For those that do know me, you know that I’ve been journaling for a long time (since my sophomore year of high school). In my perspective, there are two types of journaling. The first is a diary form, where you write your thoughts and emotions down on paper. The second is task journaling where instead of writing down long strands of thought, you try to keep yourself productive through marking down what you want to do and what you’ve done.
I personally am a fan of task journaling through a bullet journal. I originally started because when I was in high school, I started to have small and unserious memory problems thanks to a couple of concussions. I would try to remember exactly what I did the day before and it took an unusual amount of brainpower. A neighbor gave me a planner as an early birthday present and I would write a list of what I would do throughout the day. Then, I started adding notes, and daily habits, and a monthly review. About a year ago, I finally saw one of my friends who had been on a Mormon mission for two years. When we got the chance to catch up, he said, “What’ve you been doing? I want it all!” I went straight to my room, got all of my planners and jokingly said, “What day do you want to know about?”
I find comfort in that if there’s ever a day where I’m unsure of what I did, I can just look at my journal. Most of the time, I leave ellipses in my wordings that will help jog my memory when I’m looking back on that day. Now, my journal has done more than what I anticipated. It’s helped me plan out my week, my month, make sure I don’t forget about important events or things I need to do. I don’t try to plan out my day by the hour like a madman, but being in control of my own guidance has helped me stay productive and organized.