Advanced Journalling
Dec. 22nd, 2024 01:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebI just received the third volume of the Rebel Badge Book and am intrigued by the Advanced Diarist badge. The first requirement is to try a different type of journalling each month for six months. And ten examples are given. Interestingly, some are different formats, others are different topics. So you could journal the same topic 6 different ways or journal 6 different topics the same way.
Topics
The different topics mentioned are:
* Gratitude journal - to improve life satisfaction. I feel like I'm pretty attuned to the positives in my life which admittedly is pretty easy considering that I have almost every imaginable privilege and virtually everything I'm bad at is perfectly fine in my current lifestyle. I wouldn't mind trying this, though. It seems fun.
* Dream diary - I'd maybe have one or two entries a month. Short. Mostly nonsensical. Or one could write about your hopes and dreams and call that a dream diary. Or maybe any ideas of things you'd like to do in the future, so you don't forget.
* Memory journal - I guess some journals about your plans or dreams; these would be about things that have already happened. When Covid took over our lives I kept a covid journal for a while. I kept track of news and how things affected my friends and me. Googling shows that people like to keep track of certain accomplishments and other experiences (like races run, books read, board games played).
* Worry journal - This sounds like the opposite of gratitude journal. Wouldn't it make you feel worse? According to Restoration Counseling of Atlanta, writing down your worries and then literally closing the book on them can help you stop ruminating. Interestingly, they say to "List bothersome issues on the left side of the page." But also, "Think about what you can do to help resolve these issues and write your plans on the right side of the page." (I hate when people just say to try to ignore things or take deep breaths rather than actually trying to change things.) They do admit that sometimes we do have to learn acceptance.
Stoic journaling sounds similar.
Other ideas:
* Spending journal - Whenever I'm wondering where my money is going, I've kept track of everything I've bought and the answer has become clear. Normally I don't have to be that detailed to know how I'm doing, though.
* Food journal - I've kept track of everything I've eaten and compared that to the next day's weight to see if I could find out anything new. And I did learn some good things, like it's okay to eat an unreasonable number of potato chips, but not of tortilla chips.
I've heard it's also a good idea, when you're into emotional eating (which I am), to keep track of the emotions to help you figure out some strategies for avoiding that.
A friend of mine likes photographing restaurant food to help him remember later what he liked and didn't like at different restaurants.
* Anything else you want to stay accountable about.
* Exercise journal - A friend of mine loves weight lifting because it's so easy to make visible progress, so keeping track of that could be motivating. Or any area you're trying to make improvements in.
* Fashion journal - The My Style badge (volume 1) requires taking a photo of how you're dressed each day.
* Travel journal - These really help me get maximum value from my travels because I can re-visit them later. I both write and take photos.
* Holiday newsletters are also a type of journalling.
Formats
Here are the formats mentioned:
* Circular diary - I'm guessing this is a format--I've never heard it and can't find what it is online)
* Bullet journal - this is a paper journal that also incorporates to-do lists and calendars as well of other things you'd like to keep track of, like all the books you've read or movies that friends have recommended, or the sizes of things you keep forgetting (air filter size, alarm clock battery size). It's highly personalizable, and I really like mine when I actually keep up with it. Now that my Elections job is over, it's time to get back to it.
* Photo diary - I like these for traveling. And they are good for before-and-after projects. I just saw a time-lapse record of someone building a Lego creation. One of my friends was showing me Strava, an exercise app that records your route and you can also take a picture during your journey.
* Embroidery journal - I'd never heard of this! Apparently you embroider a small icon representing some memorable part of your day each day. People recommend keeping a key because you might forget what your icons mean. These can be quite pretty, especially if you can draw. But it sounds a little high pressure for my tastes.
This does remind me of temperature quilts, where you add different colored squares each day representing the high and low temperatures. I think it might be interesting to make a quilt of one city from the year you were born and then a modern one (from the same city) but also depressing. For that much work, I'd rather record something more interesting.
* Doodle journal - My first guess was that you just have a notebook for doodling. But apparently many journallers use doodles to illustrate other things or just make their pages prettier. There's also such a thing as the 30-day doodle challenge where you get a new topic each day to make a doodle for.
