247 lines
10 KiB
TeX
247 lines
10 KiB
TeX
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\chapter{Why Journal?}
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I feel that why a person journals is very individual, and my reasons
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(mostly what I present here), won't necessarily be your reasons. So the
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very quick answer is, ``for whatever reasons you want.''
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Of course if you wanted that kind of answer you wouldn't really be looking
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at this 8 page zine (as I'm writing this) would you?
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So, maybe let's look at what I had before.
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I can think of really 5 reasons that I journal. They are to get stuff done,
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my wellbeing, creativity, documentation, and communication.
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Let's just do a big overview here...
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\section{Why I journal}
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As I said above, it's basically 5 big reasons. To get stuff done, basically
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to have something that helps me focus on what I'm trying to get done in my
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life. I would say that is my main reason overall as I'm writing this, but
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it has been different main reasons in the past.
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The next reason is for my wellbeing. Of late a lot of that has been about
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processing information that is getting in the way for me. Basically writing
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some ideas out.
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The third reason I thing is creativity. This has been a reason in the past
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that I keep trying to put more focus on, but it keeps not happening all that
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well.
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Documentation is a really important part of some of my journalling. It
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sort of comes with stuff that is above, but sometimes I will be doing stuff
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more so because I want to document something rather than any specific one
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of the other reasons.
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Then there's the communication. That can be for me both "internal"
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communication (ie. talking things out, or making things clear for myself),
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and external communication.
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I guess I can look more at the different reasons, but they kind of overlap
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in a lot of ways. Keeping them separate is just a way to have different
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aspects easier to locate I guess.
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\subsection{Getting Stuff Done}
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A lot of what I have done in terms of this comes from {\it The Bullet
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Journal Method} by Ryder Carroll. Well, the process I am using for that
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mostly comes from his work, the reason that I started to look at a journal
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as the means to accomplish that, actually probably largely comes from
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his work as well.
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So for me, I will often get some ideas (lots of ideas just get lost), that
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I want to do something with. Not writing them down, really just means that
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they kind of disappear.
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Various ways of writing them down have been tried, from simple lists, to
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stuff like daily planners. None have really been great. The simple lists
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can be good for stuff like, ``I want to pick this stuff up when I go
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downtown,'' but even with that it seems useful to have means of updating
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it while doing the task (I have some very small journals for this purpose,
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about A6 sized).
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So, having some way to work with getting some stuff done is a very
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important part of my journalling experience. Right now probably the most
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important reason.
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\subsection{Wellbeing}
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Wellbeing has been a reason that I have kept a journal in the past, and
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it has been the main reason that I have kept it at times.
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Sometimes that has been similar to how I'm currently using it when I do
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use it for wellbeing. That is writing a bit of a log about what is going
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on, to process my thoughts.
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Other times it has been more of a matter of using it to track things such
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as whether I'm taking my medications, or going for a walk. It also has been used
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to much less effect to track the days that I have flares of my health
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problems.
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Any of these things are really important to me to be able to have my
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journal work for me.
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Part of that leads to some of my reasons as to what I have been doing in
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terms of how I am handling my journal.
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\subsection{Creativity}
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This is often a goal I have with my journalling. Probably the biggest
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direction that my journal goes, in terms of creativity, has been in terms
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of actually the creation of the journal, and my figuring out what is
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working or not working with it.
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I really would like to have other creative projects that it helps to
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contribute to, but right now there's not much of that going on.
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Having the space to handle that has been important in why I journal
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the way that I do.
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\subsection{Documentation}
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The big thing here that I really want to have with this is probably
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two different things. Documenting how things are going with my life,
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so connecting to the wellbeing stuff, and the getting stuff done.
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Then I also want to have stuff documenting stuff that I don't really do
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often enough to have reasons to have it ready at my brain tip.
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Some examples of the first, is just noting that with keeping track of what
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I planned to do, and to some extent what I actually did (more so in
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regards to whether I did what was planned or not).
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Also with recording those getting thoughts out part that I mentioned
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in the wellbeing subsection, helps to record those thoughts so I can
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look at them without too much difficulty.
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The more looking at processes could be recording stuff about making
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the journals, or writing about what I'm doing with a computer to update
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the way things are working (as I'm doing this, I'm doing a new setup
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on a computer and that's been important to note what I'm doing).
