Write Down Your Thoughts in a Digital Journal on Your Phone

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Write Down Your Thoughts in a Digital Journal on Your Phone

Still looking for a New Year’s resolution for self-improvement? Consider keeping a journal, which studies have shown might help with one’s mental well-being and anxiety issues, while also providing a creative outlet for personal expression.

Handsome paper-based diaries and notebooks are available if you want to go the screen-free sensory route, but if you prefer a more multimedia approach to journaling, wake up your phone. Free apps that come with Apple’s iOS software and

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’s Android system allow you to add photos, audio clips and more to corral your thoughts — and set up electronic reminders to write regularly.

Here’s an overview.

Getting Started

Keeping a digital diary requires a few basic steps: picking an app, writing an entry and adding new posts on a regular basis. And don’t let the fear of typing long contemplative dispatches on a small screen dissuade you. Just dictate your thoughts to your

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or

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phone with its transcription tools, although check its privacy policy if you’re nervous about your data.

Don’t feel like pecking away on a small keyboard? You can dictate your journal entry by tapping the microphone icon on the keyboard.Credit…

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Using Apple’s Journal

Apple

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in December 2023 and added

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last year in its iOS 18 update, including the ability to

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entries. (

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is not yet available for the iPad.) To

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, just find the Journal icon on your

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or in the

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open it and follow the onscreen instructions.

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, tap the plus icon (+) at the bottom of the screen and select the New Entry button at the top of the next screen or under a suggested topic. Go to the text field to title your entry and start writing — or tap the microphone icon at the bottom corner of the keyboard to dictate.

In the row of icons above the keyboard, you can format the text with bold, italic or other styles; get more topic suggestions; add photos from the library or the camera; add an audio recording; and note your location. You can describe your current mood with the

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, which can be shared with the

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(if you allow it).

With your permission, the app shows you a list of topic suggestions drawn from your photos, locations and activities. You can turn off the suggestions by opening the iPhone’s Settings icon, selecting Apps, choosing Journal and tapping the button next to Skip Journaling Suggestions.

You can bookmark and edit your compositions by tapping the three-dot menu icon in each entry’s lower-right corner. The Journal app has a

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for looking up older entries if you don’t feel like scrolling back in time.

Using

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Keep

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has yet to release a similar dedicated journaling app, but its 12-year-old

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can do the job, organizing notes, audio clips, web pages, photos and drawings. To use it, you need a

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and the Keep app. The app is available for

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and

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(including the iPad), and Keep content is backed up online, where it can be viewed in a web browser.

Once you’ve installed the Keep app, open it and tap the plus button (+) in the bottom-right corner to start an entry. Using the icons at the bottom of the text-entry screen allows you to do things like add a photo or give the entry a background color.

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filters your posts from other notes or lists you may use within the app. And while Keep, unlike Apple’s Journal, can’t pepper you with suggestions, you can ask

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’s

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or your favorite artificial intelligence assistant for topic ideas.

Other Options

Samsung Galaxy users have the

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app as another diary option, and

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on one of the company’s

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recreates the pen-to-paper vibe for the electronic age.

If you want a journal app with additional features (like automatically adding the day’s weather conditions), you have plenty of other choices, but you’ll probably need to pay for the premium product. Among the many apps that work on most platforms are

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(about $3 a month),

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($10 to buy) and the ambitious, A.I.-powered

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(about $7 a month).

Journal apps make it easier to write about your life without the performative aspect of social media. And paying less attention to what everyone else is doing gives you more time to spend on yourself.

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#Write #Thoughts #Digital #Journal #Phone

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