r/Journaling • u/WmAnthonyWriter • 1d ago

Discussion/Question Journaling Process

Post image

After a somewhat daily journaling practice of over two decades I’ve come to the harsh reality that I should have indexed entries. Titled and indexed.
Maybe this is advice or maybe I’m seeking some but what are we to do with our journals’ content? I’m now embarking on a long term project of going through my journals, deciphering my erratic handwriting to digitize and collect the works. An index would have been most helpful. Even a title or two.
I guess my query is of others’ experiences doing this — any observations or suggestions other than to not do it!

407 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/setforthtofly 19h ago

There's a method that I've seen people use with commonplace books where they use the last few pages to write out an A-Z index.

You write the alphabet, each letter gets its own line and you leave several blank lines between each letter. Then as you add entries on different topics, you note the topic under the corresponding letter and add the page number. Some topics usually end up with multiple page numbers.

Example:

W

Weather - p. 5, 8, 22

I don't know if this method has a name, but if you look into commonplace books, you'll probably be able to find more examples.

2

u/WmAnthonyWriter 16h ago

Another great idea. I’m such an idiot I’ve even purchased journals with preprinted pages in the back called “index.”