I’ve been toying with the idea of a journal. When writing iPad at Work, I discovered this really great app, Day One, that takes all the work out of creating an electronic journal. It works on the Mac, iPad, and iPhone and uses Dropbox to keep everything in sync. It has reminders and good security. There is no excuse not to make an entry anywhere with this ecosystem.

So now that the technology is out of the way, I had to figure out why I felt this need to keep a journal. I don’t have any self delusions that a daily entry about the events of my life would be of any interest to anyone. When I am gone, historians aren’t going to need a contemporaneous record of my life. So striking vanity off the list, I can only think of two reasons why I might want to keep a journal:

1. Therapy for myself. It seems a good way to collect and deal with my thoughts about whatever is happening in my life. This is particularly true if I create the entries before ending my day.
2. Nostalgia. It may be interesting in a few years to go back and see where my head was in 2011.

As a result of all this navel gazing and my infatuation with Day One, I’ve decided to commit to journaling 2012. Even if it is just one sentence, I’m going to make an entry every day.

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