Should I use the beautiful diary?

[BenoitBlanc]

For Christmas, a friend game me a diary. It's a beautiful linen-bound thing with thick, cream pages and lots of lovely art and habit-tracking doodles and reminders to meditate and achieve my goals etc. It was an especially thoughtful gift as I'm going back to university this year and will have a lot to keep track of.

Here's the problem:

1. I am paralysed by the idea of scrawling my kids orthodontist appointments into this beautiful book.
2. Also, I have enough to do without having to remember to track my mood, achieve my goals and colour-code my healthy habits.
3. But if I don't, it will go to waste. It's a 2023 diary.
4. So I should give it to a charity shop ASAP and someone who will enjoy it can have it!
5. But I'm spending a week with my friend in February and she'll see that I'm not using it.

Help me make this inconsequential decision. What should I do with the beautiful diary?

The ‘too good for the likes of me’ mentality is depressing.

My mum died recently and I cleaned out drawers of unused gifts. What was she keeping those lovely things for? Annoying.

I've said this on a Christmas present thread but will say it again here- SO MUCH angst around presents on MN! Why must so many people overthink everything until its ruined?
OP your friend WAS thoughtful. She knew that you have a busy year ahead going back to study & bought you something both beautiful & practical which presumably she thought would be helpful to you.
Use the diary in the spirit was given. You could use it to jot down thoughts about life during this year of change, you could use it to note all your college dates or you could use it as a general life admin diary noting appointments/ dates etc
It doesn't really matter - one use isn't more worthy than another.

I would be so touched if a friend gave me a gift like that. Please don't just give it to the charity shop - that's weird!

Buy yourself a lovely pen & as someone else said make a lovely tea or coffee & sit down & decide what you'll use it for & make a start. And enjoy having such a beautiful object!

I'm not one for saving things for best. But neither am I someone who rips through all nice things at once. I'm somewhere in the middle. I love to have nice things like expensive candles etc & I do use them but I don't leave them burning for hours when I'm not even in the room (looking at dh!!)
If I buy something new to wear its rare I'll wear it immediately- again looking at dh!!I have a system in my own head but I do wear the things I buy!!

Use it to write poetry in or inspirational quotes or goals you have

@@BenoitBlanc

I'm glad you've decided to use it!

make it work for you. Write over the titles of the trackers & use them for something else. I'd rather clean out the lions enclosure than make time for mediation 😜but I do love a tracker for other things.

I keep trying different options, but haven't found one that works for me yet. My mood fluctuates too much, as do my priorities.

Some may say I should try meditation!! 😜😜

I use my nice things everyday too!

Plates, perfume, bags. Everything!

I don’t get storing things because they are too nice to be used.

I understand about not wanting to use it for hosp appointment etc.
If you like reading or sayings/words..how about writing a short one in each day? Or eg. If you want to learn a new language write in one word a day. Ok so you might forget or not feel like it one day but that beats letting it go unused.
Hope you enjoy it OP

I buy notebook as and use them for everyday things as I'm an habitual scribbler/ drawer/ note taker.

I use a calendar app on my phone for the day to day crap.

My notebooks are just that - full of notes, scribbles, thoughts, quotes, shopping lists, pictures, stickers, postcards I find etc. I like to look back on them once they're full as although I can't remember why I wrote a lot of the things I did, I find it entertaining!

Why not use the diary in this spirit? That way you won't need to worry about not filling days in if you've used the 5th of Jan to draw a picture of a robot squirrel ( or whatever - ahem!) and the 8th May has doodles all over it.

It's just paper at the end of the day. Use it like that.

Spoil the first page with an ink blot or a mistake crossed out. Then you get over the paralysis! I have a 'bullet journal' type notebook but I've stopped doing habit trackers etc as I never fill them in. I just note appointments and scribble a few thoughts down. And the odd sketch. It looks rubbish but I love it. Use it!!

Use it if paper is helpful to you. I always ‘use’ nice things, otherwise they are just dust gatherers.
I only use electronic diaries though, and don’t want to keep track of two…so if it’s a hassle don’t use it. I doubt your friend will ask to see it.
Thinking about it, I might use it to record potential days out eg exhibitions or places you might want to visit at a certain time. I’ve used calendars for this- I’ve written down anything I’ve gone across that looks interesting, then nearer the time picked the option I fancy.

Did you even read the first post? She literally said it was thoughtful gift because she’s in college and knows she’ll have a lot to write!

On a completely unrelated note, I tried to change my MN username to Benoitblanc last week.

This thread is making me smile.
I'm interested that people think it would be awful to give a gift to a charity shop. My thinking was that then the thing would be used by someone in whom it sparked joy - a good deed to pass it on. But I can see how it could also be seen as ungrateful.

That’s really sad.

my late dh was like this too. He’d never use the expensive toiletries that his adult dd bought him, just kept them on display in his bathroom still in the boxes for years. When I first met him I asked him why and he said because he was keeping them for best and as a keepsake.

His ex and his daughter went halves on a movie still for a significant birthday (before I met him) and after he passed I found it carefully wrapped and hidden away amongst his belonging. He’d never put it up in his own house either. And it was the same for lots of other stuff he’d been
bought.

the movie still is now hanging in my hall 😀.

I use stuff. I don’t keep anything for best. I light the beautiful candles my ds and my dds got me for Xmas, I wear the perfume they all chipped into buy and I use the bubble bath my dd went to a special shop in Ambleside to get.

life’s too bloody short.

Use use use. You're very thoughtful considering giving it to charity. But allow yourself the daily pleasure of paper goods! It will get battered and marked because that is the nature of the existence of a book that lasts a whole year.

Use it. Giving it to charity is pointless.

Your happy for it to be used by someone who found it browsing through a charity shop and paid £2 for it but not to use it for yourself when it was gifted to you by someone who paid a lot more with the espress intention of you using it?

Makes no sense...

*you're (it's early)

Yes, if I were your friend I’d assume you’d just not liked it and chucked it out- I wouldn’t think of it as being a good deed at all. If you like it at all, keep it, even if you just use it for shopping lists. Your friend’s intention was to give you a gift.

You could use as a perpetual record of peoples birthdays, anniversaries, major events like coronations, royal divorces , etc.

Any significant event to you, e.g. punched Traffic Warden, attended court etc.

The fact that it is 2023 does't matter the dates will still be the same and you can add the year if appropriate.