I keep a journal of thoughts and ideas. There is not a lot of structure to what I write in there. Sometimes it’s just an organization document for things to do later. I have been keeping these for a while, to document where I am at mentally at any given time. I think it helps to document the process in life. I am grateful I have kept all those journals from the past several years.
I like that I have kept the journals I have written the last few years. I do not look at them very often. I maybe once or twice a year look back into these documents to see where I was at in the past and to skim for ideas. I find it useful to have a snapshot of my past that doesn’t change as I change. It shows me have I have progressed or not progressed at given things. Our views of the past are flawed, so a journal can combat that a bit.
Being able to view the past accurately may or may not matter to me. If I try and write about my path through life someday it will be useful. I suppose looking at the dumb and smart things I did and the results of these things might be useful if I forget. I don’t know what the uses of this journal data might be, but I’m grateful I kept the data.