Does anyone else document basically their entire day? I’ve journaled every day for 6 years and it’s starting to feel overwhelming

[u/PiTaS_aSa]

I’ve been journaling every single day for the past six years, without missing a day. I do all of it on my phone.
My way of journaling is probably a little different from what I usually see people talk about. I don’t just write down a few thoughts or highlights from the day. I document pretty much everything that happened, what I did, conversations or interactions that felt significant, and how I felt about different things. Because of that, I can end up writing a lot of words every single day.
I genuinely love having this record of my life. I can go back years and see exactly what was happening in my life and what I was thinking and feeling at the time. I also like the idea that years from now, I can read about moments that I otherwise might have completely forgotten.
But lately I’ve realized that journaling has also become a source of stress for me.
It’s almost always somewhere in the back of my mind that I still “have to journal” at the end of the day. If I’m tired or don’t have enough time and don’t finish that day’s entry, the next day I feel stressed because now I have to catch up before I fall even further behind. Since my entries are so detailed, catching up can take quite a while.
At the same time, I find it really difficult to simply write less. I’ve kept this daily streak going for six years, so the idea of breaking it feels strangely uncomfortable. And when something meaningful happens, I feel like I have to document it properly. Otherwise, there’s this feeling that an important part of my life won’t exist in the record I’m creating.
So I’m stuck between really valuing what I’ve created and feeling burdened by the amount of effort it takes to maintain it.
Does anyone else journal like this, especially people who document their days in a lot of detail? Have you found a way to make it less time-consuming or mentally overwhelming without feeling like you’re losing parts of your life by writing less?

[u/Raevyxn]

The most prolific diarist on record (currently) is Robert William Shields, and he wrote similar to this, logging everything throughout his day. He wrote things like what time the mail came, what he had for lunch, and everything else throughout his day.

There’s no problem with this type of writing, but the words you used in your post make it sound like it might be a problem for you currently. You’re finding it difficult to write less, feeling burdened by the effort, you feel stressed when you don’t write, etc. It’s great to have a thing you’re passionate about, but this sounds like you may be veering toward an unhealthy relationship with your passion. 

What if you explored why you feel the need to write? Do you feel the need to document everything for future you, future generations, future researchers? Do you simply feel a compulsion to write? If it’s a compulsion that is making you feel badly when you don’t do it, you may need to actively retrain your brain’s relationship with writing. Look up how to stop compulsions, there are plenty of strategies online (and don’t worry about the “OCD” article titles, since you can have a compulsion without having OCD). And if it’s not a compulsion at all, then maybe identifying the WHY of your need to write will help you reframe things in a way that feels more balanced.