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.

Paper and digital alike.

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[Weekly Thread] #7 Privacy and intimacy (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Are you a beginner, or are you considering if you should start a journal? Ask all your questions here. Are you more experienced? Feel free to share tips, tricks, pictures of your journal, anecdotes. Anything related to keeping a journal is welcome in this weekly thread.

Why a WT?

The community keeps getting new members—we’re now 436 members, hi & welcome to all of you!—but we don’t have much active members.

My idea is therefore to encourage people in participating more by pushing a weekly theme. It’s an invitation, not an obligation. Feel free to comment about anything else related to journaling, or to start your own thread. You can also let me know if you don't like to see a Weekly Thread. I won't be mad ;)

This week theme: I (don’t) care about my privacy!

Digital journal often offers some way to encrypt our entries, analog journaling not so much. Anyone opening a journal will be able to read it which can lead to some sad situations. But even if that journal was stored in a safe, or in a locked drawer, seeing us journaling may draw attention and raise questions form friends, SO, children, and even from the cat or the dog!

Do you worry about that? How you deal with the privacy of your journal?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Note that you can encrypt an analog journal, it just requires you to use a manual cipher, like these https://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/manual.htm

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

Indeed (& thx for the link), can be burden though. As a child, trying to protect from my mother, I used to change names an verbs (and quickly started to write in English since she could bot read it)

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago

My spouse and I have been together for 30 years and counting. My journal is sitting on my desk, she could grab it and read it anytime she wants, without me even knowing it. I also know she would not do that without me asking her to do it. Like I would never go through her own papers without her asking me to do so first. We’ve learned to trust one another and also to respect the other’s privacy (we both have part of our lives where the other has little room, and that’s perfectly fine).

Could a burglar read my journal? Sure. Does it matter to me that some random dude know what I did this Monday? I don’t think so. What would matter a lot more is that burglar being able to access our financial and health data, important documents, and stuff like that. But those are all secured in one way or another. Our computer drives too, are encrypted. So, a if someone was to get their hands on our computers/phones the worst thing would be that they would need to wipe them completely to be able to use/sell them, but they would not access our files. Annoying as fuck for us but still not a big deal since we have remote backups to restore all those files.

It was more complicated when I was a kid. A lot more complicated. I started very young to write in a journal and with my mom being... the person she was... it was not the happiest time nor the most respectful for my privacy. I tried to hide it, to no avail, I then learned to replace some names and verbs with others to make it harder to read it and then, still a kid, it was back in the 70s where there was no Internet to instantly translate anything, I quickly learned to journal in... English, a language my mom did not read. If you’re still living with mom and dad, how do you protect your privacy and do you feel like you need to?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I store mine digitally, but don't take any special precautions.

My kids are aware I journal but haven't shown any special interest yet. They are still young and only learning to write. It's something I'd like to encourage for them, but I'd like them to do it with a pen and paper so I might need to change my approach for a while for us to do it together. Something I'll do if they start to show interest.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

but I’d like them to do it with a pen and paper so I might need to change my approach for a while for us to do it together. Something I’ll do if they start to show interest.

Seeing you do it would certainly be a great way to motivate them trying doing it like you. Also, +1 to let them show any sign of interest first, that's great.