Task 2a/2b: Journal writing experience

My hand is aching from journal writing. I´m not really certain if it would be better to type all my thoughts into my computer instead of writing everything with a pen into a paper notebook. On the other hand, I‘m enjoying not to have to look on a screen, cause this is what I have to do the whole day. Even now I would prefer handwriting, because my eyes are a little bit tired after my work.

Before I could start journaling I had to find a useful notebook. After reading Reader 2, it was clear to me, that I wanted to write into a notebook made from paper. For the reason of my hobby painting and drawing, I have always a few scratchbooks in my flat. I found many notebooks (6 or 7), but some where to big and some to small. I decided for a middle-sized book (24 cm x 40 cm), which has enough space to write and draw in.

My feelings 

I like the feeling of a pen into my hand and the pressure on the paper. Than I feel the energy which is getting from my mind, through my body and my hand on the paper. My hand is forming the words and in the same moment I feel facilitated. Like somebody would take the burden of my shoulders. 

First conclusion

I recognized that it is more effective for me, not to think to much when I´m writing about the day. I have heard or read about the theory that the human subconscious has more informations than our consciousness. For this case I decided only to write and not to evaluate about my day and the experience which I made. Sometimes when something appears more interesting to me, I tried to find out more about the situation. E.g. why I had a feeling or thought in specific situation. Than I begin to analyze. 

Now I would like to tell you something about the experience which I made with my journal.

Stream of Consciousness 

The problem of this method was, that I wrote to much. I filled a few pages with all things that I have done during the day, but could not focus on a special event or experience. To get started it was very useful, to get "warm" with the journal and to let out the words which I had in my mind. For me this didn´t work very well, I just felt remember on my diary writing in the past.

List

This was also unsatisfying for me, because now it was the opposite of the "Stream of Consciousness". That method felt like I had to reduce the day to a few words. But I again didn´t know what where the more important experiences or feelings which I made. At the end it was only a list of words, without a connection to any other word. That was so unsatisfying and a little bit frustrating to me. I broke up and decided to write whole sentences, not only one word. That worked a little bit better. But after reading this part again I realized that it didn´t made sense. 

Evaluation

I was exciting to use this method from the first moment I have read about it in the Handbook. I was so glad to start with this after two methods which didn´t work very well for me. And like I expected this works very well for me. The question which I had to ask myself gave me the right direction.

So, I could get from one important experience, to my feelings and from this point to the analyzing. Afterwards it is possible to learn from the reflection. I´m sure that I will use this method. Maybe later one method will work better for me, but now this seems the right way to write and analyze my daily experience.

Diagrams/Graphs

I have to submit that I haven´t heard from a spider diagram before. I really don´t know if this is used a lot in Germany. Even other persons which I have asked didn´t know what this is. In german we call this "Netzdiagramm" (=netdiagram). One benefit of this method was that I had to learn the terms of graphs and diagrams in english. I also liked this method for another reason: it is very clear and the opportunity to compare something directly is very amazing. I decided like many bloggers, to use the spider diagram. I compared my worksituation now with my situation for 6 month. I decided to use this diagram besides the evaluation. I will use this to compare my worksituation in an interval of 6 month or less. This seems to me very useful, because it is possible to see at one view what has changed during this time.

After searching for infographics in the internet I saw many well structured and well looking graphs. I found a very useful site, with wonderful, creative and very different examples. Especially "infographics" are very interesting for graphic designers.

For this reason I can really recommend this site:

http://vi.sualize.us/tag/infographics/?page=1

After this creative inspirations, I decided to create also an infographic. 

This is my spider diagram:

What if

This is also a very useful method. It wasn´t very difficult to me to think about what I would like that happened. I realized that I sometimes already do this before I feel asleep. The imagination of the next day is really relaxing for me. I will use this method on the evening e.g. before an important event will happen on the next day.

Another point of view

This was very exhausting for me. At first I had to think about from which point of view I had to write. Afterwards the decision was made how to start. And than it was very hard to imagine how it would be to see and feel everything different. That was all so difficult for me that I couldn´t concentrate on the essential, my experience, thoughts and feelings. At the end I had only a funny story about the day of the point of view of my finger ring.  

After this few weeks of journaling my thinking has changed during the work. It felt like if my decisions have more value and I really looking on my personal presentation. I suppose I know why this effect is occured. The day is more important since I have to write about it at the end of the day. As if I have to do things which I will be proud for. It is a better to get the impression that "I made the write decision".

Now, I will continue writing in my journal. Many sites are empty and I´m looking forward to fill them all.