Friday, November 23, 2012

Review: Day One journal app for iOS and Mac

"People today are busier than ever and rarely take even a minute to stop and reflect on the day".

This is a statement from Paul Mayne, creator of the 'Day One' journaling app for iOS and Mac, and I agree with it 100%.  It speaks to the rush-rush world that we all live in these days when we barely have a minute to sit down and think to ourselves, let alone reflect on an entire day.  

I absolutely can't believe how time is flying by these days, especially when I get exceedingly busy at work and it causes me to lose track of things even more.  One minute it's April and I'm enjoying the warm days of spring, then in the blink of an eye it's the end of summer, and another blink later and it's snowing in the middle of winter.  The years are just blowing by....and sometimes it's a bit disillusioning to me.  Actually, it's a lot disillusioning!

For this reason, I've always wanted to keep a journal...to write down some quick thoughts from any given day that I might otherwise forget and then be able to reference them in years to come to see where I've been, where I am, where I'm going, etc.  A way to re-live memories.  It's also a way to track ideas, goals, etc.

The problem with keeping a journal in the past was making it easy to keep up with it.  I'm not one to sit down and write with a pen and paper for 30 minutes to catch my thoughts from the day...I just don't have the time and it's inconvenient.  Keeping books of journals around is also clunky.  Whatever journaling mechanism I use, it needs to be fast and easy.  I tried doing it on a computer once, but unless I was where the computer was when I had a thought (which was not typically the case), I wouldn't do it.  So all of my previous attempts to keep a journal didn't work out.

And then came along the Day One app for iOS and Mac.  This single app completely opened the door to an easy, quick, effective, and elegant way to keep a personal journal wherever you are, whenever a thought hits you.  It's got just the right features to let you get your thoughts down...it stays out of your way and lets you think.  It syncs across all of my iOS and Mac devices instantaneously and flawlessly....and....it works on all of my Apple devices (one of which I have with me at all times).  So therefore, this became the perfect journaling solution for me and if you're looking for something like this then Day One might be just right for you too.

People who have read any of my other reviews on this blog know that I don't spend time talking about each and every feature of something when I review it.  There are already some great and very thorough reviews of Day One out there and I prefer to link to them instead echo them.  Here are some links to just a few:

  1. The New Day One - http://www.macstories.net/reviews/review-the-new-day-one/
  2. Day One:  A Gorgeous, Synchronized Journaling App - http://iphone.appstorm.net/reviews/lifestyle/day-one-a-gorgeous-synchronized-journalling-app/

So all of this being said, which are my favorite features of Day One?  They include:

  1. It works across all iOS and Mac devices, meaning I can always write when I want to on whatever device I'm using at the time.
  2. One button click to start a new entry.
  3. Automatic, instantaneous cross device synchronization.  
  4. I like the way the Mac app combines multiple entries from one day into a single entry and timestamps each one of them for a clean view of a single day.
  5. I like the auto adding of weather and location to entries.
  6. Tagging and search functionality to easily categorize and find entries.
If you're in the market for an iOS/Mac journaling app, give Day One a try.  I think you'll find, as I did, that it's just the ticket to get your journaling activities started....and keep it going.  

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