19 Feb 2014

It captures the thoughts of many, a relive of happiness and sorrow to some and a best friend to a little girl to express her and everyday life in one. A diary is that little book that one holds the most secret. Some refer to it as a journal.

It is hailed by most historians as the cradle of human civilisation because it is through the recordings in a dairy that novelists published their manuscripts; also through it that many inventors, researchers, and innovators published their works.

According to information collected from the internet, diaries undertaken for institutional purposes play a role in many aspects of human civilisation, including government records (e.g., Hansard), business ledgers and military records.

In British English, the word may also denote a preprinted journal format. The oldest extant diaries come from Middle Eastern and East Asian cultures, although the even earlier work ‘To Myself’, written in Greek by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in the second half of the 2nd century AD, already displays many characteristics of a diary.

Different forms of dairies include the ever popular personal diary, travel journals, and diet journal. The most unusual diaries, that include a sleep diary or sleep log, is a tool used in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders.

A war diary is a regularly updated official record of a military unit’s administration and activities during wartime maintained by an officer in the unit.

Diaries come in different shapes, colours, forms and sizes. They are almost everywhere, either as a recording of events in the news room, or a top official’s daily activities, or even a love stuck teenager recording his/her thoughts.

Harvard professor, Teresa Amabile, has been researching what motivates creativity, and what keeps them going, for years. And it turns out the simple answer is: Keeping a diary.

In addition, some of the prevalent reasons to keep a diary include progress. It is very important for one to keep track of their lives and we often lose track if the progress is not documented. Diaries could also be helpful in capturing important occurrence, events and rare phenomena. This helps one to record, plot and memorises something; this reduces the chances of losing out some pertinent information.

Further, Kristen Leon in her book, said, by keeping a diary documenting what you do each day, you can review your activities and make changes if you find you are not accomplishing your goals.

Secondly, it can make you more disciplined, it is a stress reliever, it is a way to keep memories alive and lastly it can make one a better and creative writer, so there is no doubt that you will keep one. BOPA