The Year on Year diary entry… why it is important.

I use the Day One app for my diary entries, and I am just coming up to getting a whole year streak on my daily completion. I will now tell you why this is a great thing and why you should do it. You have to listen to me on this and then take action. Please. Humour me and then execute… not me, execute on the action.

But first, some self-recognition.

I am proud of this consistency, and it is my goal to achieve an entire year of entires. 

I will achieve that goal, and it is always of great satisfaction to achieve what you set out to do. This is a crucial part of fulfilment in my life. 

Doing what you said you would do is always good. 

Also, taking the time to capture the day, no matter how brief, has been insightful to support my positive mental health.

Why you should journal using the Day One.

The app is on your phone. Your phone is always with you, so you can capture the day as it unfolds. It is easy if you get the discipline.

You can also set the app to discipline you. Who doesn’t like a bit of discipline?

You can add pictures, videos, and other details such as the music you listened to when that special something happened. This brings back the memory in a much more vivid way.

If it takes you, you can grasp extended moments of your life’s journey.

You get to know yourself more profoundly, and you decide the quality and quantity. Sometimes a picture speaks a thousand words.

With some further reading of your entries, you see the themes of your life. The islands and the jagged rocks, and you can navigate a better path going forward.

You can see how far you have come in life and recognise yourself for the successes. The wins. The losses and the genuine feck ups. If you are honest with yourself, you can laugh at your own absurdities once the moments have passed.

The app also has a privacy setting, just in case you were worried about letting others see your black dogs and wounded soldiers.

Why do I say all of that?

Today my ‘On this day’ entry flashed up, and I read the note. This was an insight into what I was doing this time last year. It was horrible.

It was not good. I was clearly upset and frustrated, but the single daily entry could not give me a complete picture. What the feck was going on in my life back then?

No panic!!

However, because I have been diligently recording my days in and around this entry, I could get a clear picture of the challenge I faced.

Reading on into the week and month, I can see the desperation, what healed me, why I took the actions I took. I could also see the pivot point that put me onto the path I am working along now.

I was able to flash forward to today and realign my energy and goals based on the flash insight from last year and the plan I set in motion for my future self back then.

As humans, we are terribly forgetful. It is how our brain is built. We filter, learn, move on and dump out the excess narrative around the learning moments. We are filtering machines and self-preserving, so we keep the good stuff and toss out the bad. Unfortunately, we also throw out the best learning experiences, so we end up making the same mistakes repeatedly. We are dumb creatures at times.

Without journaling, it is impossible to get a clear picture of your personal history. With journaling and adding the greater context into the record on the app using the media support, you can create an excellent illustration of yourself from back then.

The stimulus gained from the details within the app will take the full you back in time. Your mind, body and soul. 

Bang, you are back to that day like Bill and Ted. You can explore your history in many dimensions, and you are the key historical figure. You are Socrates.

My conclusion.

My advice. Get the app. Set the completion goal and record your life with rigour and learning as you wander through with gay abandon.

You might not thank me now, but you will in a year.

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