least it is in this article.
  - tjl 10y ago
    I already feel annoyance with my past self reading my old code. For example, "Why did you code it this way? Are you an idiot?" I've since added more comments explaining certain decisions after thinking something was a bug, but it was just a bit unintuitive in the hope that I annoy my future self less.
- Posibyte 10y ago
  Inside the front cover of my journals, I have written "You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do." I snatched that from GoodQuotes. I'm no poet, but I feel like it carries a lot of truth. If somebody wanted to rob my house, if all of my most private thoughts and truths were stacked on the coffee table in the front room, they would still make off with my TV, and those books would still be sitting there when I came back to the aftermath.
- DarkTree 10y ago
  Honestly, I do the bare minimum. I keep it tucked under my bed.. so if anyone goes that far to invade my privacy, then that is their problem at that point.
- Jach 10y ago
  Start writing public blog posts, but don't pimp them, notice nobody cares to read any of those (or at least not all) so who would care to read your journal? That should help with fear. (Though I guess it's possible people will want to read everything if you have an interesting life and write well, but then you'll deal with the fear through gaining confidence instead of apathy.) I have a private journal I update every few weeks to a few months that I wouldn't really want to have in the public, I don't go to great lengths to keep it private though. It exists in a txt file on one machine, that's good enough, but if I cared more it wouldn't be hard to stick it in an encrypted folder or just aes decrypt/encrypt whenever I want to update it. Edit: I had a handwritten journal once when I was 13 or so, it disappeared, probably my mom finding and reading and destroying it. Just do it on a computer. Besides for me I can barely stand handwriting anything longer than a page anymore.
  - harlanlewis 10y ago
    > Edit: I had a handwritten journal once when I was 13 or so, it disappeared, probably my mom finding and reading and destroying it. That is the most awful thing I've read today.
    - ams6110 10y ago
      A lot of parents read their kids' text messages and email. I never have done it myself, but I can sort of see the rationale. Teenagers don't have the best judgment and the relative permanence and ease of redistribution of electronic communication creates consequences that paper note-passing or phone calls didn't in prior generations.
  - maroonblazer 10y ago
    Once I started living on my own - and the risk of prying eyes dropped near zero - I've preferred hand-writing my journal. Some combination of the tactile nature of pen-on-paper and the portability (I hate typing for any length of time on my phone) hits the sweet spot for me. Plus, I can add illustrations.
- tgb 10y ago
  I sometimes write in encrypted files through vim for this reason. :X does the trick. It feels juvenile to hide it when I know no one will care, but the idea that it can be entirely personal opens the option to being more honest. Future self can still be judgemental, but the only way to avoid that is to pipe it to /dev/null instead.
  - thro1237 10y ago
    And the equivalent for emacs is?
    - ColinCochrane 10y ago
      You can encrypt org files pretty easily. http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/encrypting-files.html http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/encrypting-files.html
  - tvmalsv 10y ago
    Nice, I didn't know about that vim feature, thanks!
- adiabatty 10y ago
  I learned a different script for English and write in that. I don't (yet) read it as quickly as I read normal English, though; if you're interested in self-reflection and review, this tradeoff won't be an obvious win.
  - whichfawkes 10y ago
    What did you pick? I learned Shavian, and that was fun. It took less time than I'd expected.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
  - knight17 10y ago
    Which one, please elaborate. I've seen Ford shorthand system which replaces alphabets with easier to write variants. It could also be used to write faster and provides some obscurity from the uninitiated. http://www.fordshorthand.com/ http://www.fordshorthand.com/
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- 0point692 10y ago
  Same. And my tactic over the years is removing pages (I prefer actual writing to anything electronic. I like nice pens and good paper). Write honestly, review periodically, and discard what's really just mental or psychological dead-weight. It's surprising how much of that, once on paper, can be just let go and be done with. I've used mostly moleskines for their range and availability, particularly the hard covers. Those all now have huge sections of sliced out pages so I'm trying their Valence line where every page is perforated.
- 0point692 10y ago
  Same. And my tactic over the years is removing pages (I prefer actual writing to anything electronic. I like nice pens and good paper). Write honestly, review periodically, and discard what's really just mental or psychological dead-weight. It's surprising how much of that, once on paper, can be just let go and be done with. I've used mostly moleskines for their range and availability, particularly the hard covers. Those all now have huge sections of sliced out pages so I'm trying their Valence line where every page is perforated.
- ncarroll 10y ago
  The best advice I ever got about journalling was something to the effect of removing the fear-block by not journalling about anything I wouldn't say in person. It was enough to get me started. By getting started like that I learned that journalling changes you. These days I don't worry about someone finding my journal and I pretty much write whatever comes into my head.

costcopizza 10y ago

Agreed, it really is a fascinating experience to look back on your thoughts. Somewhat related: http://lifehacker.com/the-psychological-benefits-of-writing-regularly-1783693547 http://lifehacker.com/the-psychological-benefits-of-writing-...

