Journaling Just Works

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A place to discuss anything related to keeping a journal, a diary, a planner, a bullet journal, art/junk journal. Productivity, self-help, mindfulness, memory-keeping, creativity, project management or any other purpose.

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Want to digitalize my journal (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hello, I am keeping a journal in handwritten form for several years now. From the beginning I used acid free paper and archival ink so that the pages will be readable for a few decades. However I am thinking about keeping a digital backup of everything for several months now. Reason for that is that in case of a fire I'd loose all my memories. So it is important to me to keep this information in a separate place.

Now I could go the easy way and could just scan all pages and save them, but this would just be a regular backup. So I was reading about OCR that is being used by many software solutions to recognize text and make pictures or scans searchable. However this is good only for digital text and not meant for handwriting.

Now Apple shows that recognizing handwriting is possible, because my iPad learns from my handwriting in notes and can convert digital text to look exactly like my handwriting. I can make a picture of handwritten text, too, and can then select that text in the photos app. So this shows me that there is indeed a solution that can recognize my handwriting.

So does anyone here know how I could achieve this in my case so that I have a digital backup of my written journals and make all of this searchable? I am fine with technical solutions like python scripts or self-hosting something, as long as it makes my goal possible.

Thank you in advance!

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

a) I hope you don't loose all your memories, but I do understand it's a very real fear.

b) I personally do not trust corporations like Apple to do my personal information properly. My gal found it so quaint that they have handwriting recognition, it struck terror in my heart.

c) Instead of archiving every piece of paper (which by the by you can do at a local library for free if you live in any sort of populace hub in America) I suggest you might consider archiving just the pieces that pull you. Perhaps small snapshots that comprise the greater moments of your life. Perhaps the little things that remind of you the kindness of the world. I think that's really up to you, but I think digitizing your works if you'd like to is quite a good idea!

d) You can archive them on a cloud service you enjoy or backup them on external memory just in case you are afraid of losing your content. I like to backup my most important things on all three. I use Sync for my cloud service needs, and a micro sd/usb flash drive for the physical. I also have a SSD hard drive, but I keep it hooked up to my lappy so I don't consider it all that safe. Besides which I have heard for archival purposes a safely stored HDD hard drive is actually better for this. Although I don't have the skinny, and others might have better input to assist on this.

As for making something searchable, to be honest I would start with how you name your files. Figure out a dating system you can recognize immediately. Think of your file hierarchy. Do you want to store your excerpts by year, and then store those by month? Then create a folder for the year and twelve sub-folders and plop your files there. As for automating the process, I don't know anything about that to be honest. It's plausible it's all something you could automate. But I am unaware of the process.

I am a person who moves a lot. I have lost most of my precious (materialistic) things through out my life. The way I archive them is either through photo, or just through memory. I share my memories, which is how I keep them alive. This is probably not the most efficient way to handle things, but it is how I handle things. I have noticed as I age that my system's cracks begin to show. I also figured that things just fall out of your head for a reason, and that perhaps as we age we sort of need that emptiness to let go. It's kind of dour, but I once worked in a (god-awful) restorative home and it taught me a lot more about aging than I ever witnessed in my day to day.

By the by, the reason why I suggest selective keepsakes is because it's how I've had to execute my own collections. I keep what I feel means quite a bit to me, even if it's a small hand-written note just saying "hi!" It's just about what "sparks joy" as Marie Kondo says =)! It keeps things succinct, although I don't always keep/let go of the right things. But there really isn't much I can do about that, and I am thankful I have anything at all. Good luck, and I hope you find a solution that not only works for you but is pleasurable to execute =)

Also good luck with any memory issues you may be facing, they're terrifying and if you are facing some I am so sorry for that.