How to maintain a personal diary?

I started writing a diary in grade 6. I'm now finishing my second year of uni. A lot in these pages. You can also record your everyday life by taking picture or with another social media means, but none of them can record your every day state of mind. In my opinion, writing for yourself is still the best way to witness your personal growth.

Here are some tips for those who are just getting started or for those who want to recover their failed attempts:

1 - Choose a spiral notebook. Those who don't have the spirals are a pain in the ass to write when you get closer to the inward part of the page. Some fancy notebook don't have this problem, but if you're not sure what I'm talking about, just get a spiraled one. You'll thank me later.

2 - Write because you want to, not because you have to. Do I write everyday? Of course not. In high school, I once stopped writing for 3 months, because I didn't know how to put into words a much negative event. Other times, I would just be lazy. That's ok. Let it be. There are times when my journal entry is simply : Date, time. ARRGHHH!! Trust me, when you read back, you will remember why you felt that way at that time.

3 - Describe your feelings, not the events. A common remark that I get is that: Well I don't have that much to say, coz I do a lot of the same stuff during a day. You're not writing for an audience; you're writing for yourself. Although I started in grade 6 by describing my days, I quickly abolished that habit. By doing so, writing in your diary will feel much more of a chore than what it should be.

4 - Adding stickers, tickets, memos are a great way to spice up your pages, but try not no overload them. I used to put huge 3D stickers, which I ended up removing because the notebook had some huge bumps in them.

5 - If you can draw, go ahead and do it. I can't really draw, but I would still doodle from time to time.

#diary