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Dec 09, 2019 After testing nearly two dozen, these are the top journaling apps to record your memories this year and in years to come. Click on any app to learn more about why we chose it, or keep reading for more context on journal apps. The best journaling apps. Day One for Mac and iOS users; Diarium for Windows users; Journey for cross-platform journaling. The Bullet Journal Method is about much more than organizing your notes and to-do lists. It's about what Carroll calls 'intentional living': weeding out distractions and focusing your time and energy in pursuit of what's truly meaningful, in both your work and your personal life.
It might often feel like many of your best life experiences are lost to the sands of time. Sure, you remember that you took an amazing vacation in Mexico, but how much of it do you really remember? Do you know what day you met your spouse, and how you were feeling that day? Unless you keep some kind of personal journal, all that personal history will vanish like tears in rain. But keeping a consistent journal is tedious work, requiring pens and paper. You can use a journaling app to make it easier. Many apps will remind you to keep entries and support photos and videos to make your memories all the richer. Pick the best journal app for Mac from the list below.
1. Day One
Many long-time users of the Day One journaling app were surprised by the company’s move to subscription pricing. The app, which helps users keep a daily record of their lives, previously subsisted on one-time fees that thousands of users gladly paid. Many users felt slightly betrayed as well. Considering the entire purpose of the application is to maintain a long-term archive of your daily life, such a subscription fee could rack up major charges over a lifetime of use.
Despite this recent kerfuffle, Day One still remains one of the best daily journaling apps on the Mac. It’s feature-rich, with tracking and writing features that other apps simply don’t offer. Reading and searching through entries is easy and pleasant, so reliving your experiences is a little easier. You’ll also get a beautiful interface and exceptional companion iOS and watchOS apps. But if you’re put off by their $35 per-year pricing, you might find the apps below better suited to your needs.
2. Evernote
While Evernote is far from a dedicated journaling application, it turns out the king of notetakers makes an excellent journaling application. You’ll find support for videos, photos, audio, and rich text alongside the standard plaintext input. The excellent iOS app is a must-have, and you can easily create an unlimited number of journals to keep your thoughts organized. Plus, Evernote is hands-down the best note-taking application for the Mac.
Unfortunately, your notes aren’t stored as plain text. This means you can’t read or access the notes without using the Evernote application, making your records worthless to a third-party app. That’s a major strike against longevity, but if you can stomach that, you get a full suite of benefits.
You can expand Evernote’s functionality as well. Pair it with Alternote to get a more minimal UI or with digi.me to pull updates and images from your social media accounts. And IFTTT lets you make workflows that include the app, automatically importing blog posts or linking outside content. The free version should cover your journaling needs, or you can subscribe to the pro version for only a few bucks a month.
3. Journey
If Evernote isn’t really your cup of tea, you might Journey instead. It’s a dedicated journaling app that’s deeply inspired by Day One’s design, and users of that app will find its basic structure familiar. Like Day One, the stand-alone Mac application reminds you to make daily journal entries.
Importantly, the app has an open database structure that saves you from lock-in, syncing with Google Drive and allowing for .docx and .pdf entry export. Users on the go can use Journey.cloud for updating via browser. The location of each entry is tracked on a map, and you can upload images and videos to your journal entries If you’re coming to Journey from Day One, you can import from Day One and Day One Classic to keep continuity.
The only real downside is the lack of an iOS app. Journey costs $12.99 for the Mac application, or you can use the free Journey.cloud web application in any browser.
4. Mémoires
Mémoires is billed as “the easiest way to keep a journal or diary on your Mac.” Its user interface is slightly more streamlined than some of our other options, but it still contains many of the same excellent features.
Entries can be saved in multiple journals and include photos, rich text, and hand-drawn doodles. If privacy is a concern, entries can be encrypted with AES-256 encryption. Everything is saved in rich text files in a non-obfuscated SQLite database for longevity. Even if the app shuts down, you’ll still have your entries in a fully-usable format.
There’s a one-time fee of $30 for a single license or $50 for a “family pack” of five licenses. And if you want to add video to your entries, you can also pay a one-time $10 charge.
