The 3 types of journaling
Why keeping 3 diaries with 3 different purposes helps me keep track, stay motivated and think positively.
Journaling is important. Why? How about — do you want to see the progress you have made in your life, or through your work? Or do you want to accurately keep track of how long it actually takes to achieve your personal or professional goals? Or perhaps, do you want to give future you a kick up the backside for when it gets lazy? All of these are reasons I keep 3 different sorts of journals.
Why 3? Because it is important to separate out a) professional life and rest of life, and b) daily life and long-term goals. For those who think “I don’t have time to keep 1 journal, let alone 3” — my daily journaling takes less than 5 minutes a day, and my less frequent journaling takes however long it takes to get down my thoughts at the time (generally no more than 15 minutes). And there’s that old adage that if you care about it, you’ll make time for it. If you have time to feed your cat, exercise or call your friends, you have time for this — and you’ll thank yourself if you do.
Daily journaling 1 — my One Line a Day Diary
My One Line a Day diary is my ‘feelgood’ journal. I read it every morning after waking, and write in it every night before falling asleep. If you’ve not seen one of these journals before, they contain 5 sections of spaces of just 4 lines each under each date of the year, meaning it takes literally a minute or two to complete each day.
As you can see, I’ve kept up this habit for nearly three years now (I stuck the start and end dates on the front to remind me of the commitment I made to myself). When I started writing in it — towards the end of 2017 — I was in a pretty bad place in my life. I wasn’t working or living where I wanted to be, and I generally felt quite unhappy. So I made the rule that I could only write happy or productive things I did that day in the diary, so that I’d be forced to think of at least one thing a day which went well. And some days it wasn’t easy. But normally it wasn’t too bad, because I’d remember all these things to be thankful for, like a nice chat on the phone with a friend, a tasty meal I made, or a good book that I read. Looking back on this time, it has made me appreciate how much my life has improved since then, but also proud that I was able to get through it, which makes me hopeful for the future.
Since then, I’ve included many nice and happy things in this diary, and if at the time I shared them with others, I try to contact them on the corresponding date to remind them, too. This also works as a massive memory aid. For example, around this time two years ago I was on holiday with my parents. I probably wouldn’t have even thought about it if it hadn’t been for this diary, but it meant that the other day, on my mum’s birthday, I could send her a funny photo from her birthday two years previously which I suddenly remembered I’d taken.
The last thing I use this diary for is keeping track of important dates in the notes section at the back. Not only does this include dates of fun events, but also things like when I started or stopped certain medications or fitness regimes. By doing this, I’ve got a useful reference, which is particularly important when you’re keeping an eye on your health.
Daily journaling 2 — my electronic and paper-based work journals
The other form of daily journaling I do relates to my work and study. The more official ‘record’ journal I keep electronically via OneNote. I use OneNote purely because it came with Microsoft Office — there may be better apps available — but I have found it really neat for organising my PhD in general. As you can see from the image above, I have a page (under the “Log” section of my OneNote) for each month of my PhD, labelled with both the date and the corresponding month of my PhD. If you have a ‘normal’ job, you don’t have to include the latter, though it may be useful if you’re new to a job and you’re wanting to see your progress in terms of time on the job. In fact, I think that’s really useful anyway, as it’s easy to compare yourself to your colleagues (particularly if they’re the same age), when actually they may have been there longer than you or working on a different project, so such comparisons can just lead to unnecessary stress.
Within this electronic diary, I simply keep a quick summary of my workday — how productive it was, what files I used, what type of work (writing, analysis etc.) I did. I then have a few simple ‘reference rules’: if I had a meeting with my supervisor or took a holiday day, the day is in bold; if I attended a training event or conference, it is in italics. Recently I’ve started using the Pomodoro technique, so I’m also noting down how much focus time I clock each day and week.
This OneNote diary has been an absolute godsend for keeping track of my progress in my PhD. I can use it to look back at when I created files or started a certain set of analysis (if I keep these in OneNote too, it automatically time-and-date-stamps each new page). When I have a progress assessment due, I can simply look month-by-month to check the dates of my meetings and training I completed, saving time spent trawling through emails or notes. I can even keep track of when I had less productive months due to holidays or illness. It can also be a motivation booster. Sometimes when I feel I’ve made little progress, I only have to look back a few months and see I didn’t even know about the methods I’m implementing now, which shows I must have learned something!
I also have a new paper-based work diary which has just replaced my last academic year diary. This one is an 18 month day-to-page diary, which I simply use for keeping track of appointments, making to-do lists and for random note-taking in meetings or at my desk. Although the bulk of my notes go in my OneNote file, pre-Covid I wouldn’t have a laptop in a meeting, and even now I prefer to write notes on paper during a video call, so my supervisor doesn’t have to listen to me bashing the keys while she talks to me. Afterwards I transcribe them to OneNote (where I can also make them more legible). This diary is also helpful if I want to draw a quick diagram, make a rough list of tasks or perform a quick calculation. Even if you love your tech, I’d still recommend a paper-based work diary or notebook, just for those times when you don’t know where to store something on your computer or need to jot something down quickly.
Infrequent journaling — my ‘diary of secrets’
I wouldn’t normally share information about this diary, but it’s probably my most valued one, as it’s essentially a track of the most important things that have happened in my life. Well, not just this diary — depending on the size, I tend to get through one of these every 1–2 years. Some weeks I might write in it three times — other times I may only write in it twice a month. I keep it for the times I need to vent some private thoughts — whether it be on work, relationships or my health — whenever I feel the need to. I simply include the date and time of my entry, and the location if I am somewhere other than home. This form of journaling has kept me sane throughout the years, and looking back, has been a really interesting profile of how I have developed over time. Sometimes I only write a short paragraph, but I typically write a page or two at a time when I do. This is the diary for important memories and feelings. I’m so glad I have it, because it has become a record for many important events in my life — most recently, what was going on (and how I felt about) the recent Covid lockdowns.
If you’ve never journaled before, or not since you were a teen, you might feel a bit silly initially, or that it is a bit of a narcissistic thing to do. But it can honestly be a wonderful thing for improving your mood and your motivation. Whether it’s writing a line about a happy moment in your day, giving an update on your work or writing a long rant about whatever is troubling you, you will feel much more clear-headed once you write it down. Of all the habits, I think a positive One Line a Day diary is the best. Going to bed having reflected on something good, and starting your day with a reminder of something positive that happened on this day a year or more ago, is a really nice way to remember that every day counts, and that even if you don’t do something spectacular, there is something to be grateful about and a reason to enjoy life everyday.
