My grandma once said, "First years don't always follow a traditional calendar year, Honey.” I like to remember her words when the rhythm of life inaugurates a new era. A tender loss, triumphant start, or unexpected move—the seasons of life turn, turn, turn.

Monitoring my health symptoms sometimes feels like I’ve met the wolf that ate Little Red Riding Hood’s grandma. The responsibility is daunting and monstrous, and I forget why I’m doing it. One day, I figured I would track my symptoms on paper to identify patterns. I learned that this strategy is called “control journaling.”

The process of selecting topics for my commonplace book is fairly intuitive. The choices I make come from the topics I come across in my daily life. Each topic helps manage my records while directing where I’d like to go next. The beauty is I don’t have to be overly strategic at the start.