5. Mini DiaryBullet Journal Apps For Mac Free
Speaking of privacy, a free diary app for your Mac that you can look into is Mini Diary. It allows users to set a password before fully opening the app. While its interface may be a bit basic, Mini Diary still has a number of useful features that can benefit you. For one, this app allows you to type in your key thoughts in number or bullet form. You can also edit your fonts and make them bold or italic.
Mini Diary also lets you peruse, view, and edit your entries in your calendar. In case you’re particular with your themes, this diary app offers a light and a dark theme. You can also set it on auto so it’ll match the theme of your Mac interface. If you’re looking for a simple, no-fuss type of journaling app for Mac, Mini Diary is definitely the one for you.
6. Reflection
Reflection is another diary app that you can check out for your Mac. As the name suggests, this digital journal lets you reflect when you feel like taking a trip down memory lane. Reflection features an interface that is simple and organized. It shows a timeline, tags, and locations for your title and text while you write.
One of its great features is its color-coding along with labels that you can add for each entry that you write. Hence, you can label some of your entries as ideas and some as inspiration. In case you want to follow up on your previous notes, you can also add lists and tasks under them. You can also manage multiple journals within the app so you can separate one for your personal entries and another for work ideas.
Similar to Mini Diary, Reflection also allows you to adjust the theme of the app so you can match it with your Mac interface. If you’re scared that you might lose your entries, this app also allows you to back up your data into a ZIP file. With so many more of its awesome features, Reflection is an amazing diary app for Mac for people who are detail-oriented. Plus, it’s free!
7. Reminisce
For a more minimalist interface, Reminisce is a great option for your Mac. It has a free version as well as a premium version. Thanks to its simple outlook, you can stay focused on writing while using this journaling app. For a more visual entry, this app allows you to add photos to your entries, which would look great for travel posts.
In addition, you can also key in emojis as well as add tags and labels to your entries. Moreover, Reminisce allows you to rate your entries in stars and input your mood for the day. You can also add your location to your entry. All of your entries can be viewed in three ways: as a list, on a calendar, or on a map. With just a click, you can add, edit, delete, and even print an entry. Navigating through the app is simply a breeze.
![]() Conclusion
There’s definitely a plethora of journaling apps that you can choose from specifically for your Mac. Opt for the ones mentioned above based on their features and you’re sure to have a great time writing in your entries. Add in some of your photos and memories to look back to when you feel like reminiscing the good old days.
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You can use any note-taking app to create a digital Bullet Journal. But you have a lot less work to do if you start with an app that has the right ingredients for keeping a Bullet Journal.
Not sure where to find such bullet journal apps? Start with the ones listed below. We have chosen them because they bring a few key benefits. These apps:
Now, on to those bullet journal app recommendations.
1. Trello
Trello’s cross-platform availability and its automation capabilities are a big plus if you want to set up an electronic bullet journal. You can automate Trello to create boards (for modules) and cards (for dates) on a schedule.
You don’t need the Index module and page numbers, because the powerful search functions in Trello make it easy to quickly find what you need.
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Want a bird’s eye view of your tasks for the month? You can get one if you assign due dates to cards and then switch to the monthly view of the Calendar PowerUp, one of the best Trello Power-Ups to add to your workflow. Color-coded labels can work as bullets and signifiers to add context to your journal entries.
Does this switch from paper to Trello sound complex? It’s not, actually, as you’ll see in our step-by-step guide to create a Bullet Journal in Trello How to Use a Bullet Journal in Trello to Plan Your DayIt's time to show you how to turn Trello -- if that's your primary note-taking app -- into a Bullet Journal. Read More . The guide shows you how to bring every aspect of your paper journal to Trello. It also gives you a sample Monthly Log board that you can clone and add to your Trello account.
Trello is not the only popular note-taking app that can take your journal from analog to digital. You can also use Evernote for bullet journaling. If you’re a Mac user, you could use Reminders, Calendar, or Notes as a Bullet Journal. These macOS journal apps The 7 Best Journal Apps for Mac to Capture Your ThoughtsOur list of the best journal apps for Mac contains some great tools for starting a daily journal and getting your thoughts down. Read More can work, too.
