On Diary

Marc-Antoine Jullien: Controlling Time

MARC-ANTOINE JULLIEN: CONTROLLING TIME What use have you made of the last twenty-four hours? Could you say how long you have spent on each of your activities? Try hard to remember and give a precise figure for each of them, with the help of an analytical classification of the various types of activities. Write down those figures today, tomorrow, and the next few days on the columns of a table that will enable you to record daily variations and calculate averages. Then examine the results and ask yourself whether you have put your time to good use, and whether you have got the balance of your activities right. Should there be more of this, less of that? During the following weeks, use the same method to check how well you have kept your good resolutions. Your life will be changed and you will attain happiness, and be thankful to me. But you should really be thankful to Marc-Antoine Jullien (1775–1848) and his Biometre or Hourly Memorial (Biomètre ou Mémorial horaire), a small booklet which was published in 1813 and was reprinted several times. It was part of a triptych, for two more booklets by Jullien were also available in bookshops. They could be described as pre-printed logbooks, each meant to be filled in with a record of the events of daily life, as seen from a particular point of view. The three elements of the set were as follows: (1) An Analytical Memorial or Journal of Facts and Observations (Mémorial analytique, ou Journal des faits et observations), in which you could dwell at length on one or two interesting facts. One might say this has the effect of a magnifying glass. You note down only one item per day and expatiate on it. You can write briefly or at length: no format is preset for you, the booklet is not laid out like a calendar with the dates printed in advance. The divisions are not horizontal but vertical, and five columns are provided. The central one is meant for the text itself. On the left, two narrow columns: one to indicate the number ascribed to each entry, the other one to indicate its date. On the right, two more columns: one for the subject of each entry, and the other for cross-references with other entries dealing with the same topic. The novelty of the device was to make it possible to establish what we now call a system of indexation. The disorderly nature of ideas jotted down at random, day after day, is corrected, as the titles in the fourth column and the figures of cross-references make it possible for some order to be established as one goes Trans. Marie-Danielle Leruez. From Controlling Time and Shaping the Self: The Rise of Autobiographical Writing since 1750. Ed. Rudolf Dekker and Anne Baggerman. Forthcoming. Marc-Antoine Jullien 103 along. In that respect, the Memorial is analytical. Jullien says he borrowed from Locke the idea of classifying the topics of a text that was by definition heterogeneous in order to make it usable. (2) A General Diary or Practical Record of the Use of Time (Agenda général, ou Livret pratique d’emploi du temps). This log-book gives a general overview of activities, detailed but abridged. The aim is both the opposite of that in the Analytical Memorial and complementary to it: you note as many things as you can in the smallest possible space. It is no longer a question of elaborating on facts, and each day is given the same limited space. This practical booklet includes the diary proper and a series of five specialized Memorials. The diary provides a third of a page for each day with, on one side, a column for assessment (good, average, or bad, symbolized by the signs +, 0, and -) and on the other side a column for “research words,” which makes indexing possible, this being left to the user’s discretion. The specialized Memorials include an economic Memorial (subdivided into various tables: assets, liabilities, miscellaneous remarks, cash book), an epistolary Memorial (a list of letters sent and received), a literary or bibliographic Memorial (a list of books read), and lastly a mnemonic Record or Tablets of Memory meant for notes concerning personal affairs, philanthropic reflections, historical memories, and obituaries . In contrast to the Analytical Memorial, which focused on reflection, this General Diary is meant for the whole...