Category: journaling

This time of year always puts me in the mood to remember what happened during the year and think about what I want to achieve in the coming twelve months. I am planning to write a sort of retrospective of the year for a special journal I’ve been referring to as the Annual, which will start with pages dedicated to each month where I’ll list events and seasonal observations and paste in small printed-out photos. After that will be the Year in Review, which I would like to be a higher-level/longer-term look at how the year went and what I did. Inspired by the year in review blog questionnaire that has been around for most likely 20 years or more (if you were ever on LiveJournal, you know it: it’s the one with the question “compared to this time last year, are you: happier or sadder? thinner or fatter? richer or poorer?”) and by thoughts that came up while starting my look back at the year.

This will likely change a bit as I actually write answers, but my year in review will be based on the following questions, skipping any that I turn out not to have answers for:

General: Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? What dates stand out from the year? What did you do this year that you’d never done before? What will you always associate with this year (such as a song or activity)? Where did most of your time go? Where did most of your money go?

Friends and family: Who was in your life a lot this year? What influence did they have? Who did you meet, reconnect with or get closer to this year? Who did you drift from this year? Any births, moves, or career changes in your circle? Any illnesses, injuries, or deaths in your circle? For both of those, who was it, and how did it affect you?

Infatuations and themes: What were you really into this year? What did you really look forward to, or were thrilled with after it happened? What styles or ideas pervaded your year? What were your routines?

Successes: What was your biggest achievement of the year? When did someone thrill or impress you, or go above and beyond (“someone” could be you)? What did you want and get? What was the best thing you bought this year? What did you improve at this year? What did you maintain this year? Was that easy or a struggle, and do you want to improve it?

Failures: What was your biggest failure of the year? What did you learn from it? When did someone hurt or disappoint you (“someone” could be you)? What did you want and not get? What did you hope to improve at this year but didn’t?

Hobbies and social activities: What new (or nearly new) activities did you try? Which ones did you stop doing? Anything learned from that? Would you try any of them again? Which new activities did you continue? What do they bring to you? What ongoing/pre-existing activities and relationships were at high or low tide this year? What pre-existing activities or relationships did you let go of? What did that open you up for?

Other experiences: Where did you travel – cities, states, countries? What books did you read this year? What movies and TV shows did you watch this year? What live performances did you see this year? For each of the previous 3 questions, which ones stand out? What else did you listen to or read this year (podcasts, recorded music, blogs, webcomics, videos)? Any new discoveries?

A list of things you might wish to record in your journal that are neither tied to your day-to-day nor responses to prompts or exercises (though some of them could perhaps be used as prompts).

1. Memories that come to you
2. Phrases that get stuck in your head
3. Quotations that strike you
4. Reactions to things you read, watch, or listen to
5. Interesting ideas, words, or phrases
6. Trivia that is fun or intriguing
7. Things you appreciate as particularly witty or clever

I do all of these to some degree, but in particular I take notes from my nonfiction reading in my journal, sometimes extensively. I’ve recorded particularly clever cryptic crossword puzzle clues, words for things I didn’t know there was a word for, and little bits about people I have just learned about and might want to look up later. Phrases and quotations often end up in my mini art journal.

You know how to make lists of pros and cons for decisions, but sometimes they are apples and oranges. Here are some more things you can try. For each option you are choosing between, answer the following:

1. What’s the worst that could happen? Seriously. How would you cope? Is there anything you could do differently from the start to mitigate the problems while still making the same decision? [This is also a good approach for dealing with non-decision situations you are worried about.]
2. What might you regret about not choosing this option?
3. What might be the long-term benefits of choosing this option – one, five, ten years out?
4. Put 1, 2, and 3 together: If I choose this option, the risk is X, but I could gain Y, and if I do not choose this option I would regret Z. Try to be concise but get at the heart of it; once you’ve made a sentence for all the options you can use them to help you compare.
5. Put yourself in the future, after the dust has settled. Explain to someone why you chose this option (and if this option is to do nothing, imagine it has come out that you came close to acting and you are explaining why you did not). Be brief, but write various versions. Do they feel true to you? Do they rely on something happening that hasn’t yet in order to feel true?