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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

#61

Post by nindalf »

dominotw wrote: post #46
nindalf wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When my friends ask why I pay for my journaling software instead of a free option, I tell them $22 a year is a great price for my primary therapist. I found I wasn’t being completely open and honest when I was journaling on pen and paper because I was subconsciously concerned someone else would read it. A password protected journal works better for me.

curious, whats the software called.

DayOne. OP mentions it as well.

I like it because it’s password protected and cross platform. It doesn’t hurt that I can add pictures in for trip reports.

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

#62

Post by liquidf0x »

rpastuszak wrote: post #35
wenc wrote: post #6

Journaling is actually a great way of promoting mental and emotional health. I don't journal daily because I don't have enough to say every day, but I do something similar called "writing therapy", especially when I'm feeling emotionally stuck. I find bad emotions to only be bothersome because they are inside and unprocessed. Externalizing emotions onto a physical page (not digital!) helps me process them. The physic…

> Journaling is actually a great way of promoting mental and emotional health. Can't agree more. I built myself a simple writing app[1] a couple of years back, purely because I wanted to have a place to slow down, somewhere I could just pour my emotions/thoughts into, without self-editing. I posted a bit more about in the root thread. If you give the app a shot, let me know. I think you might like it. > "So what do t…

going to set this as my homepage and use it daily. thank you.

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

#63

Post by rpastuszak »

liquidf0x wrote: post #62
rpastuszak wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Journaling is actually a great way of promoting mental and emotional health. Can't agree more. I built myself a simple writing app[1] a couple of years back, purely because I wanted to have a place to slow down, somewhere I could just pour my emotions/thoughts into, without self-editing. I posted a bit more about in the root thread. If you give the app a shot, let me know. I think you might like it. > "So what do t…

going to set this as my homepage and use it daily. thank you.

Glad to hear that, good luck!

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

#64

Post by jl6 »

mpalmer wrote: post #56
jl6 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You pass judgement pretty easily. Private journaling is not always "writing about yourself" in the narcissistic sense you seem to mean. Plenty of people feel like their thoughts and ideas are worthwhile but can't keep track of them without writing them down. Some of them even pass the 30 minute cutoff doing so.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m 100% behind keeping a private journal, even one where you just write about yourself, but you can have too much of a good thing, and I see 30 minutes a day as the reasonable limit.

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

#65

Post by sircastor »

hackernewds wrote: post #24
sircastor wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

I have. It’s actually my primary input method for my phone. It’s certainly fast, but I’m still better with a physical two-handed keyboard.

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

#66

Post by karencarits »

wenc wrote: post #6

Journaling is actually a great way of promoting mental and emotional health. I don't journal daily because I don't have enough to say every day, but I do something similar called "writing therapy", especially when I'm feeling emotionally stuck. I find bad emotions to only be bothersome because they are inside and unprocessed. Externalizing emotions onto a physical page (not digital!) helps me process them. The physic…

And, although it may be obvious, journaling is not a general miracle cure;there are many stories of suicide where a diary has been left, only to show to those left how someone has been stuck in a spiral of desperation, self-hatred and anxiety for a long time

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

#67

Post by mgdlbp »

sircastor wrote: post #65
hackernewds wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried swipe typing?

I have. It’s actually my primary input method for my phone. It’s certainly fast, but I’m still better with a physical two-handed keyboard.

Ditto. Though I see now: it seemed obvious to me commenting initially that physical keyboard typing speed ≫ touch keyboard typing speed. Rather, a cursory search now shows averages of around 50 WPM vs 40 WPM, so there isn't much difference for most people; I don't doubt that with practice on the phone some will upset the inequality. But up in the tails is where mobile falls short: I think I'll be sticking with writing on desktop when I can, as judging by the record mobile typing speed of either 85 or 110 WPM (over only 25 words ≈ 15 seconds), I don't think I have much chance of approaching my two-handed typing in practice.

But maybe there's a benefit in slowing down, perhaps more concise notes the first time around? For millennia diarists scribbled on dead plants, after all. Then again, the average writing ability was illiteracy, and isn't there the cliché of individuals nowadays being more productive than ever before?

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

#68

Post by mgdlbp »

swatcoder wrote: post #7
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?

It doesn’t take that much practice to get typing speed/comfort up to the speed of organized, phrased thoughts. A lot of people have that already from communicating on their phones a lot, or (for the young ones) growing up on touch screens, but even if you just dive into journaling like the OP, you’d probably get their soon enough. And once you’re there, dictation can’t hold a candle. I’ll type a paragraph in the time…

I see now that I didn't make it clear that I commented because I find desktop typing superior rather than as a general lament of typing speed. That'd be the curse of knowledge, only in the domain of personal context.

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

#69

Post by bennysomething »

wenc wrote: post #17
sdze wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forgetting is as good as journaling.

Ah, if only my brain would let me selectively forget! Journaling is actually a way to forget as long as one throws out what one writes and never revisit (which I never do). It works like an accelerated Ebbinghaus curve. That said, I suspect forgetful people are often less emotionally burdened. Similar to how heavy sleepers tend not to be grumpy people because nothing prevents them from having a good night's sleep.

I'm really forgetful to the point I'm starting to worry about its impact on my career. I also ruminate like hell even about things that happened in high school, constantly feeling bad about things I said, did or didn't do.

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

#70

Post by codethief »

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 know you said you

> do not plan to read them or store them.

and

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

but in case anyone else is struggling with the problem you described,

> 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.

my solution has been an e-ink tablet, specifically the Supernote A5X. The Supernote's handwriting is extremely fast and accurate and, as far as quality, to me there's no difference to writing on real paper, even though it might not feel exactly like writing on paper. (It feels different but very good!)

All in all, it's basically like a paper notebook, just with more pages/storage and the ability to erase/edit and built-in digitization.

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