Other than jotting down ideas and thoughts, how do we use journals today?
There is a connection between physically writing down your thoughts, dreams and plans with the mental awareness and sensory input that can affect you mental well being.
It can be calming, meditative and reflective as you are using your brain to create then transcribe using motor neurons to control the muscles in your hand to move the pen across the paper, unlike the repetitive tapping of a pattern of keys on a keyboard.
Holiday Diary
We started writing Holiday Diaries when we went away initially so that we kept a log of what we were spending on eating and drinking. This then became a daily record of what we did during the day, sometimes it was just which beach we went to and where we eat in the evenings. These diaries were then re-read years later and we found that we did a lot more than we remembered and what was recorded in the photographs.
Suddenly there were people we had met and long since forgotten and stories that they had told us.
We had remembered 2 weeks of pavement cracking sun baking our skin to crusty bread and not the 5 days of thunder storms that shook glasses on the table.
These diaries sometimes come out on dark winter nights to cheer us up.
Bullet Journals – BuJos
Many people start Bullet Journals to track progress and set targets and tasks for almost anything, from a diet and fitness to DIY projects and Gardening schedules.
Bullet Journals are becoming a more and more popular way of organising your aspirational goals in the way that suits you. They have set lists of tasks that drive and encourage you to achieve your ultimate goal. How you set it out is entirely up to you, usually it has your ultimate goal on the first page with a mission statement saying what you want to do, how and by when. You can have one page just listing every day of the month with landmarks and tombstones, then a summary page showing graphs of your status within your time line. A Diet Journal for example the graph could show your specific weight and your mood over a month. The following pages can then detail on a daily or weekly basis your progress in a box type grid for each day of the week.
A Diet Journal can be for weight loss, setting out daily calorie targets and results mapping progress to weekly and monthly goals. But it can also be used for diagnosing re-occurring ailments and allergies that may be caused by certain foods such as nightshades like chilies, peppers and tomatoes that may cause headaches for some people or foods high in purines that can cause gout. It can also plot out your general well-being, moods and energy levels. Plotting your daily intake of the foods you’ve consumed can show a certain pattern as to when you get that headache or rash. You can then set out meal plans avoiding and including different foods as well as recording your moods.
Fitness Journals can record your exercise regime and progress towards your ultimate goal whether it be a half marathon or getting up the stairs without getting out of breath.
Project Journals are usually task against time driven. Certain jobs need to be completed before the next stage can start with in certain timescale. Foundations need to be dug out before the concrete arrives but only after the tree has been removed to accommodate the new shed in the garden. We used Project Journals when modernising our kitchen where we had to complete certain tasks before the professionals were scheduled to come on site to complete their tasks as well as organise the delivery of white goods when ready, but we also kept all contact details, receipts and warranties in the Journal so we only had to look at one place. If the washing machine breaks down, we know where to find the guarantee and who to contact wire it in.
Gardening Journals record what seeds were sawn when and where, what plants are ready to be bedded out and when. Schedules recording when bushes and shrubs need cutting back. Quite often the tags telling me what should be growing in the pot is lost and I take time and care in nurturing a fairly ugly weed.
Personal Goals Progress Logs – Pergoalas
A journal can be used to set personal goals that you wish to achieve so that you can enjoy life to its fullest. Usually these plans are made on New Years Day, but they can be started anytime of the year when you feel that you want to make life style changes laying out the steps like a project for your Personal Goals Progress. Pergoalas !
Okay I made that one up, but it works.