When I first started using a daily planner years ago, I began using it to record items of major significance to me. In time, I began using it to record information of a less significant nature … it pretty much became a diary for me. Later, I began using it to ask myself questions that I felt I should ponder on, and to write down ideas I had for things I might want to do … it became another tool for self-improvement.
Keeping such a daily record (or diary, or journal, or whatever you want to call it) turned out being a useful practice for me. So, even when I stopped using a paper planner, I found other ways to keep daily records.
As an example of how useful a daily record can be, I recently needed to find some information from the year 2003. So, I picked up my Dell x51v and opened the Word document that was my diary for 2003. I found the information in less than 30 seconds.
Another example: my daily records, along with Vickie’s, were extremely useful during the adoption proceedings for our oldest granddaughter.
In addition to their value as reference, daily records can
- Help you clarify your thoughts. Sometimes just the act of trying to write out the "mess that is running through your mind" gives you clarity that would be difficult to achieve otherwise.
- It is a great way to brainstorm ideas and actions.
- It can help you monitor and measure progress against your goals.
In addition to a daily planner or Word document, other ways of keeping a daily record include
- A Moleskine notebook, a composition notebook, or a specialized daily journal book (some of the latter even have a "thought for the day")
- A simple text document
- A database. I used this method for about a year. Its advantage is that you categorize entries, but the downside is that it takes some effort to set up (and is less portable and often not compatibility with cross-platform setups).
- A blog can be used in this fashion. I suppose one could use a Twitter account to record daily records. Of course, neither of these methods would be good for recording private material.
- Specialized software or a specially-designed web interface
Some of the problems I have encountered with daily records include:
- Not being consistent in using them
- Throwing away material that I wish I had kept
- Not organizing them well
- Inadvertently deleting them (happened when using Word documents as a diary, but was able to recover)
I have found it useful to review my diaries from time to time. Last week I reviewed the one I am keeping for this year. (I started the year keeping one on a Word Document on my x51v, which I sync with my computer, but switched to using a Moleskine notebook in May.)
What are your thoughts on keeping daily records? What has worked best for you?
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve used a journal program since 1998 and wish I’d kept one of any type before then. I’d love to go back and read what was really on my mind day to day when I was in my 20’s and 30’s. I currently use Alpha Journal Pro - it’s a solid little app. I’ve been beta testing the portable version recently - very convenient to keep and run the program from a thumb drive. I tried using a blog as a journal for a while, but it wasn’t for me. A lot of what I note is pretty incidental stuff but some is very personal. To be as brutally open and honest in my journal I need the assurance of total privacy.
@capo, I’m with you 100%. Definitely wish I had kept any kind of journal in my younger years, and, also, my journal entries tend to include incidental and private material that are not suited for a blog.
Alpha Journal Pro sounds neat. But I think I am going to go back to using Word documents. I like the fact that I can store on any time of PDA I choose to use, so can have with me at all times. This means that I should really convert this year’s Moleskine notes into doc format, to be thorough, and I don’t look forward to that. I wish I had been as consistent with the tools as you have been.
I don’t get it. If you have questions to ponder, wouldn’t you create a “Think about important life questions” project? If you have ideas for things you might want to do, wouldn’t those go in a Someday/Maybe list? Isn’t a brainstorm paper a supplemental document to be filed with a project?
I can see the value of having a way to recall what happened when in my life. I wonder if I could accomplish that by just adding unplanned events to my calendar after they happen, so that the past dates in my calendar become a journal. Currently, I find that I sometimes search my my archived emails to find out what I was doing when.
The idea of a journal that you and capo are discussing sounds intriguing, but I’m not quite certain how to fit it in with GTD.
@Jeremy,
Your comments are good ones, but even David Allen uses a journal, often for the reasons that capo and I have mentioned: it lets you clarify your thoughts on any number of items, not just the thoughts related to a particular project, it lets you write down things that are useful for you to see later (even if incidental) and so on. Regarding the latter, for example, I might write in my journal that I saw an older couple in McDonald’s this morning that probably could barely afford their breakfasts and that I think too infrequently about people who are in need.
As for GTD in general, I think it has a useful bag of tricks to help you manage your time, especially from a project standpoint. But there is more to life than GTD. Even though David Allen uses a journal, I see the use of one as beyond GTD. It’s a tool all to its own that is irrespective of what time management techniques you use.
At least that is how it seems to me. But, your system may be adequate for you. From my own experience, a journal is one of those things we tend to underestimate in value until we have actually used one ourselves.
I’m 52 and just now trying to get into the habit of keeping a journal. I very much regret not starting one 40 years ago.
I’m using paper and pen by the way. Gave up my PPC a few years ago.
John,
Like you and capo I too wish I had started sooner. I am 58 and started keeping one, half-heartedly, about 20 years ago, and with more rigor a year or two after that. But, I wish I had one from the time of my late teens or early twenties. Oh well …
Good luck going forward.
I use List Pro and keep copies on my PC, Ipaq and Moto Q. I don’t keep daily records but I do keep track of events. For example a few months ago the water line coming into my house broke and I recorded everything to do with that fun repair that went on over a two week period (Water company visit, three estimates, what was done inside and out, new water meter installation, etc.).
I track all my Ipaq programs, which version, where I bought it, how much I paid, any problems, etc. . I keep track of all sorts of things and List Pro works perfectly because there’s always items and then sub-items and so on.
If I had to write this stuff it wouldn’t happen and I’d spend twice as much time trying to remember what plumber I called, electrician, heating contactor, driveway sealer, etc.
Great topic !!!
Thanks, Mike.
ListPro really is handy isn’t it? I hadn’t thought of it as a tool for recording events, but I can see that it would do it just fine. There was a time when I used the HandBase database program to do this (sync’d with Access, with versions of HB for my PPCs and Palms), but I got away from using it. ListPro would have been better: I might have stuck with it.
Thanks for mentioning how you do it.
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