Over the years we’ve seen people transform Day One into the most varied, incredible tools. From recording work progress to documenting the first months of a baby’s life, we are constantly amazed by how varied the use of Day One Journal has become. This weekly series tries to help you find new things to journal about and enhance your life recording experience with Day One. Today we start with Book Journaling. Below are some tips, tricks, how’s, and why’s to get started with your Book Journal today.
Write something about the book
Jot down your impressions on the books you finish reading and reflect on what you just read. Repeating this process every time you finish a book will give you invaluable insights that you might otherwise miss. We recommend you review a book right after you finish it so you can remember the exact way you felt about it.
Have a list of the books you’ve read
When you write about the books you’ve read, tag them with the same “books” tag on Day One. That way you will have an organized list of all the books you’ve read so far. This can come in handy when you are trying to figure out if you’ve already read a book or what types of books you enjoyed. Having a running list might also motivate you to read more since you track your progress along the way. Pro Tip: Have Launch Center Pro on your iOS Device? Why not use this amazing book logging action developed by Josiah Wiebe & Josh Ginter to quickly add a book entry.
Keep a list of books you want to read
The same way you have a list of books you have finished, why not have a list of books you want to read as well? Day One is a great tool to keep that list.
Give a score to the books
Now that you wrote something about the book you just finished, rate it. Doing so will make it easy to keep track of the books that you will forever remember reading (as well as those that you’d rather not). The key is to try to keep the ratings consistent. Many people are fond of the zero to five star rating system, but, regardless, just pick one that you enjoy and will consistently use so that you can compare books later.
Remember memorable passages
Sometimes you come across certain words in books that change the way you think about things. Why not record them—why not remember them forever? Record all the highlighted portions of a book in your Day One Journal. What was that line from “Walden” you liked so much? Don’t worry—Day One knows what it was. Pro Tips: If you have a Kindle, you can pull out your highlighted portions as a .txt file and copy them into your Day One journal. Also, remember to jot down book ISBNs as Markdown footnotes, so that the pages you reference will always be correct if you choose to pick up books later.
About the Author
Tulio Jarocki is a student, design aficionado, and journaling enthusiast. When he is not writing about the rewards of journaling for Day One, he can be seen drinking coffee, running, or just out and about in Boston.
