tl;dr: Start writing mundane things down, don't obsess over structure or words, reduce friction, let it unfold over the years, have no expectations about therapeutic effects or whatever.
- I started journaling around 2008.
- I almost never read in my journal and when I do, I sometimes cringe, and sometimes I'm surprised what aspect of myself stayed the same.
- Journaling didn't change my life, but I think it's a good thing. I'm a forward-looking guy, not too obsesses with the past. These days, I mostly note down development steps of my kids. That is the current goal: Being able to tell my kids how they were when they were little, what we did. It's crazy how I can't even remember small things when my first son was born.
Some tips:
- You think you need to write down big ideas, but it's all bullshit. That stuff won't interest you anyways in 5-10 years. Write it down in a brain-dump kind of way, not because "it's important".
- What's probably more important and I try to write this down roughly once per month: What I eat, how I feel, what I read, what I did in a day, how much time I spend outside.
- I never look at old journal entries and think "wow this or that big idea crossed my mind". My information retrieval is almost always like:
- "What words could my son say when he was 2 years old?"
- "Where was I in the summer 5 years ago?"
- "How often did I go to dance Tango Argentino 7 years ago?"
- "How many hours did I sleep before I had kids?"
- Even though I kinda have to force myself to write the mundane stuff down, I know how interesting this can be in a few years and it really takes only a minute or two (free form, brain-dump, staccato-style word salad).
- Avoid friction: I just write shit down that comes to my mind. I don't follow a format, I don't assign tags, I don't write prose, I don't write beautifully. I write for myself (uncensored) and not for an audience (would be almost always self-censored). I write digitally, because writing with pen and paper would require more time, increase friction and the information retrieval aspect would be entirely lost. Chances are, you will want to change tags, the format and whatnot after a few years, so better don't even start doing them.
- Don't beat yourself up if you don't write every day. There are times when you'll write often and months with not a single entry.
- I've been using Day One since 2012. It's a good app. I use it because it offers end-to-end encrypted sync across devices, adds my current location so that I don't have to write it down. And I can add a few photos. I sometimes add crappy photos that just capture the moment. The purpose isn't to have a beautiful photo, but an idea what I did that day. But to start, you don't need this. Write down simple notes in Sublime.