My almost decade-long journal-keeping practice has yielded hundreds of pages rife with happy and sad recollections. Some worry that keeping a notebook regularly is counterproductive.

So, can keeping a diary do more damage than good? There are situations when it would be bad to keep a diary, but these are rare and can be avoided. You need to limit your exposure to it, just like any other activity. Knowing when to quit is all that's required. You'll discover that journaling is one of the most beneficial and restorative practices if you establish it as a regular routine.

What is the best pen to journal with?

All the information you need to form your own judgment is here in this article. What do you think? Should you begin a journal? Is keeping a notebook a good idea going forward? In what ways might journaling really backfire? I've come to show you every last aspect.

Mistakes that might be made when keeping a diary

Some of the negative effects of journaling include the following:

Sometimes keeping a journal is just too much of an emotional challenge.
Avoid writing about negative emotions or you may find yourself sinking into a pit of despair.
It's easy to get mired in your own journal.
This section is where I provide a quick explanation of these elementary cases. Some of these may seem familiar if you've been debating whether or not to start a diary.

Writing in a journal might lead to excessive introspection.

I found myself wondering, "How am I going to write in my diary about this?"

For others, keeping a diary is so absorbing that it prevents them from living in the moment.

Say you and two pals are at a concert and you all decide to buy drinks. You two have a fantastic time and maybe even get a touch tipsy. When one of your pals cracks a joke, you and the rest of the group burst out laughing so hard that you all but snort your drinks. You race to the restroom to jot down a quick note about the hilarious joke and the wonderful moment you just had for fear of forgetting either.

After returning to the performance, you realize that you missed your favorite section of a song.

It's likely that this is an extreme case, but if you keep a notebook on a regular basis, you may find that you're always analyzing every aspect of your existence. This might hinder your ability to take things as they come and appreciate life to the fullest.

We'll see an extreme real-world illustration of this later on in the text.

Writing in a journal may be a humbling experience 

Writing down the problems you're having is an extremely challenging task when you're going through a tough time. Some folks may get anxious because of this. I will provide an excellent illustration of this later on in the text.

Avoid writing about negative emotions or you may find yourself sinking into a pit of despair.
Things that are on our minds might trigger a chain reaction of ideas, making the human mind an intriguing phenomenon. Most of the time, we have no idea that our thoughts have started a domino effect. It's really rather easy. The way you're thinking right now may shape the way you think in the future.

Writing in a diary while you're feeling low might set off a downward cycle of pessimism. By no means am I predicting that this will really occur. Journaling one's frustrations is a great way to get them out of one's head and onto paper, where they may be effectively dealt with.

While this may help some people, it might have the opposite effect on others. Avoiding writing down your complaints in a diary may help.

It's easy to get mired in your own journal.

The need to keep a diary may be so strong for some individuals that it takes over their whole existence.

Robert Shields is a perfect illustration of this point. He kept a notebook for 25 years, documenting every five minutes of his life. His diary had 37.5 million words, filling 94 cartons, when he was forced to cease writing due to a stroke. The reach of such a magazine is staggering. Incredibly strange.

I've been keeping a diary for about a decade now, and the total word count is well over 400k. Given that I keep a digital notebook, figuring this out was a breeze.

If I keep writing in my diary at the same pace for the next 25 years, I will have written around a million words. Robert Shields has a 30,000-word advantage over me in terms of total word count.

The journal-keeping habit of Robert Shield is clearly an obsessive one. This is, in my opinion, the finest illustration of how one might get mired in introspection if they keep a diary. If you keep a diary about your life, will it become the focus of your existence?

Okay, it makes sense.

Words may be used against you if someone can decipher your thoughts.
Journaling may be counterproductive in other ways as well, as readers have pointed out in the comments section after I published this post. You can see for yourself if you scroll down, but I'll describe it for you here as well.

Your significant other has found your journal (or specifically sought it out) and read every entry. As expected from a diary written by its owner, no holds are barred. Some readers may find your writings offensive, humiliating, or just odd. Comments showed instances when journals were discovered by others and the discoverers acted (very) inappropriately:

My own self-doubt was used against me. The notebook I kept detailing my many failures was used against me.

A lack of self-confidence and a lack of maturity lead to this kind of conduct, in my opinion.

To avoid this, you may take certain preventative measures on your own.

Make it plain to anybody who may stumble onto your diary that it is meant just for your eyes.

It was a long time before I revealed the location of my journal to my girlfriend, and when I did, I made it quite clear that it was not meant for public consumption.

My diary, I told her, is an honest account of my life, flaws and all. This means that some readers may experience distress because of their interpretations of the text.

If you're interested, here's a piece we wrote about forceful communication.

Share this information only with those you know to be trustworthy.
I confided in my girlfriend and let her know where my diary is since I know she won't go snooping through it anytime she's bored. She is well aware of the location of my diaries, and this causes me zero fear.

Although, I will admit that my first fear of journaling was that someone might discover my writings. So, here's the next piece of advice:

Keep your diaries a secret and don't let anybody see them.

When I first began keeping a notebook, I would keep it inside the case of my computer. As I was writing in my journal, I would stuff it into the open side panel. No one has ever located it at that location, I am certain of it.

While not ideal, this method will keep others from reading your notebook without sacrificing the advantages of writing down your thoughts.

Obtain a password-protected app.

While this isn't a viable option for physical diaries, there are secure journaling applications available that can be unlocked with a PIN or fingerprint. From personal experience, I can say that Diaro gives you the ability to keep your diary private from unauthorized readers.

Many thanks to everybody who contributed feedback. I know it wasn't easy for you to share this, but it means a lot to me that you did. Leave a comment below if you know of any additional ways to prevent someone from using your notebook as a weapon. 

Only if you let it, can journaling become destructive.

Something fascinating emerged throughout my investigation of this issue. Journaling is only bad since it is tolerated in all these situations. In reality, each of these catastrophes might have been prevented.

The problem with these instances is that they are very extreme. Every day, you should only be able to devote a reasonable amount of time to journaling. All your actions should be guided by this principle. There's no use in devoting your whole life to a single activity, no matter how enjoyable it may be or how useful it may be.

My main interest, running, is an excellent illustration of what I'm talking about. The joy I have when I go for a run is tremendous. But does it imply I have to spend all my waking hours pounding the pavement? Not at all! The more you write in a notebook, exercise, or do anything else, the less advantage you get from it. That's why it's crucial to keep your time spent in these areas under check.

These potential negative effects of journaling may be prevented with some self-control.

Is keeping a diary going to hurt me?

No.

As I've already said, I've written almost 400,000 words in my journal, and yet, I've never once felt concerned or anxious because of what I've written. And yes, there is a lot of depressing stuff in there. When I write, it isn't always on the bright side of things.

That's why I can declare without a doubt that keeping a notebook has never done me any damage. Not that I'm aware of, at least. It's likely that's what Robert Shields was thinking as he recorded the 37.5 millionth word in his notebook. To be honest, I can't say for sure.

Only that keeping a notebook has never seemed to me to be harmful.

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