Apple’s Journal App Is Easy, Free, and Already on Your Phone

You may tweak this through the Settings. You’ve the choice to both flip Journaling Strategies off utterly or choose and select which of them you need to carry on together with Exercise (your exercises and workout routines), Media (podcasts and music you hearken to) Contact (individuals you message and name), Pictures (library, reminiscences, and shared photographs) and Important Places (locations the place you spend time). Since I do not care to put in writing about my telephone calls or texts or my areas, I turned off Contacts and Important Places.

Journal can be included inside the share sheet in all apps. So, in the event you’re scrolling by content material outdoors the app, you possibly can faucet the Share button and choose Journal to ship content material proper into the app. You can even write about new music you found on Spotify, a humorous meme from Twitter, or an attention-grabbing TikTok.

What About Notes?

If I had been utilizing The Alignment System to explain the distinction between Notes and Journal, I would categorize the Notes app as Chaotic Good and the Journal app as Lawful Good. I nonetheless use my Notes app for fleeting ideas: story concepts, grocery lists, passwords, packing checklists, electronic mail addresses, and recipes. When you had been to scroll by every entry, you’d discover a very big selection of issues. There isn’t any rhyme or purpose to it. However the Journal app is strictly reserved for my reminiscences and ideas. There is a sense of order once you scroll by it.

In contrast to the Notes app, the Journal app is passcode-protected. Depending on the iPhone model you’ve, you possibly can both use a numerical passcode, Contact ID, or Face ID. So, you do not have to fret about individuals studying your deepest, darkest secrets and techniques.

Nonetheless, there are some Notes-specific options I want Apple would’ve integrated into Journal. For starters, it would be good if there was a search bar to lookup entries. As an alternative, you possibly can solely search based mostly on classes: Pictures, Movies, Reflections, Locations, and Bookmarked (you may must bookmark entries for them to look right here manually). I can think about it’s going to develop into pretty irritating over time as you rack up entries.

I additionally want Apple would’ve prolonged the app to the remainder of its units. Like I mentioned earlier than, it is solely obtainable on iPhone. Seeing as how this can be a text-based app at its core, I usually discover myself wanting to sit down down and sort out longer journal entries on my MacBook or my iPad utilizing the Magic Keyboard. It feels limiting, particularly on days once I’m attempting to be on my telephone much less. You can retailer your journal entries in iCloud, although. That approach, in the event you change telephones, you may nonetheless have entry to all of them.

A Push within the Proper Path

I want I might say the Journal app reworked me into somebody who now loves to journal. It hasn’t. But when there’s something I’ve taken away from utilizing it, it is that I haven’t got to place a lot stress on myself to be an excellent journaler. I used to assume every entry needed to be insanely lengthy and full of a great deal of emotion. By providing the flexibility to doc your ideas, emotions, and reminiscences utilizing a bunch of several types of content material, I really feel happy once I’ve logged an entry no matter how a lot I’ve written.

Over time, journaling thrice per week started to really feel extra like a chore than a calming exercise. As soon as per week or every time I really feel like I want to specific overwhelming ideas appears superb. Regardless, it is weirdly comforting to know it is proper there on my telephone every time I want it.

When you’re already within the behavior of journaling utilizing a bodily pocket book, or recurrently use one other journaling app, I would not change, except you actually need to incorporate content material out of your telephone otherwise you usually wrestle with determining what to put in writing about. But it surely’s straightforward and intuitive to make use of. You may specific your self with TikToks and songs, not simply written emotions. And in the event you’re ever caught, it affords you prompts, so, you may at all times have one thing to put in writing about. When you, like me, by no means journaled as a result of it felt overwhelming, it is a good place to begin.