Journals and Memoirs
I've never been disciplined enough to be able to keep a journal for more than a month or so and lately I've been trying to keep one, and it is such a humbling experience. I started the journal for 2025 already halfway through January with the hopes to be able to at least track some good or rhetorically bad days in my year because somehow it feels good to look back at the past and know exactly how the story ended or where the story was headed, can you really say the same for the future though, which is improbable and nearly impossible to predict...
So journalling is a habit recommended mostly for its impact on the thought process and for how it helps us process and feel emotions or thoughts out aloud on paper. Almost seventy percent of your problem is somehow solved as soon as you jot it down on a paper. Because for whatever reason it may be, a thought is very jumbled and unclear in your head but when you jot it down it comes to form of a neat organization on paper, in any form be it a paragraph, a list a diagram or a flowchart. That neat organization can be very helpful in figuring out what to do and how to do, especially when it's a complex problem or emotion and you have no idea where to start. Jotting it down sure gives you a better perspective at the problem as a whole and at least in my case it's very helpful for when you have no clue and fall helpless.
Because when a task feels overwhelmingly huge, that awakens the tendency to procrastinate on it and ignoring a task won't very much help solve any issue related with it. Rather, it might be helpful to delay and then at last complicate something that could've been done and ahead way better and way earlier. Looking at how we've strayed from our initial point of conversation, let's come back - Journalling. Now I know there's barely any interest on that forefront but in my opinion, journalling is something every person really should try at least once. If it's doesn't help you get better at solving your problems or letting your words out properly then at least it'll help form a habit, because really- it's hard to stick to something every single day, and even harder on the days when you're really off and have barely any enthusiasm to write.
But then that's where the core of journalling is, on days when you can't do much, write about your day or what went wrong, detail on the topic stays optional and you get to look back at your day at the very least to form and see what you can gain from it. Another little thing to add here is memoirs, which are different from journals in multiple ways, but of what I know, it's an easier way to get yourself to write something. A memoir stands right between a diary and a journal.
Now I'll just quickly redescribe the three for you~ A diary entry is written to a virtual friend, which is your diary on any topic, mostly an account of your day. A memoir on the other hand is written in first person perspective, as if talking virtually to an audience (much like this blog post, other than the fact that this is open for people to read). Lastly, a journal is a general collection of multiple topics, memories, emotional processing, day logs, gratitude and complains - a journal can really have a lot in it.
Fun fact~ journals are also professional logs of research or insights that multiple organizations officially publish - they can be weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly and basically provide general intel on multiple topics for people associated with or any readers of the said journal.
Moral of the story: 1. Whenever you feel this isn't going anywhere, get a paper and a pen. 2. Try to start writing on any topic or simply your day (Start rating it out of 10 and reviewing it)
Though if you don't want to, don't. You just wasted about 10 minutes of your precious time reading this, get to real work then.
Anyways~
Love Love
Rashima <3
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