Remember Your Life: Why Keeping a Journal is Worthwhile

Do you recall what you were doing on a Thursday four months ago? If it wasn’t a pivotal event in your life, chances are you don’t remember. This leads us to another question – should you even bother remembering? In today’s article, I will tell you about how keeping a journal helped me solve many problems in my life.

Journaling as Therapy

I’ve been intermittently journaling since 2010. I was 16 at the time and had several issues – a toxic relationship, the dissolution of old friendships, and an absence of clear plans for the future. I thought a lot and had no one to talk to about it, so I started writing daily. It worked like therapy because as I wrote about problems, solutions also came to mind. I liked it so much that I continued journaling uninterrupted for the next 4 years.

During my college years, the idea of keeping a written journal didn’t work for me. I moved out, rented rooms with various people, and a journal with private notes could end up in the wrong hands.

Project 365

A few years later, I returned to journaling, this time in the form of photos with short descriptions. Unlike my previous journals, this one was public, as I posted the photos on Instagram. The idea was simple – each day, I took a photo representing the most significant moment, a summary of that day. I added a brief description and posted it on Instagram. I did this for 365 days. It’s a great keepsake, but now I keep it for myself – it’s no longer available online.

Experimenting with Various Apps

After completing the photo project, I missed journaling a lot. I tested many different apps, both for adding photos, maintaining a textual journal, and tracking mood – all the elements that mattered to me. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the perfect app, so… I decided to create my own.

Felice – My Own Journaling App

On July 12, 2023, my app Felice appeared on the App Store. I had been working on it since March, learning programming from scratch in the process.

Felice allows me not only to record my days but also to add photos and the mood accompanying me. If the journal is kept regularly, I can later glance at how my mood evolved throughout the month, thanks to the app’s main screen displaying a calendar with dots in different colors symbolizing specific moods.

I encourage you to download the Felice app from the App Store. It’s free and ad-free.

Why Keep a Journal? My Arguments

You remember your life. You know exactly what you did on a given day, week, month, and year. It’s easier to draw conclusions.
You feel a greater sense of control over your life.
You have more control over your goals. By dedicating time every day to write a note, you won’t forget about them.
You’ll become a better writer. I mean a better writing style, ease of articulation. I believe that journaling taught me to write well enough to start a career in copywriting and content marketing.
If you keep a journal on paper, you’re also practicing your handwriting. It really works – thanks to journaling, I developed a quite nice handwriting style.

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