Personal diary: how to keep and how to arrange? How to keep a personal diary: the best tips How to keep a personal diary in a notebook.

What associations arise in your head when you hear the word "diary"?

I'm sure it's either something to do with school or romantic girls furtively writing poetry in a notebook under their pillows. Meanwhile, keeping a personal diary can be useful not only for schoolchildren and writers, but also for you. What's more, it can really. Below you will find six reasons why you should start making daily records of your life.

In our digital age, when information recording tools are experiencing a real revolution, the forms of keeping a diary can be very different and largely depend on your preferences. Some may want to record videos or sound clips for this, others will prefer to use one of the many special programs or, others will stick to a good paper diary and pen.

No matter what tools you use, the main thing is strict adherence to two principles that have remained unchanged since the days of candles and goose feathers. Firstly, the diary must be personal, that is, inaccessible to a wide range of people, and secondly, you must be extremely honest with yourself, otherwise it all loses all meaning.

So what are the benefits of journaling?

What do you really feel?

A diary can help you become aware and articulate your feelings, which are usually hidden deep inside. Modern life often has such a pace that a person races like a horse at the races, ignoring his emotions and feelings. As a result, we have constant stress and mental breakdowns. Now you will have a legitimate time for introspection, which will give you a deeper and more realistic view of yourself, your life and work.

Point of view

We are bombarded from all sides with a flurry of information that contains dozens of very different opinions on various topics. The only trouble is that these are all other people's opinions. What do you personally think? Do you have time to formulate your point of view on the important topics of the day?

Let a couple out

Sometimes there are really difficult days. You are frustrated, embarrassed, defeated, angry, bewildered. It is even possible that you cannot talk to someone close about it. Keeping everything inside will drive you crazy. Get your emotions out on paper. Then read and smile.

Life is a great thing!

We read and hear many fascinating stories about different people. Why not write a bestseller called The Story of My Life? Imagine that your diary will be published after ... well, sometime later, and try to fill it with such events so that future readers cannot tear themselves away. This is a great way to make your life more interesting and deep.

Hello my Name Is…

Yes, do you really know who you are? Are you sure about your desires and goals? Get to know the real you. Many people are so entangled in job and family obligations that for them, filing an annual report and buying a fur coat for a wife can overshadow their real dreams. It's time to sit down and think about (and be sure to write down) your real aspirations. And a lot, a lot, carefully, but strictly, to delete from your life.

Message

Imagine that you were digging through the rubbish in the attic and found personal diary my father. You drop everything and, unable to tear yourself away, leaf through page after page until the evening. Here he meets your mother... here is your birth... here he is worried about work... complains about his health... Have you imagined?

So why are you depriving your children of these sensations? They need to learn about you and what you really were.

Do you keep a diary?

Keeping a diary allows you to perpetuate events in your life and work through thoughts and feelings. Some people keep a study diary in order to gain a deeper understanding of the material being studied. Luckily, journaling is very easy to do. To get started, choose a topic to write about, such as what's going on in your life. Then write an introduction and express your thoughts.

Steps

Choose a theme

Write about what is happening in your life. It can be what you do, events that happen to you, or your achievements. Use the diary as a record of what your life looks like at the moment, so that you can return to this period later.

This is a great way to capture things you want to remember.
For example, you could write about a funny incident that happened during lunch, about scoring the game-winning goal in a football game, or about a fight with a friend. Events can be both positive and negative.

Examine your emotions or feelings about something. Write about what you are going through, how you feel, and what you hope will happen in the future. Make your diary your "vest" that you can cry into to better deal with your emotions.
- Let's say you're sad because you're going through a breakup with your partner. You can write what you feel and what you will miss without a relationship. This will help you release your emotions to start the recovery process.
Use writing prompts if you don't know what to write about. Whether you're trying to develop the habit of journaling or need to take notes for study, writing tips can help you find a topic. Search the internet for clues and then pick one that will fire your imagination. Here are some examples:
- write what you would like to do on the weekend;
- tell us about the place you would like to visit;
- imagine that you have discovered a fantastic creature;
- write about what you want to change;
- take notes from the perspective of your favorite book or movie character.
Record your reactions to lectures and reading materials in a study diary. If you are journaling as a school or university assignment, write about the learning process. This includes studying the material, listening to lectures and class discussions. Also, describe your thoughts about what you are studying. Here are some examples:
- a summary of the material read and the lecture;
- analysis of educational material;
- connections between the topics you studied;
- their personal connections with the educational process;
- questions you have about the text or lecture.
Advice: If you keep a study diary, concentrate on studying and analyzing current material. For example, you can summarize the learning process, write down your thoughts about it and identify questions that have arisen. Do not write about how you feel about what you are reading or studying.

