The Value of a Physical Journal
“Dunder Mifflin: unlimited paper in a paperless world…”
In the digital age, there is something to be said for intentionally choosing an analog tool.
Digital technology makes us reactive, we are in a constant state of responding to other people’s demand on our time and attention and this comes with certain costs. One cost is a diminishing sense of self, described beautifully by Ryder Carroll in his book The Bullet Journal Method:
“In the most connected time in history, we’re quickly losing touch with ourselves. Overwhelmed by a never ending flood of information, we’re left feeling overstimulated yet restless, overworked yet discontented, tuned in yet burned out.”
The wonderful thing about a journal is that it cuts off the endless flow of infinity that you carry around in your pocket. It presents you with no distractions, no notifications, no input. It simply waits for you to pull something from your brain and put it onto the page.
Here’s Ryder Carroll again, defending why old school notebooks make the best productivity systems:
“This is the main challenge with productivity systems: they struggle to address the limitless variability and evolutionary nature of our individual needs. Notebooks, in contrast, are beholden to their authors. Their function is limited only by the imagination of their owner.”
Writing in a journal is a chance to create something. To be proactive instead of reactive. To organize things the way that you want them and not how someone else thinks they should be. To get in touch with your own thoughts, feelings, values, and priorities instead of someone else’s agenda.
In her book Reclaiming Conversation, Sherry Turkle explains that taking notes by hand is more effective than typing them, because writing by hand is much slower and forces you to practice active listening to determine what you should make note of. I believe there is a similar benefit to slowing down any sort of writing by writing by hand: you have to become intentional about the words that you write and this forces you to think.
My journal serves a variety of functions. It’s a calendar, a planner, and a notebook. It’s a place where I record reflections on what made my day unique, what I’m grateful for, what I’m thinking about, and what my goals and priorities are.
In my time keeping a journal, I’ve found this statement from Rachel Wilkerson Miller’s Dot Journaling to be right on the money:
“Writing about yourself and your life — even just brief notes! — is a huge privilege, and that writing can be incredibly liberating. Writing in a diary is, at it’s core, a declaration that your voice matters.”
What an amazing thing: your voice doesn’t matter because it was validated by getting a large amount of likes or hearts or retweets, your voice matters because you decided that it does.
If you want a sneak peek into how I use my journal, check out this video:
If you enjoyed this, be sure to follow my online daily blog, The Paperless Journal:
Also, you can check out this provocative piece I published this morning:
