I've been journaling wrong
from aether
The past
In the past I've journalled in a very specific and rigid way on a very regular basis, however covid saw that habit change and pretty much disappear, this has given me enough of a break from it to re-evaluate and I've reached the conclusion I'm going to change how I journal
Digital Journal
Firstly I went digital, using obsidian, having templates, the ability to search, plugins to encrypt information, internote linking etc makes the journal entries much more usable – but in this “journal” I mostly use it for bullet points, a quick rundown of the day a chronology. Then I will also use other templates as/when needed I will include the templates below.
Daily template
# Journal
## morning
- [ ] Something you're grateful for
- [ ] Go over yesterdays note (if applicable)
-
## afternoon
-
## evening
- [ ] A nice memory
- [ ] meditation
-
---
[[month-21]] #month #journal
Work template (based on newports idea of deep work)
# Work Start
#### How do you feel?
#### What do you plan to do today?
#### Why do you want to do these things?
#### What might get in your way?
#### How can you overcome this?
# Work End
#### Did you do good enough today?
#### What did you do?
#### What helped you?
#### What hurt you?
#### How do you feel?
#### How do you plan to rest tonight?
---
[[<% moment().format("DD-MM-YY") %>]]
#<% moment().format("MMMM") %>
#work
Stressed template
# Stressed
**List things making you stressed:**
-
*Highlight the most important*
**What can you do about it?**
**Is there anyone you can talk to about it?**
**Why are these things making you stressed?**
**What do you think you should do?**
-
**What was the outcome?**
---
[[<% moment().format("DD-MM-YY") %>]]
#<% moment().format("MMMM") %>
#events
How it's used
I use plugins to create new notes with both work and stressed templates then insert a link to those notes in the daily note, this is all a hands off process and since they're separate notes in separate folders it keeps everything free from clutter and organized.
The structure
- Journal/
- 00-Events/
- 2021/
- 00-work/
- 2021/
- January-21/
- 01-01-21.md
- 00-Events/
Physical Journal
My physical journal will be used more for long form thoughts and feelings about life, mine and others. A more sort of decompression, I'll carry it wherever but will think before writing in it, the format and structure will be simple, on the front will be month-year month-year so I know when it was start and when it was full, inside it'll just use a title and month on each entry, anything more granular gets lost in the pages anyway, if I need to know specific things about a specific date then I should just ctrl+f my digital journal, if I want to reflect then dates aren't nearly as important and neither is a chronology of what you did on that day.
from G A N Z E E R . T O D A Y
I was quite excited about the child starting daycare. That is until he brought back some of the ghastly sicknesses of his cohort. I may have to take to wearing a face mask at home now.
Hey, it beats getting sick for a couple days out of the blue.
Y'know that sci-fi trope of the astronaut stumbling upon cute little alien children that actually turn out to be vicious monsters out to kill you? (Also adapted for a scene in the first Jurassic Park movie) Yeah, now I know where it comes from.
#journal
from G A N Z E E R . T O D A Y
I don't remember the first time I watched LA JETEE, but I do remember almost every single frame. It helps, I'm sure, that it is a film comprised entirely of stills. In fact, it's one of the reasons LA JETEE is regarded a landmark of storytelling. It is able to explore themes of war, post-apocalypse, scientific experimentation, and time-travel all through a series of still black and white photographs shot in 1962! The technique wouldn't have mattered of course had the actual narrative not been so compelling. Indeed, if you were to take the narration as stand alone text, even that would've been a revolutionary piece of text that would still hold to this day, as is the case for any compelling true work of art created anytime.
This Saturday, September 18, I get to virtually sit down with film aficionado supreme Walter Chaw to discuss Chris Marker's LA JETEE and also another film: Lluis Quilez's GRAFFITI (2015).
The latter I discovered only recently by complete chance. While browsing Kanopy's listing of Science Fiction films (a bit of an obsession of mine), GRAFFITI stood out to me as an oddity of a title for what we understand to be science fiction. Upon watching it, I certainly wasn't disappointed. In fact, I readily consider it to be one of the smartest films ever made. I do love that it's one of the few films (if not the only one?) that utilizes graffiti (another obsession of mine) as both a communication tool and window into the psyche, which is the best a worthwhile graffito could ever accomplish. The fact that it all takes place in a frozen-over post apocalypse? * chef's kiss *
“Attendance” to our virtual discussion is free, but registration is required: here.
Chatting with Walter about all things sci-fi (or all things in general really) is always engaging and illuminating, and I'm really excited to be able to dive into two these great gems with him and see what other fascinating facets we may uncover.
Talk takes place at: 10:30am PST / 12:30pm CST / 1:30pm EST
#journal #event