story of the day
For a long time, I thought that journaling every day wasn't for me (I wrote about that here). It takes quite a bit of discipline to pick up your (digital) notebook every day. But, I managed to write every day for over a year now! In this series, how I journal, I'll share my favorite techniques with you.
I'll start with my favourite technique: story of the day.
A form of journaling I learned from Matthew Dicks.
What he says about it:
“It’s amazing how easy it is to forget the magical little moments you assumed would get tattooed on your brain. I promise that my technique for holding on to happy memories works.” – Matthew Dicks
Matthew is a professional storyteller, and five years ago he suddenly realized that one day he would run out of stories to tell. He came up with a simple task for himself: at the end of each day, he would take out his notebook and write down what he considered to be the most story-worthy moment of his day. Even if the moment was boring, uninspired, or not worth writing down.
He asked himself: what if I forced myself to write down the story of the day, what would that story be?
To use this technique, you could look at your day with a 'cinematographic eye', as if you are looking at a movie.
When writing down your story of the day, it is important to keep it short and concise. It should not take too much effort, because it's more likely you could give up. Matthew writes in an Excel spreadsheet, where there is little space to type long stories. I prefer to write in my notebook, one page per week with 7 days of stories, with a maximum of 2-3 sentences per day.
The nice thing about story of the day is that you will start to recognise the stories in your day. In the beginning, you may have to search for them, but you will see that you get better and better at it.
some of my stories
> We've been going to elementary school for four weeks now, and today, for the first time, my daughter said, “Go on, Mom, bye!” when I dropped her off.> We're sitting in the movie theater with a laughing toddler watching Dikkie Dik 2. It's wonderful to see how much she's enjoying it!
> The annual Spotify Wrapped is here again, and apparently I listened to Olli Schulz the most. A total of 1,113 minutes (more than 18 hours!).
> We're sitting in the sandbox on this lovely sunny, almost spring-like day. We hide our hands and take turns digging them up. My daughter says, “I'm an archaeologist!”
So, if you want to remember your own life better, you could make it a daily ritual to write down your story of the day. Even if you feel that the day was not special. If you can be patient with yourself, you will see that you will develop your own eye for the stories of your life.