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Download:Trello (Free, Premium plans available)
2. NotePlan
NotePlan comes with a calendar, Markdown notes, and to-do lists. The Calendar view lets you see the big picture like the Monthly Log in your paper journal does.
When you want to zoom in on your entries for a particular day, switch to the Notes view. Here, you can use a mix of tasks, lists, reminders, events, and general notes to plan your days and reflect on them.
Thanks to color-coded to-dos, @tags and #tags, linked notes, and linked dates, it’s easy to jump to the right entries in your journal anytime. You’ve got Dropbox and iCloud sync, too, so you can keep your bullet journal ready to go on all your Apple devices.
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On the whole, NotePlan doubles up as the perfect bullet journal and many of the app’s users use it as such.
Download:NotePlan for macOS ($30, trial version available)| iOS ($15)
3. Taskade
It’s handy that you can use Taskade as a guest before signing up for it. The app lets you add checklists, outlines, and notes to your bullet journal. You also get various bullet formats to choose from, which makes it easy to match them up with the bullets and signifiers in your journal.
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The app has basic formatting options and emoji as well. For scheduling your plans, Taskade gives you Due Date and Add To Calendar options. The latter feature lets you connect with Google Calendar and Yahoo Calendar.
Attachments, templates, comments, tags, search—Taskade has got it all. It’s a versatile app that lends itself to all kinds of note-taking. We recommend starting off with Taskade’s Bullet Journal template to save time setting up your journal.
Download:Taskade (Free, $7/month premium plan available)
4. The Bullet Journal Companion
You need to use the Bullet Journal companion app along with, and not instead of, your analog bullet journal. That makes this simple mobile app from the makers of Bullet Journal the odd one out on this list. But it’s the perfect solution if you’re not ready to let go of your paper journal completely in favor of a digital one.
The companion app prompts you to reflect on your plans and notes with reminders twice a day. (You can tweak the times of these reminders to suit yourself.) It also has a Library section that lets you search your old bullet journals.
If you’re away from your notebook, you can use the app for logging and then migrate the entries to your notebook during your reflection time. You have a 72-hour window to move your entries from the app.
The Bullet Journal Companion includes a set of guides that cover every aspect of bullet journaling. It’s sure to appeal to Bullet Journal beginners and veterans alike. If you like the community aspect of Bullet Journal, you’ll appreciate the compilation of posts from the official blog in the app.
Download:The Bullet Journal Companion for iOS ($5), Android ($5)
5. Dynalist
Dynalist is one of the best and most popular bullet-based to-do list apps The Best Bullet-Based To-Do List AppsThe bullet-based to-do list is one of the simplest productivity systems. We'll show you the best apps to get started with this new productivity habit. Read More . It comes with Markdown support, tags, due dates, and internal links, among other features.
The app’s tree structure is great for handling your Daily Logs. For bullets and signifiers, you can use either regular keyboard characters or suitable emoticons. Since Dynalist lets you bookmark items, you get to keep your most important modules easily accessible at all times.
Dynalist’s demo version gives you a detailed overview of how the app works. It’s the perfect testing ground to figure out if the app can work as your bullet journal.
Bullet Journal App For Mac
Download:Dynalist (Free, $10/month premium version available)
More Apps for an Online Bullet Journal
We have lined up a few extra options for you to work with, just in case the apps we have listed above don’t appeal to you:
A Bullet Journal Is What You Make of It
If you need a reliable system for fast note-taking, a Bullet Journal is up to the job. It gives you a good framework to begin with, but is not so inflexible that you can’t customize it.
Bullet Journal Apps For Laptop
For those of you who want to keep your bullet journal online, we have shown you apps that can make the switch easy for you. You might also want to consider these mobile note-taking apps to create bullet journal spreads.
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If it’s inspiration you’re looking for, try these places to gather ideas for your Bullet Journal. And if you need a refresher in this note-taking method from time to time, keep our Bullet Journal cheat sheet The Bullet Journal Cheat Sheet for Quick Note-TakingIf you need ideas for your bullet journal or a quick recap of the essentials, this cheat sheet can help. Read More handy!
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