For those unfamiliar, the rubber duck method is more or less laying out a problem to something else (rubber duck, pet, whatever) to try to solve it. I've most often come across this as explicitly talking to the rubber duck, but apparently writing to them is also an approach?

In any case, those that go about this method writing already know where I'm going with this...Journaling can be like extending the rubber duck method to anything else, but especially oneself.

It's especially nice when done analog or via local-only software, so you can sort things out offline. Plus if you do decide you want to share what you've worked out, or worked on, with others (probably with some revisions) you'll already have a backup in place.

If you don't already journal and were looking for what to write about, or some reasons to, there's a few for you right there.

(bonus for the analog method is you can trail off and start doodling goofy stuff as you write)

I got into bullet journaling a few weeks ago. I looked at a bunch of resources that went into detail, but I felt like I didn't have the big picture. The Absolute Ultimate Guide covers the motivation, what bullet journaling is all about, and details for getting started quickly, all in one relatively short post.

Hello, I am keeping a journal in handwritten form for several years now. From the beginning I used acid free paper and archival ink so that the pages will be readable for a few decades. However I am thinking about keeping a digital backup of everything for several months now. Reason for that is that in case of a fire I'd loose all my memories. So it is important to me to keep this information in a separate place.

Now I could go the easy way and could just scan all pages and save them, but this would just be a regular backup. So I was reading about OCR that is being used by many software solutions to recognize text and make pictures or scans searchable. However this is good only for digital text and not meant for handwriting.

Now Apple shows that recognizing handwriting is possible, because my iPad learns from my handwriting in notes and can convert digital text to look exactly like my handwriting. I can make a picture of handwritten text, too, and can then select that text in the photos app. So this shows me that there is indeed a solution that can recognize my handwriting.

So does anyone here know how I could achieve this in my case so that I have a digital backup of my written journals and make all of this searchable? I am fine with technical solutions like python scripts or self-hosting something, as long as it makes my goal possible.

Thank you in advance!

The Almost Weekly Thread is my attempt at keeping the community active while I’m unable to post at least once a week like I used to. Consider it a programmed but totally irregularly scheduled publication ;)

For this first issue, I got the idea from a recent comment from @Œ[email protected] that mentioned scratch building their own notebooks using scrap of leather for the cover.

DIY is great idea and helps making the journal even more ours. It is something I’ve been doing on and off (off for the last two years or so) myself with great satisfaction.

There is no need to use leather, or anything fancy to make one. As a matter of fact you probably already have all you need to make a simple one from scratch: some copy paper, a stapler and maybe some thicker paper or cardboard for the cover. Your journal can be as simple and as fancy (and as expensive or as cheap) as you want it to be.

The required tools are limited: like I said a stapler or, better, a needle and some threat, maybe a folding bone (to neatly fold your sheets of paper) and a paper trimmer thingy (I don’t know the English word for those guillotine-like paper cutter) that will help you get neat edges.

Along the years, I’ve made some notebooks myself ranging from the real fancy one (I learned to do book binding three decades ago) to the real dirt cheap ones, made from a stack of printer paper, some empty cardboard box for the cover, and a couple staples.

I loved using them a lot and they all felt so much more personal than purchased notebooks, no matter how cheap and quickly I made them. Each was uniquely mine.

Curious to give it a try? Great!

• If you have zero experience in book binding, this video is an excellent introduction that will teach you how to do everything properly and should help you get a real fine handmade notebook. Something you would not mind gifting to someone you care about: Bookbinding Basics: Chapter 2 - Basic Materials & How To Make Your First Notebook.
  BTW, the channel in its entirety is absolutely excellent and well worth watching but it focuses on bookbinding more than on journaling ;)
• The previous video focuses on making a nice simple notebook but it still takes some efforts to achieve. If you want to experiment faster and simpler (and cheaper too, maybe) you can check this other video: Pocket notebooks // How-To | I Like To Make Stuff.
• Finally, as a middle ground between the two I would suggest this video: My hand-made pocket journal.

Personal advice: don’t be afraid to try stuff out and to screw up. That's how you learn anything that is worth learning, and even with some issues it will still be your very own unique journal and I'm willing to bet you will like it ;)

Like I think I mentioned, I always have had a soft spot for my own diy notebooks even the cheapest/dirtiest I've made. And I will never hesitate to make one, say for a short-lived occasion (a few days or weeks worth of writing) as I simply use less sheets of paper to make it. It’s also a very simple way to be able regularly renew your journal too: change the cover and the paper. And maybe beside using a ring binder of some sort it's the only practical way I can think of to use a mix of various papers in the same journal.