* Daily one-second video - This seems a lot like a photo journal!
Other ideas:
* Art - I guess you could use any art form to journal: painting, mandalas, cartoons, music, drama, essays, poems, letters, ("Dear Diary"!), um, potato stamps, pottery... Maybe just to create, maybe to express specific topics.
I have a water colorist friend who decided to just paint something every day.
* Scrapbooks - To collect artifacts of your life.
* Trackers - Visual ways to track progress or participation.
* Pieces of paper in a jar - I've heard of people writing things they are grateful for on slips of paper and putting them in a jar. Then later when they need a lift, they can pull out a slip or three to remember.
* Prompted journals - there are various books providing prompts for various topics like gratefulness or writing your autobiography.
Putting it all together
Right now a lot of my processes are broken. I don't print my pictures; they are just a mess on my laptop. I ran out of storage in the place I was using to add pictures for my blog. And as much as I love, love, love electronics, I'm not liking how temporary they can be. Things crash. Things lose support. Things can't be tranferred. So I want to figure out a good way to make the kind of travel books I used to make, with both photos and writing and then make some.
I might try joining my friends on the free version of Strava, adding illustrative photos.
I might try a gratitude journal.
I'm fascinated by artistic secret code creations. I made a bead bracelet with different colors for dots, dashes, and spaces that says "Happiness" using Morse Code. I could try to think of something worth immortalizing and figure out a way to do it.
I could try writing a few lines each day in Spanish, to practice. And I could just send them to my friend from Spanish class and see if we get back in the habit.
I can't draw, but I'd like to. (People don't like sitting next to me when I play "Telestrations.") I took an informal class in cartoon drawing once, and a couple things came out cool. I actually learned more about 3-D while taking Calculus III. Anyway, it's easy to look up icons for things online, and lots of people like illustrating their bullet journals. I could try adding doodles to my bullet journal.
After Trump's victory, a worry journal might be a good idea.
Some of the requirements of the My Style, [Nature] Observer, Critic, and other badges could be incorporated in this.
What kinds of journalling have you enjoyed?
Topics
The different topics mentioned are:
* Gratitude journal - to improve life satisfaction. I feel like I'm pretty attuned to the positives in my life which admittedly is pretty easy considering that I have almost every imaginable privilege and virtually everything I'm bad at is perfectly fine in my current lifestyle. I wouldn't mind trying this, though. It seems fun.
* Dream diary - I'd maybe have one or two entries a month. Short. Mostly nonsensical. Or one could write about your hopes and dreams and call that a dream diary. Or maybe any ideas of things you'd like to do in the future, so you don't forget.
* Memory journal - I guess some journals about your plans or dreams; these would be about things that have already happened. When Covid took over our lives I kept a covid journal for a while. I kept track of news and how things affected my friends and me. Googling shows that people like to keep track of certain accomplishments and other experiences (like races run, books read, board games played).
* Worry journal - This sounds like the opposite of gratitude journal. Wouldn't it make you feel worse? According to Restoration Counseling of Atlanta, writing down your worries and then literally closing the book on them can help you stop ruminating. Interestingly, they say to "List bothersome issues on the left side of the page." But also, "Think about what you can do to help resolve these issues and write your plans on the right side of the page." (I hate when people just say to try to ignore things or take deep breaths rather than actually trying to change things.) They do admit that sometimes we do have to learn acceptance.
Stoic journaling sounds similar.
Other ideas:
* Spending journal - Whenever I'm wondering where my money is going, I've kept track of everything I've bought and the answer has become clear. Normally I don't have to be that detailed to know how I'm doing, though.
* Food journal - I've kept track of everything I've eaten and compared that to the next day's weight to see if I could find out anything new. And I did learn some good things, like it's okay to eat an unreasonable number of potato chips, but not of tortilla chips.
I've heard it's also a good idea, when you're into emotional eating (which I am), to keep track of the emotions to help you figure out some strategies for avoiding that.
A friend of mine likes photographing restaurant food to help him remember later what he liked and didn't like at different restaurants.
