I used to keep a journal.

Lots of people swear by journals. I imagine they serve as a kind of container for memories, thoughts and emotions which helps someone move on in life. Journals might help avoid rumination.

Ooh, one more thing. I have an Excel file that has everything I've read since 2005. It lists book or short story title, author, date started, date finished. And format. Like Kindle, paperback, audible, etc. Since 11/20/05, I have read 1600 books. Many titles repeated. That's very much like a journal.

I keep several (although I intend to write more often than I actually do.) I have a book journal, where I list a title, author, and sometimes a short summary. Sometimes an author writes so many books, I have to look at my list to see if I have read that one. I keep a sad journal of childhood pain, and a journal where I list exciting/new things I am doing. I also have a problem journal, which I use when I am stressed and I can't immediately figure out why. How about you?

I have thought of keeping one, but i determined it would be too much of a depressing read.

I love to write and have been journaling since time immemorial. What do I keep in it: tracking goals, working through thoughts, ideas, frustrations. I used to look for the beautifully bound journals and now buy the 4/$1 type. When I hit 50 I began destroying my journals, except the short, sparse travel journals. I decided I didn't want my son sorting through his mama's angst/experiences and instead want to control my legacy.
Also, I find with age, wisdom, peace of mind, I am beginning to turn that time journaling into actual writing. Recently wrote a lovely short story for my future DIL about her pup's adventures.
Journaling has a front and center space in my life.
Nice post!

Also, and I hate to be bogarting this thread, (she says as she continues typing) I keep a daily activity journal through an app on my iPhone. Each day, I answer these questions:

Q: Where did I go today? (because I am recovering from agoraphobia)
Q: Who did I see today?
Q: Who did I talk to on the phone today?
Q: Who did I message with today?
Q: What work did I do today? (I do freelance, so it helps to see if I've been busy or not)
Q: What hobby did I do today? (I do many, and need to make sure I'm not all about work)
Q: What did I read today? The ONE question that ALWAYS has an answer. I NEVER don't read)
Q: What did I write today?
Q: What did I watch today? (cuz I watch way too much Netflix and Hulu)
Q: What did I buy today? (obvious reasons)
Q: What did [my 18-yr-old daughter who lives with me] do today? (because she complains about how she has no friends and never does anything, and she has about a million friends and is busy almost every day, and I can prove it to her)
Q: Who died today? (because I have this thing about keeping track of when famous people die. 2016 was a bad year)
Q: One thing to remember today by. (sometimes profound, sometimes banal)
Q: What’s on the news today? (I just pick one thing from the many)

Sadly, the main thing this does is show me how boring my life is. I'm keeping it up, though, because once my daughter's off to college, I expect to see great changes.

Is anyone familiar with a Weather Journal? It's a book with a page for each day of the year with space for several notes. As each day happens, the user writes down the year and the temperature/weather. Then when that day comes around next year you automatically get to compare the current weather with the that day on the previous however many years.

That's how I have my note journal set up. I have 12 text files -- Jan, Feb, etc. -- with day numbers. Whenever something notable happens (not every day), I put it with the weekday and year at the date in the file. That way as the dates cycle around I get reminded of previous years' accumulated memories. Since they're simple text files, they're not too large and they're easy to save and back up.

For example: May.txt might have

1
2017, Monday -- I did something today.
2018, Tuesday -- Something else happened today.

10
2018, Thursday -- Woo, hoo.

28
2018, Monday -- This boring month finally ended.

I get up an hour early every day to journal. I've been doing it since last June, almost a year now. I just keep the pen on the paper and whatever happens, happens. It helped me work through a really difficult time, and now I'm hoping it will help me rediscover my creative self. The goal is three pages a day, which I've learned doesn't take an hour anymore, so I've become friends with my snooze bar again, but there are still days that it takes five or even eight pages to clear out my head and my heart. It's almost like self-administered therapy. Writing out my thoughts and feelings helps me change and move beyond them. I love it, and, for now, at least, I don't see myself ever stopping. I stopped once before, and I wish I hadn't. I can only imagine how my life would be different if I had stayed this course twenty years ago.

I have a book I jot lines down in for songs.
Also musings, etc.

I kept a journal since I was eight years old, but when I was nearly killed in 2014 when attacked by a mugger, I stopped writing in them.

I realized that I was unable to go back and read the stories I'd written in my handwritten journals since I'd come to Thailand.

Instead, I was pleased to find that Facebook was reposting old posts, which included my old Tweets-which has a feed to Facebook- I'd made over the past twelve years.

I began copy/pasting them to gmail drafts. I don't know if they will survive constant technology updates, but they certainly are easier to read, and the very succinct content makes them a pleasure to read, plus there are photos.

I have kept a journal since I was a teenager. I generally just write about things that are happening and my goals in life. It helps me to see negative patterns to correct in my life and see how feelings and views I had at that time affected how I handled situations. I find it therapeutic.

I have journaled on and off throughout my life. Three years ago, I got this book, I think it's called The Artist's Way, and the main tenet of it was daily journaling. Morning pages, it was called. Three pages every morning, no matter what. I followed that daily for about a year and a half. Now, I vary between one and six pages, and definitely not every day. The longest I've gone without journaling since then is about a week and a half. But usually, it's no more than two or three days off, and then a good four or five on.

As far as what I journal about, that also varies. I actually have about five physical journals for different things. In one, I am writing the stories of my life. Just going through writing things I remember. That one is super fun.

The one I grab most often is sort of a grab bag of journaling. Mostly, I record what happened, but interestingly, as if it were a story I was telling someone else. I also write a lot about current events and how they are affecting me and my family, and my thoughts on them. Because those are so fun to read in found journals from the past, so I figure who knows? Maybe the future will be interested in how a person like me viewed the world in the early 21st century. Also, I write a lot of planning things. A lot of, I'm going to, I want to, this is what I'll do and then this. Lately, I've been actually DOING the things I write about.

Then I have my creative writing journal, and my poetry journal, and my memories of my father journal. I also have my "you can read it when I die" journals that I started for each kid and grandkid, and got various amounts of way through, and still occasionally write in a page or two.

And as my last kid is graduating NEXT MONTH, and heading off to college next fall, I plan to do traveling, and doing a TON of journaling. I took a trip to Atlanta many years ago, and I still remember things like the kudzu covering everything and the silver fire hydrants, only because I wrote about them. I don't believe I've ever looked at it again, but I don't think I'd remember the details if I hadn't written them down. So I plan to have a great photo and written journal of my world travels one day.

There will be so many journals left after I am gone, I have no doubt nobody will ever read them. As you can tell by my posts, I write prolifically. But I hope the kids do read the ones I specifically wrote for them for after I die. Those are filled with messages of love and forgiveness and special memories.

I’ve been keeping a diary journal for twenty odd years now. Text only. I sometimes write every day and sometimes skip a month. I’m trying to incorporate memories from my youth, and those that are gone, into my entries.

And I have been keeping a to do list/project plans/grocery lists/phone numbers/sketches/notes/etc for five books now. I’m at the end of my general journal right now, and am getting ready to make my new one. Certain lists and information are transferred to the new book. Addresses, numbers, certain ideas, etc.

I've kept a journal off and on for years now. I'm not very regular with it anymore. Just what's going on and what I'm thinking about. I do regularly keep a reading journal, about what I'm reading and some thoughts about it.