Do you have a habit of journaling?
I’ve been using a journal for about a decade. Initially, it started with the old fashioned scientific notebooks that cost less than $1. I would write one page per day and try my best to capture the day’s events.
For the last few years, I’ve shifted to a digital form of journaling. Day One has been my go-to app of choice. Day One is excellent for the following reasons:
1. It’s multi-device. I can write on my iPad, iPhone or on the Mac app.
2. The UI is clean and modern. Fonts are minimalistic and the overall feel is quite clean.
3. Encrypted notebooks. Whether it’s via fingerprint or their Premium option to encrypt notebooks, Day One takes privacy seriously.
Journaling is valuable for anyone tending to their interior life. It’s scientifically supported that, when you journal, the following occurs:
Related to prayer, journaling has a number of valuable benefits.
First, journaling gives you a sense of progress. While prayer is not about “measuring”, it is important to build spiritual momentum. An app like Day One shows you how many days in a month you’ve written in your journal and that feels good (or, not so good!) to watch your trends.
Second, journaling gives you an excuse to show gratitude to God.Through what you write, you can express the many things for which you are thankful. By bulleting your items, you will likely realize that you have more things to be thankful for than you had previously thought.
Third, when you relate journaling to spiritual direction, its value becomes even more evident. Rather than wondering what God has been doing in your life in the past month, you simply look at your journal and summarize it for your director.
How can you incorporate journaling into your daily routine?