Kestra
4-26-12, 9:16pm
A year ago tomorrow I started a spreadsheet where I could record the happenings in my life.
I decided to do this for a few reasons:
- to slow down mentally and focus on the present more
- to rate things that I do to find out what is most enjoyable to me
- to keep track of dates that I did a particular thing
- to remember what I did and what I thought about
It's kind of like a journal, but with short entries, and sortable, as I'm a spreadsheet type of person. I never could get into journalling.
I record the date, the thing I did or thought about, where I did it, the general category (food, fun, money, etc) and give it a ranking of funness out of 10.
I record all sorts of things. From mundane things like emailed so-and-so about whatever, so I can remember when I did something and know when to expect a response.
To little fun things like tried a new food, or thought about a new topic. And occasionally big things, like the first vacation DH and I have ever taken together and the biggest trip I've done as an adult, to NV, CA, AZ, and UT we did in February. Though, the vacation did get a 14 page write-up as well as 500 pictures. A spreadsheet just wasn't adequate.
I didn't have something to write everyday and sometimes I forgot to write things down, but overall I did pretty good. I actually ended up with 366 entries.
Today, I went back and sorted the rankings to see what the 9 and 10s were. Mostly they were about eating novelties, doing crafts, getting new library books about my current topic of the week and trying new things. I'll have to look through it more. Very interesting stuff. I purposely focused on positive things, but some negatives and neutrals are in there, especially if I needed to remember when they occurred.
Thought I'd throw my idea out there as I really wish I'd started doing this years ago, and will definitely be continuing. It takes so little time and I'll end up with a very interesting record of my life.
I decided to do this for a few reasons:
- to slow down mentally and focus on the present more
- to rate things that I do to find out what is most enjoyable to me
- to keep track of dates that I did a particular thing
- to remember what I did and what I thought about
It's kind of like a journal, but with short entries, and sortable, as I'm a spreadsheet type of person. I never could get into journalling.
I record the date, the thing I did or thought about, where I did it, the general category (food, fun, money, etc) and give it a ranking of funness out of 10.
I record all sorts of things. From mundane things like emailed so-and-so about whatever, so I can remember when I did something and know when to expect a response.
To little fun things like tried a new food, or thought about a new topic. And occasionally big things, like the first vacation DH and I have ever taken together and the biggest trip I've done as an adult, to NV, CA, AZ, and UT we did in February. Though, the vacation did get a 14 page write-up as well as 500 pictures. A spreadsheet just wasn't adequate.
I didn't have something to write everyday and sometimes I forgot to write things down, but overall I did pretty good. I actually ended up with 366 entries.
Today, I went back and sorted the rankings to see what the 9 and 10s were. Mostly they were about eating novelties, doing crafts, getting new library books about my current topic of the week and trying new things. I'll have to look through it more. Very interesting stuff. I purposely focused on positive things, but some negatives and neutrals are in there, especially if I needed to remember when they occurred.
Thought I'd throw my idea out there as I really wish I'd started doing this years ago, and will definitely be continuing. It takes so little time and I'll end up with a very interesting record of my life.