Also, when I’m in a hurry (polite version of ‘when I feel too lazy’) I don't bother with making anything fancy. I simply fold a few sheets of paper (I prefer watercolor papers, since I like to sketch but a less expensive mixed media paper will do fine too, and if I was only writing or sketching without using watercolors I would not mind using 80gsm copy paper from Clairefontaine) that I staple, not even trimming the edges.

Nope, I don’t worry the staples might be rusting because of the water in my watercolors as I seldom do heavy watercolors washes in my journals but even if it was to rust, so be it, it would simply be part of that journal.

And yeah, when I feel less lazy I can properly bind the signatures using some thread and a needle and I may even use some nice cover material too ;)

Hello guys,

No Weekly Thread this week and probably not in the foreseeable future as I need to deal with personal matters that will reduce the time I have available for the community.

Like I always said, I don't own the community, if I'm anything it's its janitor.

So, if anyone is willing to pick up this role of janitor/mod/admin I will gladly give them all the keys. And if you're feeling like keeping publishing the Weekly Thread or want to change the banner/icons I will also give you the source files for all our illustrations (I used Inkscape to create them).

If no one wants to that's fine too. I will keep the Mod hat for the time being and do my best but I won't publish that much.

Edit: if you miss a (much) more active community, don't forget about our older cousin r/journaling. With their 2 million or so user base they always have a lot more going on.

Job Hiring PNGs by Vecteezy

We’re now 516 members! A warm welcome to all of you :)

The idea with this Weekly Thread is to encourage people to participate more by sharing a theme. See that as an invitation, nothing more and you’re more than welcome to comment about anything else related to journaling, or to start your own thread while ignoring this one.

This week theme: Where do you journal?

Do you like to write your journal at home, comfortably installed on your desk or maybe on a couch or in the bed? Or do you journal everywhere you go? And how? Do you do it on your phone, or in your journal (that you carry everywhere you go?) or maybe in smaller notebook?

I started a few years ago. Sometimes, I had a dream that I wanted to remember and so I started writing it down. I also drew sketches of the places I dreamed about.

In fact, writing about my dreams is how I got into journaling in the first place. It was only a year ago that I decided to also start a "regular" journal.

Do any of you also have a "dream" journal?

It's not our Weekly Thread (I will post it in a couple days, like every week) but I just replied this in another thread and thought it might be worth sharing with you guys. I also invited the OP to join our community. Hopefully, they will. A short summary, to give you some context: the OP was worried that they can't keep on writing in their journal and asked for advice. What follows is my reply to the OP reply to my first comment. The whole thread can be read here.

It's a bit long but I see so many (young or not so young) people being blocked by that perfectionism shit (I also had to fight against it, mind you). Let me know, if you think this has little to do with our community or if you think it's ok and feel free to add your own remarks and suggestions:

One thing I’ve discovered about my mentality is that, I’ve developed a perfectionist perspective/mindset

Perfectionism is the enemy of creativity, which journaling can be considered a form of but that’s true of any form of writing. Perfectionism will often be used as an excuse to not finish/publish a text. I learned at a very young age to say to my own perfectionism to fuck off. Even for simple stuff like commenting here on lemmy I’m OK with publishing posts/comments in English (which means that they contain even more mistakes than they would have in my native French), I’m ok with mistakes and I can always edit the ones I see later on. I’m also ok with not having a fully articulated expression of what I really want to say (for that you would need to read and me to write in French). And that’s true for any other published work, not just here on Lemmy (I may have been writing for a living, younger).

As far as I’m concerned, I consider perfectionism one of my worst enemy. I see it as my own fear of realizing I’m far from being as good I imagine I am ;)

After reading your insight, maybe I’m sensing a change in my perspective. A positive change. Maybe I can LET GO of the feeling of failure and move on…

So glad to know that!

Don’t be afraid (really) to try letting go of that perfectionism. Worst case: it won’t help you. But if it does help you, you will never regret getting rid of that shit feeling.

A warning before you try anything new: you need to be prepared, like be OK in you head, like for real because it’s the most likely outcome, with the idea that you will fail at doing it, that will fail the first time, and maybe the second time and maybe more. And even if you don’t fail, you may be ok with doing something great either. That’s not an issue. That’s how you begin. That’s how anyone begins. Trying to get rid of that shit feeling of perfectionism you will indeed fight years-long education and habits. It’s not just an on/off switch so be ok with that ;)

We now live in an age that hates failing and is in absolute adoration before perfectionism(at least as much as it is in adoration before money). That is the most stupid thing ever conceived; And it is even more so for all the kids that are being taught that. Because, simply put, failing is essential part of leaning. I would even say failing is the only legit way to learn anything that is worth learning.

