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I am trying journaling as well but most days I don't know what to write...most days I'm not really doing special things, I have no special feelings. These days

I am trying journaling as well but most days I don't know what to write...most days I'm not really doing special things, I have no special feelings. These days are enjoyable because I like my work and love my family, but I don't get further than "went to work, afterwards cooked <some meal> and played <some game> with <one of my kids>, in the evening <watched some movie / read some book>"... What are you journaling on a daily basis?

marginalien 3y ago
3 bullets on „what I‘ve learned today“, followed by 3 bullets on „what I will do next“. This makes sense to me because a) content-wise I consider learning / making sense of what I experience in my life to be both intellectually and emotionally interesting and b) text-length-wise 6 bullets force you to really boil things down to the core
zmgsabst 3y ago
I keep a daily journal, usually: - “I could have handled X better by doing Y.” - “Seeing A made me curious about B; maybe look into that.” - “I really tried at K, but oof didn’t work out; let’s try L tomorrow!” - “I did really good at P, Q, and R today — I’ll get a treat tomorrow and start on S.” Mostly just internal monologue kinds of things, but there’s three benefits I’ve noticed: - I don’t think about frustrations as much if I write them down. - I am better at self-compassion when I externalize the monologue. - I slowly adjust my monologue to reflect how I word it in writing, eg how I choose to frame things or what kinds of things I notice.
xahrepap 3y ago
Slightly different angle: I’ve been digitizing my grandparents’ journals. Something I’ve appreciated is the mundane. “Had a headache. Went to bed early” seeing how often my grandpa was sick was very eye opening to me. “Got the X repaired/replaced. Cost me $Y and it took Z days to finish” “I sat and just visited with $Child. What a good kid. He’s just a teen. He told me about his friends and school” Etc. I don’t know. I guess reading a normal life makes me feel better. Growing up I thought they were perfect. Seeing they were people just like me with very similar struggles is actually fun.
- RaoulP 3y ago
  So lovely to read this. My late father was, in his later years, often writing in his diaries at the kitchen table. I haven’t taken the time to go though these diaries after he passed, but I did take a peek since I never really knew what he wrote. The little I saw was so surprisingly mundane, like you describe. I can’t quote it now, being thousands of miles away, but I remember something about my mom making a tasty soup. I found it endearing but also forgiving, since I’ve struggled with journaling myself. Your post reminded me now that it’s okay to note the mundane.
jollyllama 3y ago
I have the opposite problem. I could write a page of literary prose about every day. Bulleting feels like it would be doing an injustice. So I do nothing.
- RaoulP 3y ago
  > Bulleting feels like it would be doing an injustice. So I do nothing. I usually suffer from the same. Some periods I do bother bulleting, as reminders for thoughts to expand on later in the day. But I never do, and then only the bullets remain - as a kind of headstone for unwritten thoughts. Still, they are better than nothing.
jvanderbot 3y ago
Most of the time it's "I have to do this" or "I wish I had time to do this" or "Hey here's a random idea I had" or "My kids did this cute thing" or "We fought about this, here's what I think" or "oh here's my 3 favorite links from HN and what I thought about them or what they made me think about." It took time to realize that was worth writing down. Honestly I look back 10 years and see things like you describe. "I went to the gym for an hour, worked on this or that, blah blah", and I really love seeing that too. That's life man. Those memories fill your brain up with experiences and a sense of time if you let it. Just remembering how fit I used to be makes me happy and makes me want to do that again.

marginalien 3y ago

3 bullets on „what I‘ve learned today“, followed by 3 bullets on „what I will do next“. This makes sense to me because a) content-wise I consider learning / making sense of what I experience in my life to be both intellectually and emotionally interesting and b) text-length-wise 6 bullets force you to really boil things down to the core

zmgsabst 3y ago

I keep a daily journal, usually: - “I could have handled X better by doing Y.” - “Seeing A made me curious about B; maybe look into that.” - “I really tried at K, but oof didn’t work out; let’s try L tomorrow!” - “I did really good at P, Q, and R today — I’ll get a treat tomorrow and start on S.” Mostly just internal monologue kinds of things, but there’s three benefits I’ve noticed: - I don’t think about frustrations as much if I write them down. - I am better at self-compassion when I externalize the monologue. - I slowly adjust my monologue to reflect how I word it in writing, eg how I choose to frame things or what kinds of things I notice.

xahrepap 3y ago

Slightly different angle: I’ve been digitizing my grandparents’ journals. Something I’ve appreciated is the mundane. “Had a headache. Went to bed early” seeing how often my grandpa was sick was very eye opening to me. “Got the X repaired/replaced. Cost me $Y and it took Z days to finish” “I sat and just visited with $Child. What a good kid. He’s just a teen. He told me about his friends and school” Etc. I don’t know. I guess reading a normal life makes me feel better. Growing up I thought they were perfect. Seeing they were people just like me with very similar struggles is actually fun.

RaoulP 3y ago
So lovely to read this. My late father was, in his later years, often writing in his diaries at the kitchen table. I haven’t taken the time to go though these diaries after he passed, but I did take a peek since I never really knew what he wrote. The little I saw was so surprisingly mundane, like you describe. I can’t quote it now, being thousands of miles away, but I remember something about my mom making a tasty soup. I found it endearing but also forgiving, since I’ve struggled with journaling myself. Your post reminded me now that it’s okay to note the mundane.

jollyllama 3y ago

I have the opposite problem. I could write a page of literary prose about every day. Bulleting feels like it would be doing an injustice. So I do nothing.

RaoulP 3y ago
> Bulleting feels like it would be doing an injustice. So I do nothing. I usually suffer from the same. Some periods I do bother bulleting, as reminders for thoughts to expand on later in the day. But I never do, and then only the bullets remain - as a kind of headstone for unwritten thoughts. Still, they are better than nothing.

jvanderbot 3y ago

Most of the time it's "I have to do this" or "I wish I had time to do this" or "Hey here's a random idea I had" or "My kids did this cute thing" or "We fought about this, here's what I think" or "oh here's my 3 favorite links from HN and what I thought about them or what they made me think about." It took time to realize that was worth writing down. Honestly I look back 10 years and see things like you describe. "I went to the gym for an hour, worked on this or that, blah blah", and I really love seeing that too. That's life man. Those memories fill your brain up with experiences and a sense of time if you let it. Just remembering how fit I used to be makes me happy and makes me want to do that again.