This means you can start an entry on your iPhone and finish it at home on your MacBook Air. Thanks to Diarly’s optional iCloud-syncing feature, you can write and read anywhere through the app. Finally: Cloud SyncingĪ Diarly feature that might not feel obvious when talking about building a consistent journaling practice is cloud syncing. Having a definite and time-bound journaling arc can really help you build a new mindfulness practice or spice one up. Right now, challenges cover two popular journaling topics: mindfulness and gratitude. It’s not about hitting a word count but about exploring topics through journaling. (I told you it was powerful.) A recent addition to the app is challenges.Ĭhallenges differ from goals in that they are thematic. Thanks to notifications, you can ask Diarly to remind you to write at a specific time, for a specific journal, and on specific days. Momentum is vital when starting to journal, and Diarly allows users to create custom goals-daily word count targets.
For example: What made me smile today? or I need to forgive myself for … The second useful feature is goals. If this is something new for you or you need some inspiration, Diarly offers a list of suggested prompts. Do you always answer the same questions when journaling? Build a custom prompt, and each new entry will follow the template to get you started. I like Diarly because it is so much more than a note-taking app.įour particular features help a person build a journaling practice: The first one is prompts. The app also imports and exports in Markdown (among many other formats), so you’ll never be tied to journaling in a single format. (That last mode opens a lot of possibilities- we’ll discuss that later).Īnd talking about code, if you prefer writing in Markdown(a plain text formatting syntax that makes it easy to turn text into HTML), Diarly supports it out of the box. In addition to its diverse themes, Diarly lets you access entries through three modes: a timeline, a calendar, or a map.
If you program using a source code editor like Sublime Text, these themes will be familiar to you (hello, Dracula!). If you are accustomed to journaling on paper, you might wonder how an app could offer an experience as personal as writing in your notebook.ĭiarly achieves this through a grand total of 107 (!) light and dark themes.
Oh, and all your entries are password encrypted.
Simplicity is the first impression I got when I downloaded the Diarly app. Among all the digital journaling apps that I researched while preparing the course, one stood out above the rest: Diarly. I have been journaling for 20 years, and I’ve recently decided to launch a 14-day journaling course to share tips, tools, and techniques with people starting their journaling practice. Indeed, when most of us carry around mobile devices perpetually connected to the Internet, there are few limitations as far as what and how a person may choose to journal. In fact, switching to digital journaling has many advantages for the committed diarist. The words journal and diary conjure images of beat-up Moleskine notebooks, folks jotting their thoughts down while sipping lattes, or teenagers writing late at night with a flashlight under their blanket.Īs romantic as this sounds, journaling doesn’t have to be performed with pen on paper.