Journals: Book of Days
The first problem that hit me was: what is a journal even? There was a lot of confusion for me about the various terminology. Diary, journal, notebook, field notes, etc. Being a famed contemporary diarist, I started reading David Sedaris' collection of published diaries, Theft by Finding and A Carnival of Snackery. Sedaris has maintained a daily diary habit since 1977 and in them he jots down things that stick out to him, things that intrigue him, and things that he can turn into stories later. Not so much about feelings or internal things. But wait, I thought a "diary" was for reflection and feelings?
Then I moved on to researching what Joan Didion does. She has a very famous essay, “On Keeping a Notebook,” and in it she talks about how she writes down how she felt, memories she wants to keep, and personal reactions, along with snippets of conversation. Basically, her "notebook" was sort of a diary! Now I was confused. A diary was a journal and a journal was a diary…
And then came Virginia Woolf, who used her diary to record mundane stuff like the weather, her moods, quotidian stuff, and mainly used diary-ing as an exercise to loosen her wrist for writing. Maybe a bit of proto-morning pages? Woolf’s diary was a waste book, collecting all the detritus around her.
Confused even more, I then read about Austin Kleon’s journaling habit and realized he kept four notebooks: a diary, a pocket notebook, a logbook, and a commonplace book. What is a “commonplace book” you ask? It’s a place to collect quotes, ideas, and observations from books, movies, podcasts, articles, whatever, etc. Often it’s organized and indexed. It’s a place to compile any information the owner finds interesting or useful. Sounds great!
Reading about Kleon’s system opened my eyes to the fact that I needed to have four things when I had really just wanted one! I then consulted BOBY, my AI, and after some back and forth, it told me that I basically needed these four things:
- Logbook records your life (Daily)
- Journal records your thinking (Weekly)
- Driftbook records your attention (Whenever)
- Tracebook records your evolution (Monthly)
Since I already log in Day One, I needed to expand the others into single-serving notebooks. I asked BOBY if I needed both a diary and a journal, but for me, it said that a journal/diary combo was just fine. Wunderbar!
And then I had BOBY generate a list of types of journals I should create. Like just names of journals. I wanted a thing I could call my own. A “remembery?” Too fantastical. A “daymind,” uh, no! “Thoughtbook?” Boring. “Shimmerbook?” Too much!
What I wanted was a place for yes, observations but also potentially creative and life things to link together. What BOBY came up with was two things: a driftbook and a tracebook. Initially I liked the term “tracebook” best, and it was advertised to me as “traces of a life, preserved.” But then I realized that had little utility if I was going to have a journal. So instead, I turned to “driftbook,” which is kind of like a commonplace journal, but leaning more heavily toward thoughts, observations, and wandering ideas. Drifting, see?
I also had a session with a friend who is a S-tier journaler. She carries around a bag for her journals and she has all the bells and whistles—highlighters, mini-rulers, section stickers, different sizing, etc—that I can only aspire to. She uses a log, a journal/diary, a brain dump, a commonplace that is color coded, and a perfect week journal. Her whole system is a thing of beauty and I learned quite a lot from her expertise. I aspire!
Should we also talk about junk journaling? Otherwise known as the only thing that can tear my nieces away from Minecraft? It seems like everyone is junk journaling, so you probably already know about it!
Tools of the Trade
I am planning to use these as my physical journals:
• KOKUYO Graph Journal Notebook, Sooofa B6
I realized I needed spiral bound, and the soft plastic spiral of these notebooks sold me. I plan to use my driftbook horizontally, so the spiral will be completely out of the way. The paper may be a little too smooth and creamy, but I’ll how it works out with my pens. My runner up was Delfonics Rollbahn Spiral Notebook.
• Maruman M.Memo Mini Notepad A7
Small and cheap, I hope to tear through many of these. I will be pairing them with...
...the chubby pen to rule them all. It's a little thin at 0.38mm or 0.5mm so I trade off with a Uni-Ball Jetstream Sport 1.0mm one, but I like carrying around the One P because it's so cute!
