Journaling for people who hate journaling
There is something intimidating and off-putting about writing in a journal for me. I am a type to get obsessed with how nice the book of paper looks and whether or not I am using a good pen or crossing things out and making the page look ugly. Also, I begin to focus on what the point of it is if it’s stuff in my brain I don’t know what to do with or don’t care to do anything with — which is often the case for journaling. I am not the type to want a record of my own thoughts for its own sake.
Gretchen Rubin posted about her one-sentence journal — just a series of single sentences, not too scary. She added to that with another idea suggested by a reader: a while-people-are-boarding-the-plane journal.
There are many moments in our lives where we could jot down some ideas or thoughts, but don’t. For people like me who have a hard time with the concept of a traditional journal, a running notebook with ideas and stray sentences could work better … as long as it wasn’t some bossy thing I always had to write in. I do what I want.
For instance a “journal” filled with random thoughts from when I was:
- Waiting at the DMV, dentist/doctor office or mechanic
- Watching something on TV because I was bored
- Waiting for someone else to get out of the shower
- Doing laundry at the Laundromat
- Having trouble sleeping because of a cold or flu
- Doing anything else that doesn’t require my attention
–Marcia
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Are you going to do this, this one-sentence thing?
Comment left on August 15, 2007 @ 8:21 am
The hardest obstacle I face when journaling is reading it later and asking myself, “Am I really THAT immature?” I’m not really certain whether this tactic may get me back to documenting my innermost whatnots, but it couldn’t be any worse than what I have done in the past.
Comment left on August 15, 2007 @ 7:40 pm
i used to keep a journal religiously, well, at least compulsively. i had a driven desire to document as much of my life (both events and thoughts/emotions) as possible. as if i might lose it if i didn’t record it, or i might need it later and not have it.
but now, i can’t stand the thought of just writing down what’s in my head or my activities of late. it seems like such a waste of time and, besides, i’m having those thoughts and doing those things all day, what do i need to spend more time with them for? but i have a vague recollection of the process of writing thoughts sometimes transforming them into another matter otherwise inaccessible. nevertheless, i cannot make myself write anything even resembling “reflection,” the typical fodder i used to so crave. sadly, i think it has mostly to do with getting older and turning establishment. perhaps i suffer too from some ailment that might be alleviated with some random sentence jotting.
(i say i can’t make myself write reflection, yet here i am rambling on with my thoughts to no one in particular as if i am in fact desperate for it…even though i think what i just wrote is a load of bull, i will resist the overwhelming urge to erase it all and post nothing as an exercise in … ?)
Comment left on August 17, 2007 @ 12:04 am