The Best Online & Digital Journal for Free

Over the years, I've purchased several journals, but the habit never stuck. I was busy, life got in the way, and I forgot to write.

I became tired of this, so I built a digital solution for busy people who want the benefits of structured reflection, planning, and prioritization with their journaling but haven't been able to make the paper journaling habit stick.

Part 1: The Planner

The planner is your homepage for work. As the same suggests, the daily planner is a place to see meetings, tasks, check-ins, and goals in one place. It's like the daily spread for those who use the BuJo method. ClickUp integrates with tools you already use, like Google Calendar, Outlook, Todoist, Asana, Microsoft To Do, Trello and pretty much all the other tools you might use. Instead of writing this down, we import your work automatically!

There's a few other things you should know:

• You can download the planner as a Chrome extension and see your to-do list whenever you open a new tab in the Google Chrome Browser.
• You can create focus time for writing and literally block websites. Friday will automatically update your status in Slack and also block distracting websites, so you can get more things done. It's like time-blocking on steroids.
• You can also see the weather, pulled from your current location!

Additionally, you can assign a due date for a task in the future and you won't see it until that day arrives. Check out this article if want a larger selection of daily planner apps to see how Friday compares.

Part 2: Daily Writing Routines

Friday builds off of the planner with customizable check-ins and routines, which are habits of prioritization and reflection. You can create a variety of journaling habits that will help you reflect, plan, and prioritize your life and work.

Feel free to pick a template or create your own with your own journal prompts.

The most important thing you should know about check-ins:

• Structured with a variety of questions/prompts
• Automatic reminders so you don't forget
• Activated on regular basis: Daily, weekly, monthly, whatever you choose

Above is an example of an emoji question you can ask yourself to gauge sentiment, but there are other question types available, or you can pick a free-form option and write.

The key here is that Friday handles all the heavy lifting, so you can focus on building a habit of reflection, planning, and gratitude.

Part 3: Writing History

As you create check-ins in Friday, you will be able to see a running log of entries on the homepage feed. Here's a screenshot of how this looks below:

For example, in Friday, a personal journaling routine may look like this:

• Current Mood
• What's going on?
• Did you read today?
• What are you thankful for?

I enjoy looking back through past responses and seeing entries from the past. I'm sure you will too!

Part 4: Automatic Insights

The next aspect of the Friday digital journal is that we automatically compile stats for you. For example, if you have a yes/no question for check-ins, we will automatically create charts and graphs so you can track your progress over time.

This is important as it reinforces the habit and helps you establish streaks. Remember, the goal of any journal solution is to create healthy writing habits, otherwise, you will not capture the benefits of journaling.

Part 5: The Future

Next up, we have the future section. The future section (or future log for bullet journaling) is where you can store tasks that don't have a particular date assigned. You can see how this looks below.

If you assign a date for a particular task, it automatically is sent to the day that you need to accomplish it by and is removed from the future log to keep things clean!

Part 6: Mood Tracking

Friday also offers the ability to track your mood every day. You can easily recap your day and tell Friday when you were most productive (morning, mid-day, afternoon, evening) and how you felt. In the future, we will automatically recommend ways to improve your productivity and it's based on your history of responses!

Part 7: Posts (Coming Soon!)

Want to freely write without a prompt or a daily reminder? Friday is adding Posts, which is like an internal blog. It's a free-form place to take notes, write, or journal. This is a separate place outside of your regular writing routine.