my best friend kept journal obsessively. she'd almost always spend time in the evening before bed recounting her thoughts or feelings and anything about the day, asking me to contribute entries myself too if i was over. she did it because she said her memory was so bad, she had to keep visual and written records of everything, especially the little things in life. that sort of appreciation i think fueled the notion of gifting me with a journal as well, and asking for follow up to check if i was writing. turns out, i don't like keeping one for myself so much. my tendency to spiral into negative thoughts only worsened when committing it to paper. but i think nowadays i've find a better method -- i keep planners to keep track of my profession and personal and social lives, and it's been really good for that, at least on a more generalized level. i use it to keep stickers or tickets or little momentos from events and i like that it tells a broad story for the year of the planner. and then also i have notebooks where i write down ideas or recipes or doodle or shopping lists, whatever.