Journalling

Journalling has many benefits, as has been pointed out many times by various illustrious writers. Blogging, which is very different from journalling in that it is a public expression of thought, while journalling is private, is also very useful. It provides an opportunity to practice formulating and publicly expressing an opinion with the full understanding that this opinion will be permanently recorded somewhere in the proverbial cloud.

Another way of journalling, which is somewhere in between between private journalling and public blogging, is keeping a diary as a record-keeping activity. Today, I heard an interview of Robert Rodriguez, who made a strong case for this habit. Having a daily record of the significant events of every day makes a powerful tool for parenting, personal development, work, etc.

I think that taking family photos on a regular basis (ideally daily) serves the same purpose. In my personal case, I find that having a large, easily-accessible database of images that commemorate the significant events in our family’s life is very valuable. Looking through these photos with my four-year-old daughter (I have the images from my Flickr photo stream scroll as a screensaver on the TV in our living room) shows that I tent to over-estimate both my daughter’s and my own memory span an ability to recall small details and events that seemed significant at the time they were happening, but vanished from our minds just a few weeks (not to mention, months and years) later.