this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2024
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Journaling Just Works

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A place to discuss anything related to keeping a journal, a diary, a planner, a bullet journal, art/junk journal. Productivity, self-help, mindfulness, memory-keeping, creativity, project management or any other purpose.

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How is keeping a PKMS different from journaling, if at all? (kbin.melroy.org)
submitted 1 year ago by Emotional_Series7814@kbin.melroy.org to c/journaling@sh.itjust.works
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Figured it might be a good discussion question. Crossposted to !pkms@lemmy.blahaj.zone.

Especially as someone who wants to help grow !journaling@sh.itjust.works, and to participate to help it grow, but in the end I come from !pkms@lemmy.blahaj.zone and I think of what I have far more as a Personal Knowledge Management System than a journal. I spend far less time on personal feelings and thoughts and "what did I do today?" and a lot more on making it a knowledge repository for Future Me. And if what I do is actually pretty separate from journaling it would be cool to know so I don't invade threads I shouldn't be talking in.

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[–] Libb@jlai.lu 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think of what I have far more as a Personal Knowledge Management System than a journal. I spend far less time on personal feelings and thoughts and “what did I do today?” and a lot more on making it a knowledge repository for Future Me.

My journal is a mix of both but it’s still an untangled mess of entries, contrary to my pkms where everything is neatly separated and indexed. That said, I'll index whatever part of mu journal I consider potentially useful in my pkms.

And if what I do is actually pretty separate from journaling it would be cool to know so I don’t invade threads I shouldn’t be talking in.

Reading your question made me realize I never really considered the question myself. I mean I thought I had, but nope. I would say I consider journaling as way to capture part of my flow of thoughts and memories focusing on my daily live, and as a way to step back from it. Where the pkms is the place I would step in (while also stepping back ?!) to deal with ideas and thoughts that are not related to my daily live. That's not much clearer... I would like to get other's point of view.

[–] Emotional_Series7814@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think the organization thing, indexed vs not, might be a tendency but it definitely would not define PKMS vs journal, as I can imagine some people have very neatly indexed journals with a table of contents page and every page gets tossed on the table of contents once it gains contents.

I do think intention has to do with it. Indexing knowledge for future you, or just getting out personal thoughts for now to help you deal with them? Although that does not feel good enough right now, because some people also put things they think they'll care about later in their journal, and some people review entries to try to figure out tendencies in their moods and habits, also known as they put down today's knowledge for review later which sounds like a PKMS thing…

[–] Libb@jlai.lu 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

but it definitely would not define PKMS vs journal

Not my intention either. To give you an idea I will index in my pkms entries from my journal where I wrote my thoughts about such or such book I'm reading, or a movie or some event, or whatever. But only as far as I think that entry may one day have interest outside of them being my (personal) thoughts on whatever. So, most journal entries, because of the way I write it, don't enter my pkms. I value them almost equally, though.

[–] Emotional_Series7814@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sorry if I came off as aggressive or "you are WRONG," definitely meant this more as discussion. I was just spitballing thoughts. Thanks for sharing how you do it, and what differentiates your PKMS from your journal :)

[–] Libb@jlai.lu 1 points 1 year ago

Sorry if I came off as aggressive or “you are WRONG,”

You did not ;)

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have seperate systems for other thoughts. Like I have a notebook just for my takes on media, and a git repo for technical things I've learned. On top of that I'm a diarist, so my diary entries are often more like letters.

But I specifically try to avoid just listing out what I've been doing and instead try to pick out a couple events and how I feel about them. For me it's much more about documenting feelings.

[–] Libb@jlai.lu 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have seperate systems for other thoughts. Like I have a notebook just for my takes on media, and a git repo for technical things I’ve learned.

Is it publicly accessible? I would like to see what's in it as It's something I've been considering doing myself for all my 'Linux' tips and tweaks as I have no idea where to share them (they're in a markdown file for now).

On top of that I’m a diarist, so my diary entries are often more like letters.

Like in actual letters (written to yourself, maybe)? I like the idea.

When we were in our twenties, my best friend and I (we're still besties all those decades later) were studying far away one from the other and we wrote to each other a lot. Like, a lot, multiple times a week if not daily. A few people knowing the intensity of our exchanges compared us to lovers (we were not, we were just avid to share ideas and fun together). It was a rich (and real fun) period that ended with us moving to... email.

I miss that intensity (and the fun, too) and our absolutely un-censored exchange of ideas.

I mean, no matter how stupid, daring, unpopular, clumsy was whatever we wanted to try we would do it. We feared no judgment from one another (and certainly no hate or public shaming, like we can see happening way too often online) and we also feared not looking like amateurs (that we were), or to show that we mastered not what we were writing about. Imho, that freedom was essential to us growing because it allowed us to experiment and to explore things and ideas without self-censoring or caring about one's own image/reputation. Something not many people would dare to do nowadays online, alas.

Probably even more than that freedom, I miss that it was obvious (for some of us at least) that if we wanted to fuel a friendship (or even just really keep in touch) we would exchange snail mails with those persons we cared about. And that we would have to take the time to write letters (or cards) to them and more time to read theirs, carefully.

Back then, I received such letters almost every single day, and I wrote almost daily too. This year, I've received one letter, and I sent two... Which is double what I received and sent last year :(

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is it publicly accessible?

Sure! I'll DM you, since I don't want to dox myself.

Like in actual letters (written to yourself, maybe)?

Yeah, exactly. Sometimes to myself, or an imaginary recipient. Sometimes I even address my entries to the day of the week, like "Dear Sunday" (Sunday gets a lot of sober reflection, it being just before the plunge back into the work week). Wednesday on the other hand is like a friend I mean to keep in better contact with, but never quite make the time.

[–] Libb@jlai.lu 3 points 1 year ago

Looking forward to your message!

Yeah, exactly. Sometimes to myself, or an imaginary recipient. Sometimes I even address my entries to the day of the week, like “Dear Sunday” (Sunday gets a lot of sober reflection, it being just before the plunge back into the work week). Wednesday on the other hand is like a friend I mean to keep in better contact with, but never quite make the time.

I like the idea and since we're about to begin a new year, I don't know but I 'll consider stealing it from you and maybe make of my journal a correspondence for the next year? To see how it goes.

Now, would that be to my (older) self or something along your line? Addressing myself to some 'friend' (I could be trying to write like I was writing to my best friend back when we were young), be it an imaginary one or be it the days of the week (each with their own qualities, I quite like the idea). I will let that sink (sink in?) and see how it turns out. Thx!