I recently starting bullet journaling but as I’m really not the most creative person I’d like to hide those horrors from the world. Instead I want to share some of the reasons I (try to) write in my diary every day. It’s so cathartic. I am definitely a person who keeps things bottled up so […]

via Why I write a diary —

I confess that I am of an age where I believe that gentlemen do not keep “diaries:” we keep “journals.” Diction, archaic gender biases, and stylistic differences aside, let’s face it: we’re talking about the same thing, and whether you choose to call it a journal or a diary, it is a personal chronicle of your life, written primarily for yourself and not others.

So what Rachel writes here strikes a chord. There is tremendous therapy in taking the things you have inside and writing them down, and not all of those thoughts and sentiments belong in something as public as a blog, a biography, or in some cases a reality TV program.

I want to add a few reasons to Rachel’s list.

1. Life Goes By Pretty Fast* – Like you, probably, a ton of things happen in my life, and I’m moving so quickly from one to the next that I rarely take the time to appreciate all of the cool things I get to do, the intriguing people I get to meet, and the remarkable places I get to go. My journal helps me capture all of that.
2. I’m Tired of Losing the Seeds – I get little ideas and inspirations all the time – in a meeting, on a train, waiting for a conference call to start – that I can’t immediately act upon or whack into Evernote, or that even merit the effort (at the time) to do either. But I don’t want to lose them. My journal is the place for those.
3. Ephemera is not ephemeral – a physical journal allows me to catch the bits and pieces of paper, plastic, etc. that bring to life what I was doing or where I was going. Whether it is something as large as a certificate, a map, a photo, a postcard, or just the stub of an airline ticket, all of that gives flavor to my memories. And I don’t have time for scrapbooking, but turning my journal into something of a smashbook gives me the best of both worlds.

What are your reasons for keeping a diary or journal?

* Ferris Bueller, 1986