When I was young (er) I always used to enjoy filling in my personal details, friends' phone numbers, appointments etc in a new diary in time for the New Year. Years of Filofaxes in the 90's put paid to that to a certain extent but I am about to start again!
Looking back on old diaries especially my favourite, the Good Housekeeping diary with recipes and pages for budgeting, used to remind me of happy days when the DDs were young and life seemed to be one round of coffee/lunch/tea play dates!!!
Anyway off to collect my new diary from John Lewis and GET ORGANISED!!
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New diary ?
(36 Posts)I bought a very attractive diary at Dunelm Mill for £1.50- suits me fine, it is pale blue and slightly sparkly. No doubt made in China.
I used to love the Good Housekeeping diary, DaphneBroon! This year for me is one that I bought from the RNLI shop.
I love diaries as well. A task this weekend is to transfer all bookings already made for 2017 onto our A5 telephone table diary and my personal Save The Children red handbag diary.
Have only recently discarded 40+ years of A5 diaries. However, spent many nostalgic hours reading through what we were doing on certain dates through the decades, remembering acquaintances that came and went in our lives and that of our four children, menus I had prepared for parties, trips taken, doctor's and school appointments, exams, results, etc.
It was a painful declutter but had to be done. Somehow, I must write things down in a diary and cannot succeed in replacing this with entries on my iphone!
I'm typing on my diary at the moment. We always had a calendar hanging next to the desktop/phone but we don't have a desk top anymore.
I wrote diaries in my teens which I still have in the loft.
I haven't kept a diary for years, but DH keeps one religiously, recording everything from the completely mundane to the - well, we don't actually do anything exciting, so.... He buys his from card factory for a pound (big spender!). They are accumulating, and storage is a problem. I have suggested he has an online diary, but he looked at me as if I was completely mad!
I am looking forward to starting my new page-a-day A5 journal tomorrow. I have kept a daily journal for almost 60 years and always write up the day's doings every night before bed. I have three large cardboard boxes full (thanks Ikea) and will soon need another.
I have pondered long and hard about what should happen to them when I make my final exit and have decided to leave them to the Bishopgate Institute who collect and conserve social journals and diaries. Maybe some social Historian in the future will be interested in them.
DH bought me a new diary before Christmas, from the Cancer Research shop, to replace my old one. It's a nice handy size, and pink, so doesn't get lost in my handbag, but I've put it somewhere safe, and now i can't find it. I expect it has gone into that hole where all mislaid things go in our house.
Haha Auntieflo we have one of those holes in our house. It must be enormous!
Last year the diary I bought was an exact replica of my old one. On New Year's Day I sat filling in my personal details when the phone rang. I came back to the table put one diary in my handbag and as I was ripping up the other thought to myself that I must have had a very boring year, there seemed to be a lot of empty pages.... I'd put the old one in my bag and destroyed the new one!
Gave the man in the Oxfam shop a laugh when I went to buy a replacement!
I write an account every night about how I have done that day, health wise, just to see if there is any improvement over time. Alas, none yet, just got worse. But I do record things I have done too and it's lovely to look back over.
I did have a 5 year one as a teen but my mum read it and so I ripped it up in anger. It really upset me that she would look at it but also that it was the diary I did when my baby sister was born too. Why do parents think it's ok to read a diary? Total invasion of privacy.
DH and I have a joint online diary so that we can keep track of each other. I am quite happy not to have to write everything out again at the start of a new year. A friend does buy us a calendar that we hang in the kitchen but hardly anything gets written on it.
WE both keep on line diaries but I still like an attractive book type one - helps for golf bookings even though we actually book games on line - I know that all sounds weird. I splashed out on a beautiful shiny blue Paperblanks this year decorated with stylised cats - I'm not a cat person but this caught my eye.
Rejoice, the lost is found. At Christmas, when DS2, DIL and toddler grandson came to stay, I tidied everything up, in GS's bedroom, out of his reach. So, last night, I had a root around, and lo and behold, my lost Diary came to light. Tomorrow I will begin filling in all the C/Fwd dates etc, as today we are off for a New Years Day get together.
