The short answer
Even on an ordinary day, you can briefly record one moment and how it felt. “I felt a little relieved in the afternoon.” “That reply is still on my mind.” Even if you cannot explain why, a few words may help you remember today later. Choose an amount and frequency of writing that fit your life.
Key points
- Start with one moment and its feeling rather than listing the entire day
- You can record feelings that are still taking shape, with words such as “a little” or “somehow”
- An ordinary record may feel more interesting later than you expect
- Research on longer writing or talking cannot directly establish the effects of a brief journal entry
- Choose how much to write, how often and when to reread according to your own life
Begin with a small feeling
On a day like this, trying to list every event from the beginning can leave you tired before you have written anything.
If you would like to leave a record, try starting with one moment and how you felt.
“I felt a little relieved in the afternoon.”
“That reply is still on my mind.”
Even those few words can hold something of how today felt to you.
Add a small feeling to an event
“Had lunch.” “Went shopping.” “Talked to a friend.”
Even an everyday event gives a little more sense of the day when you add how it felt.
For example:
- “I had lunch alone. The quiet felt a little easier today.”
- “My usual bread was sold out. I was more disappointed than I expected.”
- “A friend sent a short reply. I wondered a little whether they were busy.”
- “The breeze was cool on the way home. I wanted to keep walking a little longer.”
It may not have felt worth explaining to someone else, but it stayed with you a little.
When you open your journal, you might recall one such moment. Whether it was pleasing or disappointing, you can write it in words that match how it felt that day.
“A little” or “somehow” is a fine place to start
Some days, you cannot find the exact name for a feeling.
Not quite sad, but a little lonely. You cannot say you disliked it, but something lingers. You enjoyed yourself, but now you want quiet.
You can record that feeling while the words are still taking shape.
“I felt somehow unsettled.”
“I was happy, but a little tired.”
“I do not know yet what is bothering me.”
You can write how you feel without explaining why. Different words may come when you reread it. If they do, simply add what comes to mind.
Your future self may reread this ordinary day
Something that feels completely ordinary now may become something you want to remember later.
In one study published in 2014, university students recorded things such as recent conversations and song titles, then revisited them three months later. Among the 106 people who took part at both times, rereading tended to be more interesting than they had initially expected. The study examined interest in rediscovering past records (Zhang et al., 2014).
“I was listening to that song all the time back then.”
“That is how I felt while waiting for their reply.”
A short record may bring back a little of life at that time.
You do not have to decide now what will be enjoyable to reread. Leaving a note about what caught your attention today can provide a clue when you return to it.
If you are unsure how to start, choose one moment
If recalling the whole day feels difficult, choose one question that seems easy to answer.
- When did you feel yourself relax a little?
- Are there any words that have stayed with you?
- Was there a moment you wished could last a little longer?
When a moment comes to mind, briefly add how it felt.
“I finished my errands early. I felt a little relieved.”
“After dinner, I sat without turning anything on. The quiet felt good today.”
You can leave a few words like these in Feelmo’s journal, using the language you normally use.
If no moment comes to mind, just record how you feel now: “I felt a bit vague today.” If you do not feel like writing, you can close the journal and open it again when you want to leave a note.
The feeling can still be there after you write
Writing a few words will not necessarily resolve what was troubling you straight away.
An analysis of 146 experiments involving writing or talking about thoughts and feelings found a small positive average effect on outcomes including mental and physical health. The content, duration and other conditions varied, however, and differed from the brief entries described here. These findings cannot directly establish the effects of a short note (Frattaroli, 2006).
Today, you managed to record, “That reply was bothering me.” That can be enough for now.
Open the journal when you feel like rereading. After a break from writing, begin again with today’s few words.
The hope is to find a relationship with journalling that fits your life.
“Nothing much happened. I felt a little relieved in the afternoon.”
Even those two sentences may help you remember how you spent today when you return to the record someday.
References
- Zhang T, Kim T, Brooks AW, Gino F, Norton MI. (2014). A “Present” for the Future: The Unexpected Value of Rediscovery — Psychological Science, 25(10), 1851–1860. DOI: 10.1177/0956797614542274
- Frattaroli J. (2006). Experimental Disclosure and Its Moderators: A Meta-Analysis — Psychological Bulletin, 132(6), 823–865. DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.132.6.823
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