Keeping a five-year diary: a few lines a day

An ordinary diary asks for a blank page every evening. A multi-year diary asks for just a few lines. And as you write them, you read above them what you were doing exactly a year earlier on the same day. For many people, that small difference makes it the first diary they actually keep going.

What is a multi-year diary

In a multi-year diary, each date has one page. On that page are three, five or ten small boxes, one below the other, one for each year. On 14 March this year, you write in the top box. Next year you open the same page and write in the box below, with your old entry right above it.

So the book has no year on the cover. You start whenever you like, on any date, and you write the year in the boxes yourself. After a year you are back at your first page and you go through the book again, until all the boxes are full.

Because each day has only one page, a five- or ten-year diary isn't necessarily much thicker than an ordinary page-a-day diary. The boxes just get smaller as more years have to fit on a page.

There are variations too. Some books put two days on a page, which makes the boxes even smaller. Others have extra pages for each year, such as a monthly overview, a blank page for whatever didn't fit in the box, or a page for looking back at the end of the year.

Three, five or ten years: where to start

Experienced diary keepers almost all give the same advice: don't jump straight into ten years if you've never kept a diary going before. A three- or five-year book is a smaller promise, and you'll find out sooner whether it suits you.

A few things to look out for when choosing:

• Space per day. The more years, the fewer lines per day. In a ten-year diary there are often only two or three, in a three-year book usually a few more. If you have large handwriting, choose fewer years or a bigger format.
• Weight. A thick ten-year diary with a hard cover is heavy and doesn't fit easily in a bag. It's a book for your bedside table.
• Lying flat. Many multi-year diaries are sewn but don't lie flat when open, especially at the beginning and end of the book. If so, put another book under the side with fewer pages so you can write straight.
• Paper and pen. The paper is often thin to keep the book manageable. If you use a fountain pen, try a few words on a back page first. A gel pen or fine ballpoint shows through the least.
• Holidays. Imported books sometimes list another country's public holidays. Not a problem, but good to know.

If you'd like to try it out before buying a book, you can use an ordinary notebook. Give each page a date and divide it into boxes with a ruler. Or use a ring binder with loose sheets, so you decide how many years you do.

A tip you hear a lot: choose a book you find beautiful. You'll pick it up every day, for years. A book you grow attached to is one you're less likely to leave lying around.

What to write in a few lines

The small space isn't a limitation, it's the whole idea. You don't have to write a story, just leave a trace. Don't try to capture everything; pick one thing.

What fits well:

• what you did: a working day, a walk, a birthday
• something small you'd otherwise forget: something your child said, a joke at the dinner table
• the weather, the first daffodil in the garden, the first night with the heating on
• how you felt, in a few words
• what you read, cooked or watched
• how you slept or how your health was

A handy habit is to sum up the day in a few keywords at the top, or to circle one word. That way you can quickly find later which year something happened.

Some people write in the morning about the day before. That works well if you're too tired in the evening, and with a night in between you often know better what really mattered.

Make it a little bit yours as well. A small sticker, a strip of washi tape (decorative paper tape) or a tiny drawing in the margin is fine, as long as you keep the boxes free for the years to come. A multi-year diary is too thin for proper glueing and sticking.

Combining it with an ordinary diary or planner

A multi-year diary doesn't replace everything. A long trip, a difficult week or a day full of thoughts won't fit in three lines. That's why many people keep a second book alongside it.

A few combinations that work well:

• Multi-year diary plus journal. The facts go in the small book, the thoughts and feelings go in an ordinary diary or journal. If you want to link them, put a note in the box, such as "see journal".
• Multi-year diary plus planner. Appointments, shopping and tasks belong in the planner. That way the multi-year diary stays about your life and not about your to-do list.
• Multi-year diary plus scrapbook. Tickets, packaging and photos go in a separate book or scrapbook. The multi-year diary then stays flat and fits in its cover for years.

A good rule: never write the same thing in two places. Give each book its own job, and it won't feel like doing the work twice.

What to do when you miss days

You will miss days. Everyone who keeps a multi-year diary has empty boxes. The difference between those who keep going and those who stop lies mostly in how you deal with the gaps.

• Leave them empty. An empty box isn't a mistake. The book simply carries on, and tomorrow there's another box waiting for you.
• Don't force yourself to fill them in. If you're a week behind and want to catch up on everything, you'll soon lose heart. At most, write down the days you still remember, and start again from today.
• Keep it small. One line is enough. Even "quiet day, nothing special" counts.
• Choose set moments. If daily doesn't work, you can record just special days: birthdays, holidays, the first day of school. Even then, after a few years you'll have lovely comparisons.
• Simply start again. After months of silence, you can pick up on any page.

Sometimes a year is so hard that you don't want to see the old pages for a while, after a loss for example. Then the book can stay closed for a time. It will be there until you're ready again.

Why looking back is so lovely

You only discover the best thing about a multi-year diary in the second year. You open the page and there it is: what you did last year, what you were worried about, how small your child still was then.

You notice things you'd never spot in an ordinary diary. That you catch a cold around the same week every spring. That the apple tree blossoms earlier one year than the next. That last year's worry is now barely worth a thought. Sometimes you find coincidences: two years in a row, a card from the same friend on the same day.

And you see what stayed the same. That's just as precious as what changed.

After three or five years you have a small book that sums up a piece of your life, day by day. A book you keep, and one you'll still want to open in twenty years' time.