Happy New Year everybody.
This time last year it was suggested on Gransnet that keeping a one minute daily diary of what you do will become a real treasure as memory might get a little less efficient. I have just finished doing that for this past year - really easy to do and already a great joy to look back at things I would otherwise definitely forget I had done. Happy New Year!
I always keep a diary of events. I use a W.I. diary but there is a problem at meetings because we all use the same diary and we are likely to pick someone else's up by mistake.
This year's colour is red and to my horror, I found that it runs when wet/damp.
My more sensible husband has an allotment and he keeps a diary of when he plants out, when he produces each crop and the quality. He then spends time reviewing his past diaries before making choices for the new season.
Are we boring - or what?
I buy a new diary for my handbag every year so I have a record of postcodes which I can never remember if I need to write a birthday card and post it without going home first.
I also record the dog's weights when they go for their annual boosters.
Apart from that there's nothing in it 
I have a diary for appointments and note, one to write a very small amount of what I've done or what has caught my eye each day and also have a calendar on the wall which we are both supposed to fill in, especially if it involves using the car as we share one. Sounds mad but every few weeks we have a diary session and put in our own diaries what the other one is doing so we don't double book, oh and I use my online calendar too, partly as I can share it with my kids so they know when we are free too! That sounds obsessive but I'm really not, we try to be flexible and are both involved in a lot so need to be organised, rarely set the alarm though!
We always have the Royal Horticultural Society diary- beautiful colourful sketches on each page, and all our social arrangements get entered into the daily slots; we wouldn't manage to show up for anything without the diary, which is always to hand, and most birthdays would be overlooked until it was too late. I would be lost without it - it goes on holiday with us too.
I'm about to start the last year in my A Five-Year Memory Book [posh name for a diary!]. It's fascinating to read what I was doing on the same date from 2013. I've kept a diary on and off for years. My parents always encouraged it - and respected it too which must have been difficult at times when I got interested in boys!!! I wouldn't keep one on line because technology is changing so rapidly I'd be worried about losing it. Can't beat paper and pen!!!
We have a calendar in the kitchen which we fill in month by month so we know what each other is doing. Then husband has an electronic one and I have two paper ones. One to put appointments in which goes in my hand bag and one to write up special days as a record.
I have been bullet journaling for a year now and have found it a really helpful and creative tool. I do cheat on my task list etc though as I don't want a list of failures in front of me. I, of course meet all my targets ,am never late for important meetings and my diet always runs to plan !!!
For some years I kept a big page a day diary and recorded events, thoughts, impressions, ideas etc. I read them sometimes and I'm back in those events vividly. Last year had some traumatic moments - it was a difficult year - and I stopped keeping the diary. Some things were too painful to write - I was displaced and uprooted.
However I'm through the other side I hope. I've moved and am happy in my new home, and have new interests, so I'll go back to writing the detailed diary, as well as keeping my handbag diary for appointments. One of the good things that has come out of moving on has been a vast improvement in my tachycardia. Fingers crossed, I hardly notice it now.
Dear DaphneBroon,
I love my diary and always have. I know there are e-types for all sorts of things, but I like the fact I've written things down that tend to stay in my mind longer and I can add to them more quickly I find. I used to use my iphone, but came back again to a diary. It's also useful to see what date you last did something. I have two lovely diaries to give away too and will give my first one out tonight to a friend. I've already filled in important appointments in my own diary, which is a page per day from W H Smith. I always get this diary.
I have kept a diary since I was 16, am now nearly 70. I keep them in bags for each decade and they are only the small type. They come in really handy when you can't remember when you did something or saw someone. Also since my daughter had her baby its great to see what I did as a mother at the same stage! They at not very detailed just the plain facts of what you did that day. We keep a His and Hers calendar on the wall for appointments, dates and birthdays. Couldn't live without it.
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