It’s funny journaling just doesn’t seem like a thing here in the UK. I’m sure some people do it, but my vibe is the vast majority of people don’t.
2 Likes
I’m on a similar journey. I’ve decided for 2023 that everything will first go in my Leuchturm1917 notebook. I may migrate this from there to apps and desktop, but decided I wanted one analogue capture device.
I’d class myself as an intermittent journaler. I do find reflection and writing beneficial, probably more to clarify my thinking and close open loops properly.
I think that the act of writing with no editing (as in pen and paper) causes you to think a little harder about what you’re going to write. I also find that I remember it better. I still don’t find tech conducive for reflective thinking. I’m much happier at a desk with all tech turned off with a notebook in front of me and a pen in hand
3 Likes
Does a Daily Note in Obsidian or NotePlan count? Spoiler: I think it does. I’m hoping that all the journalers (journalizers? journalists?) come out of the woodwork to let us know they exist. 
1 Like
Part of the challenge is that no two journalers are alike in practice or definition.
1 Like
I am using Daily Notes in the Craft app, but created a personal space using iCloud as the backend. I didn’t trust syncing it with Craft since it is not end-to-end encrypted. Using iCloud makes me feel more secure.
3 Likes
Maybe it has something to do with family influences. My grandmother wrote a diary every day for years and introduced me to the idea when I was 11. For the first 10 years my daily entries were a few short sentences, if that. From 1971 I started keeping a full page diary and have done so every day since then.
I won’t bore everyone yet again about the full details and sheer pleasure of having all (full page) diaries transcribed and in electronic, searchable format…but having tackled the task during lockdown(s) I really can’t imagine now how I ever lived without that. It really is an amazing experience being able to find anything, in years of diaries, with a few keystrokes.
Stephen
2 Likes
All in on Obsidian. I’ve been doing my journal in Obsidian for 2 years now. This year is thefrst major change to the format that I’ve made since I started. I’ve added sections for tracking what I got done now that most of my task management is also in Obsidian. I use the Calendar, Dataview, Natural Language Dates, Periodic Notes, Tasks and Templater plug-ins to handle the various bits. I love the searching and linking sections.
For 2023 I plan to add in weekly and monthly summary notes and perhaps see about some more automatic summary notes on a quarterly basis.
All my 12WY quarterly reviews are already in Pbsidian and nearly all my project planning and management is in there as well. For 2023 I will be moving the rest of that type of stuff into Obsidian as wel as adding in scheduling and and task managementl. I will still have a File cabinet folder on my hard drive for reference documents that are not markdown or PDFs and I’ll still have an active projects folder on hard drive for the same sort of documents that are for currently active projects. My goal is that by the end of 2023 all my project support, planning, scheduling and task management will be in Obsidian.
I do like writing on paper but I hate that I can’t link, search or find things in those journals. I’ve tried several versions of handwriting recognition but none work well enough to move to that as my journaling.
I went to that link but didn’t see anything specific about how to transcribe written diaries. Will go back and look again. I’ve got that as a bucket list sort of project fo rme as I have some diaries and logbook type note books going back to when I first learned to write. I’ve been tempted to hire a professional transcription service but not entirely sure I want somestranger reading my diaries before I’ve vetted them. 
Sorry: simply an awful lot of copy typing! The reference to the link was rather more to the result of the transcription rather than to the grim effort of the transcription itself. Sorry if you were misled into thinking otherwise.
Stephen
No worries I was hoping you’d found a set of tools that made the job easier.
It will be a hybrid approach for me. I will use Day One for my standard journaling. I received a Secret Santa gift this year that’s a five-year journal with each date asking a particular question. You answer in about three lines, and then you can compare answers the following year. It’s not a fancy journal, but I do like the idea of answering one question in a few lines. I have already been stumped: today’s question was Whom do you envy? I really had to think about that for a while. I could only come up with a category of people, not a specific person.
1 Like
Day One.
I’ve toyed with Momento before since I only write text in Day One. I may do so again. But it’s not a priority experiment for me.
I’ve been exploring Day One features over the holiday break. Their “on this day” view. The ability to add images very easily. Location search has either gotten better since the last time I explored it, or I was wrong about how it works.
Using the “on this day” view regularly has refined my journaling practice. I journal the kind of thing that I will be interested in reading in a year or 10 years. This is perhaps not ideal because it leaves me not writing negative thoughts, because I don’t want to revisit those. So, perhaps my journal is not an accurate reflection of my life.
I’ve dabbled in many different journaling practices over the years, none seriously. One thing that I’ve noticed is I tend to write differently depending on what tool I’m using. Or write about different topics.
The most obvious distinction is between digital and analog journaling. But even with digital tools I’ve noticed I have a different approach depending on the piece of software. How/what I would write in Ulysses vs Obsidian or NotePlan, for instance. All very different.
None of this is intentional, but just shows how unconsciously influenced we (at least me) are by our tools. I think it’s obvious when looking back on it, but in the moment there wasn’t a conscious distinction.
1 Like
… not journalling at all. 
I guess my life isn’t as exciting as everyone else here!
2 Likes
I am always curious when people talking about “Journaling”. So are you referring to Commonplace book, Captain’s Log, private Diary, or any mixture?
Migrated almost a decades worth of content to Everlog on iOS and iPadOS around 6 months ago and never looked back….it’s a fantastic app!!
I have an iPad Air and an iPad Mini. One or the other is almost always within reach during the day. Obsidian is my go to app for almost everything re:notes including Daily Notes for journaling. And, with my Apple Pencil, I use the Nebo app to ‘write’ handwritten notes (with it’s amazing handwriting recognition) in order to take notes when I’m tired of typing. Nebo has a copy feature that transcribes sentences, paragraphs or pages that can be Shared directly into any Obsidian Note with iPadOS. YMMV!
I usually mean the latter two, based on how you do it. Personally, I seperate meeting notes from a bullet journal and journaling/dairying about what happened and how I feel - the former is more of a captain’s log and decision log.
1 Like
I use GoodNotes for taking notes in meetings that I then convert and send to Obsidian but when I journal I tend to scribble more, write faster and use far more abbreviations than when I am taking notes. So it doesn’t work for me to hand write in Goodnotes then convert even though I have a shortcut to do it and can get the notes into Obsidian easily.
All of the above. My daily notes are part logbook, part diary and often link into the scraps and bits that would be the equivalent of a commonplace book, except I call mine my adversaria.
2 Likes