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Benefits of a daily diary and topic journals

初稿：2020年07月01日
原文：https://sivers.org/dj 以与原作者联系过，没问题。水平有限，有问题，请帮助指出。谢过。

Benefits of a daily diary and topic journals

记日记和专题记录的收获

原文时间：2019-01-28

You know those people whose lives are transformed by meditation or yoga or something like that?

你知道这样一些人吗？他（她）们的的生活因为冥想、瑜伽或者其它类似的事而发生了巨大转变。

For me, it’s writing in my diary and journals. It’s made all the difference in the world for my learning, reflecting, and peace of mind.

对我来说，是写作，是我的日记和日志的写作带来了转变。它彻底影响了我的学习、自我反思和内心宁静。

After 20+ years of doing this, here’s what I do and recommend:

在20多年的实践以后，这是我的一些方法和建议：

A daily diary

每日日记

If digital, use only plain text. It’s a standard format not owned by any company. It will be readable in 50 years on devices we haven’t even imagined yet. Don’t use formats that can only be read by one program, because that program won’t be around in 50 years. Don’t use the cloud, unless you’re also going to download it weekly and back it up in plain text outside that cloud. (Companies shut down. Clouds disappear. Think long-term.)

如果想用电子文档，就只使用普通文本。它是一种标准格式，不被任何公司所有。在50年以后，它会在一些我们想都不敢想的设备上依然可读。不要使用只能被一种程序读取的格式，因为50年以后那个程序可能已经不存在了。不要使用云端，除非你每周都会下载下来，并且备份成为普通文本，存储在非云端。（公司会倒闭。云服务会消失。想长远些。）

Every day at some point, just open up this diary, write today’s date, then start writing. Write what you did today, and how you are feeling, even if it seems boring.

每天的某个时间点，打开日记，写下今天的日期，然后开始写。写下你今天都做了什么，你今天感觉如何，即使这一天看起来单调无聊。

It works best as a nightly routine. Just take a few minutes and write at least a few sentences. If you have time, write down everything on your mind. Clear it all out. But if you miss a night, make time the next morning to write about the previous day.

最好把它当成每晚的既定活动。只需要抽出几分钟时间，写上那么几句。如果时间充足，就写下你脑子里的一切。清空你的大脑。如果某天晚上你没写，第二天早晨就抽点时间，把前一天的日记补回来。

This is important because years from now you might be looking back, wondering if you were as happy or as sad as you remember during this time. So don’t only write the drama or dilemmas. Include the daily facts of life.

这非常重要，因为几年以后你可能会回望现在，很想知道在现在这个时间段，你是开心呢？还会难过呢？是不是像你记得的那样。所以不要只是写些戏剧性的或者左右为难的事。把生活中实际发生的事也放进来。

We so often make big decisions in life based on predictions of how we think we’ll feel in the future, or what we’ll want. Your past self is your best indicator of how you actually felt in similar situations. So it helps to have an accurate picture of your past.

我们是如此习惯于，推测自己未来的感受和想法，以此做一些生活中重大的决策。你过去的自己是你最好的指示仪，它标识出了在相似的情况下你最真实的感受。所以日记帮你保留了一份你过去的忠实记录。

You can’t trust distant memories, but you can trust your daily diary. It’s the best indicator to your future self (and maybe descendants) of what was really going on in your life at this time.

你无法信赖久远的记忆，但是你可以相信自己的日记。它是你未来自己（可能还有你的后代）的最好指示仪，标注出了此时此刻你的生命正在发生什么。

If you’re feeling you don’t have the time or it’s not interesting enough, remember: You’re doing this for your future self. Future you will want to look back at this time in your life, and find out what you were actually doing, day-to-day, and how you really felt back then. It will help you make better decisions.

如果你觉得你没有时间，或者没什么意思，请记住：你是在为未来的自己而写。将来你会想看一看你生命中的今天，找出你实际上正在做什么，一天又一天，以及在那个时候的真实感受。这些会帮你做出更好的决策。

Just put aside a few minutes to write what you did and how you felt today.

只是拿出几分钟时间，写下你做了什么和你今天感觉如何。

“Thoughts On” journals

“想法”日志

There are certain subjects in your life you think about a lot. People, places, hobbies, health, plans, finances.

在你人生中，肯定有某些主题你想过很多。一些人，一些地方，爱好，健康，计划，财务。

For each subject that you might have ongoing thoughts about, start a separate “Thoughts On” journal. Whenever you have some thoughts on this subject, open up that file, write today’s date, then start writing.

