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" One of my favorite happiness-project resolutions has been to keep a &amp;quot;one-sentence journal.&amp;quot; I started this journal six years ago. I knew how little I remembered about my own past, and I was worried that my daughters&amp;#039; childhoods were speeding by so quickly that I wouldn&amp;#039;t remember anything about theirs. One principal aim of my happiness project is to &amp;quot;appreciate this season of life,&amp;quot; and I felt the impulse to keep a record of our days. I considered penning a lengthy account of our family life. I had fantasies of writing several thoughtful pages each night in a lovely parchment notebook, but I knew I&amp;#039;d end up abandoning that goal after a week, tops. So, in an effort to satisfy my urge to keep a journal, but also be realistic with myself, I decided to keep a one-sentence journal. Now, each night, I write one sentence about some little thing that happened that day to me, my husband, or my two daughters. (Well, my handwriting is so messy that I actually type one sentence on my computer, but you get the idea.) My one-sentence journal is where I record those little memories that are so sweet, but can fade overnight. Or I jot down some details from an ordinary day: what we do in our daily routines, names of the girls&amp;#039; favorite pastimes, the latest cooking phase my husband is enjoying. In addition, the journal gives me a satisfying place to record those kids-say-the-darndest-things moments \u2014 things I think I could never forget, but do. For example, until my mother reminded me, I&amp;#039;d forgotten how, years ago, as we were driving on the highway, I asked my husband, &amp;quot;Have we ever seen this drawbridge raised?&amp;quot; and my now-12-year-old piped up, &amp;quot;If that&amp;#039;s the drawbridge, where&amp;#039;s the castle?&amp;quot; And right now, I can&amp;#039;t imagine ever forgetting the distant time when my now-6-year-old politely asked, &amp;quot;Can I have some more pajamas on my pasta?&amp;quot; while meaning to say &amp;quot;Parmesan&amp;quot; \u2014 but I will, I will. Of course, some days I forget to write that one sentence; I&amp;#039;ve let 10 days go by without once remembering to write in the journal. And I never write much. Nonetheless, I&amp;#039;ve managed to get a lot of moments down on paper. Now that I&amp;#039;ve kept this up for so long, I recognize that just a handful of sentences each week is enough to help me recall my children&amp;#039;s younger days (as well as my own!) and hang on to precious memories. On January 12, 2010, I wrote: &amp;quot;Eleanor and I are reading Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle at bedtime. I never tire of those books.&amp;quot; On January 12, 2011, I wrote: &amp;quot;This morning, both girls, one after the other, sobbed on my lap for no good reason. Quite a scene. Perfectly cheery afterward.&amp;quot; My one-sentence journal memorializes my family life, but it&amp;#039;s a tool that can be used to keep track of any subject that&amp;#039;s important to you. You might keep a general journal, a journal of your baby&amp;#039;s first year, a gratitude journal, a reading log, a record of lessons you&amp;#039;ve learned from launching your own business. It would be wonderful to keep a one-sentence journal while falling in love. I know someone who maintained a one-sentence journal as she was going through chemo. In the years after her treatment, the journal was a powerful reminder of everything she&amp;#039;d survived. One of my blog readers \u2014 I&amp;#039;ll call him John \u2014 e-mailed me a description of his version of a one-sentence journal, which I thought was brilliant. John, who travels frequently for work, carries a small notebook in his briefcase, and every time he&amp;#039;s sitting on a plane and waiting for passengers to board, he writes a few pages about recent family adventures. Once he&amp;#039;s permitted to use his computer, he works; he writes in the journal only during passenger seating and take-off. The brilliance of this approach lies in both its manageability and its reclamation of what usually feels like wasted time. The time spent waiting for people to take their seats on a plane seems like a frustrating, dull period, but John found a creative and productive way to use those minutes. By writing a few pages every few weeks, John manages to accomplish a sizable amount of writing--and he&amp;#039;s transformed his travel experience. He plans to give copies of the journal to his three sons when they turn 18. When making resolutions, keep them manageable. When you set a new goal, it&amp;#039;s tempting to set the bar so high that it&amp;#039;s impossible to reach consistently. Eating more healthfully, taking up exercise, learning a new language, planting a garden...the initial enthusiasm turns to guilt and anxiety when you don&amp;#039;t follow through. I&amp;#039;ve discovered that \u2014 perhaps counterintuitively \u2014 it&amp;#039;s often easier to do something every day than to do it only some days. Weirdly, it&amp;#039;s easier to go for a walk every day than to go four times a week; it&amp;#039;s easier to write in a journal every day than just once in a while. When you do something every day, there&amp;#039;s no debate, no procrastination, no wondering, Today or tomorrow? The action quickly becomes part of your ordinary routine, a matter of habit. Now that I&amp;#039;ve kept my one-sentence journal for several years, I can look back to remember our lives at different stages. When I flipped through the pages and landed in February from four years ago, I saw the following entry: &amp;quot;So sweet: At the pediatrician&amp;#039;s, Eleanor kept saying, &amp;#039;Get Eno&amp;#039;s coat? Where Mommy&amp;#039;s coat?&amp;#039; \u2014 meaning, Mommy, let&amp;#039;s get our coats and get outta here!&amp;quot; I&amp;#039;d forgotten that moment, but now it comes back to me vividly. It happened only four years ago, but four years is an epoch in family life, and already I feel deeply sentimental about that time. The days are long, but the years are short. A one-sentence journal doesn&amp;#039;t make me feel burdened. It gives me a feeling of accomplishment and progress, it helps keep happy memories vivid (remembering happy times from the past is one of the best ways to make yourself happy in the present), and it gives me a reason to pause to think lovingly about my family. If you&amp;#039;re intrigued by this idea, I&amp;#039;ve created a journal (see box at left) in which you can keep your own one-sentence remembrances. Simply turn to a date in the book and write a line or two about your day. As the years go by, you&amp;#039;ll create an at-a-glance treasury of memories. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/wellness/advice/a18149/keep-a-one-sentence-journal/>