Diary / journal

I have kept a diary since I was 11 , My Uncle Eric bought me a diary and a Parker pen. It’s so useful to look back and see what we were doing. Write down how many rolls of wallpaper we used in each room, in the olden days when wallpaper was £1.99 a roll and not £30 !

DH kept a diary from the time he retired. I still have them all. He recorded all sorts of munutiae that I used to scoff at, but proved to be extremely useful as time went on. This year I have decided to do the same. Mine will have some personal thoughts as well as weather, food of the day and appointments. It feels good to be carrying on something he was so fastidious about. We’ll see if I can keep it up!😊.

When my mother died she left behind several diaries which we shared amongst her children. Reading them, especially written in her hand really brought her close to me and kept her memory alive. It also brought back treasured moments which would otherwise have been forgotten. I have always myself written down thoughts and feelings, especially as a teenager,
Now they are mostly an account of the day, more like an aide memoir. However, I do find that writing down your worries, concerns, moods etc, really helps my state of mind. Some of these diaries above sound wonderful, I wish I could be so methodical and colour coded! Does anyone remember Filofax!

Yes I keep a diary it’s just been a habit of many years as I had a boss who used to say write it down then you wont forget it so that’s what I did. My new one starts with my husbands funeral tomorrow but I’ve already written how much money I’ve spent so far, what bills I’ve paid and who I’ve had messages, cards and phone calls from. I also write in if I’ve had a bad or a good day, what the weather was like and any moans or grumbles I’ve had especially about family. I have a stack of them up in the loft I wonder if some day they will be read. Incidentally if anybody wants to know someone’s birthday or age or even birth weight they know who to ask 😅

Dear Cambia sounds very interesting but what is a “bullet journal”? And where one might find it? It really sounds like something I’d like to have.

I’ve always been a list maker, but after the divorce I realised that I would look at a list, but everything I had done was scored through, so the only things that were clearly obvious were those I had failed to do. Basically that meant I was highlighting the negative points and so I started to keep an online diary (using an app called Day One) where I listed the things I did do/achieve. I don’t put feelings in there, except to say things like “we had a lovely time”. However I add photographs so I have memories of days out and the like, or even the mess after GGS has left, and I can look back over the years to see what I did this day x years ago. It has been a joy.

Interesting, and i keep one every now and then and for dates appointments etc.
I am entering my 80th and so am thinking of disposing of them, but HOW?????
Anyone any ideas?

I have always kept a diary. They aren't terribly interesting but it makes me feel better to record my feelings each night. When I go on holiday I keep a travel journal and these are great to re-read or to look back at past exotic holidays. My diaries have also helped settle family arguments, when someone says "what year was that" I can tell them!

I have an engagements diary that has lots of reminders, book lists, diets hints, measurements for things in the home in case I see something in a shop and wonder if it will fit etc etc. and my daily shopping list and menus. At the end of each year I transfer any info that will be useful into my new diary.

In addition for as long as I can remember I have kept a diary of daily events. I use an A4 page a day diary from WHSmith. The current one was bought in 2019 so each page has on it what I/the family etc did on each day of 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and now 2024. I just need to write in the day of the week every day. It's interesting when I write it up each evening to see what happened on that date in the preceding years. Incidentally the current one purchased in 2019 was the same price as the one I'd purchased 5 years earlier. I wonder what will happen to them when I die??!! The journal turned out to be very useful when I had to compile a list of dates for visits my late DH made to his GP when I had a complaint. I have also recorded a few dreams - any that were particularly interesting or strange.

This year might be when I start my long-planned 'family biography'- stories and memories about my family and ancestors that would be lost otherwise, basically oral history.

I do not have a diary, never have. What I do is always keep a pocket sized calendar where I write down all my social engagements, medical appt, holiday gatherings, any events I attend (with names/locations), etc. I do not do a mobile calendar with reminder ding-dongs.

I have saved these calendars for years. I can look back and see what I did/attended five , seven years ago - it almost instantly brings up memories of that meeting.

As far as journaling goes - I do have a journal which gets notes of interest entered, lists of books I want to read, a recipe here and there, travel & airline information I’m learning about, baby names, music I like, websites… it could be ANYTHING. It’s like my own little encyclopedia. I refer to it all the time.
Handy!
USA Gundy

I was given a 5 year diary Christmas 1962 and wrote it up each day until mid 1966. Then again from mid 1980 until it finished Dec 1981. It's fascinating to read through entries of a certain day in each year............

