The Best Resources for Journaling

Journaling, it's one of those things, like drinking more water, that you know is good for you and you like it when you do it, but you don't always get around to it. Just like having a great water bottle close by can help you drink more water, having a great journaling tool helps me journal more frequently as well. A friend recently asked what journaling resources I'd recommend. Here are a few of my faves.

Ldsjournal.com is a great website that is free, password protected and can be printed in a hardback book with photos you upload.

PROS: The layout is organized and clear making it incredibly easy to navigate. The journal is searchable so that you can search for the word "dad" for example, and every journal entry where you wrote the word "dad" will pop up. You can also upload photos. One of the coolest aspects about LDSJournal.com is that you can specify a date range and order that journal to be printed out in a hardback book. That means when you're old and grey, and you gather all of your grandkiddies around you, you can even order them in surplus so that everyone gets a copy... if you want them to have one that is. :) All of the photos that you uploaded during your desired date range will be printed in the journal as well.

CONS: The photos are printed in the back of the book rather than directly by the specific date's journal entry that you uploaded them for. (I'm hoping that feature changes in the future with updates.) It's also a little pricey. The price varies depending on whether or not you want the pictures printed in black and white or in color and depending on how many copies you order. Prices start around $40.

Evernote:
I am in love with evernote and it, along with a private blog that is shared with only close family and friends, is how I am currently keeping my journal. Inside of Evernote, I have a notebook called "Journal" and inside of that I have my journal entries.

Here is a short video explaining Evernote for newbies.

PROS: Evernote has the best search features available. I can even take pictures of handwritten notes, upload them into Evernote and the search feature will recognize the handwritten words. It syncs with Penultimate, a tablet app that I can write notes or journal entries by hand on using a stylus, so I can have hand written notes saved digitally and which are searchable as well.

Penultimate with Evernote looks kinda like this.

CONS: I haven't figured out how to select just my journal notebook and print it. I would love to print my Evernote Journal in hardback, but so far, I haven't figured out how. If anyone knows, I'M ALL EARS!

Private Blog or a Closely Shared Blog:
While many people have open blogs where they post photos and blurbs of what is going on in their lives, it's nice to have a personal place to confidentially write out and record your thoughts and feelings as they relate to your experiences. Some of those I want to keep close to my heart and solely to myself. Many of them however, I would like to share, but just with a very close group of people who "get" me, who are supportive, understanding and who I want to share my life, life with. For those kinds of entries, I record them on a blog that has only been shared with just a few very close family members/friends. It is nice to be able to post something once rather than need to repeat myself many times. Sometimes I also feel like I say things better when I don't need to repeat it, forgetting certain details here and there or wondering if I already shared this or that, this time around in retelling something.

The Classic Notebook- While I do use digital resources to record thoughts and events, I also use a paper and pen journal from time to time because sometimes it just feels good. 

PROS: Sometimes it's just therapeutic to write something out, to feel it with your hands and later to flip through the pages. I also feel like my handwriting communicates to a degree what I was feeling like when I wrote the entry. Flowy and smooth handwriting = calm, collected and unrushed Ali, while poorer handwriting = I'm going quickly, a lot is on my mind and my objective is to just get those thoughts down on paper where I can then conceptualize them more clearly.

CONS: Time- Writing by hand can take a long time which can be helpful with processing things, but can also result in recording less. Lack of safety- If you loose it, or if it has water damage, etc, it's gone forever. It's not searchable- For example, if I want to find a journal entry about a family campout, using something digitally, you can just type in "campout" and everywhere that word is written will come up in search result list.

My Wish:
I wish I could take all of my journals from growing up and have the hand written pages on one side and  a digitized and searchable version with pictures of the recorded events on on the other side of the page. This reminds me of the The Joseph Smith Papers book, where they have a picture of the handwritten manscript of the translation of the Book of Mormon on the left page, side by side with the same text, that has now been digitized. It looks like this.

Instagram/Facebook/Twitter:
While these are not a journal, they do create a type of record of what we say, what's on our minds and who we are in our day-to-day lives. Rather than being shared with posterity after we pass on however, these "records" are shared in the here-and-now, kind of like "real-time records."




One of my greatest examples of journaling is Richard Rife, one of my mission presidents. He recorded his journal as a mission president and shared it online for others who might wonder what it is like to be a mission president. Feel free to check it out by clicking on his name.

In summary, if I were to recommend a digital journal, here is how I would recommend them.
For something private and simple: LDSjournal.com
For something private and highly adaptable: Penzu.org It's highly recommended and explained by easyjournal.com
For something private, highly searchable, versatile, tag-able but not yet printable: Evernote

Here is to recording, remembering and making the most the gift we call life,
Ali~

What helps you record your life? If there are resources or habits that help you journal, submit them in the comments section. I'd love to hear what works for you.

"And upon these I write the things of my soul... For my soul delighteth in the scriptures, and my heart pondereth them, and writeth them for the learning and the profit of my children... my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord."
2 Nephi 4: 15-16

“I have never spent any of my time more profitably for the benefit of mankind than in my journal writing.” Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, 5:37

"Every person should keep a journal and every person can keep a journal. It should be an enlightening one and should bring great blessings and happiness to the families. If there is anyone here who isn’t doing so, will you repent today and change—change your life?" 
President Spencer W. Kimball 
Let Us Move Forward & Upward, April 1979