Hardly Hamilton

So much has happened over the past year. Ever since the UK went into Lockdown 1, all the way back in March 2020, a huge proportion of the population has been working from home. I was one of those who, even as a teacher, adapted to no longer being in the workplace. I had to deliver a few parent’s evenings from my bedroom and had many thoughts about the whole process.

However, with as much variety as that all brought, every day still brought with it the risk of merging into one. What made Tuesday any different to Wednesday? What did I achieve or get done every day?

A daily diary is a simple way to make your days more memorable.

Why a daily diary?

Once upon a time, I bought a moleskin notebook, with the idea that I would summarise the week’s events every Sunday. I think there must be about 6 entries in that book, and it’s been years. That’s not to say that interesting things weren’t happening each week, but it was just such an effort to write it all down.

My BuJo setup negates all that, significantly reducing the friction between what’s happened and making a note of it. I now just write one sentence, every day, summarising the main events. It could be ‘work; gym; saw friends; movie night’. The day before could be ‘blogged; Big Shop; meal prep; gaming’. It’s only a few words, and takes about thirty seconds, but helps to make each day different to the one before. I’ve been doing a daily diary since setting up my BuJo in 2014, so have a near-complete record of everything that I’ve been doing for the past six-and-a-half-years.

This has been great for remembering what I’ve got up to in the past six-and-a-half-years, highlighting significant events, but also invaluable during various Lockdowns, where days have blended together and looked the same. Each day carries more meaning and weight.

How to diary daily

It’s about a sentence summarising the main events of my day, with semi-colons separating each new event. I divide a double-page spread into a number of boxes, each approximately 4x5cm, numbering them in black and in the top left of each box. This ensures that the number is clear yet separated from the blue text describing each of my days.

It takes very little time and effort to set this up, which I do for each month for the next half-year or so. I set all of these up in one go because I find batching so much more effective and efficient for my time than doing this every single month.

How do you keep track of your days?

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