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How I finally get daily journaling done with a workflow on my iPhone

michael.team

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Re: How I finally get daily journaling done with a workflow on my iPhone

#21

Post by rg111 »

Journaling is definitely one of the things where you have to figure your own way out.

I tried a lot of things. Markdown based apps (Obsidian), Diary apps (Diarium), and so on.

What worked finally was pen and paper. Not any pen. Bought a bunch of good fountain pens (Lamy, Pilot, Parker), and bought a nice refillable leatherbound journal.

And I journal every night before my meditation session before going to bed.

I do not plan to read them or store them. I just write my heart out. I use writing as a tool of thinking, and dumping my thoughts. The stuff that have some particular qualities, evolve into actions (anywhere from visiting a friend or a travel trip to learning something new), blogs, or projects.

I do not plan to do OCR or any kind of special storage.

I hated digital journaling because I had to pick up the phone or sit somewhere to use the laptop/desktop. Also a quick figure would require me to at least open a tool, and at most made me connect my graphics tablet. Pen and paper just removed the friction. Now I just journal in bed sitting or half-lying under a lamp with my wifi turned off.

Pen and paper is my ideal workflow, and I reached here after months of trial-and-error.

Re: How I finally get daily journaling done with a workflow on my iPhone

#22

Post by hkc »

I think Diarium [1] is the most underrated journaling app. I have been using it for around a while and can definitely recommend it. Also, it is one time pay (for each platform though which I think is still better than an overpriced subscription)

[1] https://timopartl.com/#diarium

Re: How I finally get daily journaling done with a workflow on my iPhone

#23

Post by kirso »

rg111 wrote: post #21

Journaling is definitely one of the things where you have to figure your own way out. I tried a lot of things. Markdown based apps (Obsidian), Diary apps (Diarium), and so on. What worked finally was pen and paper. Not any pen. Bought a bunch of good fountain pens (Lamy, Pilot, Parker), and bought a nice refillable leatherbound journal. And I journal every night before my meditation session before going to bed. I do…

Love it. The only issue I had with this approach is aggregating notebooks but not enough storage (due to constant travel) to keep doing this without having a separate bag just for it.

Its very contextual but I truly believe this is the best way!

Re: How I finally get daily journaling done with a workflow on my iPhone

#24

Post by hackernewds »

sircastor wrote: post #13
mgdlbp wrote: post #3

Why write on the phone when routinely journalling before and after bed? I always feel stifled by typing speed on a touch keyboard; in this case especially, it seems minimizing the friction of expressing a spontaneous thought would take priority. I don't see mention of dictation, unless it's a given with the app. Or is that particular workflow feature so beneficial as to offset this?

> I always feel stifled by typing speed on a touch keyboard My typing speed on a laptop keyboard was the thing that finally made journaling work for me. I could never write fast enough by hand to capture my thoughts.

Have you tried swipe typing?

Re: How I finally get daily journaling done with a workflow on my iPhone

#25

Post by hackernewds »

zaplin wrote: post #15

An interesting twist about the gratitude practice: It turns out that it does not work they way we think it works. At least that's what the scientists say. To get the desired results the practice needs to be inverted. "The key elements of highly effective gratitude practices are [...] the essential need for story (narrative), receiving or perceiving gratitude rather than giving it, and the role that theory of mind pla…

This is one of the most authoritative and influential 90m talk on this matter. It has been transformational

Re: How I finally get daily journaling done with a workflow on my iPhone

#26

Post by hackernewds »

jl6 wrote: post #20
spoonjim wrote: post #8

Find a lot of people I know living what I tend to consider an overexamined life.

There’s certainly a public form of journaling that happens on social media that seems to start with good intentions but then descends into self-diagnosis. In terms of private journaling - well, it’s private, so hard to draw any general conclusions, but I tend to think that if you’re spending more than half an hour each day writing about yourself then you might have a problem.

Public journaling it seems inevitably devolves into glorifying the highlights and seeking attention and acceptance, rather than honesty. Which expectedly the media platforms exploit for engagement metrics.

Re: How I finally get daily journaling done with a workflow on my iPhone

#27

Post by hackernewds »

spoonjim wrote: post #19
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the effects, in your opinion, of an overexamined life?

Anxiety, dissatisfaction, relentless comparison of oneself with others, etc.

I have heard people say the unexamined life is one not as gratifying

Re: How I finally get daily journaling done with a workflow on my iPhone

#28

Post by bambax »

rg111 wrote: post #21

Journaling is definitely one of the things where you have to figure your own way out. I tried a lot of things. Markdown based apps (Obsidian), Diary apps (Diarium), and so on. What worked finally was pen and paper. Not any pen. Bought a bunch of good fountain pens (Lamy, Pilot, Parker), and bought a nice refillable leatherbound journal. And I journal every night before my meditation session before going to bed. I do…

I built myself a system that sends me an email every day, and all I have to do is respond to that email; the answers get stored in an SQLite database, which is backed up on Dropbox.

So, opposite to you, my system lets me revisit and read my previous thoughts, something I do enjoy. It's also a great tracking system that tells me when this or that event happened.

But, like you, it's not dependent on any specific tool. I can lose my phone and all my devices, as long as I can receive and send email, it'll work.

Re: How I finally get daily journaling done with a workflow on my iPhone

#29

Post by spoonjim »

hackernewds wrote: post #27
spoonjim wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anxiety, dissatisfaction, relentless comparison of oneself with others, etc.

I have heard people say the unexamined life is one not as gratifying

There is an optimal middle ground
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