Seven Ways a Divorce Diary Can Be Useful

Going through a divorce is a serious process that demands much of one's time and energy. Handling legal matters, dividing assets, managing emotions, caring for children, and trying to make big decisions can are tough to deal with all at once. With so much going on, it can be easy to forget details that could prove to be important later on. Also, it's easy to begin feeling overwhelmed and desire some kind of emotional outlet. If you find yourself in this situation, you may find keeping a divorce journal can be quite helpful. Here are seven ways that a divorce journal can prove to be useful.

You can recall past events: Trying to remember all of the little details about events before or after your divorce began can be hard to do. You may think that you remember some of the major details pretty well, but much of the small stuff is already lost. Getting everything you can into a divorce diary can help you to work out your memories. Writing down your thoughts on past events might help you recall more, but be careful not to create memories of things that didn't happen. Overall, your past recollections in your divorce diary might not be completely accurate, but getting out what you can now may prove to be useful to you later on.

You can document the present: Before forgetting important details about what happened on certain days, try getting them written down right away. Your divorce diary can serve as a convenient place to record this information. Writing down details about what happened at certain events, what your kids did during the day, how you are feeling, and anything else relating to your family situation will be more accurately recorded if you do so sooner rather than later. 

You can reflect on emotions: Divorce or separation are difficult situations for any person or family to face. Emotions run high when so many things are changing around you, so taking the time to reflect on and process what you're feeling can support you in your efforts to move forward in life. Just seeing your feelings written down can give you a real chance to contemplate where you have been and where you want to be. 

Diaries don't talk back: You may already talk to people like family and friends about your divorce and how you're feeling, and these people probably offer responses. Maybe they give you advice or words of support, or maybe they'll tell you what you should do. Sometimes this can be helpful, but there are other times where you just have to say without someone talking back to you. Your divorce diary is your space to record and vent on anything you need to without talking back to you. Talking through your thoughts and feelings with others–particularly mental health professionals–can be quite helpful, but your diary can prove to be quite a refreshing break from listening to the voices of others. 

You can analyse thoughts: When you document details about things that have happened before, during, or after your divorce, you create an opportunity for you to better analyse what happened by reading it later on. You might have been quite upset at the moment about some conflict that ensued between you and your co-parent, but looking through your divorce diary on the days leading up to when the conflict began could give you insight as to how you ended up where you are. It can also help inform what your next move may be. 

It's always there for you: You might have regular appointments with your divorce coach or therapist, but they might not be readily available to you every single moment you need to get something out. Your divorce diary is always there for you to write down your thoughts or details about something that happened right when you need to. Then later, you'll have a more detailed recollection of exactly what you wanted to talk to these individuals about without forgetting anything.

You choose what you share: A divorce diary is yours to do what you need to with. This means you should be able to choose to share certain entries with who you want to and keep other entries private just for you. It's harder to do this with a paper diary, but using a secure online divorce diary, like the OurFamilyWizard® journal, you can efficiently manage your entries as you see fit. Integrated into the OurFamilyWizard® calendar, the journal tool lets you associate entries with any date past, present, or future. Each entry has its own privacy settings to allow you to decide whether you want to keep the entry private, share it with only the professionals you work with, or also share it with whichever members of your family you want to. More than just for the parents, using the OurFamilyWizard® journal tool can be great for other family members or caretakers of your children so that they can document exactly what happened on days that they were watching your kids. Most importantly, the OurFamilyWizard® journal tool is a secure, highly documented space for you to create your divorce diary. Also, you can never worry about losing pages or entries because OurFamilyWizard® will keep everything saved in the cloud and let you access it anytime you need it. 

Keeping a divorce diary can be useful to you on many levels, so choosing the most convenient, secure way of keeping it is important. Learn more about the OurFamilyWizard® journal and start keeping your diary today.