Advice: as a rule, a greeting is not used in a study diary.

Express yourself in a personal diary

Don't worry about grammar and spelling. Allow yourself to make mistakes when you write in your diary. You are maintaining it for yourself, so it's okay if something is written incorrectly. Just let your thoughts flow freely onto the paper.

If the mistakes really bother you, you can go back and fix them after you're done.

Get creative if you like. You can use any format for entries, so experiment with different structures. This will help you keep the habit of writing, as you will have the freedom to do what feels natural on that day. For example, you can try the following:
- turn a memory into a story;
- write down what you dreamed last night;
- make a list, for example, write down what you did that day or what you are grateful for;
- draw doodles or paste pictures into your diary;
- write down lyrics or quotes that are important to you;
- write your own lyrics or poem;
- write in the stream of consciousness.
Use "I" statements to write in the first person. You write about your thoughts, impressions and reflections, so there is no need to write in the third person. It's perfectly fine to keep a diary in the first person, unless you yourself want to write in some other way.
- For example, you can write: “Today I had lunch with Alina,” and not: “Today Anton had lunch with Alina.”
Add details that reflect all five senses to bring the recording to life. This is optional, but it will make your diary entries more interesting and help you remember what happened back then. Think about what you saw, heard, felt, smelled and tasted during the events or experiences being described. Then include some of those details in your entry.
- For example, suppose you are vacationing by the sea. You can add details such as: "Sea spray hitting my face", "Smell of burning wood from the fires on the beach", "The taste of salt on my lips", "The sun sparkling on the surface of the water" and "Screams of other people having fun on the beach."
Don't worry about the length of the entries. It is not necessary to fill out the entire page each time. It's okay to make both short and long entries. Write in your diary what you want to say. If you can't think of anything else to write, move on and finish writing.
- When keeping a diary, it is much more important to write often than a lot.

Make notes in your study diary

Organize your thoughts to make them coherent. A diary entry doesn't have to be structured like an essay, even if you're writing for study. However, the person reading your notes should be able to follow your thoughts. Express your thoughts

Keeping your own diary has many benefits. We often hear about it. We are recommended to keep a diary by our friends and acquaintances. The Internet is full of articles about the benefits of introspection and keeping personal diaries. In feature films, the diaries of the main characters now and then flicker - and a desire to do something like this lights up in us.

For some, this can be the key to self-discipline, an opportunity to let off steam and get to know yourself better. Someone may be interested in creating the story of their own life and leaving it as a legacy to their descendants.

It doesn't matter how, where or. It is enough to have the desire to do it. However, this desire most often disappears as soon as we start. It happens that a person can sit for hours on the first page - and still do not understand what could be written about. How to overcome this barrier of indecision? What needs to be done to make thoughts come to mind? How to start keeping a personal diary so that it really helps to change internally and see the reasons for your successes and failures?

How to start keeping a personal diary if you are not a writer?

Creating a diary for a person who has never done this kind of thing is not an easy task. Yes, you can buy a beautiful notebook, take a fountain pen, turn on the lamp and… not know what to do next. Keeping a personal diary requires some effort on the part of the owner. Getting started is always harder than continuing. But, if you have already realized all the benefits of writing down thoughts, a few recommendations will help you get started.

5 steps to good journaling

Don't think about the right thing.

Many do not know how to keep a personal diary. For some, it is associated with “girly activities”. Someone doubts their writing abilities or does not believe that there is something to write about in their life. It seems to someone that the diary must certainly become a kind of grandiose project that does not allow for grammatical errors, sloppy pages and sloppy design. This is fundamentally not true. It does not matter in what form your thoughts will be expressed and where to keep a diary - only the content will have value. Therefore, it is not at all necessary to buy special folios or fountain pens - just take the most ordinary notebook from the supermarket. And who said that there should not be corrections in the diary? If you suddenly change your mind while finishing a paragraph, feel free to cross it out. Your right!
Start small.

