-
10/31/2025-
-
2 min read (412 words)
I’ve been writing about notes, note-taking, and notebooks a lot lately. Beyond the fact that I have a crappy memory and writing everything down helps with that, I also feel the need to create a record of my own personal history.
As I get older, I feel more and more like I want to do things that matter, if not to others, at least to myself. I’m not so sure that I succeed at that, but I do feel like documenting the things I do, even if they all end up supremely mundane, is something I can do to make myself feel like I’m actually doing something.
Often times, I feel like I’m standing still. My career is stalled (and likely to end any minute du…
-
10/31/2025-
-
2 min read (412 words)
I’ve been writing about notes, note-taking, and notebooks a lot lately. Beyond the fact that I have a crappy memory and writing everything down helps with that, I also feel the need to create a record of my own personal history.
As I get older, I feel more and more like I want to do things that matter, if not to others, at least to myself. I’m not so sure that I succeed at that, but I do feel like documenting the things I do, even if they all end up supremely mundane, is something I can do to make myself feel like I’m actually doing something.
Often times, I feel like I’m standing still. My career is stalled (and likely to end any minute due to AI), my YouTube channel isn’t growing as much as I’d like, I’m not as healthy as I want to be, so on and so forth. It’s really hard to see the changes you’re making in your life, the progress you’ve made, if you have no real way to look back on it.
So, for the last few months, I’ve been writing down what I do every day. This is in part why I’ve been tracking my habits something I’ve written about several times. But it’s beyond habits. It’s more about the things I do in combination with the habits I’m trying to form.
By being able to go back through my daily notes to see what I’ve been doing, what I’ve actually accomplished, I can at least feel like I am accomplishing something.
As a straight dude, it probably goes against some man code to talk about journaling, but there is something to the idea of writing down your thoughts as you go through your life. It may not matter to your kin or the next generation (though it might), but it could matter to you. I have already been able to go back through my notes from the last year and discover thoughts and plans that I had written down and forgotten about.
It’s nice having a historical record. I’m trying desperately not to overcomplicate it, as I usually do with these things. Right now, I have some that are in my field notes and some that are in my daily Emacs notes. I may combine them eventually, but for now, I’m liking how this is done, and I think as I go along, it will be nice to have it at my back.