Should You Reread an Old Journal? A Practical Way to Decide
If an old journal makes you cringe, you do not have to read it from cover to cover—or read it at all. Decide what you want from opening it, start with a small and low-stakes sample, and give yourself permission to stop. You can keep a journal without treating it as a duty to revisit every page.
Start with a reason for reading
A clear purpose makes it easier to choose what to open and when to stop. You might want to remember a trip, find a date or detail, notice what you used to enjoy, or simply see whether an old entry still feels familiar. If you cannot name a reason beyond “I should,” leaving the journal closed is a reasonable choice.
Diaries record particulars as they were written down, and researchers use diary methods to study everyday experiences over time. That makes a journal a useful source of what you noticed then, but it remains a partial record: it reflects what you chose to write and the moment in which you wrote it. Bolger, Davis and Rafaeli, “Diary Methods: Capturing Life as it is Lived” describes how diary reports capture details of experience that other research designs may not. For a personal reader, the practical takeaway is modest: an entry can remind you of a detail, but it is not a complete account of a period or a verdict on who you were.
Pick a small, specific starting point
Instead of promising yourself a full reread, choose a contained sample: one dated entry, a week from a trip, or a few pages from a year you are curious about. You can also use an external cue, such as a calendar date or an event you remember, to locate a relevant passage. Keep the first session short enough that stopping will feel easy.
This small-sample approach is a practical decision aid, not a tested rule. It reduces the commitment involved and lets you learn how the material feels to read now. If you find yourself interested, continue. If you are bored, uncomfortable, or simply done, close the book. A journal does not have to be read sequentially to be worth keeping.
Read the entry in its original context
Old entries often preserve a moment’s immediate language: what seemed urgent, funny, or important on that day. Before judging a sentence from your present perspective, check the date and read the surrounding lines. Ask: What did I know at the time? What was happening that week? What was I trying to record? These questions help separate a snapshot from a summary of your whole character.
The person rereading is also in a different moment from the person who wrote the entry. An essay on rereading L. M. Montgomery’s journals describes how the reader’s own circumstances and perspective affected what stood out on returning to the same material years later. “Rereading L.M. Montgomery’s Journals: A Personal Reflection” offers a useful reminder: the pages may be the same, while the reader and surrounding context have changed.
Use a simple stopping rule
Before you begin, decide what would count as enough. For example: read one entry, look up one fact, or spend ten minutes with the notebook. At the end, check whether you want to continue. If you do not, stop without turning the decision into a judgment about yourself or the journal.
You can also switch formats. Read only entries about a particular event, skim headings and dates, or ask someone you trust to help locate a practical detail without reading every page. If an entry includes other people’s private information, keep that in mind before sharing it or showing it to someone. Reading for your own curiosity does not require making the journal public.
Decide what to do with the journal afterward
Keeping, storing, digitizing, or discarding are separate choices from rereading. You may keep a journal closed in a private place, retain only selected notebooks, or decide that you no longer want a particular volume. You do not have to settle the future of an entire collection during one reading session.
If you digitize pages for convenience, think about where the copies will live and who can access them. A scan can be easier to search, but it also creates another copy to manage. The UK National Archives’ Guide to archiving personal data discusses security and preservation in an institutional archive context; for personal journals, the relevant general consideration is that storage and access choices affect privacy. Keep files in a place you control, and avoid sharing scans casually if they contain private details about you or other people.
A quick decision checklist
Before opening an old journal, ask yourself:
What do I want to find out or remember?
Which single entry or period is a manageable place to start?
How will I know I have read enough for today?
Where will the journal or any digital copy be stored afterward?
If you have a manageable purpose and are curious, try one entry. If you would rather not read it, leave it closed. Either choice lets the journal remain what it is: a record made at a particular time, available when useful and optional when it is not.