I have mixed feelings about writing a blog on keeping a personal Journal; truthfully, I have kept a journal off and on for most of my adult life. My first recorded journal entry is around age 5 ---just a few lines of neatly penciled words describing what I did after school. After that, I have scattered notes and journal entries through junior and high school; and even fewer entries while serving a mission for my church.
Mission journals were part of our sacred responsibility, and the mission home streamlined the process for us by requiring every missionary to write a letter to the mission president once a week. The letter contained templated box questions such as the number of hours we spent going door to door. Meals with members, names of people we were teaching, etc. Frankly, I found the routine tiring week after week and chose to spend my free time on other pursuits.
I didn't know it then, but these weekly letters were bound and handed to everyone on their final night in the mission home before being shipped out to parents and released. So each missionary returned home at the same time as I received a book containing around 100 of these detailed scripted pages. Mine looked more like a pamphlet and had at most ten pages.
Those ten pages were probably a scattering of entries throughout my two-year mission; however, most had occurred toward the end of my assignment after I had read a book by Stirling W. Sill entitled *The Majesty of Books.* That book instilled an intense desire to study, learn and keep a journal.
I went digital somewhere in my forties, and by the time my journal-note-taking system slowly ground to a halt, I was in my late fifties. My system halted at about the 30,000 entries mark, primarily because it had become so unwieldy that I couldn't find anything. Journal entries by date were easy to find, but not necessarily ideas expressed in the entry. I had developed a reasonable way of tracking my hiking adventures by State, County, and quadrangle, but I needed help to apply the same tracking concept to my notes. Keywords were more confusing than ever, swelling to around 1,400, listing such general references as utterly worthless. The same was valid with Tags.
In May 2019, I stumbled upon a book entitled *How to Take Smart Notes,* by Sonke Ahrens. I came close to buying the book; however, a review said, "save your money and visit the website: Zettelkasten.de." So I lurked on the website, reading blogs and the forum before joining in October 2019. Unfortunately, I'm no longer an active participant in the discussions; however, I felt an instant kinship with Christian and Sascha, as many of their early blog posts included several of the same books I had read and taken notes on.
My mother kept a journal, and once I inquired about its whereabouts. My sister Susan suggested that I not waste my time. Susan had read it cover to cover, and my mother had filled the journal with daily chores and trips to the store that the book was uninformative.
For many years I kept my daily journal by following a template, i.e., Location, I exercised, I watched, I went to, I accomplished, etc. I dutifully filled out the prompts each day until I realized they would probably create as much excitement as my sister felt about my mother's diary. I enjoyed two prompts from my template: "I remembered" and "The road less traveled." These prompts contain some of my fondest memories and now serve as fodder for my daily blog series.
I have attempted to create a journal similar to Wilford Woodruff, who felt that keeping a journal was a *"privilege"* and a *"duty."* [1] However, my journal probably more accurately reflects Leonardo da Vinci's feelings regarding his collected works. He said,
"This is to be a collection without order, taken from many papers, which I have copied here, hoping afterwards to arrange them according to the subjects of which they treat; and I believe that I shall have to repeat the same thing several times; for which, O reader, blame me not..." [2]
I opted out of the mirror writing technique.
Written November 2, 2022
References:
[1] https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/teachings-wilford-woodruff/chapter-13?lang=eng
[2] Gelb, M. (2004). *How to think like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven steps to genius every day*. New York, NY: Delta Trade Paperbacks. p.57. (From the front page of one of Leonardo's manuscripts on physics.)