I want to take daily notes to keep track of my tasks, achievements, thoughts and appointments.
The problem is that every time I start journaling, I’m initially very motivated.
However, after one or two months, I get bored with the app or system and either switch to another one or completely abandon it.
I appreciate any advice or insights.
If you are looking for an electronic system, I recommend Obsidian or the similar, but free Logseq. As you tag entries it builds a node graph of how your thoughts are connected, which my ADHD really enjoys adding to.
Obsidian is also free if you can manage syncing on your own.
I use the bullet journal method, the original described by Carrol in his books. One of the core strengths of it is that it still works if you get distracted and don’t do it for a couple months — you can jump right back in, because there’s no setup and no maintenance required beyond actually using the method.
The key is to skip all the YouTube and instagram-ready blogger posts that turn journal decoration into a hobby. Just read Carroll’s book, jump in, and pretend they don’t exist.
If you can’t handle the read for whatever reason and HAVE to get it from video and blog posts, what you’re looking for is now called a “minimalist” bullet journal. Even then, you’ve still got a decent chance they’re going to add distractions that will make it distracting and harder to sustain.
Second the bullet journal. It provides a good foundation but is also very flexible. I like it because even if a given page is very “busy”, I can easily find individual notes, tasks, appointments, etc.
I also like handwriting things because I’m much more likely to remember it later.
@jubilationtcornpone @Nemo 1000% percent.
If I don’t write it down, it doesn’t exist.
Same. I switched to a Remarkable tablet a while back (which I actually like) but before that I was definitely doing my part to support the legal pad industry.
I’ve tried all popular and popularized ways to do it, and I’ve been having hard time with it a lot. Here is a short list I can think if off top of my head:
- paper journals — structured (bullet journal), unstructured
- Obsidian
- RoamResearch
- evernote
- vimwiki
I’ve noticed that to me, the tool must be a perfect fit, otherwise I will just forget about it and stop using it.
So, now I use a paper notebook with Lamy Safari, and keep literally no system (except for writing down date and place — I don’t even write things down every day!). With that, I can keep journaling and taking adequate notes at work with at least some level of consistency — that I don’t miss any information in the process. That is what worked for me :)
Hul your comment is not clear for me. Does the - start in a ( and end whiteout closing ? Or does it mean a third afitionnal though at the end of the sentence ?
Sorry about that 😅 In short, here is what I meant:
- I’ve tried a lot of things and systems
- the thing that worked the best was to buy a nice fountain pen and drop the structure whatsoever
I didn’t understood this at all XD. That great, what work for me is putting alarms as long as I ma not interrupted while setting the alarm
SiYuan or Affine. Both have daily notes and normal notes. You can move and reference blocks between documents. That way I can start unstructured (just bullet points in a daily note) and then later either add cross references or start moving it into structured notes directly.
I use this, https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.isoron.uhabits/ but that may or may not be what you are looking for.
I just listened to an old episode of the Slowdown, a poetry podcast. I’ll link it. The host, before they even get to the poem, always does a little monologue, and in this episode, she talks about her journaling habits. I also struggle with keeping a daily log, I always feel like I’m not “doing it right” or like it sounds dumb or ingenuine when I read it later, but she described her way, and I’m gonna try it. You might like it too!
I’m posting this for the host’s discussion pre-poem, but the poem is great too!
Have a delicious day and good luck journaling xoxo
After decades of trying to find the perfect system, I settled on a searchable notes app (I use Joplin) to dump in everything, and a mind mapping app (I use Xmind) as a day to day log. I keep regular journal entries in Joplin, and anything from Xmind that I want to be able to find later I just copy-paste into a Joplin note. (You can copy a Mmap node, then when you paste it will dump a text outline in.)
Tjournal
Quick, you get in, write and get out. Bang.
