When I was in the gifted program in elementary school, I was taught to keep a journal, in which I should write about “something new every day”. This was a habit that I had kept up for years, with only brief interruptions until a few years ago, when I started to become depressed.
I think this habit played a significant role in my extraordinary productivity in high school. During that time, my journal entries were often just a summary of the day’s events. This meant that I had to pay attention to what was happening around me, whether in class or outside, pick out the most important facts, and retain them in memory until I could write them down and comment on them. I would also finalise and review each entry just before I went to bed, so that the highlights of the day were fresh in my mind as I fell asleep.
I would often wake up the next morning with a new insight into what I had learned in class the previous day, or even the solution to a difficult homework problem. Besides increasing my productivity by impelling me to write every single day, my journal also contributed to a reputation for an extraordinary memory. People were startled that I could repeat the contents of a conversation, or describe an event in detail, days or weeks after it had happened.
The periods during which I kept a daily journal coincide roughly with the most busy and productive times in my life. Now, correlation does not imply causation. But as an inspiration to get myself working productively again, I am going to try to write about “something new every day” on this blog, just to see what happens.
– davinci 11738
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