Keeping a Journal Without Getting Overwhelmed

A journal can be useful as a private record of events and thoughts which otherwise continue to circle without becoming any clearer. It need not pretend to literature.

Most men who attempt journalling abandon it within a fortnight. They begin with ambition, long entries and careful reflection and a sense that they are doing something important, but by day four the entries have shortened, by day eight they feel like homework, and by day fourteen the journal sits unopened on the bedside table, radiating a quiet accusation that its owner has neither the energy nor the inclination to answer.

The difficulty is usually expectation. Sellers of journals and unusually disciplined diarists describe a daily practice of deep self-examination, which for most people turns a useful habit into homework before the first week is out.

Write when there is something to set down, and leave the empty days alone. A notebook used two or three times a week over several years is more valuable than one filled dutifully for twelve days and then abandoned.

Record what happened, what continues to trouble you, and any decision which may look different in the morning. The sentences require accuracy before elegance, and may be as short as the event deserves.

Three lines may be sufficient: “Difficult day. Argued with Tom. I am less certain that I was right than I sounded at the time.” Such an entry has done useful work by giving a vague discomfort a more exact form.

Do not reread your entries compulsively. The purpose of writing is the writing itself, the act of translating a feeling into words, which forces a precision that thinking alone does not achieve. If you reread later and find something useful, that is a bonus; if you never reread at all, the benefit has already occurred.

Buy a notebook that feels easy to damage. Choose a cheap one, the sort you would willingly ruin with bad handwriting and half-finished thoughts, and leave the beautiful leather-bound volume to people who enjoy being supervised by stationery. The lower the stakes, the more likely you are to use it.

Begin with a plain account of the day and return when another entry suggests itself. The journal can tolerate intervals rather better than its owner may suppose.