Name the Day

Each day, write one sentence about the most memorable thing that happened; it’s a simple journaling habit, and you’d be surprised how much it jogs your memory years later.

"At the end of each school day, my class would name the day. I’d take suggestions from the kids, writing them on the board, and then they’d vote. Sometimes there was one clear moment that stood out and it was simply a question of agreeing on the best wording. Other times different kids wanted to remember something different.

It became part of the daily ritual. I’d keep track of the approved names, and on the last day of school, along with their final report card, my students would receive a list of all the names for that school year.

When you look back on 175 days, it’s hard to remember what happened each day, but good names had staying power. I still can remember, for example, The Day Gretchen Found a Crumb on Her Desk. That phrase, now almost 40 years old, brings back faces, a classroom, a set of activities with those kids.

My wife and I adopted the practice of naming the day when we took a big trip. Each of us would come up with our own name and we’d compare notes. My wife put together a photo album of that trip, and she often included each of our names with the photos from that particular day." David Millstone, a retired elementary schoolteacher from Lebanon, N.H.