If you’ve got a lot to say, you might be better off doing it the old-school way
I’ve been keeping journals and diaries since I was twelve years old, and I’ve eaten through many, many notebooks. From Bratz-themed diaries to those coveted Moleskin journals, I’ve scribbled through them all.
As I’ve gotten older however, I’ve found it harder and harder to find time to jot down my thoughts in a physical journal, and between the constant commutes to work and trips back home to my family in Zambia, spending more and more time on trains and planes, I’m prone to either leaving a journal at home or losing it entirely. So, I decided to give Apple’s new Journal app a try, because what’s more convenient than having a digital notebook built right into your phone?
The journal app was rolled out to all iPhones with the new iOS 17 update, with the app acting as your digital diary, allowing you to incorporate pictures from your day, answer reflective prompts, add music and people to your entries, and even incorporate your Apple Fitness activities. Getting to know my new diary
I started the week optimistic when it came to journaling on the app, because it eliminated my main issue of having to carry my journal around all day in my bag. For the first day, I was super excited to make little entries about the music I was listening to, the fun things I was doing, or even just flipping through the auto-generated prompts to see if any caught my fancy. Since I’m constantly scrolling through social media on my phone or playing mobile games anyway, I put the app at the very top of my home page as a visual reminder to use it anytime I feel necessary.
The on-device machine learning Journal used to make suggestions unlocks a new level of deeper reflection that you’d normally forget about, based on the activities logged on your phone throughout the day.
