The Log

The days pass almost without notice. Thank goodness I keep a log of what’s going on, or at least what happened this day, every day. It certainly isn’t an exhausting account of the day, just the highlights and anything of importance that may be good to be able to recall later. By doing it every day there is continuity and there is value to it.

One valuable result is to go back five years, or ten, or whatever, and see what was important enough to write down at that time. The times I have reflected on the past this way have been illuminating. I can see what was occupying my thoughts at the time. Often there are matters that were important then but have slipped into the mist of forgotten activities. In this regard I have been able to use them as a basis of going forward, not for any other reason than to realize that there were involvements that were abandoned and not for any good reason except that they didn’t suit my fancy any more.

There is another valuable result; I am made aware of experiences that were painful at the time but later turned out to be of little long term consequence. Then there are those that weren’t painful but had long term consequences, one of which was moving here to Louisville.

I began keeping same in 1958; then in the mid-seventies I let it slide for about ten years, keeping spotty records at best, but took it up again in 1984 when I used a desk top calendar with large blocks for the days. Then in 1985 I kept a log of what I did morning, noon, afternoon, evening and night. It was on what, where, and with whom did I spend my time. It was a time management exercise that turned back into a log. That just happened to be the year we moved to Houston, an unforeseen event at the time. Then I put it down again until 1988, then by happenstance that was the year we were involved in the turmoil of being laid off in Houston, hired in Racine, and then posted to England and France. That restarted log has been kept continuously since.

The routine is to write the events of the previous day early in the morning, just after getting up. This allows the events of the day to steep over night and be somewhat more objectively recorded. Most of the emotional attachment to events that happened later in the day has had time to be normalized so the earlier events of the day get the same weight as the later. The entry is date, day, and where I spent the night, then an entry of no more than the equivalent of half a sheet of regular paper. I’ve found that this is more than enough to capture the essence of the day.

The key is capturing the essence because it is this that allows recall at a much later date. What may seem to be a meaningless detail, or comment serves as a memory jogger even 10 or 15 years later. So from that remark one can tell that the log is not kept for anyone else’s enjoyment or edification; although a descendent down the line may enjoy reading it just for the family memories.

The log is also the other end of the planning spectrum. I’ve explained before my planning process that begins with the winter solstice through the last day of the calendar year. The plan is just that, a plan. The log is a way of recognizing the events that show that the plan was achieved. I don’t keep records other than in the PC file folder entitled Planning and Related. That information is primarily reminders of what I want to accomplish in various areas of my life. The log is where the results are incrementally recorded, not as items checked as accomplished but recording the events of the day that may just happen to include that which was included in the plan.

I found some very old Symphony files on the PC upstairs and they could just as easily have been made last Sunday. IOW, planning and scheming that has taken place over the years has been remarkably consistent.

The interesting part of it is my reaction to this discovery. Some parts of me were content that I am consistently moving towards a similar set of objectives. Another part was saying maybe we should chuck this whole thing and let it happen as it may. There were all sorts of emotions that came out as I read through these old planning worksheets. Not dissimilar to the emotions that are evoked when I get a log from years back and read through it. The big difference is the planning spreadsheets are what I would have like to have happen at the time and the log is what actually happened. Often there are big disparities between the two. Often too, there is a realization that yes indeed the objective was accomplished and not even noticed all that much.

I think this is the value of the log, it is what happened and not what was intended, dreamed, wished, plotted, and schemed. The plotting and scheming is somewhat idealistic whereas the log is the facts of the matters.

Even these blogs, although these are not as esoteric as my notebooks, are not real. They represent my thinking at the time they are written and when I read some of the notes, which started in 1995, there are big differences between fact and fiction. The notebooks are often philosophical thoughts and the log is what actually happened.

This whole entry is to remind myself of the value of the log. It is an integral part of my life and living and one that needs to have attention so that the entries are meaningful on the day they are made. I get lazy sometimes and this will serve to remind me of the importance of diligence in my writing and recall.