PKM Toolkit: Rediscovering My Journaling Habit with Day One
My earliest personal knowledge management tools were journals. Even in the days of using the original iPhone, I did most of my note-taking and writing in print. Can you remember the before times when you double-checked your pockets not for your phone, but to be sure you had your iPod and that tangle of earbuds?
For many years I kept a Moleskine journal and would write in it daily, sometimes more often. I documented my ideas, days, creative bursts, to-do lists, big plans, and emotional struggles. Later, I also kept a Field Notes in my pocket for jotting things down when I was at work or away from home. I even got nerdy and created a basic index system so I could reference stuff I had written.
Eventually, I just stopped. I got pretty intense in my habit and would write even when I lacked much to say because I didn’t want to break my streak. I became burned out by that part in particular and also found myself having more responsibilities as I got older, leaving less time for the kind of detailed journaling that I was prone to.
Making a Brief Return to Print…
With the changes that occurred in my life over the last year, I felt the desire to return to journaling so I could document my life and process my thoughts and feelings. To get started again, I picked up a new journal and decided on the following three prompts to answer for each entry:
What am I grateful for?
What did I win today?
What did I learn today?
It worked well for a few months, and then I had that little broken wrist issue, which made writing by hand impossible for eight weeks. So I took a few days off as I went through the initial recovery stage and decided to modify my approach instead of giving it up.
… And then to Digital
Using Day One, I switched to a simple one-question gratitude prompt and found this to be an even more effective method for my needs. It’s been rewarding, and here are my four big reasons why Day One is working better and will be the format that I stick with:
Photos with a date and place
It’s easy to import photos from the day’s events and have the journal automatically change the location and other relevant info based on their metadata.
Access from anywhere
It’s the same with reading on Kindle; I like that I can access this journal on my iPhone, iPad, or Mac. I have a shortcut on all of my devices that gets me right to a new entry with the date and the prompt so it is very convenient. I don’t have a set time for my reflection, although I try to do it in the morning. If that doesn’t happen, I can do this easily from any device later in the day.
Backups
Because my Day One backs up to the cloud and syncs to all of my devices, I don’t have to worry about losing my writing.
Less Pressure
By reducing the prompts from three to one, the process is simplified. I can write a sentence or a paragraph and feel happy with whatever I’ve recorded.
Journaling for Myself
I do not journal for anyone other than myself. I enjoy the process of recording gratitude because it feels great, and the ability to look at past entries and see what was happening can be fun too.
Do you maintain a journaling habit? I recommend it, in whatever form and frequency work for you. It’s helpful in so many ways for the present and can interest your future self too.