I have been journalling off and on since 2014, but mostly digitally. I had seen the five year journals and have loved the idea of it. I am weirdly sentimental about knowing what happened a year ago or even ten years ago. I looked through my notes and decided I had enough to backfill a five year journals since 2020, a very interesting year given the pandemic. I purchased a Midori Five Year Journal in May of 2023 and started on my quest. I was able to get several months through the journal, but then frustration got the best of me. I started to wonder who I was doing this for and why I am bothering. I eventually fell so far behind and I quit altogether. I was further irritated with the hubris of the whole idea of taking notes on the day that I just deleted everything.
Fast forward almost an entire year, with 2024 winding to a close (that’s the firth year since I started in 2020), I decided to just go for it and finish it as best I could. I had some notes available, my calendar, and photos that provided enough detail to put together highlights for most days. I made two changes to how I approach this:
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I decided to just list four items that happened during the day instead of writing beautiful pros
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I decided to be okay with not having anything and just marking out the day if there were no notes available
This is a lot of work with a good thousand or more entries that I need to put together, but I’m committed to finishing it this year. The end result gives me great joy.