It’s more about getting thoughts out of your head. I don’t really do it to make any particular note of my life. I find that sometimes it’s just nice to be able to dump thoughts on to a page (I only journal on paper) and maybe make a bit more sense of them.

I find that if you start writing without any real goal in mind, just whatever you’re feeling or whatever’s troubling you, it might uncover something to you that you hadn’t considered. A new perspective, maybe.

Surely, your life matters to you?

I think it can help process some feelings as you’re defining things before you put them on paper instead of everything being a nebulous mess. Also, if you want to retrospectively understand what happened, the journal can help you establish a timeline and causes and effects, right? I’ve never done it but it’s probably helpful to some of us.

You write because it organizes your thoughts better. Every other reason I feel will not sustain the effort.

I use it as a way to voice my thoughts and emotions that I cannot express otherwise. I primarily write poems for that.

A dear friend with a neurodivergence explained her journal to me as cue cards for different places, emotions, and experiences she’d had.

Much like a great dream, most of the memories would turn to smoke without a written pointer of what it was she’d done that day.

It’s a daily list of reminders

Makes me feel better about myself, seeing what I have achieved the past days.

It’s cheaper than therapy.

Plus, if you can afford therapy, they’ll recommend you keep a journal anyway.

Don’t worry about it being worth documenting, it is rarely the goal for journaling to document what happened accurately. It is more about discovering your thought and emotional patterns. Sometimes it can be nice to see how they have changed over time.

I write for myself with the primary goal to readjust what I know are irrational thoughts and emotions. The effect is surprisingly good, I have for example never had fewer ruminating thoughts than now. If you need a drill to get you started try gratuity journaling ; find three things to be grateful for each day.

Unfortunately I fail to do it regularly, but I love it. On the one hand it helps me to wrap up the day, clear my head and fall asleep. On the other hand I love to reflect on snapshots of my past thoughts and experiences.

It also depends on the type of journal. For example I maintain a dream journal, too, which improves your dream recall. Furthermore discovering patterns, confusions and in general yourself in your dreams is fascinating.

Because my memory is shot, but I usually only do it for work.

I don’t journal. I think it’s weird.

It makes sense if you are like, a writer or doing a project around writing. I kept a journal when I was a graduate student, yeah because I was using it as a part of my work.

Most journalism I’ve seen just is of the self-help variety where people like either confess their secrets to the journal, or just self-praise themselves by over dramatizing basic accomplishments as some sort of heroic thing. It’s weird af. one time i broke up with a girlfriend because her journal she left over my house was full of the most toxic and vile shit, it was disgusting how her inner life and her outer life were completely at odds, but it explained so much to be why she was so unhappy and miserable all the time and so mean to other people randomly.

also super trippy, i’ve seen people journaling together at a bar, high fiving each other about their ‘self discovery’. but i live in city full of mentally ill people who are very high on their own supply about how amazing they are for like making a sandwich or going on a vacation.

For me it is not about documenting my life at all. It is about processing very strong emotions (negative, positive, neutral?) that I can’t move on from.

Here are all entries in my diary:

2025-07 The Pornhub Hoody
2025-01 Debating K
2024-10 The criteria
2024-10 No Encounter
2024-10 A Pawn in their game
2024-08 What a Wash
2024-03 S The Aftermath
2021-06 T admiration 

Note the names are abbreviated with just a letter in the entry itself too. In the moment it is often too hard for me to write the actual name. I have removed the exact date but I don’t think the titles are too sensitve.

I review my entries like once a year and it is still very hard to read some of them. I think remembering the past is very importnat. It also shows growth, improvement and development.

Older ones are sadly lost to time. I think it really helped me improve myself a lot.

I never force myself to write them. I write them when I feel I have to. It also keeps the number low and the impact high ideal for a yearly review.

Some have blocks of dated commentary at the end. I never edit existing writing though. Once it is written it is frozen.

My memory is terrible; I use a journal to help remember details of my life.

I used to bullet journal in an actual notebook, to help get organised. then stopped and reverted to being unorganised

I do make some notes on investments in a stream of consciousness type of thing in Joplin, that I intend to reorganize…hopefully

Keeping a diary ? no