Diary / journaling

I’d like to start a journal / diary on my phone. Essentially just add a few photos and write a bit about what I was up to each day.

Anyone doing this currently? Do you like it? Could you recommend an app / website to use?

Ideally I’d like to be able to download the data in case the app gets shut down.

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I’ve started doing this. Well, since Jan 1st. Quite pleased with the regime in terms of a few notes about the day just before i go to bed. No app though, am using a day-to-page hard copy diary…

Tried it. Got bored. Standard.

Have a blank notebook that I use to document walks/bird lists. Little note about the day (date, time weather ect), list of birds seen and a map of the walk…

Not updated it in a long while though. Need to get back to it.

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that’s fucking rad!

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Thanks man

no idea how you keep track of all that stuff but I like to imagine you just sit down by a river somewhere and draw a little map.

Boring post alert…

Keep a hard list of birds on my phone…

Like this

Then use alltrails app to record the route…

Like this

Then copy them up in the evening after dinner.

The idea is to start doing field sketches of birds/animals/landscapes, but my drawing is atrocious so it’ll be a time off yet

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I have a friend who is way too into birds, I take the piss out of him as he doesn’t really seem to care about other animals to anywhere near the same extent but I have to concede it is a nice hobby. Strange how much wildlife you can notice that you’ve been oblivious to for 30 years as well!

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had a homing pigeon come and stay in his garden the other day too which was funky

I think I would like to do it but I don’t think I could handle the intense emotions of reading back old entries in like 20 years or something. Is that a thing any of you have experienced?

Yep.

I’ve been keeping a digital journal since December 2015. I generally write for 20 minutes or so at the end of every week, reflecting back on the week, what happened, how things have been, that sort of thing.

It’s been invaluable in charting my mental health. It’s now such a comprehensive compendium that it’s also been useful to help my partner understand how her job has changed over the years.

As much as anything else, it’s now at a point where it’s just… nice to browse occasionally, you know? Look back on minor dramas, at the wholesome mundanity that I lamented at the time, remember specifics about holidays.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s entirely for me and it’s a hell of an indulgence, but I love it and sincerely recommend it.

Fuck, this is amazing.

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I’ve tried lots pf apps but i prefer to just use my notes app on my phone, then i use it to write creative stuff from too usually at the end of the year. Have done it for years this way but not daily. The last 9 months or so its mostly just writing about lovely dates I’ve had :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: (more because my adhd makes my memory so bad and i want to remember this stuff, whereas usually i do it for writing practice)

Also have a digital notebook that i use for it though whay i like to do is write up my phone notes onto this and then edit them right down into poems, rather than using it as simply another means to joirnal.

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Also let me take this opportunity to declare once again how my digital notebook has chamged my life, well, its made me write loads more. I love it more than i can say.

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I could never go back and read old entries. Just the thought makes me cringe D:

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I have a main journal that I try to write long form a few times a week. My daily journal though is a small notebook that fits in my pocket. I write everything that comes up during my day in there. Ideas, feelings, to do lists, names, anything so I don’t forget something. I get to be too much of a space cadet without it.

Its awesome that you’re able to keep up with something digital like that. Ive never been able to keep up with a digital journal. It feels peculiar to me. I think its cool that one of your outlets is poetry.

My Facebook Messenger is basically my diary from 2012 onwards, occasionally go back to reread how I was feeling about a particular moment. I am simply too cringe in actual diary format and have thrown away my teenage diaries because they are so embarrassing.

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Really wish I could be a journaller but I so embarrassed by my thoughts the idea of putting them into my phone or on paper where someone might see them makes me want to die

My shit thoughts and daydreams just swim about in my head instead lol

Anyone else use Day One? Or can anyone recommend an alternative?