A year ago, I started keeping a daily journal. This journal was not a book – it was a set of 365 recipe cards in a box.
I got the idea for this daily card journal project from this Design Sponge blog. I started on June 19, 2013. Each day I wrote a little note about one thing that happened that was the most “interesting.”
I started the project partially because I wanted to notice time passing in a more mindful way. I wanted to see – what felt significant in the end? Would I make any important changes in my life in the coming year? Or would I get to June 2014 and everything would be pretty much the same?
So a few weeks ago, I started leafing through the cards to look for patterns and to see if I could summarize the project for this blog. And that’s when I realized – I don’t know if there is a value in writing down what I did each day. I think there might be more value in documenting what I learned or what made me grateful.
So a few days ago, as I made the flip to the second year of this project, I started writing down lessons or gratitude notes.
It’s only been a few days, it sure changes how I feel about the cards. I feel like I have more positive things in my life when I write about these topics.
I have mixed feelings when I read what I was doing a year ago each day. Sometimes I think – “wow, I have come a long way in how I think about that issue” or “wow, I really miss that person who I don’t see every day anymore because he/she moved to another job” or “wow, I really need to get off my butt and do something about that.”
Overall, I’m impressed I did this every day for a year. When I went on trips, I brought a few extra cards to keep up with it. I keep the box at my bedside table so I get a visual reminder to do it each morning and evening. It seems more “doable” when I see the little card there, than if I had had a closed book to write in.
I’ll be curious to see if my feelings about this project change by this time next year.