The first entries for a personal diary are always difficult. It seems that there is nothing to write about, since nothing particularly significant happened during the day. And in this case, how to start keeping a personal diary with your boring life? And you think that in ten years even the most insignificant memories will acquire unprecedented value for you. Wouldn't you like to experience the emotions of some day 10 years ago? So let your future do it. Let there be no more than four or five lines in the first entry - it does not matter. Over time, you will be drawn into the process, and thoughts will come to mind. Don't stress - just describe what you did today, who you met and what was for lunch. If ideas are really bad, answer these questions in writing:

What made me happy today?
What was your best/worst moment in the last twenty-four hours?
Who did I meet first when I left the house?
– What am I going to do tomorrow?
What would you like to change about today?

Reflect, ask yourself questions and look for answers to them. Take a written interview on a topic that interests you. - not ashamed. Moreover, you do it in writing.
The law of the first word and the rule of twenty-one days.

How to start keeping a diary? Many psychologists recommend using these tricks to force yourself to do something on a regular basis. If you find it difficult to concentrate and make the first entry, write just a couple of words. This can serve as a conduit for the flow of your thoughts, forming a certain direction for them. Just explain what you wrote. In order to develop the habit of creating at least a line every day, make an effort and practice it continuously. Write early in the morning or before bed. Make it a ritual, an obligatory part of the day. After such a “marathon”, you will no longer be able to fall asleep without writing anything.
Stimulate the imagination with art.

Having difficulty with words? Draw! It doesn't matter if it doesn't turn out pretty. Put in a bit of patience - and your personal picture will serve as an incentive to create the next entry. In addition, it is worth starting a personal diary with illustrations, if only because it will be much more interesting to read later. Separately, it is worth noting the general benefits of drawing - it relieves stress and helps to focus on important thoughts.
Give your diary a specific time and a quiet place.

It should be a quiet corner where you will not be disturbed by friends, relatives and extraneous noises. When creating a new record, you should be immersed in yourself and focused on memories. This will be easier to do if you describe the chronicle at the same time. It seems incredible, but our body itself adapts to the usual daily routine. So, if at exactly nine in the evening for fifteen to twenty minutes you sit down in your quiet corner and focus on the events that have passed during the day, it will become easier and easier to do this every day.

Keeping a regular life chronicle can be of great benefit to each of us. However, getting started can be quite difficult. Getting into the habit of writing regularly for a personal diary is not easy, but it is quite possible if you follow the recommendations mentioned above. Each of us is capable of this. If you now decide to start a personal diary, then in ten or twenty years you will say “thank you very much” to yourself.

The classic version of keeping a diary involves describing experiences and events. But this is not the only way! Many people like to supplement the text with pictures, collages, crafts.

Pros of keeping a personal diary:

Analysis of one's own life helps to live consciously, to notice the good.
Describing emotional experiences gives relief and allows you to look at them from a distance.
A personal diary activates creative energy, distracts from the gray everyday life and adds variety to daily activities.

Consider where to start if you have never kept a personal diary.

To begin with, mark what type of thinking you belong to:

If a If you liked writing essays in school, then verbal descriptions of each day would be ideal for you.
When you communicate with someone on the phone, the hand reaches out to draw squiggles on a sheet of paper.
It means that you have a creative streak of an artist. Alternate text and drawings, make collages.
closer to you rational thinking, exact sciences and pragmatism? A personal diary can become a business notebook.
Write down your goals for the next week or month, celebrate what you have done and be inspired by your achievements!
If you know how to sew if you know the art of scrapbooking or do something else with your own hands, create a personal diary based on your hobby.
Write down ideas for future crafts, paste magazine clippings, and note important tips from other crafters.

Notepads for a personal diary are different. You can buy ready-made, or make your own, decorating each page with love.

