Over the past decade I have created my own system that makes it easy to find what I’m looking for in my past journals.
This is time consuming and takes planning, but my journal is important to me. If something happens to me, this effort will make it easier for my son to find things.
Page Numbers
The first thing I do when I get a new journal is number the pages. It makes the rest of my system easier.
Title page
The first page in my journals says my name, the date’s started and finished and the Volume number as well as contact information for me.
Disclaimer
I write a disclaimer that invokes reasonable assumption of privacy and states that my journals can’t be used as evidence in legal actions against me.
Table of contents
I keep an ongoing list of individual entries. As I put in an entry I’ll write the topic and page number into the table. I have a formula (number of pages)/ (Number of lines per page) = (Pages for table). Example: A hundred-page journal with 20 lines per page (100/20=5) I’d need five pages set aside for the table of contents. If I run out of space, I’ll turn to the next blank page and continue the table. The last line will redirect to that page.
Entry Heading
I use three markers at the head of each entry. Date, Time, and the Topic/Title each on it’s own line.
Ex:
Date: December 07, 2019
Time: 11:08
Topic/Title: Ice Skating
Time:
Topic/Title:
Whether I use topic or title depends entirely on what the entry is going to be about when I start writing it.
Introduction
The first entry in my journal is the entry that if someone picks up my journal, I expect them to read. I tell a little about my family, my current living situation, and who to expect me to mention frequently. As well as information about volume number and any changes I made between journal volumes.
Frequently used pages
The last page of my book is used for an index for pages I use a lot. My med tracker, recipes, ect goes on the list. If I use a page more than twice it ends up on the list.
Entry Tags
At the end of each entry I will make a short list of tags to include in my index. People, places, pets, holidays/events, key ideas, anything I might look up if I’m trying to find this entry goes on the index list. It saves me a lot of time at the end of the book when I make the index.
Index
I have 2 indexes in my journal. The first section breaks the book down by date. If my journal covers multiple years it will be a multilevel index, but generally it’s only by month with the year as part of the header. I have an alphanumeric index that I organize the index tags into when I finish the journal. I try to leave 1/10th of the book as an index. I highlight each letter section with green and put guide words, highlighted in pink.
If I have pages left over after the index, I will create an appendix; reference list, lists of photos used, list of sources, lists of reviews in the journal, lists of playlists in the journal, ect.
My journal has evolved over the years. I’m constantly looking for ways to get more out of it, to make it mine, to make it more suited to my needs. These are the things that work for me. They won’t work for everyone. I don’t expect anyone to devote a full afternoon to creating an alphabetized index but if one of my suggestions is something you can use or modify for your needs, please do. That’s what creating is all about.
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