Mikes Thoughts

the zibaldone

I was happening to be reading along on reddit which I still enjoy doing. Mostly these days I will use an RSS reader that shows a particular subreddit along with comments. News Explorer on Mac and iOS does this well.

I don’t do analog journaling whatsoever but I am always curious about what others do and what they call it. A lot of people need labels or want to search for communities or commentary on their particular way of journaling. Hence the idea of Zibaldone. Here is something on what it means,

Zibaldone is an Italian word that means “heap of things” or “miscellany.”

Source: https://thecopperden.com/the-zibaldone-a-journal-thats-changing-how-i-capture-ideas/

This got me thinking about what I do daily which is a mess that could only work for me in a markdown file each day. I start mornings but often I segue to an idea of writing, a walk I like doing, some coffee I enjoy, a particular rant or rave. All this just goes on every day for me. I had no real idea that I was doing a “heap of things” but it makes sense. It’s like this melange of conflicting ideas, words, thoughts. It would be fun to be able to do this with an analog approach I think. I would probably paste in whatever. In my markdown editor though, adding photos, screen captures, whatever is not so challenging.

So if someone asks what kind of journaling I do; perhaps I just tell them it’s a mess. Or I reply its a zibaldone.

the best thing with it?

The best thing is there does not have to be some name to it. One commenter said “you do you”. This brought me to the idea that for some reason or other we need rules and ways to classify things. Some way of saying we do “this” and it’s kinda like “that”. I don’t believe writing a journal comprised of heaps of everything has some magic metric or algorithm to it. If we need that level of classification and definition, I wonder how long people will do “hot messes” of journaling. Just like I could never do bullet journals or go with rules of writing three sentences a day or come up with a goal for the journal to be a certain type of thing. I have tried different journals before. Sivers called these topical journals or “thoughts on” journals. The problem here is lumping versus splitting perhaps for me. I gain more by cramming in the variety of life each day in a single file. Letting a new one be created thanks to the kindness of apple shortcuts and an automation and then move on yet again.

finals and coffee and doing it all again

When I get back to this, I think it will be tomorrow or next day. I like time to let a thing sit. Maybe I read it and decide I want to go some other direction on the spur of some moment or I just do it and add a friendly H2 header and let that be the separation or new place of doing it all again.

I had written about some faltering steps with writing. Then I read some things today. The house was quiet and I found words waiting for me. I like that.

See you for a morning coffee. Now that’s a good time to zibaldone. And there I went. More thoughts spilling into a place only fit for me. Now it’s with a morning started earlier. A new desire to write the same old crap. Looks like you’re stuck with me.

ur cafe