How did you learn to walk? By walking a marathon or running a sprint like some athlete or was it by falling on your diapered toddler bum one clumsy step after another, over and over again? Yeah, not that brilliant but be assured that was the exactly the same with me. How did you learn to write? By writing poetry that put to shame dear Shakespeare at your very first attempt? Or by making a shit ton of mistakes, and by writing each letter clumsily one at a time, and then, after years of practice, by realizing you were indeed able to write your first (but still rather poorly worded) real sentences? So did I. And I experience that with every single language I learn(ed), even more so with non-Latin languages. And how did you (maybe?) learn to kiss, and more? Don’t tell me you were at the top of your art from your first kiss, and that you were a perfect lover the first time too because I certainly wasn’t (and, decades later, still am not ;)

Failing and then trying to understand how and why, and how to avoid repeating the exact same mistake, is at the core of learning and therefore should be at the core of any quality teaching too. Not telling kids they’re perfect and all they do is amazing. That’s bullshit. Alas, it’s that bullshit that is now the norm. Heck, teachers in schools nowadays are even afraid to give poor grades to students as that could be traumatizing for the kids… forgetting that’s it’s the sole purpose of giving a grade: to assess the level of assimilation of whatever the student was supposed to have studied. Sad state of affair out of which the real losers here are those students that don’t learn essential knowledge and skills anymore. They’re the ones that are being screwed up.

Sorry, for that rant. It’s something that worries me a lot to watch so many younger people being frozen by the fear of failing despite being at the very age where they should happily be taking so many fucking risks and be daring of trying the most stupid shit. I also worry a lot realizing those younger ones are very quickly becoming unable to read and write, or to do simple math. Meaning they aren’t able to learn and understand much by themselves, and less and less able to communicate whatever thought, emotion, or idea they may wish to share.

To get back to your situation: your journal is not a work of art that will end up exposed in art galleries nor in a museum, maybe you will do stuff that will end up exposed and studied, no one can predict the future, but they should not be your journal. That journal is one of the tools in your toolbox with which you will do what you want with your life. It’s also a work in progress. Use it, abuse it, experiment in it, break it as often as you feel like it. In a few decades, when you will look back at your old journals, you will be happy you have tried (and failed) so many times at so many things. And I’m willing to bet you will be happy to have kept a record of all those failed and imperfect attempts of yours ;)

Why a WT?

We’ve a steadily growing community—we’re now 494 members! Welcome to all of you :)—but we still lack momentum.

The idea is to encourage more participation by sharing a weekly theme. This just an invitation and you’re more than welcome to comment about anything else (related to journaling), or to start your own thread ;)

Also: do you think we should do something to celebrate the 500th... if we manage to get there?

This week theme: What do you do you when you finish a journal?

Do you have any special rituals, or do you just start a new one?

Obviously, the question concerns pen and paper journalers more than digital users but don’t hesitate to comment as a digital user too! Explain us how you manage switching app (or if you don't switch and only use one, like I used to do when I used DayOne), or if you lack the emotion of finally filling the very last page of a notebook and starting a new one? Or if there is no emotion associated with that?

Edit: once again, I used my non-admin account to post this weekly thread. Silly me. Feel free to petition and demand a less amateurish admin if you feel like it's needed. I won't protest :p

I see quite a few new members have joined our small community in the last few weeks which is great! (Edit 16th Dec: we passed the 300 members!)

A warm welcome to every single one of you!

I was wondering if you would be interested in post where everyone would be able to present themselves in a few words if they wanted to, maybe share a little info about themselves and their journaling habits or why they're considering journaling?

No obligation, obviously, and nothing too personal should probably be shared but here it is.

If the discussion gains enough traction I may pin it as a permanent welcome post and an invitation to new members to introduce themselves. If it doesn't, well so be it.

I will introduce myself in the comments, read you there ;)

I have been journaling for almost 50 years and...

Wait a minute. What absolute non-sense did I just wrote there? I have been journaling for how long? Almost fifty years? Fifty effing years? LOL. No way. I'm not that old. No, I am… That’s a lie! I am…

(Here, we should listen to some relaxing music while we let my poor brain process the fact that, indeed, I started journaling as a little 7-year old boy and that was almost 50 years ago. That may take a while, feel free to check your inbox or your TikTok while waiting.)

