It’s one of those things I’ve never talked about with other people, the most I’ve really been exposed to journal keeping in pop culture is Doug Funny. People don’t talk about their personal journals.
Ever since I was a teenager I’ve sometimes felt compelled to write about major events, and over the years this has become the habit of keeping a journal that I write in almost every day, and sometimes I go back and read old entries. “What was I doing this time last year?” I also sometimes keep notes or such intentionally for future reference.
So, if you keep a journal, do you go back and read it? Why?
I don’t know if my journaling is the same kind of journaling you’re thinking of. For me, it’s kind of like a log of scientific experiments. There’s various problems that I’m trying to work through, and I’ll keep track of how I’m doing relative to those problems in my journal along with whatever solution I’m trying to implement. Figuring out whether something helps or not relies on going back and reading old entries to find trends.
I don’t keep journals but I do read some of my old whatsapp chats from time to time. Helps that I still have mine from 2013. Just a fun way to look back at what was going on in my life at that point in time, or to see how my relationships with people have changed over the years.
Absolutely. Sometimes I’ll just pick a point at random and read forward or back from there.
Yes, but it’s been more than 6 months since I’ve written in mine. I used it mainly to document my life and deal with mental issues. The past six months have been mostly daily struggles and ordinary life so I’ve had no incentive to go back and journal. I should fix this, grab the keyboard and resume!
Sometimes. But it’s rare.
Oh yes, definitely.
It wasn’t always the case. I started Journaling as a means to recover my mental health. The initial entries were really dark and I don’t read them often, perhaps less than once a year.
After I recovered, I started using it as a logbook for my own life. Initially I only just wrote events happening around me, or interesting world events, but soon I was writing my own desires to improve myself.
That’s when it really kicked off for me. Till now about 2 years had passed since I started Journaling. I would write about something I wished to change about myself, like reducing soft drink consumption, quitting cigarettes, or just changing my behavior a certain way. Gradually I would write about how I could go about realizing it, eventually I would do it.
Reading back I can see that today I am totally different from me a year ago. It’s really fascinating to me and it has helped me to stay way ahead of my mental health. I was able to recognize a relapse in my depression and address it accordingly.
I can’t, it’s in secret code (my handwriting is atrocious :)
But like others said, it would be good to take up the habit again. Plenty of things going on in my life where I could benefit from a little reflection.Kept a journal for the last 20 years and I write maybe a million words a year. I don’t read old entries because I don’t have time!
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Seldom unless I want to revisit or check something specific. I think journaling is more about digesting things than documenting things.
I’ve definitely done that, just started writing or typing just to process something. Though I also do a lot of brainstorming and planning in my journal.
Sometimes but it’s probably like once every five years or something. I’d rather not re read what I wrote, especially if it was about a real life event.
Most of my journaling is about dreams. I occasionally go back and read old entries when I get a dejavu feeling or if I suspect I’ve had a similar dream before. It’s surprising to see how false the dejavu turns out to be, and how much I forget about what I wrote. And yeah going through all that nonsense can be a surreal/psychedelic experience lol, you don’t do that every day.
The closest thing I have are my online profiles from Reddit and now here. And yep, I do read back on my conversations for the most part as it’s the closest thing I have, I suppose.
While it doesn’t quite fit what an actual journal is, it is interesting to read back and remember what my state of mind was or what I knew at the time I wrote what I did. Of course, like anyone else, I run the full gambit from being insightful to being stupid.
I did use another profle for when I quit drinking. I used it as an actual journal to document what I was feeling and what I was going through. So, it helped me and I think it helped others that read it.
Sometimes, although I usually don’t write that often, unless it’s a dream or something emotionally significant since that’s what my therapist recommended journaling for.
When I look back on entries it’s usually to revisit a dream a/o interpretation, or thoughts about/experiences I had with people who aren’t an active part of my life anymore
I started a journal a few years ago because I found myself forgetting a lot of events. I gotta say, I havent really gone back to reread it yet. I dont think enough time has passed, really.
My journal app has a feature for On This Day. I visit it sparingly. I have used it extensively in fits and spurts, so much so that I even added that functionality to my blog and started visiting it.
Stopped when it got too embarrassing. 😅
Which app? Is it available on Android?
Day One and yes. Though android users often complain it’s not feature complete wrt the iOS version.
