Do you keep a diary?

[SpikeyFloof]

Or 'journaling' to give it its trendy name. I keep reading about all the benefits of doing it and really want to start. I've made a few half hearted attempts but I found it so difficult to get started. Do you just write down what happened that day? Do you include thoughts and feelings, a to do list for tomorrow, or write down your hopes and dreams for the future?

The few times I tried it I just wrote down a few bullet points of what happened that day. Also, I can't stop myself writing as if someone is going to read it at a later date!

I use a template with some questions to prompt me to do a bit of reflection on what happened that day. Questions like What went well today? How do you feel today? What didn't go well? What do you need to do tomorrow? I find its a bit easier to answer questions rather than trying to complete a journal with a story format. I try not to write it with the expectation that it will be read back on a later date otherwise I spend too much time trying create a piece of writing when the idea of a journal is just to get thoughts out of my head.

I have a fear of my diary being read, so no. I tried scrapbooking instead, the news as it happens that make me go ooh or oh or the suchlike

I do it and always have. I don't write down what happened that day necessarily I only write when I get the itch to- usually when something big or important has happened or when there have been nice memories I want to record. I also try to record my DDs development in my diary to look back on. I find it massively helps me process emotion and clear my mind. I do sometimes read them back too eg when looking back on how I felt in my pregnancy last time at a similar stage.

A tiny part of me worries about my daughters reading them in the future when I'm gone so I do censor some things sub-consciously (or maybe I just don't like there being a record of them out there). For example I don't write in great detail about sex with my husband or intimate physical ailments.

I journal all the time. For the most part, it's handwritten. I print planner templates and use a ringbinder, and add random things as I please.

Mostly it's for just getting stuff out of my head, even if it's just a rundown of what happened during the day. I keep track of creative ideas I have, to make it more likely that I follow through on them also. It's also a really good excuse for buying fancy pens everywhere I go.

I have done on and off since I was 12. I'm pondering getting rid of the ones from the last decade but Iast time I did that I regretted it.

For me it tends to be when big things are going on I find it helpful to empty my head. Then it'll go quiet then another event will happen that needs processing. I've kept them when I go on holiday sometimes, those are really nice memories to look back on.

I have also used it just for documenting the mundane minutiae of the days events. It's quite a nice way of decompressing but I have to be careful as sometimes it turns into 'I need a to do list for this' and then I'm staying awake for longer. I probably need a separate piece of paper for reminders that occur to me while in bed.

I started doing morning pages at the beginning of March last year as I was going to work through The Artists Way. The idea is that as soon as you wake up you immediately write three pages about anything you like.

Obviously I quite quickly abandoned the Artists Way due to pandemic and homeschooling hell, but I have kept up with the pages. Sometimes it's all really mundane stuff, domestic, what we ate etc, sometimes it's what I'm worried about, what I think about current events. I've got over the worry of someone else reading it and tend to just let it all out now.

3 pages in the morning sounds interesting. I might have a go at a bullet journal as I do love a good 'to do' list. My ideal morning would be wake up early, work out, then go over my bullet journal with a coffee before the dc wake up.

I'm typing this from bed after having snoozed for half hour then brought a coffee back to bed for some productive mumsnetting!

I want to start. To keep a check on my thoughts, feelings, moods and physical symptoms (I have a chronic health condition). I want to look for triggers and patterns (for both my anxiety and flare ups)

FWIW my mum journaled for many years - her mental health was always very up and down severe anxiety, panic, agoraphobia and when she died last year we didn't read her private journals. Her death was unexpected but we all know how much she valued her privacy with regards to her journals (and selfishly we didn't want to read, her MH really nosedived on the 2/3 years leading up to her death). We knew she wasn't in a good place but I don't think anything good would have come from reading about the depths of her despair and suffering.

I have kept a "what I did today" diary for nearly 40 years. Every now and then I'll look back over them and it's always interesting to be reminded of the good (and sometimes not so good) memories. It's also really useful for settling discussions on which year we did X,Y and Z!

It's amazing how much you forget though, I read some from about 25 years ago which featured someone's name a lot and I genuinely can't remember that person at all.

I also use a code for very personal stuff which might be a problem if I go dolally and can't remember it!

I have kept one on and off since my twenties. I think it started as a record of my holidays, days out, gigs, theatre, museum/gallery visits etc. As someone else has said, it's a nice way to look back and remember what I did and when.

If it doesn't benefit or help you though OP then I wouldn't bother. It shouldn't be an effort to do. Sometimes I go weeks without writing anything as I don't feel the urge to do it but at other times I write a lot more consistently. I don't think it should be a "should" or a target unless you're enjoying it and getting a benefit from it eg it helps your mental health. Otherwise it becomes just another thing you have to do on an endless to do list.

I keep an ideas journal and a notebook for day to day stuff but I was never very good at keeping a proper dear diary so I switched to doing a video diary and I love it.