Hacker News Reader

Comment by fokinsean | Hacker News Reader

I think I'm going to try this one out this year. I attempted at doing a weekly log but had only had a ~40% completion rate.

Any tips on staying motivated? I mostly would enter it into evernote, and as lazy as it sounds sometimes my biggest barrier of entry would be opening my laptop heh.

View on HN

1. Make it part of your routine. For instance, make it a weekly habit to have coffee on Sunday morning and update your journal. If you pair writing with another routine activity, (especially an activity that you enjoy doing) then you'll be more likely to complete it.

2. Hang a wall calendar in a high-visibility location and put a sticker/tally mark for every week that you successfully log. It's an easy visual reminder of your progress, and it can bug you if you don't log for a week.

3. This may not be the advice you want, but not logging for a week isn't the worst thing - it's okay to have a week now and then where nothing of note really happens.

1. Yeah I think I need to shift my time. Originally I aimed for Sunday evening/night since I considered it the end of the week. At that time I found myself to tired or caught up in another activity more often than not. Sunday morning sounds better, especially as a way to get it "out of they way".

2. That sounds like a good motivator!

3. True true

I started keeping a journal a few months ago and it helped me to keep it simple, quick and as painless and fun as possible. I've been heavily inspired by technique called minimalist journaling [1] which is something I read about somewhere (maybe even here on HN).

As you're probably a problem solver at heart (since you're on HN during Christmas), it might also help to write a list of things that you want the journaling to do for you (self-reflection? better mental health? loving-kindness? keeping track of memories?) and then try to come up with some system that will optimize for those values and also minimize the stress and time-commitment. Your brain is programmed to stir away from any stressful work, you the last two are mainly to make sure you aren't biologically forced out of your new habit.

[1]: https://medium.com/better-humans/draft-how-to-hack-your-brai...

Thanks for the suggestion! Sounds like a good way to approach things :)

I especially like your suggestion about being more clear with an intention for journaling. Looking back I mostly ramble about what events happened the previous week (memories), but I would also like to include more self reflection and personal thoughts on subjects.

Cheers

Yeah, it's like a New Year's resolution... hard to keep up beyond the initial push. Personally, my solution to this was starting a collaborative log (via google docs.. which has a mobile app, phew) with my sister (same logic for any close friend or family member). You sacrifice some freedom of expression, but it keeps you both accountable, knowing that someone is expecting to read whatever you've written on a given day. It's also a great way to get feedback on your thoughts. Good luck!

Probably not what you’re looking for, but I started writing regularly after getting an iPad and Apple Pencil. There are a number of good apps that let you mix handwriting and typing and a bunch of other media, including OneNote (my current choice), Notability, and GoodNotes.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com