Diary Options
Homemade personal diary	Finished hardcover notebook	Moleskin
Pros: it will be a unique personal diary, completely tailored to your tastes	Pros: this notebook is convenient to take with you on the road and fill it in anywhere, anytime	Pros: this is a real gift for a creative person! Moleskine is made of unlined paper, so it is convenient to draw and draw on it.
Cons: you have to spend time searching for ready-made pages on the Internet and creating a cover	Cons: stationery notebooks do not differ in variety, they are either in a cage or in a ruler and do not have creative pages	Cons: they are quite expensive compared to a regular notepad

Important! The Universal Diary is a ring pad because it allows you to swap pages and insert new blocks.

Ideas for a personal diary: what can you draw?

Ready-made pictures in the form of collages, your own drawings or sketches of other people's work are the most popular ideas for a cherished notebook.

Collages are usually created on a specific topic. Fashion and style, nature, ideas for home decor, beautiful people - all this can serve as a theme for creating a collage.

On the topic, illustrations are selected in women's magazines or pictures on the Internet that can be printed.

Cutouts or printouts are arranged randomly on the sheet, form a composition, and then stick.

Prefer to draw on your own? Choose your option to replenish the diary with drawings:

Challenge- This is a regular creation of drawings. The main rule is to draw at least one every day.
There are many options for challenges on the network, you can join a ready-made one or come up with your own.
Art therapy heals the soul through spontaneous drawing. Close your eyes, focus on the experience and draw the first thing that comes to mind.
Put all your inner emotions into the drawing - and you will feel relieved!
mandalas and anti-stress coloring pages are designed to relieve stress. When you immerse yourself in drawing colorful patterns, you rest your soul.
This is a great option for those who do not know how to draw, but want to join the creative business.
Drawings by dots or by cells - another cool drawing option that everyone can do.

Pay special attention to the title page of the diary. What can you draw on it, except for a beautiful frame with your own name?

Ask yourself what is the most enjoyable thing in the world for you, and then depict it all on the first page. This will set you up for sincerity and openness in front of your diary.

Making a personal diary with your own hands

The internal and external design of a personal diary will depend on the desires of its owner.

First, decide in what style you want to design your notebook:

Vintage suggests a beige-brown range, the image of retro-style objects and black-and-white portraits of people from a bygone era.
Shabby chic– the perfect style for girls! Beautiful design in shabby chic style - these are roses, birdcages, wreaths, floral ornaments and pink and blue colors.
classics choose those who are closer to geometric shapes, pastel colors and ornate ornaments.
Boho style- the most daring, colorful and bright, combining ethnic patterns, natural motifs and the mood of the hippie era.

Beautiful design can be created in two ways.

Create a hand-made cover or paste pages that are originally designed by your own hands:

Cover Ideas	Ideas for unusual pages
Wrap the cover in fabric! You can decorate such a cover with embroidery, beads, buttons or badges. The soft cover is pleasant to the touch and looks very soulful.	Lists with important things will help you keep an eye on yourself and the world around you. Example - "10 things to do this fall", "My achievements this month"
The combination of kraft paper and lace looks very original. Take a look at any art store - there you will find both	Emotion pages look interesting and are very useful! Select empty sheets in your notebook, and during periods of inspiration, emotional shock or great happiness, take out your own emotions on them as you wish
A collage of photos on the cover is stylish and simple! Photo frames can be made from decorative tape	Infographics are a combination of text and drawings. So you can draw up recipes for dishes or plans for the weekend.

Note! The main principle that underlies the maintenance of a personal diary is sincerity.

It doesn't really matter how you keep your diary. There is no consensus on how to properly fill it.

Remember that you are creating it primarily for yourself. Therefore, listen to your heart and keep your cherished notebook as your soul desires.

Useful video

What is written in LD

The diary is a portrait of its owner. And the contents of the diary reflect the inner world of the one who keeps it.

What can the diary pages contain:

Chronology:

Analysis of the day:

analysis of the events that have happened;
reflection on what happened, its assessment, personal emotions;
interesting thoughts that appeared during the day;
personal achievements;
dreams and plans for the future.

Self-education and self-improvement:

interesting quotes;
favorite poems and songs;
notes about favorite books and films;
impressions from visiting performances, exhibitions, excursions.