Fraterkes 10y ago

This is what I find appealing about journaling, but I just find the thought that someone might find mu journal and read all my thoughts over the years kinda scary. Do you do anything to protect your journal?

0xdeadbeefbabe 10y ago
I'd also be afraid of your future self, because annoyance is the typical reaction to past self, at least it is in this article.
- tjl 10y ago
  I already feel annoyance with my past self reading my old code. For example, "Why did you code it this way? Are you an idiot?" I've since added more comments explaining certain decisions after thinking something was a bug, but it was just a bit unintuitive in the hope that I annoy my future self less.
Posibyte 10y ago
Inside the front cover of my journals, I have written "You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do." I snatched that from GoodQuotes. I'm no poet, but I feel like it carries a lot of truth. If somebody wanted to rob my house, if all of my most private thoughts and truths were stacked on the coffee table in the front room, they would still make off with my TV, and those books would still be sitting there when I came back to the aftermath.
DarkTree 10y ago
Honestly, I do the bare minimum. I keep it tucked under my bed.. so if anyone goes that far to invade my privacy, then that is their problem at that point.
Jach 10y ago
Start writing public blog posts, but don't pimp them, notice nobody cares to read any of those (or at least not all) so who would care to read your journal? That should help with fear. (Though I guess it's possible people will want to read everything if you have an interesting life and write well, but then you'll deal with the fear through gaining confidence instead of apathy.) I have a private journal I update every few weeks to a few months that I wouldn't really want to have in the public, I don't go to great lengths to keep it private though. It exists in a txt file on one machine, that's good enough, but if I cared more it wouldn't be hard to stick it in an encrypted folder or just aes decrypt/encrypt whenever I want to update it. Edit: I had a handwritten journal once when I was 13 or so, it disappeared, probably my mom finding and reading and destroying it. Just do it on a computer. Besides for me I can barely stand handwriting anything longer than a page anymore.
- harlanlewis 10y ago
  > Edit: I had a handwritten journal once when I was 13 or so, it disappeared, probably my mom finding and reading and destroying it. That is the most awful thing I've read today.
  - ams6110 10y ago
    A lot of parents read their kids' text messages and email. I never have done it myself, but I can sort of see the rationale. Teenagers don't have the best judgment and the relative permanence and ease of redistribution of electronic communication creates consequences that paper note-passing or phone calls didn't in prior generations.
- maroonblazer 10y ago
  Once I started living on my own - and the risk of prying eyes dropped near zero - I've preferred hand-writing my journal. Some combination of the tactile nature of pen-on-paper and the portability (I hate typing for any length of time on my phone) hits the sweet spot for me. Plus, I can add illustrations.
tgb 10y ago
I sometimes write in encrypted files through vim for this reason. :X does the trick. It feels juvenile to hide it when I know no one will care, but the idea that it can be entirely personal opens the option to being more honest. Future self can still be judgemental, but the only way to avoid that is to pipe it to /dev/null instead.
- thro1237 10y ago
  And the equivalent for emacs is?
  - ColinCochrane 10y ago
    You can encrypt org files pretty easily. http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/encrypting-files.html http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/encrypting-files.html
- tvmalsv 10y ago
  Nice, I didn't know about that vim feature, thanks!
adiabatty 10y ago
I learned a different script for English and write in that. I don't (yet) read it as quickly as I read normal English, though; if you're interested in self-reflection and review, this tradeoff won't be an obvious win.
- whichfawkes 10y ago
  What did you pick? I learned Shavian, and that was fun. It took less time than I'd expected.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- knight17 10y ago
  Which one, please elaborate. I've seen Ford shorthand system which replaces alphabets with easier to write variants. It could also be used to write faster and provides some obscurity from the uninitiated. http://www.fordshorthand.com/ http://www.fordshorthand.com/
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
0point692 10y ago
Same. And my tactic over the years is removing pages (I prefer actual writing to anything electronic. I like nice pens and good paper). Write honestly, review periodically, and discard what's really just mental or psychological dead-weight. It's surprising how much of that, once on paper, can be just let go and be done with. I've used mostly moleskines for their range and availability, particularly the hard covers. Those all now have huge sections of sliced out pages so I'm trying their Valence line where every page is perforated.
0point692 10y ago
Same. And my tactic over the years is removing pages (I prefer actual writing to anything electronic. I like nice pens and good paper). Write honestly, review periodically, and discard what's really just mental or psychological dead-weight. It's surprising how much of that, once on paper, can be just let go and be done with. I've used mostly moleskines for their range and availability, particularly the hard covers. Those all now have huge sections of sliced out pages so I'm trying their Valence line where every page is perforated.
ncarroll 10y ago
The best advice I ever got about journalling was something to the effect of removing the fear-block by not journalling about anything I wouldn't say in person. It was enough to get me started. By getting started like that I learned that journalling changes you. These days I don't worry about someone finding my journal and I pretty much write whatever comes into my head.