What is the difference between diaries and journals

If you need to track data in a disciplined manner — for example: exercise, food intake, water intake, weight, mood, or symptoms — then a diary is ideal with its structured layout. You can even buy tiny planner stickers, making tracking data in your diary super simple and fun, too! Diaries come in a variety of layouts, including one day per page, one week per page, and one week per double page spread.

If you have more to write each day, a day per page layout would be beneficial, but if you want a smaller and more concise diary, then try a week per page type. Of course, diaries also come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, which is another factor to consider when choosing one.

If you are going to carry your diary around with you, remember to check it fits in your regular bag before you purchase! A document useful to the person who keeps it. Dull to the contemporary who reads it and invaluable to the student, centuries afterwards, who treasures it.

A journal can have a variety of uses but is often used for the purpose of exploring ideas. Unlike a diary, a journal is unstructured when you buy it, and then you can add in any structure you would like. To learn about how a daily writing practice can enhance a student's academic performance, read The Brain-Based Benefits of Writing for Math and Science Learning.

Regardless of whether you choose to write about the past in a daily diary or dream about the future in a meditative journal, the act of taking time out of your day and focusing your attention on yourself for a while can have positive mental and physical health benefits.

There's no right or wrong in the journal vs diary debate. Whatever notebook format you prefer is the right one! Whether you're keeping a journal or writing as a meditation, it's the same thing. What's important is you're having a relationship with your mind. I'm a bit surprised by this apparently definitively summed up differece between the two.

The dictionary gives much more freedom for both terms. I write about what I feel and I write about what happens. I write about what i think and about how, through the writing itself, that changes. I write short poems or lyrics to songs and sometimes I discuss and pursue ideas and draw little sketches.

Realized that more people prefer Journal to Diary. I am using iPhone app named MemAide free to do my Diary. Really convenient. And this guy starts to read with a lot of surprises. For an example of a journal, search Google Images on journal of Leonardo da Vinci. His was full of sketches and notes.

Tony Buzan credited da Vinci with pioneering mind mapping. Crafts For Kids. Book Repair. Craft Organization. Improve this answer. Astyanax Astyanax 3 3 silver badges 11 11 bronze badges. EmeraldxFairy EmeraldxFairy 1 1 bronze badge.

Reminds me of this cartoon — J. I remember reading this in the Henry Reed children's series by Keith Robertson. A diary is more of a day-to-day writing, a journal is more topical. Pasomi Pasomi 51 3 3 bronze badges. I would like to see some source of that, because a journal is often an official, publicly available, log of events, and as such much less likely to be personal. A diary on the other hand is what you describe as a journal.

Think of Anne Frank's diary. To me, the source does not support your statement in the first paragraph, and almost contradicts it. Tom Au Tom Au Featured on Meta.

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