对于每一个你可能已经持续思考过的主题，建一个单独的“想法”日志。每次对这个主题你有什么想法，打开文件，写下今天的日期，然后开始写。

To give you an example, here are my “Thoughts On” journals as of today:

给你一个参考，这些是我现在的“想法”日志。

I find it so useful to keep my thoughts on each subject together, because I can see my past thoughts and current thoughts in one place. I can see how my thoughts on this subject have evolved or keep repeating. Sometimes I think I have a new thought on a subject, so I open up the file and write it down, then afterwards I see I had that same thought a year ago and had forgotten about it. If you care about your thoughts, keep them.

我发现把一个主题的想法都放在一起非常有用，因为在一个主题下，我们能看到自己过去和现在的想法。我可以看到某个主题的想法是如何演变或一直重复的。有时我以为我对某个主题有了新的想法，然后我打开那个文件并写了下来，后来我却看到一年前已经有过同样的想法，只是忘了而已。如果你很在意自己的想法，那就保存下来。

They can be tiny. Like you see I have one on airports. I don’t have many thoughts on airports. I don’t fly that much. But I found that once or twice a year, when waiting at the gate, I had thoughts on the subject, so I’d open that file and start writing.

它们可能非常微小。比如你看到我有一个机场的主题。我对于机场并没有很多想法。我并不经常飞来飞去。但是我发现一年总有那么一两次，当在停机口等飞机时，我会有一些关于这个主题的想法，然后我会打开那个文件，并开始记下来。

I’ve considered making one for every musician, album, book, or film that’s had an impact on me, that I’d like to think more about. Why not? I admire the way that a good critic puts in hours of reflection on each piece, thinking deeper about something they’ve just taken in.

我还想给影响过我、让我反复思考的，每一个音乐家、每张唱片、每本书或者每部电影都建一个这样的主题。为什么不呢？我特别欣赏这样一种生活方式，一名优秀的批评家，花了好几个小时来反思每一个细节，沉思他们刚刚领悟到的一切。

I especially like my “Regrets” journal. Whenever I do something I regret, I write it down there, noting why I regret it, what I wish I would have done instead, and how I hope to prevent this in the future.

我特别喜欢我的“后悔”日志。每当我做了件我后悔的事，我就在那里写下来，写我为什么会后悔，写我本来可以做什么来补救，写我将来怎么不犯同样的错误。

Ask yourself questions, then question your answers.

问你自己问题，然后质疑自己的答案。

Whether in your daily diary, or the “Thoughts On” journals, I find the single most useful thing has been using it as a place to ask myself questions, and answer them.

无论是在你每日日记里，或是在“想法”日志里，我发现唯一的特别有用的方法是，把它当做问自己问题、并回答问题的地方。

If I’m planning on doing something, I ask myself what I hope to get out of it, why, and whether there are other ways to get what I want.

如果我在计划什么事，我会问自己我想从中得到什么，为什么，以及是否有别的方法来得到我想要的。

When I’m feeling conflicted, especially, I’ll ask myself a bunch of questions to work through my feelings, looking for the source of the conflict, then ask myself more questions around the clash in values, and work through other alternate ways I’d like things to be.

尤其是当我感到内心冲突不断时，我会问自己一长串的问题来梳理内心的感受，寻找冲突的根源，然后在价值观冲突的地方问自己更多的问题，并且找出别的方法，让事情按我预想的方式发展。

I answer with my initial thought first, but then question it afterwards with skepticism, and consider different perspectives. I hear this is similar to cognitive behavioral therapy — and I’ve been meaning to learn more about that. But whatever you call it, I think it’s been the single most important thing to my intellectual and emotional development.

我从第一个冒出来的想法开始回答，随后就带着怀疑精神来质疑它，并且考虑不同的视角。这听起来有点像认知行为疗法–我一直在专门学习这方面的知识。但是无论你怎么来称呼它，我认为这是我的智力和情感发展中唯一的、最重要的方法。

Almost all the thoughts I have on any subject are the result of writing in my diary and journals, then questioning myself and working through alternate ways of thinking about it, and finally returning to the subject days or months later with a clear head and updated thoughts, seeing how they’ve changed or not over time.

几乎我对每个主题的每一个想法，都是我日记和日志写作的结果，然后质疑自己，并找出另一种考虑问题的方法，最终，几天或几周之后，我会带着清醒的头脑，回到对应的主题并更新想法，看一看随着时间发展想法是变了还是没变。

I hope it helps you too.

我希望这些也会帮到你。