Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Night-Time is like reading Christopher John Francis Boone’s secret diary journal! Sometimes funny, although not meant to be; and sometimes heart-wrenching, this is a new generation’s Catcher in the Rye. I was already writing down quotes and indexing them in my reading journal by Page 3: “And now if I don’t know what someone is saying, I ask them what they mean or I walk away.”
The Elegance of the Hedgehog – Muriel Barbery
Meet Paloma Josse, a twelve-year old affluent French girl who has decided to commit suicide before she reaches the age of thirteen because she is convinced that life has no meaning. Spoiler alert: the book has a tear-jerker ending, but not in the most obvious way that you might expect after reading the first sentence of this paragraph.
No, Paloma’s story is one of hope and redemption. A lesson in how to find the “always within never.”
The book switches perspectives from Paloma, who writes notes in her journal, to that of Renee Michel, the building’s concierge. I love the passage on Page 123 from Renee’s perspective that reads: “What other reason might I have for writing this – ridiculous journal of an aging concierge – if the writing did not have something of the art of scything about it? …teaching me something that I neither knew nor thought I might want to know. This painless birth, like an unsolicited proof, gives me untold pleasure, and with neither toil nor certainty but the joy of frank astonishment I follow the pen that is guiding and supporting me.”
I loved how Paloma began writing her “Journal of the Movement of the World” as a way of recording beauty observed in her daily life. She began looking for a reason to live, and she found several reasons once she focused on that instead of getting lost in the nothing. Her “Profound Thoughts” obviously started off on the dark side, but she evolved.
All in all, a powerful story of how just one or two people can change your life. And also, in a lot of ways, a story of how journaling can change a life. That may sound melodramatic to some of you.
However, if any of you, like Paloma, have ever been lost in the darkness; stuck in the never without an always; then you know. It isn’t just paper. It’s your redemption. It’s what you have. It is the tool that helps you find a reason, and then hopefully several reasons.
Pictured with the book is The Fantastic Magician of Us, one of our Secret Diary Journals. Each indexed book journal features 186 pages that are ruled and numbered for your ease of use. The numbered pages with an index will help keep you organized and make it easy to find your important entries. To really make your brain sing, we recommend that you use tabs and update your book journal’s index as necessary immediately after you have completed your journaling.
Secret Diary Journals are hardcover ruled notebooks made to resemble hardcover books that can easily be shelved in your living room or sit on a table at a coffee house without screaming: “I am a personal journal and I contain private thoughts. Pick me up and snoop!” Secret Diary Journals are designed to help you maintain your privacy when keeping your personal notes.
In my daily life, I index my journals for productivity, goal-setting, and organizational reasons. At the end of the year, I index my journals for reflection, planning, and personal fulfillment reasons.
I document and make lists. Therefore I am.
I get things done. Correction. I get a lot of things done!
Organizing/Indexing Your Life in Lists at the Beginning of Your Daily Journal
Pictured below is a sample page from Page 2 of my Rise executive journal. This would be an example of how I use my journal to stay organized and mindful while on the road. I made myself a cheat list sheet of my favorite hotel room workouts that I access on demand from my Physique57 program.
I also like to keep a list of my monthly workout logs to help keep myself motivated and stay on track. Pictured below:
Organizing/Indexing Your Life in the Contents of Your Daily Journal
For instance, Page 3 of my Rise executive journal may have contained a daily entry log referencing key points from a phone call I had with a client and also contain personal notes about a book I was reading. For the corresponding index page at the front of the journal, I would have simply summarized that day’s notes as “Jane Smith TC. Mr. Splitfoot notes for blog.” If the entry was particularly important, or contained a task or idea that I would need to follow-up on later, I would add a post-it tab to the page as well to remind myself to clear the page.
Sample of Interior Page of Notebook Used While Traveling For and Writing America’s Most Haunted Hotels
I came across this section from my notebook from Halloween weekend of October 2015, when Bob and I were staying at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado for our last chapter of “America’s Most Haunted Hotels.” My index log was summarized as “Stanley. Finish book. Stop with the ghosts.” Wise advice indeed.
Organizing/Indexing Your Life in the Back of Your Daily Journal
Lastly, I always close out a journal by quantifying the data at the end of the book. Some of the topics I always list and summarize include: master list of travels; list of blog posts made; and list of books read.
Pages from my life.
Scenes from Monterey
Eighteen miles of paved bike/walking trails along the coast. Magnificent, but crowded!
In 1879, an unknown writer (Robert Louis Stevenson) holed up at the French Hotel while waiting for Fanny Osbourne to divorce her first husband so they could get on with their lives.
Scenes from Big Sur
Dear Sur: You are prettier than Montana. We drove you twice just to make sure.
Scenes from San Simeon
Elephant Seal Pups:
Scenes from Hearst Castle
Let me put it to you this way, it takes a certain type of asshole to stand in front of you at the very end with his hand out for more donation money after the $50.00 tour, while we are all standing under a ceiling that is plated in 22 carat gold leaf. Just kidding, no one had their hand out. I’m referring to the audio tour guide begging for more donation money as we rode the bus down the hill. Hilariously tacky!
I do have to say that the Roman Pool seems haunted, though. I kept waiting for something to swim up to me. I don’t know what, but I felt like something was brewing underneath that pool. Maybe they buried the bodies down there.
We keep an analog version of all of our travels carefully notated in our “Play” Journal by Stealth Journals. “Play” is an indexed book journal that should be used to record all of your good times! Flashback to the last week of 2016. RCW & JDW in Monterey / Big Sur / Cambria / San Francisco. Using the Play journal log to remember. To dream. A reminder for when we get stuck in a normal/ordinary routine work day. Play journal books are kept as a celebration of our life together. One day when we are old or sick, we can look back fondly upon this legacy of good times that we have built together. Play also serves as a reminder to make the time for these fun moments. Sometimes we can get too busy and bogged down in our daily work activities, and miss all the fun. Make yourself accountable for creating these moments. Build your life.
Jamie Davis Writes 