Here’s a nice way to use notebooks, from Gretchen Rubin at The Happiness Project:
Studies show that thinking back on happy times elevates mood, and observing and preserving memories is one of the most satisfying ways of bringing order to life.
My mother started a memory-keeping tradition a few years ago that has proved to be a lot of fun.
She bought two matching lined journals, one for each granddaughter. At the end of every visit to Kansas City, my older daughter writes a paragraph about the highlights of our visit, and I write in my younger daughter’s book.
We’ve only been doing it since 2007, but already, we all enjoy looking back at the entries from past visits. It’s astounding how quickly even intense memories fade, and how effectively a brief note reminds us of highlights from the past – the time my daughter fell into the duck pond, the time my father set off the fire alarm when making pancakes, the time when my sister and her husband got locked in the bedroom.
I wish I’d thought to do this when I was younger– I have a pretty good memory anyway, but I didn’t always keep a diary, and I know there’s lots of things that have slipped away. In more recent years, I often tended to write more in my journal when I was unhappy, and re-reading those notebooks only gives a partial picture of what my life was really like. Now, I try to write more often, and capture both good things and bad. As the years go by, it can be a surprise to find that I’ve written down events that I no longer remember, and I want to have some happy surprises!
The Happiness Project: Want to a Quick, Easy Way to Preserve Happy Memories?.
I have a couple of journals from when I was 14-15 (almost 40 years ago now!) and it’s nice to have at least some of my adolescence recorded (though it can be a bit mortifying to read). I’ve been keeping a journal regularly since 1997 and a few years ago started keeping more of a diary, writing something every day, usually just the humdrum details of my daily life. But I find that it’s neat to look back at those “typical” days. It’s incredible how much one forgets. I routinely read an old entry about some event that seemed quite significant at the time but which I now have absolutely no recollection of.
This is a great idea. Too often my journals or notebooks lead me to write down the complaints I don’t want to punish the rest of the world with – but honestly I could stand to focus more on the great things that happen.