I am looking to start getting into this. But I have never enjoyed writing. I also feel a little iffy knowing that my diaries are sitting around somewhere in my room and my family can find it at any moment. If I were to type it would be faster, more secure as I can encrypt it, and it would not get lost as easily as I can upload the encrypted file to a cloud.
However, is typing any less effective at making you feel better than writing?
Do whichever lets your thoughts flow more freely. I type because I don’t have to think about how to do it, whereas handwriting takes a lot of extra brainpower since I do it so infrequently. There’s no wrong answer though!
I started very recently. I type.
I always write by hand, it makes me less focused on formatting (even though little is required in this case) and lets the thoughts flow easily. I write with a mix of Demotic and Ancient Greek, English and Slovak, so this way I don’t have to bother with switching keyboard layouts. Make sure you buy a quality pen to make your diary writing experience that much better :)
I usually write at the park or on the beach, but once I come home, I open up a Markdown file in my favourite text editor, type out the previously written text and save. Then I encrypt it with GnuPG and burn the paper I was writing on.
Sounds cumbersome, but for some reason this approach makes me the most peaceful, I honestly have no idea why :)
I have been typing my journals for over a decade. If you don’t have a fondness for handwriting, then it will not make you feel any better. I find it frustrating to write by hand. It’s significantly slower than my thoughts, it adds more clutter, it’s less convenient, it cramps my hand, and you lose out on the ability to search your notes to help you remember events or check your progress. You don’t have to use a fancy journaling app if you don’t want to. I just use Google docs.
I’m a pen to paper gal, but also keep a Daylio journal as a health tracker.
