Journaling

​If you pick up any self-help, witchcraft, or spiritual practice book these days, one of the first things they will suggest to you is to keep a record of the work you do. Usually this is in the form of journaling, which can be done as a written record or a voice recording. Regardless of what you journal about, or how you do it, records can be important. There are many reasons to keep a journal. Some examples would be:

1. Monitoring your progress for a task or project
2. Keeping track of what does or does not work for you during spell work
3. Remembering dreams so you can analyze them later or see if there are repeating themes/dreams
4. Monitoring your thoughts/feelings during different moon phases and/or seasons
5. Recording your sabbat/esbat celebrations
6. Keeping track of your divinatory insights during readings
7. Noting signs you see so you can interpret them or see patterns as the emerge
8. Remembering things you would like to try when the timing is right for you

Really, you are only limited by your own needs and imagination.  You can journal about anything you want. There are plenty of beautiful journals out there to write down your every thought for almost every budget; or you can make your own if you are crafty.
In my youth I used to keep personal journals (which I still have in storage). Now I mostly keep track of tarot and other divinatory readings that I feel are important, and recipes for oils/balms/tinctures/etc.. that I use. With all the other writing that I do, journaling everything else seems a bit much. If I kept a journal for every psychology and spiritual book I read I would have hundreds of them laying around by now.
That said, not everyone likes to write, or to keep a written record of their practices, let alone their thoughts and feelings. Journaling can seem more like a chore than a helpful tool if you don’t like to write. Sometimes we just jot down a few notes in a notebook or make a sticky note so we don’t forget, and that is perfectly OK. Personally, I have notebooks all over my house that I use to keep track of things I need/want to remember later. I wish I could say I was more organized than that about it, and I guess it is kind of an organized chaos, but that is just how it works for me. Whatever works for you is what you should do.
So the question is, are you a stickler for writing everything down? Do you like keeping a written record at all, or do you prefer to write down only the essentials? What is your writing/record keeping style?