Interests, hobbies:

cooking recipes;
outfit sketches;
knitting patterns;
advice on home economics, gardening, gardening;

Creation:

his poems;
your drawings, sketches;
magazine clippings, stickers, postcards, etc.

Reminders:

especially memorable photographs;
booklets about exhibitions, excursions;
interesting letters, romantic notes.

For younger students who are just about to keep a diary, it will be interesting and useful to start it with a description of family members, friends, hobbies, favorite games, books and films, etc.

Diary from a notebook

There are many options for how to make a personal diary. Everyone chooses the format of the diary for himself. A thin notebook is suitable for rare episodic entries. For constant journaling, it is better to immediately purchase a thick notebook, which is enough for writing for a long period. In order for the diary to last a long time, it is better to buy a high-quality notebook with thick paper.

It can be improved:

the cover is additionally strengthened by gluing it with cloth or cardboard. For decoration, you can add stickers, drawings, embroidery, etc.;
to give strength, the notebook is sewn together;
for convenience, you can make bookmarks;
recordings can be further protected. To do this, a through hole is punched in the pages with a hole punch, into which a lock is threaded.

Notebook diary

A practical option is a diary from a notebook. It is better to purchase a notebook with a large number of spiral bound sheets.

To give originality to a standard notebook, you can:

It is unusual to decorate the cover by pasting it with cloth or paper. Beautiful neat pasting will not only decorate the cover, but also give it strength. You can additionally decorate the cover with decorative elements;
For additional protection, you can make a through hole in the notebook through all the pages and put a lock through it;
The spiral can be replaced with a beautiful lace, ribbon, braid. But you should be very careful when removing the spiral and threading the cord that replaces it.

Album Diary

For those who will fill in a personal diary with their sketches, it is best to use a sketchbook. This option is more suitable for lovers of applications, scrapbooking and other creative techniques. Thick large-format paper is great for drawing (thin notebook paper will get wet with paint or felt-tip pens) and working with glue.

When creating a diary from a sketchbook, you can:

strengthen and decorate the cover by carefully sticking a layer of fabric or thick paper on top;
protect the records with a lock threaded through the album sheets;
you can additionally sew landscape sheets so that they do not fall apart with a large number of voluminous applications.

Diary folder

You can not buy a finished notebook or notebook, but make an original diary-folder using scattered sheets:

Diary from office paper

Another way to create a diary from separate sheets is to bind a stack of office paper with rings:

top and bottom covers are made of thick paper;
fold the pages of the future diary between the covers in an even pile. They can be multi-colored, beautifully shaped (for example, with patterned edges or rounded corners), different densities for different sections;
on the left side, make a hole punch at the top and bottom of two through holes passing through the entire stack;
thread the connecting rings into the holes.

Old book - the original basis for LD

A creative person will want to have a special personal diary. How to make a diary creative, an old, already unnecessary book will tell you. Creating a personal diary based on it gives unlimited scope for imagination and creativity. The cover is decorated according to the taste of the hostess. Part of the pages can be removed, glued together, pictures can be pasted, etc.

And in order to keep notes, the typographic font will have to be painted over, or covered with a proofreader, or sealed with thin paper. In a word, such a diary will require additional efforts to solve emerging problems. The more interesting will be the process of filling it - just for extraordinary natures.

Diary with leather cover

For large diaries that will be used for a long time, you will need to make a durable cover. One of the best options is leather.

To make it:

A dense cardboard base is pasted over with a blank of leather. The leather flap should be larger than the base so that the allowances can be folded over and glued to the inside of the cover. Resistant glue type "Moment" is used;
When gluing, the skin must be well smoothed and pressed very tightly to the base;
Then allowances are also tightly glued on the reverse side;
For best results, the cover is placed under a press.

Diary on the Internet

The most modern version of a personal diary is an electronic version.

There are two options:

Cover making

The diary begins with a cover, which should attract and set you on a positive note.

What can you advise on the design:

Cover Origami

The origami technique is indispensable when designing a diary - both the cover and the inside pages. Intricately folded figures will become a real "highlight" of the diary, you just need to choose the appropriate options. Large voluminous figures will not work, but origami offers many different “flat” crafts of a minimum height: frames, silhouettes, bows, intricate envelopes.