I have my father's diaries nearly a complete set from 1926 just afew years missing for 1930's, I blame war for that and mother's house being evacuated from coast. I thought the Institute in London might be interested in the war years. He instilled in us diary keeping and we got lovely diaries at Christmas. I kept one every day but stopped when I left home in my 20's. The calander on the fridge with important appointments etc has been kept so that is some record of recent decades and I have kept a notebook with a couple of pages for each year noting highlights, deaths, visitors and travel.

I started a diary on retirement, but soon failed to make an entry each day, and it dwindled out after a year. Interesting to look back and see what I did in that first exciting year of complete freedom. Has anyone read Nella Last's diaries? Evidently hers is the longest continuous diary known, as she wrote for the Mass Observation unit from the first days of WW2 and carried on until the late sixties. She was an ordinary housewife, like my Mother, and reading it helped me to see what life had been like for her and all ordinary women. I enjoyed the film of the diary, 'Housewife 49', very much.

Willow3

I have kept a diary since I was 16, 50 years ago! Very useful to look back on events, holidays and to know what you did in which year. Also to compare how we lived differently from today. My daughter often asks me to check dates when she was growing up.

I add postcards, invoices or flyers to events I’ve been to or holidays I’ve been on as well as diarise them. I use a pretty notebook and also list movies, books, events so I can quickly look back on them. I find it very therapeutic

I only keep a diary for appointments etc but I have a knitting journal and a book journal to record those two things. This year I’d like to keep a gratitude journal for when life gets a bit overwhelming …

Mikky
I have kept a diary for many years possibly back to ‘86 post divorce & like others on here I wrote all manner of things my feelings ,thoughts & happenings . I still have them in a chest with my photos albums . But have again like others thought that I should be disposing of them for fear of what I may of written 😜These were mainly during a time of not only post divorce but my single days & reliving my lost youth in general .. Maybe I will have to have a read through them , that would be a time consuming event .
Nowadays,I still have a diary or two actually as I like a big one for the house & a handbag sized one . Though these days it is appointments & events & birthdays ..
Se La vie

I have an appointments diary for business and a page a day diary for private matters. Although business stuff often finds its way into the private one is I have a particularly satisfying or dreadful day.

I always say that if the police banged on my door and demanded to know "where were you on the night of the murder" I would be able to tell them exactly what I did.

I dont think that recording what you ate is pathetic. If you developed a stomach bug or some allergy it might be useful to see what you have been eating and what may have brought it on.

I have my annual diaries back to when I was 7 years old and have written one ever since, make an entry every single evening now on the computer. I tell it everything and on e dayIwillneed to dispose of them all for obvious reasons. They could hurt too many people. Part of my diary now is a gratitude diary about 3 things I am grateful for each day. I also used to do a food diary due to IBS but that can become obsessive so I stopped that.

I have kept a diary since I was 16, 50 years ago! Very useful to look back on events, holidays and to know what you did in which year. Also to compare how we lived differently from today. My daughter often asks me to check dates when she was growing up.

Yes but only for appointments and when visitors are coming to stay. Dogs vet appointments holiday dates etc

I was given a five year diary in 1960 when I was 14. I kept it up and later went on to continue writing diaries until a few years ago. I have since destroyed all of them after re reading through my teenage years, first years of flat sharing in London, getting married and bringing up two children. I decided that I didn't want anyone reading about my thoughts and behaviour when I was younger as even I was rather shocked 😲

I have written a diary every year from the age of ten. The last couple of years I have been typing them up for my adult children. If they pass them down through the family, future generations will be able to see how we lived in days gone by.

I have a bullet journal where everything goes. Books to read, places I would like to visit, medications, restaurants I fancy etc etc. It is indexed at the front so I can find things easily and I use it until it runs out and transfer anything important to a new one. I record habits, alcohol, yoga too.
Done this for five years and it is so useful! But I do love a list!!

For Christmas 2019 my DGD1 bought me a very nice A5 notebook which started as a commonplace book and has become the repository for occasional short essays on life as it has become. There are only a few blank page left and I shall need to decide whether to continue or not. Writing my feelings down has become such a life saver, and in doing so I explore what I think about life in all its frustrations, sorrows and joys. Whether my descendants ought to read what I write is something that else entirely.

I still use a diary to chronicle the comings and goings of my life, in the summer months especially I still have to keep a colour coded note of who is staying in which room and for how long - otherwise I would get totally confused when visitors arrive. All my appointments, husband’s business trips, childminding duties get recorded - plus ‘to do’ notes etc.

I have only recently discarded some of my older diaries and flicking through them transported me back to my university days, and to counselling and social work jobs. There were details of funerals and weddings I’ve had a role in, hospital stays, random notes about family and friends - reminders, gardening notes etc. I would have saved them except I know they were meaningful only to me and my children wouldn’t be very interested in their contents, having lived through the same events one step removed.