chungliwen

Day One

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matt

day-one-app

I was reading a post on Brian Gardner’s blog and suddenly had the urge to blog about Day One. No, I can’t really explain why.

I’ve never been a big fan of journaling for reasons that include:

  • Why would I want to read my own musings?
  • If I actually wrote my private thoughts, I’m always worried that someone would eventually read it. If I don’t write my honest and private thoughts, then why bother?
  • Having the discipline to write in a journal daily.

But then again, I’m a sucker for apps, and the Day One iOS app has been winning quite a few awards, including the title of the 2012 Mac App of the Year. No easy feat.

The app is also currently being sold on a 40% discount, and I’m cheap, so there is that.

I had previously tried to journal from within Evernote, but as I’m unable to password-protect individual notebooks within Evernote, I don’t feel like my journal entries would be getting enough privacy there.

I wasn’t confident of keeping up the habit, but after using it steadily for over a week, all I can say is that I’m very satisfied with it. The fact that it’s designed for journaling works great for me. I’m able to enter multiple bite-sized entries daily, based on certain events or thoughts that I’m thinking.

Surprisingly I also received a nice comment on my old blog. Going through my post three years ago was strange, but it was also rather insightful, giving me a glimpse as to my thoughts back then. It further reaffirmed my hunch that I should continue to journal.

I’ve recently been reading Steven Aquino’s experiences with Day One, and it’s a pretty interesting read, which isn’t surprising, since his blog is pretty awesome. Check out his posts on Day One here, here, and here.

What else can I say? Get Day One. Start journaling.

Comments

5 responses to “Day One”

  1. blogjunkie Avatar
    blogjunkie

    Hah! I’ve been using Day One too. I actually wanted to log my completed work for the day to ensure I wasn’t just being busy and not making any progress. I took advantage of the sale too and decided to move my Evernote journal entries over to Day One.

    It was also weird for me to “write a diary” but I already do it to a certain extent – my vacation notes for example. I’ve decided journaling is a great way to remember specific memories, just like Evernote is great for remembering facts. So I’m going to give it a go and see if I still have the habit next year. Have fun journaling!

    Reply
    1. Matthew Chung Avatar
      Matthew Chung

      The sale is a pretty good incentive. I don’t “need” it, but I also purchased the Mac version of the app which is also on discount to give them some support. It also makes entering longer entries easier. Previously I used to type on iA Writer or Simplenote on my Mac, then copy/paste it from my phone, haha.

      I agree that Evernote is great for remembering facts. If this keeps up, I’ll have three digital journals of sorts.
      Evernote: archived Articles, snippets that I want to keep like receipts etc.
      Simplenote: My scrap book and quick and dirty notes
      Day One: Journal

      Reply
      1. blogjunkie Avatar
        blogjunkie

        Journal still sounds girly to me (no offense to females reading this), so I think of Day One as “memories I don’t want to forget”. Instead of SimpleNote, I have a notebook in Evernote called Notes for quick and dirty notes. I also have a Scratchpad notebook in Penultimate, so everything that is not memories goes into Evernote for me.

        *geek hi five!*

        Reply

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