So, what was I saying? Oh, yes that I have been journaling for a certain time which makes it quite realistic to say that I have used many of the journaling medium one can think of.

Ranging from the good old pen and paper to whatever digital tool one can think of (from the desktop, to the smartphone, including various PDA, laptops, tablets). I have also typed my journal in various word processors and text editors, in various journaling apps, even in… spreadsheets or in a real database. I have also used a blog . Cassette and digital recorders. I even used my grand-father’s typewriter, the wonderful Olympia SG1. Heck, back in my thirties, I learned bookbinding (and to use a traditional press) so I could make my own journals with my choice of paper.

Despite that, I don’t think there is such a thing as 'the right way' to keep a journal or a better way to do it. There are ways that work better, for each one of us. Obviously, I have my preferences but they're just that: preferences.

I like the freedom a paper journal gives me. I like how I can doodle in it, and have fun with page layout or lettering, taping, stapling or gluing stuff on the page too. I like how I can change ink in my fountain pen and expriment with different types of papers. I also like that I am not tied to any app or devise. I like how cheap it can be too. And I like that, privacy-wise, neither the maker of my fountain pen or of my notebook can read what I am writing — unlike what may happen with a digital journal.

But I also like the comfort and peace of mind digital is giving me. The ease of using my phone and its portability. I like being able to instantly find any content, and to have it backed up on some cloud.

That said, very recently, I decided to switch back to a full analog journal. Why? Mostly, because of privacy concern.

I used to use DayOne (and I loved it) but what follows can be said for most if not all apps/services.

For quite a few years already, I had started worrying about the lack of privacy. My journal contains my most intimate thoughts, no one but me should be able to read it. I mean, I would not care if my spouse was to read my journal (she would never, we trust each other like that, but if she was to ever do it I would not care). It's just that nobody else should be allowed to.

So, when I heard the devs at DayOne consider adding an AI-assistant in their app (it was around the same time Apple announced their own AI-powered journaling app), I realized the future of my journal could not be digital. If I can still vaguely trust human developers to be... reasonable, AI has been created to read through text and to process it. So, that day, after 15 or 16 years (?) using Day One I downloaded a PDF of my journal and deleted all my data from their servers and I switched back to pen and paper (I kept my DO account because it was grandfathered many, many years ago when they introduced their subscription model and I never had to pay that sub. So, even though I doubt it, if one day things change back I may want to use it again).

BTW, that’s similar doubts that pushed me to come back to using a paper agenda and the reason why I quit reading ebooks for printed books, as I explain on my blog: Am I Reading That Ebook or Am I Being Read by That Ebook? & Who Owns the Ebook I Purchase?

Since the, I sometimes miss some of the comfort of a digital journal, but I have so much fun sketching and having, well, fun in my paper journal that I simply don’t care.

I also devised working solutions as far as searching and backup are concerned, but that could be another discussion, if anyone is interested?

What about you? Are you analog or digital or, like I was up until very recently, are you ok with mixing both?

Do you think ~~I’m a moron~~ I’m being a bit excessive in giving up on digital in the name of privacy? (As a matter of fact, if my paper journal was to be stolen, that person would be able to read it and to share its content with anyone, right? Isn't that a worse situation?)

What do you think?

While we're waiting for reactions or comments regarding the future of the community, here is a nice prompt I just stumbled upon on the r/journaling.

If I had this power, I would wake up as… me.

A much younger me, though. Aged 11 or so, when I started making real life-changing decisions. I would wake as this young-me but with all I know and all I have experienced during the almost 50 years that have passed since that time.

I’m not talking about knowing in advance what to study and what job to get (and which ones to avoid) nor where to invest some money (even though that would not be a bad idea :p). Just the intimate knowledge of all I did wrong, and why I did it. What I did well, and how I could do it better. Simply put, I would try to help younger-me become a better person.

Making wrongs rights would be top-priority. Helping me hurt less people around me. Hurt myself a little less, too. I would also encourage myself to care a lot more about a few of those people. And to tell them much more loudly they’re important.

I would not advise myself against those few real bad persons I have met along the way. Most of them, even if unknowingly, helped me learn valuable lessons. Maybe except one, that did real long lasting harm. Maybe.

Lastly, I would tell myself to not waste as much time as I did. Life is short and I wasted so much of it. Not as much because I was being lazy (I was, at times) but because I always wanted to experiment as much as I could in life, I wanted to have lived something before deciding if that something was worth it. I would instead encourage young-me to focus much more on a selected few meaningful experiences, ignoring all the others.

