Do you keep a diary?

I keep a diary when travelling or away on holiday.

I have done so since I was 18.

My father always kept a diary from a young child ... he died age 94 yrs. He worked in London during WW2 so perhaps someone might be interested in day to day life. There is an organisation that accepts old diaries and you can put limits on who can access same.
I kept a diary until the day I moved out of home, strange to suddenly stop. Now I rely on kitchen fridge calendar to keep note of events and at end of year, I can usually fill out a couple of pages in hardback notebook of things of interest that year. I keep that notebook and also the calendar pages are stashed somewhere. I also have a filofax that I love to keep details of birthdays, dental/optician, addresses and other various notes from year to year. For each member of family I have a small notebook with medical details.

I have just burned 12 years of my diaries which I kept for ‘interest’! Reading through them brought back so many unhappy memories that I decided to clear my cupboard and my soul. Watching them all burn was quite a release and now I feel ready to move on.

I don't keep a diary but I am surpised and delighted so many do. Many years ago, I read one of the Mass Observation Diaries "Nella Last's War: The Second World War Diaries of 'Housewife, 49' ". It was excellent.

As Grammaretto said - social history.

Keep on keeping your diaries, the future will love you for it.

I dont have a daily Diary, but l do have a callendar with space to write down appointment details and things like when l need to pay a bill or send a Birthday card to someone.
Important dates from my past l can still remember in my head, such as Birthdays, several family dates of birth,and holidays taken, although dates for the latter are often faded over time. My DH keepsa daily diary of events, which is very detailed, and includes the weather and exactly what he did, ate, and went to!

I have a small desk diary .
I write a brief description of what I did ,any important world news and something nice that happened that day.
Even on a rotten day something nice will have happened.
Today I noticed a clump of tête-à-tête daffodils coming up.
Handy too when one is trying to remember when a cErtain event happened in the past.
Sometimes I have been years out.
Time passes so quickly.

I know when my first date with future DH was because it was the day before my birthday!
I never used to keep a diary, but after DH died I bought a journal and write to him every day and tell him what I've been doing and how I'm feeling.

Well how do you know ginny your musings could be the very thing which lifts the mundane, another weary day pulling sledges through ice, into a piece of real social history.

Both are important in their way to tell the whole story. BTW why were you upset with DH?

I know a man who counts birds at his bird table and can tell you what visited when, going back years. He has a notebook. Same thing really.

I have a couple of friends who have kept diaries for a very long time and can tell you what the weather was like on any specific day or date.

No now no. But I used to, and I found some when I was decluttering, they made me smile reading them, I had forgotten half of the things, maybe I should

Grammaretto, I doubt my musings about a trip to a NT property or why I was upset with DH are quite in the same league as Captain Scott and others of his ilk. I think maybe those type of diaries are written to inform others as well.

LadyJus that's not sad just very practical.
I realise I didn't buy a pocket diary for this year. Is it too late?

I don’t have a great memory so started a 5 year diary in 2014....so now on my next one!!! However since the early 90’s I have always kept holiday diaries which regularly come out to be re-read! Full of lots of happy times and memories with the children and friends!!

If I didn`t keep a diary I would be late/early/not turn up at all.
Yet I do remember dates of house moving/the first time I met
DH.
I put it down to having too many memories tbh.

So sorry polnan. That must be very hard. It could help to write a diary but maybe not for everyone. There is no pill for the pain of grief.

I suggested to DH he should write down his angry thoughts instead of holding them in!!
They are about his colleagues, I hasten to add. He can tell me to my face.

Once when I was very angry with my teenage son (he'll be 50 this year) I wrote him a letter, long-hand ofcourse, but I didn't send it. I felt very relieved writing it all down.

I have kept a 'functional' diary since I was 8, I'm now 53 and I still have every single one! I can check dates so if anyone asks me when so- and- so happened, I can tell them... sad but true

I have never wanted to keep a diary.

I put dates/birthdays, appts on my puter, and a written desk diary, by my landline phone.. yes,, don`t care for mobiles, rarely switch mine on.

now since dh died, recently, I read that it helps to keep a journal.. which I am doing, but it is mostly ""crying/etc..

so don`t really keep a journal/diary.. it is supposed to help , but I haven`t found it helps me..

I have kept a diary for about 50 years. I also still have my first one, covering last months at school and first months of start of my nursing career! That’s a real eye opener!

I was given a diary when I was 15 and have carried on writing one for the last 50 yrs.mainly about thing I have done,places I’ve been etc. I write in it every day..it comes in handy when family wish to recall specific happenings and They always say “mum will know,it will be in her diary “ i also wonder whether to leave for for them for family to read in the future or to get rid of them ....I like to look back and see what I did on this day 1,2, 3 or more years ago..thankyou for reading,first time posting x

It was on this very day in 1979 that I began my diary, although I had kept a few sporadic notes before then.

I've written almost every day since and try to keep it light and humorous but occasionally it's also a way of getting rid of negative feelings.

I've also written around 95,000 words about growing up in Yorkshire in the late 40's and early 50's.
I had that printed and bound so I could give copies to family members.

I astounded myself by how much I could remember but the Internet was invaluable for pictures of old, black ranges; carpet beaters, peggy tubs, mangles and possers - things you don't see today except in museums.

I think my sons and grandchildren will enjoy it one day.

I just write my shifts for work in, just in case they try to diddle me out of wages!

Misadventure, my sister had a diary too.
She wrote Work, Telly, Bed.
Every day, then just gave up on the whole idea.

I have kept a diary from the age of ten when my grandma gave me one for Christmas. I hid it in the barn so no one could read it. I rant at times, write about people and daily life. Keep them for two years then burn them on new year's eve after reading them one last time.

Don’t forget the diary of Anne Frank. What a legacy she left us. Unforgettable. She will never be forgotten. We visited her house in Amsterdam and it was heartbreaking.

Yes.
It says "got up, went to work, did housework, went to bed".
Every day for the last 5 years!