Why is it so hard to keep up a diary?

IT ISN’T! Not if you limit your diary writing to just four minutes. Spend two minutes writing a list of things you remember from the day before, and then another two minutes writing what you remember seeing the day before. For some reason, splitting the four minutes into remembered events and remembered scenes seems to bring images more easily to mind.

If you like, you can use this video as a timer for your daily diary entry.

As part of Lynda Barry’s spring semester Arts Institute Residency at the University of Wisconsin-Madison she’s having her students keep a four minute daily diary in their composition notebooks along with their other assignments.

It’s so easy! Why not try it?

After about a week or so you’ll start to notice the things you notice as you move through your day.

Get your composition notebook and pen ready and then just click on the video.