Maybe I would fail at changing myself, stubborn as I was? No idea ;)

What about you? Who would you be? And why?

You may have read my previous post, announcing I would be trying to revive this community by posting regularly in it?

This morning I mentioned this project in another discussion on Lemmy and someone rightfully pointed to me I may want to be able to moderate said community and that probably I would need to create one from scratch.

I don't want to make a new community if there is no need too, Lemmy is already short on participants without creating even more separated and smaller communities. I also don't feel any personal urge to be an admin myself. But I also don't want to encourage people to participate in a community that no one would be able to keep civil.

Before doing anything, I would like to hear your opinion and suggestions if you have any. What do you think I should do or, much better, what should we do?

And if the admin is reading this: what do you say about all of that?

While I wait for your comments, I will also ping the admins on my very own instance. We're a French speaking one, so I want to ask them if that would be OK to host an English speaking community. Whatever happen next, I’ll let your know.

This is a question I just read on the reddit journaling sub. If I quit commenting on reddit a few months ago, I still regularly read those subs I consider interesting and enriching, and I think this is an interesting question.

That for me, is the shortest entry possible.

As you can see, even if it’s blurred, I have written some more stuff below that. But it just happens to be the case there. Often, I won’t.

What is it all about? It’s written in French (I journal in French and in English), but that doesn’t change much:

• I put the date and the day of the week. Why bother with the day since I know perfectly well it was written on Monday (lundi) and on Tuesday (mardi)? In a few months, or even a few weeks I will not remember what the day was. I quickly realized I missed not having that information when I was browsing through my journal. So, now, I systematically write it down.
  And what about the lettering and coloring? I don’t always do that, but it’s also a lot of fun so I try to do it as often as I can — like adding small sketches using watercolors to illustrate whatever. It only takes a minute or two.
• I also write how I slept, which is another info I learned to value as I was getting older.
• The weather when I first went out that day. I will do long walks at least twice a day and this quick note about the weather maybe all what’s needed to trigger a lot of other memories for that day. Be it when I read it later on, or right when writing it down.
• My mood. I spend years trying to control my (bad) temper. So, for me it’s great to jot that down too.

Once again, I think it’s clear from what I said, those are just three things I value enough to write them down. Write your own stuff. It doesn’t matter what it is, well, it will matter to you obviously.

Imho, what should matter to all of us is to be fine with the fact that we won't do it every single day, that will not happen believe me, and that's fine. Like it is fine to try to note some info and then realize they're not that important, and try with others. These attempts can also be a legit part of your journal, like crossing stuff out instead of erasing them or tearing the page out.

So, that’s how I do short entries in my journal.

How do you do yours? And if you have not started yet, how would you like doing it?

I know from personal experience how great and how fun journaling can be. And also how helpful it can be.

I have been keeping a journal for almost 50 years. oh. my. fucking. god. Forget I just wrote that, because I can't be that old. No way. Not me. I can't be...

(Here, you should have heard the soft noise of my now unconscious body collapsing on the floor like some old wet rag, after my poor brain went off realizing I was really starting to get old)

What was I saying? Something about me having been keeping a journal for quite some time and how fn and helpful it had been.

And that is something that makes me sad when I see no activity going on in our little journaling community, here on Lemmy. Even more so, knowing that our cousin from reddit r/Journaling is doing quite well.

But I also know how daunting it can be to start writing in a journal — what am I supposed to write about? Nothing happens in my life! Why? How? And how can I prevent people to read my most intimate thoughts? How can I make it interesting? How can I not screw the page by making mistakes!? — and I know how it can be intimidating to post personal stuff online, and alone, too.

I started wondering if maybe all we needed was someone to start sharing stuff, talking about stuff and maybe start asking questions in order to get others to do the same?

To the best of my (limited) abilities, I want to ry that and maybe encourage people that may still hesitate to start journaling to do it, and also to encourage anyone to discuss about journaling. And to do it here, not on reddit.

So, even though I have no clear idea what I will post beside the next couple posts, I will try to regularly post stuff, hopefully encouraging others to do the same, or to comment, or to laugh, or whatever — as long as it’s done with a positive spirit, we should all get something out of it.

At the very least, the more we post here the more likely we are to encourage others to join and to participate.

BTW, if you don't speak French, the picture of my journal used as an illustration to this post is asking a very simple question right next to the tin can phone I sketched, which is: Allo?... With who (will I be discussing)?