A little more than a year ago I posted this: A Digital Journal Using Google Sheets. I think it’s kind of serendipitous that I started this tracking project in January 2020. If there were ever a year that it would be good to have a permanent record of, it was that one. After writing that piece, I actually took it to the next step. I created a Google Form that asked me a short list of questions. I had an app send me a text with a link to the google form every night before bedtime. And I linked those check-in responses to the first page of my digital journal. Back when I created it, the plan was to have the check-ins fill out the journal pages all year.
I began my automatic check-ins Dec 19, 2019, and as of Dec 7, 2020 had done 252 of them. So I missed about 100 days, but that’s still 249 more days of journaling than I have ever done before. Skimming through my entries, I see that I chronicled my bout of covid, the death of a cat I had for 15 years, and the daily life of the global pandemic. Of all the years I could have started this, I’m glad it’s this one. 50 years from now I will be able to look back and get a glimpse of this historic year.
I thought that for this article, I would spend some time going over the things that worked with my digital journal and what didn’t. For those who didn’t read the first installment (look here), I’ll review what the plan was. Then I’ll go over how things worked, what I’m doing with the data, and then what my plan is for next year.
I started this digital journal because I was jealous of all the folks who have pretty, elaborate bullet journals. I wanted one. But I also know myself well enough to know buying a paper journal and then trying to draw or do fun fonts was a fool’s game. I spill and lose things too much to put something I want to keep on paper. I also wanted a way to automate things to make it easier for me to do every day. So I made a short Google form with a series of questions that would help me keep track of things. I opted to include a Likert scale to track my mood because I have major depression, and it’s good to know how many days in a row I might feel bad. I also put in a yes or no question about taking my migraine medication so that if my neurologist asked how often I was taking it I could know. Then I included a few questions that I thought would be good to know, including a question about gratitude. The final item is a file upload for a selfie. I think I was considering doing one of those end of the year selfie things. This form was good because it takes a minute or two to fill out, which means it’s not much of a burden.
Originally I had made a fairly elaborate spreadsheet journal with lots of tabs and different kinds of trackers, including a budget one and a dating one. I thought I might use it every day as a to-do list and such. This did not happen. I spent hours making lots of pretty pages that I looked at like 4 times during the year. However, I did fill out the Google form most days, so I have ended up with a record of the year. If bullet journals have 2 main purposes, helping someone stay organized throughout the year and then acting as a memento throughout the year, mine only served the latter purpose. I’m okay with that.
As far as the Google form I made, I’m thinking that it was a good base, but that I need to revise it for next year. My Likert scale was only 1–5. Most days I marked my mood as a 3. It’s helpful to know I felt neither very happy or very sad most days, but I would like more nuance in my responses. I think I’m going to add half points so that I can try and show whether or not the day leant good or bad. I’d also like to add a checkbox list of other things to keep track of, including if I had a panic attack or obsessive thinking. I think I also need to add a separate box just for cat observations. My cat Plucky is 15 and recently had some health issues. I lost another cat earlier this year, and so I think keeping track of things like her weight and habits will be useful. I also need to think about the migraine tracking. Because I filled out the form around 10 at night, I would often mark no for the day, then take a pill in the middle of the night and forget by the next day at 10 to mark it. Finally, while most days I filled it out, I did still miss a third of the days of the year. I need to make sure I’m doing the Google form every day. Maybe I should work to link it to when I’m taking my pills every night. I think I’ve heard that linking something to a habit you already have can be useful in encouraging consistency.
Now that I know that I didn’t end up with a daily organization tool but a record of my year, I have to think about what to do with all the data I collected. Right now it’s all in an unappealing spreadsheet that isn’t fun to look through. To start transforming it into a nice-looking journal of my days, I made another sheet in the workbook and created a template with the Google form questions on the left-hand side and my answers on the right. In Google sheets you can have data from one sheet fill in cells on another sheet (sheet1!a1, etc). I’ve started filling in the appropriate cells from my form response sheet, but it’s turning into a lot of work because it’s 6 data points for over 200 days. I am trying to figure out if there is an easier way to auto-fill the other days, but haven’t found one yet. If I can’t, then my plan is to just do data entry stuff while watching TV during my break. The most time-consuming part is putting the pictures from a file into a cell, but it’s also one of the most rewarding parts, so I’m planning on keeping on.
I’m also already thinking about what I will do with my tracker for next year. I mentioned above some of the revisions I’m going to make to the Google form. I think I’ll also try and set up the pretty record sheet now so that I can look at a nice sheet throughout the year. And so I don’t have such a big project to deal with at the end of the year. I’m also going to see about maybe getting the book printed. It’s kinda funny to imagine that the end result of this project might be a paper book, but it would be nice to have on my shelf later in life. Overall, I’m happy with this project and hope to just keep doing it better every year!
*If you’d like me to help up this system for yourself, email me and I will be happy to help. My rates are reasonable.*