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\subsection{Communication}
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I rarely (though I can't say never) directly write stuff in my journal
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that is for another person who will read it from the journal.
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Occasionally when I have created a drawing or something in my journal,
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I will share that, though in a lot of cases unless the journal is
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specifically for a specific project, by making some copy of it and
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sharing the copy.
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A more common thing I do, is writing stuff down that I intend to
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figure out what to say to someone. Or what more happens, is to have
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some record of something that I want to make sure that I'll be able to
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review in the future.
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\section{Why I Journal How I Journal}
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This sort of will go a bit into how I journal, but not so much that it
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gets into details, but some basics.
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One thing that I keep coming back to, is the physicality that at least
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for me is important. I sometimes try to pull the process into a digital
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form, and do so to some extent with regards to the projects like this
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one here.
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I guess that looking at the physicality, the portability, the flexibility,
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reduced distractions, ``cordlessness,'' and the possible alternatives.
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\subsection{Physicality}
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The having a physical journal for me is really important, and a big part
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of why that works is, because if it is physically there, it really far
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more difficult to ignore.
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That said, I've also found that sometimes it has the problem with having
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to take up space, it can easily get shoved into a corner.
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Another aspect of it, falls a bit into the flexibility area of how this
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ends up working, is because it is a physical form, it is easy to just
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do things wherever or however you want.
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For drawing the doing stuff physically works quite well, at least in terms
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of initially. I usually end up with a quick sketch that gives me a sense
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of the general object or whatever, then I can end up doing something from
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that in a digital form.
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More in the flexibility area is that it's easy to take it, and create like
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charts that can be difficult to figure out on a computer works really well.
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\subsection{Portability}
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While doing something with a smartphone often is far more portable than even
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the 40 page old journal, or the new 58 page "half-letter" size journals. It
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can more easily be pulled out without becoming a distraction.
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I know that I can often just pick it up and move it, and the whole idea of
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a smartphone being a better option, really doesn't work for me, because I
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don't (and haven't for some time) have a cell phone of any sort.
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\subsection{Flexibility}
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I have mentioned above about the flexibility. I found that one thing with
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it being physical, and not really of any specific format (I've created some
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specific formats in the past, only to of late feeling that they aren't so
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useful), allows me to use it however I want.
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The previous version of the journal, while I didn't do much with it, I had
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created pages that were labeled for the purpose that I intended with them,
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and while I could without too much trouble, just ``ignore'' that I was
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using a page for a purpose that it wasn't really meant for.
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Reducing the ``design,'' feels like it will work out better (will take
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some time to get to testing) gives more room to do whatever I want with
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it.
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\subsection{Reduced Distractions}
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This is something that I find is maybe one of the most important reasons
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for using a physical book, and not a smartphone, or doing it on the
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computer.
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When writing, or drawing, or whatever in a book, it is difficult to
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``just go check out'' something else. While on a computer, or mobile
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device it is very easy to just pick something else up while doing the work
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when working on a computer or mobile device.
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Writing in a physical journal, it is a lot easier to continue focusing on
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what you are doing in the journal.
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\subsection{Cordlessness}
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The doing it with pencil and paper, means that I don't have to worry about
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even power, let alone internet connection or anything.
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This may seem like the world is such that the lack of internet or the lack
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of power really isn't something which a person really needs to think a
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whole lot about.
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While I rarely have times of extended power outages (or at least hadn't,
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but this past year we've had 2 outages of over 12 hours), I am often
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without internet even at home intermittently almost every day.
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The fact that it will work with nothing other than what is there. No
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plugging it in. Or replacing batteries. The technology is ``just
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there.''
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\subsection{Possible Alternatives}
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I know that there are other options, such as a daily journal, or formatted
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journal with notes or whatever for prompts. I think these can be useful,
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but due to the lack of flexibility, it can lead to starting to work with
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it, but then because it isn't really working ending up dropping it.
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The other options which I've often used are some electronic versions,
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some have just as much, if not more lack of flexibility as going and
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buying a journal with daily entries. The flexible solutions I have found
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for doing it on my computer are largely finding ways to work with basic
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formats in ways that just work for me.
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Simple text files that I format, and stuff like that have worked, but
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usually with regards to having some level of logging stuff within a
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project that I'm working on, with the computer.
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Specific journals, for recording specific type works such as logging
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your reading or similar type things, may be useful, though not really
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needed.
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