I bought my wife an unusual journal for her birthday last year. It is a diary that has one blank line, and one blank line only, for every day of the year. The assignment: write down one sentence or thought about your day—every day—for a year, and at the end you will have a revealing time capsule about how you spent your time. 

I have always been drawn to tracking and recording my life in unique ways. During college, and for several years after, I would keep a document saved on my computer desktop, listing all the books I read, movies I watched, places I visited, plays I viewed, and sporting events I attended over the course of the year. (I just found my list from 2010; unfortunately, I now read fewer books and attend fewer Knicks games than I used to.)