Any writing is better than none. To be able to write "enough" every day sounds like an unimaginable luxury to me, but I still manage to write a little bit every day and I haven't completely lost my marbles yet.
this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
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Journaling
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Hello! First time in the doing anything like this, so please bear with me! There isn’t a place for people to post or talk about their journaling, which can be very helpful to others. So I decided to make one … even though I’ve never done anything remotely close to this. ———————————————————————— Welcome
This is a community for all journal related things prompts, questions, showing off, really anything relating to journaling. Always on the move, show off your everyday carry journal set up. Don’t write down paragraphs upon paragraphs of words, no worries! No matter how you journal or how you decide to keep your journal this community is for anyone who wants to share or just excited to see others set ups. ———————————————————————— Rules
— No hateful conduct
Due to the nature of journaling posts can be very personal. Anyone who is found to be overly negative or discriminatory towards another member within this community will receive repercussions relative to the situation. Have basic etiquette, this community is based on positivity and that will remain my goal throughout.
— No spam
Spam will be considered as posting the same content more than three times. ———————————————————————— Note
As this is my first time creating a community please let me know if there are any rules I should implement. I am completely open to feedback and criticism as long as it’s for the best interest of the community.
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Do you handwrite or type? I feel like when I type I could write 4 equivalent pages but have de-stressed the equivalent of a half page via handwriting
I type. The ASMR of clicky keys makes up most of the difference in therapeutic benefit.
I have a clicky keyboard too but it only feels good when I'm coding. It seems like the consensus is that I should just make it a habit and it's benefits will come as I do it consistently, tho
I can't dedicate that sort of time in a shot generally, certainly not with the extra time to get into the right headspace. I tend to aim for paragraph-size thoughts, expounding as and when necessary.
I actively work to avoid typing, because I genuinely enjoy fountain pens and because Lord knows I type more than enough in my day job. I end up with very different outcome styles typing vs. hand writing, the former tends to be more business-ready, the latter tends to be much more true to the actual feelings/thoughts I'm trying to capture.
One of my most frequent use cases for journaling is to keep running logs of interactions with various organizations, in a mostly chronological way that I can later follow. Currently juggling a number of insurance companies, doctors, and a bunch of other related stuff and I'd be completely lost if I didn't have a way to easily see whom I spoke to about what, when, and what documentation I sent where. That part is tailor-made for handwriting, from where I sit, if I try to type contemporaneous notes they invariably end up being closer to a transcript than to useful bullet points.
There is no right or wrong way to do this, only what works for you.
If you do it everyday, I think you'll find many days will just be shorter. It seems to depend a lot on what's going on in my life. I've been doing it almost daily for over 20 years, but I've also been typing it all.
I have tried handwriting journaling, but I find it frustrating, especially at the wpm output I'm used to being able to do. Also my handwriting sucks. Or as one of my teachers used to call it - "chicken scratch" haha
The other thing is that once you have years of it, it's pretty neat to be able to search a name or keyword and be able to see your entries about it across years of history. I'm always astounded at just how fallible our memory is.
I keep a couple of journals. One is personal for clearing the junk in my head. That one is handwritten using a favorite fountain pen, ink, and notebook. The other is a quiet little record from work, mostly to process and to jog my memory should it be needed in future. That one is typed in an encrypted note taking app.
Both of them are generally just as-needed. I try to make writing a daily habit, but I also don’t force it if there’s nothing to write about.