Learning how to fold origami figures is not difficult, especially since a diary does not need super complex compositions - a simple fan inserted between two pages looks very impressive.

First page design

The first page deserves special attention. For its aesthetic design, you can use the same techniques and rules as for the cover. But its information content should be considered.

On the first page you can place:

Calendar in diary

The diary implies an indication of the calendar data of each entry. You can simply put the number at the beginning of the entry, or you can brightly highlight the date using colored ink, a special font, etc.

If the diary has the functions of a diary (to-do list for each day, reminder notes, daily analysis, etc.), then it is convenient to immediately allocate a certain number of pages for the diary, creating a “nested calendar”. For example, create a separate page for each day.

Then you can specify in advance on each page the date, month, day of the week.

For convenience, the pages can be decorated with stickers-bookmarks protruding beyond the sheet, on which the date is indicated. Another option is to cut out the pages in “steps” and write the date on them.

Internal page design

How to design internal pages to make them interesting is up to the author of a personal diary. It is important that they evoke positive emotions and a desire to fill them.

A few hints:

Envelopes, secret pockets, tricks in LD

Memorabilia is often kept in diaries: tickets to events, booklets, notes, small souvenirs, letters. To do this, it is convenient to use special pockets and envelopes. Pockets for storing memorabilia or secret information can be made from diary pages folded or glued together in a special way. You can also use tape for this purpose.

The pockets can be made separately and then pasted into the diary. They are made from paper, fabric, foil, plastic, and then decorated with pictures, stickers, patterns, rhinestones, etc. Even a simple pocket made from a sheet of beautiful paper folded in half, fastened along the edges with decorative tape, will look beautiful.

You can buy ready-made envelopes, you can make them yourself - for example, using the origami technique.

If relatively voluminous things (for example, several photographs) will be stored in the envelope, then it is better to attach it to a thick cover. But a pocket for one special note or a memorable dry flower can be glued to the page. It is very convenient and aesthetically pleasing to use decorative tape to attach small pockets.

Text decoration, patterns, edging by cells

To decorate the text, multi-colored pens and felt-tip pens are used. For this purpose, an unusual arrangement of records is also suitable - for example, in several columns, or in blocks in different places on the page. You can diversify the pages with a beautiful ornament along the edges of the sheet, a variety of frames, both drawn and pasted. To create such a border, it is very convenient to use templates.

With their help, even those who do not know how to draw can decorate a diary sheet very beautifully. Another great opportunity for those who are not very good at drawing is drawing by cells. It is enough to find the drawing you like and transfer it to your diary by cells. It is easy to find whole collections of such drawings on the Internet.

Pictures for LD

You can decorate the diary with ready-made drawings. These can be pictures from magazines - for example, photos of your favorite singer or artist. Whole sets of themed stickers for sale(seals, princesses, etc.) that look beautiful in the text.

The picture you like can be found on the Internet and printed on a color printer. Beautiful candy wrappers, greeting cards, stamps, etc. are also suitable.

Inscriptions and clippings from magazines in the diary

In glossy magazines you can find not only pictures, but also interesting quotes, sayings, beautiful headlines. They can also be used to design a diary. If you circle such clippings with a frame or highlight in another way, they will immediately attract attention.

the last page

The page that ends your personal diary, like the first one, can also be made special. Maybe it will collect thoughts that especially struck the owner of the diary. Or plans for the future. Or you can just draw a door leading to the "beautiful far away."

Envelope for LD

You can additionally protect the diary - and from wear and tear, and from unnecessary attention. To do this, they make an additional envelope-case for storing a personal diary. To create a simple envelope, a sheet of paper is taken and folded three times so that the diary fits into the larger part, and the smaller remaining part will be the flap for the envelope. Side folds are fastened with glue or tape.

Beautiful paper and decorative tape will make such an envelope elegant even without additional decorations.

You can make a fabric cover in the same way. The valve is easy to make fastened with a button or Velcro.

A diary is a very personal thing. And everyone decides how to lead it.

A personal diary can become a true friend, helping to understand how to build your life, how to make it harmonious and fulfilling. This is a unique opportunity to remember your past and appreciate it, having already matured.

Video: how to make a personal diary

How to make a personal diary from a notebook, see the video clip:

How to make a personal diary, see the video: