Wanted to provide an update on my journaling journey. Focusing on what tool I’ve decided to go with for the time being.
Digital vs Analog?
First thing I needed to figure out – to go physical or digital?
As much as I like the idea of sitting at a hip coffeeshop, physical, brown leather journal in hand, jotting down deep thoughts, and as much as physically writing down my thoughts by hand actually feels like a calming, almost meditative activity – storing and reviewing handwritten notes is not super convenient.
I’ve thrown my fair share of journals away as I moved around quite a bit in my early twenties. The burden of having to find storage for my past journals just never really felt worth it, except for journals I knew marked critical periods in my life I’d like to review. I’m currently still renting, and still moving every 1-2 years, so storage remains a moderate concern.
But more than the storage burden, a digital tool, would eliminate the need to carry yet another thing in my backpack. I’m pretty much always near either my iPad or laptop – a digital tool working on could be huge in helping build a journaling habit.
Sooo. many. options
- So, potential digital solutions for a journaling app, kinda fall into 2 categories
- General note-taking tools – examples include
- OneNote
- Evernote
- Notion
- Obsidian
- Drafts
- Specialized journaling
- Day one
- Daylio
- And so many more
- General note-taking tools – examples include
Sooo. Many . Options.
I mean, I’m super thankful for the wide range of options, especially the specialized journaling ones. The productivity app enthusiast in me grew excited at the thought of trying all these apps, but I knew that in the process, not only would I run the risk of wasting a bunch of time on set up (nothing more important in life than getting your productivity app fully set up, right?), but I very much also ran the risk of getting “lost in sauce”, never actually building a journaling HABIT. I needed to just choose one app to get started with. But to do that, I needed to list out what I wanted out of a journaling app.
My terms
This takes us to the things that I’m looking for in a journaling app, or from my journaling experience.
Platform availability
a) I’m often on the go, and end up getting things done on both my iPad and <ac, so I’d like my journaling app to be useable on my Mac and iPad. I’ve been really. trying to dial down my phone usage, so this rules out iPhone-first apps.
Configurability
b) I’d like to be able to configure specific questions corresponding to aspects I’d like to track over time. Examples include my mood, highlights for of my day books im reading, but also more habit-like things, like the amount of deep work I’m getting, a general focus rating for the day, whether or not I’ve exercised
Aggregability(?)
c) Okay, not a word. But I hope get the point. I’d like to be able to view my journals, or logs as I sometimes call them, as the main thing.
And no this post is not sponsored (yet? lol) – but to ME, Notion seemed to perfectly these criteria – Bonus for me as I’ve been already been using Notion for a lot of life things, from restaurant/meal tracking to personal writing.
So Notion it is! For now….
Yes, for now – as I’ve mentioned above, there’s a lot of exciting development happening in the journaling app space, and I’ll very likely check some of them out in the future – but in an effort to really build this habit, and also to really hone done on what I would like ultimately out of a journaling app, Notion offers the best mix of features for my current needs. Maybe this will lead to me finding the perfect app fit, like my to do app (more on that in the future :)). Let’s build this habit.