* Anything else you want to stay accountable about.
* Exercise journal - A friend of mine loves weight lifting because it's so easy to make visible progress, so keeping track of that could be motivating. Or any area you're trying to make improvements in.
* Fashion journal - The My Style badge (volume 1) requires taking a photo of how you're dressed each day.
* Travel journal - These really help me get maximum value from my travels because I can re-visit them later. I both write and take photos.
* Holiday newsletters are also a type of journalling.
Formats
Here are the formats mentioned:
* Circular diary - I'm guessing this is a format--I've never heard it and can't find what it is online)
* Bullet journal - this is a paper journal that also incorporates to-do lists and calendars as well of other things you'd like to keep track of, like all the books you've read or movies that friends have recommended, or the sizes of things you keep forgetting (air filter size, alarm clock battery size). It's highly personalizable, and I really like mine when I actually keep up with it. Now that my Elections job is over, it's time to get back to it.
* Photo diary - I like these for traveling. And they are good for before-and-after projects. I just saw a time-lapse record of someone building a Lego creation. One of my friends was showing me Strava, an exercise app that records your route and you can also take a picture during your journey.
* Embroidery journal - I'd never heard of this! Apparently you embroider a small icon representing some memorable part of your day each day. People recommend keeping a key because you might forget what your icons mean. These can be quite pretty, especially if you can draw. But it sounds a little high pressure for my tastes.
This does remind me of temperature quilts, where you add different colored squares each day representing the high and low temperatures. I think it might be interesting to make a quilt of one city from the year you were born and then a modern one (from the same city) but also depressing. For that much work, I'd rather record something more interesting.
* Doodle journal - My first guess was that you just have a notebook for doodling. But apparently many journallers use doodles to illustrate other things or just make their pages prettier. There's also such a thing as the 30-day doodle challenge where you get a new topic each day to make a doodle for.
* Daily one-second video - This seems a lot like a photo journal!
Other ideas:
* Art - I guess you could use any art form to journal: painting, mandalas, cartoons, music, drama, essays, poems, letters, ("Dear Diary"!), um, potato stamps, pottery... Maybe just to create, maybe to express specific topics.
I have a water colorist friend who decided to just paint something every day.
* Scrapbooks - To collect artifacts of your life.
* Trackers - Visual ways to track progress or participation.
* Pieces of paper in a jar - I've heard of people writing things they are grateful for on slips of paper and putting them in a jar. Then later when they need a lift, they can pull out a slip or three to remember.
* Prompted journals - there are various books providing prompts for various topics like gratefulness or writing your autobiography.
Putting it all together
Right now a lot of my processes are broken. I don't print my pictures; they are just a mess on my laptop. I ran out of storage in the place I was using to add pictures for my blog. And as much as I love, love, love electronics, I'm not liking how temporary they can be. Things crash. Things lose support. Things can't be tranferred. So I want to figure out a good way to make the kind of travel books I used to make, with both photos and writing and then make some.
I might try joining my friends on the free version of Strava, adding illustrative photos.
I might try a gratitude journal.
I'm fascinated by artistic secret code creations. I made a bead bracelet with different colors for dots, dashes, and spaces that says "Happiness" using Morse Code. I could try to think of something worth immortalizing and figure out a way to do it.
I could try writing a few lines each day in Spanish, to practice. And I could just send them to my friend from Spanish class and see if we get back in the habit.
I can't draw, but I'd like to. (People don't like sitting next to me when I play "Telestrations.") I took an informal class in cartoon drawing once, and a couple things came out cool. I actually learned more about 3-D while taking Calculus III. Anyway, it's easy to look up icons for things online, and lots of people like illustrating their bullet journals. I could try adding doodles to my bullet journal.
After Trump's victory, a worry journal might be a good idea.
Some of the requirements of the My Style, [Nature] Observer, Critic, and other badges could be incorporated in this.
What kinds of journalling have you enjoyed?
no subject
on 2025-01-01 01:18 am (UTC)I decided I'm not up to a single-topic journal, but I do like single-topic posts.