Day One - journal app

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Day One is an iPhone and Mac journaling app that seeks to simplify the arduous (ok, just remembering to do it is half the battle) task of keeping a journal. First off, why keep a journal? The creators of this app released two excellent posts, one about why to journal, the other about how to get started/in the habit of it.  To summarize, keeping a journal effects many-to-all aspect of your life (a "keystone" habit) because it can change your thinking.  It helps you organize your thoughts, understand yourself better, keeps a record for the future, and for you to look back on. I find when I keep a journal my mind is much clearer and I can remember things better.

I have and am reviewing the iPhone version of Day One, but I assume the Mac version is very similar (unfortunately, there is no Android version I am aware of yet, but similar apps exist for Android). The interface is simple and does everything I would want it to do plus a little more. The goal of the design team was to make keeping a journal as simple as tweeting or text messaging, I think they have done a good job, especially considering the app costs about the same as a nice hardbound journal ($4.99).

Journal entry view

A basic entry (for me) is a photo (only one per entry) and some text. The app can (if you want) adjust the date, time, and location to that of the photo (if geotagging was on), which I have been using to back-fill from before I had the app using my photos. The text has basic formatting (bold, lists, etc) which I don't bother with. Current weather (or past weather if you change the date and location) will automatically be added (if you turn that on), which I think is a super cool bonus feature. You can tag posts to make it easy to filter/search. These are all the basic features I would want in a journal, you can read about some more on the creator's website.  You can view your entries by date on a calendar, as a long timeline (chronological list), as tiled photos, by year, or by tag. Several styles (kind of like skins) are available if you like customizing things like that.

Now, the all important export and saving features. What good is a journal on my phone if I can't put it somewhere in a permanent format (AKA printed)? What if I want to send it to a someone else, or what if my phone crashes? All of the data can be backed up to the icloud or dropBox. The app can export your entry(ies) as a .pdf or send it straight to the e-mail app with the photo as an attachment.  A very useful feature is exporting only entries with specific tags. For example, lets say I just had a baby and some of my entries are about her. I can tag those (very easily), and export only those as a pdf, then send it to family members. A new ("publish") feature lets users publish a mini-webpage with the journal entry, and allow it to be shared to whomever they wish.

Cons: The app only lets you attach one photo per entry. This isn't too big of a deal because I can just make another entry right after it. When scrolling through entries, the top and bottom quarters of photos are cut off (to make more room for the text?). The photo can be viewed full screen with a simple click, but I would still rather see it all there. The top often has faces in it, so the photo I see when scrolling is a bunch of headless folks. When iOS gets updated, entries may disappear. The help guide lists a few ways to get them back, which worked for me.

Three primary ways to view entries. Timeline, photo, and calendar.

Conclusions: Having a sleek and elegant journal app (like Day One) makes me much more likely to actually make journal entries because I almost always have my phone, and I can take 5 minutes (or less) anytime (like sitting at the doctor's office, the bus, car ride, what-have-you) to make a little photo-entry and have it forever. This will be $4.99 well spent*.

*I actually got this for free from the iTunes store anniversary, this is the best app of the bunch in my opinion (its the only one I actually use).