I’ve realized that I rarely look back at past entries. Journaling, for me, is a way of processing what I’m thinking about and feeling in the present, so I try to let it flow out of me with zero planning or rereading. I’m wondering if anyone here refers back to old entries when writing new ones, or even uses old entries to analyze trends over time. What do you do with the longer view?
I like to look back once a week or month, if I’ve made many entries. Or sometimes I’ll get curious about what was on my mind this time last year and look it up.
Sometimes I’ll just flip through a diary skimming for no particular reason. I actually do end up learning things about myself.
Sometimes I’ll insert marginalia “from the future” where it feels right.
Part of why I want to keep up in my journaling at a pace of about 1 entry a week is to have the memories for the future - I don’t have the best memory and I want to look back through the journal lens.
I have made about 5 entries, in the last ~2 years. The first few are so incoherent stream-of-consciousness that reading them didn’t feel valuable anymore. Then there’s the one where I come out as specifically gay to my dictionary, and the latest one at least 6 months later in which I comment on the previous. Maybe i’ll write another entry soon.
