Having a journal serves a lot of purposes. It acts as that friend you can tell everything to. It can remind you of ideas and keep new ones safe. You can talk to yourself (without looking crazy or blue-toothed) and work out problems in life or in your writing. I have heard of authors who keep “title files” in their journals, who start stories or novels in their journals. Some journals even get published. I started “digitizing” my high school journals (typing the notebooks into the computer complete with ink-color changes)…but then I was happily distracted by the writing of my YA novel (sparked by what I was rereading of high school). I will return to it between books and hope for more sparking.
Right now I have a daily blog (this!) coupled with a “Three Things” notebook suggested by Pema Chodron, a Buddhist Nun whose teachings I follow. She suggests you keep a notebook by the bed and write three positive things in it each night before bed (sometimes I am too tired and have to write them the next morning, but I keep it up). Sometimes it’s hard to come up with three things, but pausing to notice the color of a flower in the sun or glimpsing the neighborhood albino squirrel works!