30 Days to a Better Man, Day 8: start a journal

This sure was an easy day! As it happens, I already keep three journals. One of them is this very blog. It's not updated daily, but it's at least semi-regular; if ye doubt, take a look at the blog URL up there. I also keep a food diary in a little blue notebook, keeping track of my meals and occasionally my workout schedule, and a regular daily journal in a larger black ring-bound notebook.

I've tried keeping journals before and always failed, because I wound up writing novels: describing my feelings at length, opining on various topics, recapping each happenstance in excruciating detail. Inevitably my creativity would burn out, my hand would cramp up and I'd abandon the exercise.

This time, though, I've been a lot more successful. I started a simpler daily journal about halfway through October, with bullet points denoting the things I did and saw that day, and who I did and saw them with. It was intended to document the useful things I accomplished during the Facebook hiatus, actually. But when mid-December rolled around, I didn't stop. I found that keeping a journal inspired me to accomplish more. (It sure beat writing "loafed around and played Steam games" every day.) I was remembering things more clearly, too. Not to mention that I am, you know, a journalist. I should be keeping a journal, particularly if I live in a foreign country, and a country at war with its neighbor to boot.

So there y'are. It's nice to find out that I've got a leg up over the average man already. Now excuse me, I have to go update my journals.

Watch out for Day 9...