Like many others, at the end of 2019, I was extremely excited for the new year. 2020 was going to be MY year. 2020. Ah, 2020 had such a nice ring to it. Little did we know what was to come. Nevertheless, one of my goals for 2020 was to write down what I did every single day. Luckily, I have been keeping up with this goal and currently only have one more month to go.
I decided to use a free journaling app called “Daylio,” which allows users to pick the mood they were feeling that day, choose icons expressing what they did that day, and a notes section to add journal entries in. In order to keep myself accountable, I turned on the app notifications to remind me at 11:30 pm every day to write.
Here’s what I have learned from writing down what I’ve done every single day so far this year.
- Reflection
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Writing down everything I did at the end of each day forced me to take a step back. It gave me the opportunity to decompress each night and remind myself that I was able to conquer so much. It helped me recognize the little victories that I was able to accomplish each day.
- Gratitude
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The app “Daylio” has a mood tracker, and whenever I would look back at the end of the month, a majority of my moods would be “rad” or “good,” which are the two most positive mood options. By keeping track of what I did every day, I was able to be grateful for the little things in life, whether it be going on a hike in the middle of the day with my friends, watching the sunrise with my cousins, or just simply hanging out with my grandparents.
- Nostalgia
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Since we are living in such unprecedented times, this year was definitely an interesting one to keep track of every single day. Looking back to my entries in February and March, it is crazy to see how much has changed. I was able to document hearing about the uncertainty of the pandemic, moving out months early from my freshman year dorm, to moving back to Blacksburg with many restrictions for the beginning of my sophomore year. In addition, I was able to record the different things I was able to do while in quarantine, from teaching myself how to dance, to taking classes at community college over the summer.
At the beginning of the year, writing down what I have done every day seemed like a daunting task. Sure, I’ve missed a few days and had to fill them out the day after, but now I am almost a month away from completing this goal. I’m excited to one day look back on everything I did in 2020. I challenge all of you reading this to try and write what you did each day on a daily basis for the year 2021. Happy journaling!