Digital Journaling Survey? Yes Please!

It is always nice to find like-minded individuals around the interwebs and I’m excited to have recently bumped into Ramy from Narrato (okay, he bumped into me but… whatever). He and his team are not just creating a journaling service but an entire lifelogging service! This means that you will be able to track and quantify many aspects of your life automatically and privately…cool!

As you know, as far as journaling goes I lean more to the capturing life side of things and less on the improving life side of things. That is why I am excited about what Narrato is doing and how they are doing it. They also recently conducted a survey asking about many of the topics we discuss here on EJ including “What device do you use to journal?” and “What do you like to attach to your entries?”

Ramy has graciously allowed me to share this information but feel free to head over to his blog for the full survey results with more detail and analysis than I am giving here.

Key Insights

• Over 30% of respondents have tried to keep a journal, but given up.
• 55.5% used their smartphones as journaling tools
• Only 30.5% use a tablet to journal
• Data ownership and control is the most important consideration when choosing an journaling app
• People would rather add locations, people, and weather to their journal entries than videos, mood, and audio notes.
• Most people pay between $3 to $5 for apps.

Player above not working? Either click here, or right-click and “Save Link” to download the episode.

Perhaps the number way that the world is capturing their life today is through a little thing called Facebook. Over a billion humans are now posting status updates, sharing (usually annoying) cat pictures, pictures and much more. Are you one of them? More importantly, are you using Facebook the right way?

In episode 4 of the Capturing Life Through Technology podcast I show you step by step how to take control of your Facebook account by creating lists and checking the settings on a regular basis. 

In future episodes I will also detail how you can download and take control of your Facebook data so that you can turn it from a sharing mechanism into a very convenient method of capturing your life.

I’m also determined to get the podcast on a regular weekly schedule very soon. This has been a very crazy (but good!) time of our lives but it is no excuse and I promise to soon have it on a consistent schedule. More on the craziness of our lives soon!

And finally, I very much appreciate your honest ratings on iTunes (thanks David!). These will help this podcast be more visible and helpful to many more like you who are striving to capture their life in effective and creative ways.

Using Facebook the Right Way

• www.facebook.com to create a free account if you don’t already have one
• This YouTube video will give you a visual representation of many of the things I talk about in the podcast (I didn’t create the video)
• Here is the iTunes link
• That’s it for the show notes today!

Hope to see you around for the next episode and make sure and click subscribe so that you don’t miss one!

-Sam

We write a lot more words than we typically give ourselves credit for. Not only am I constantly writing blog posts on this and other sites, but I frequently write detailed emails to close family and friends. Throw in social media, commenting on other websites and personal journaling and I average probably a four digit word count every day.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you do too.

When it comes to my digital journal word count, I cheat. I’m bad. I steal, plunder and plagerize.

But it’s all okay! I’m not stealing someone elses words and calling them mine, I am stealing my own words and calling them mine. With a quick ctrl+c and ctrl+v (command for you Mac folks) I grab text I have already written and slap it right into my personal journal entries.

If you’ve been around Easy Journaling for any amount of time, this probably isn’t new to you. Today this post is going to be different, however, because I’m going to show you step by step how to do this the right way.

The reason that there is a right way and wrong way is because you have to properly give context for what you are doing. If you insert a detailed status update you wrote on Facebook into your personal journal without any explanation, it will sound weird. This is because you are writing for a different audience on Facebook than you are writing for yourself in your personal journal.

So let’s follow an example so that you can see how to do this in your own digital journaling. Let’s say that I recently wrote an email to my business mentor detailing my ideas and goals for the coming year. This is very important to me so I feel that it will add incredible value to my personal journal and want to paste it in.

The first step is to go into my Gmail account and go to the sent folder.

I find the email I sent to my mentor and select the text using ctrl+a. I copy it using ctrl+c.

I then open up my digital journal (currently using Diaro 3 for Android) which has a web browser. Note that I’m doing this process on my computer but it could also work on a mobile device as well.

I create a new entry and match the date with the date that the email was sent.

Since I have already copied the email, I can now paste it in using ctrl+v.

Now I need to give context so I write in bold letters above the email (if you can’t bold text in your journal, parenthesis will work too): Email Sent to Mentor About 2013 Goals

You can also write the context as part of the title of the entry, if your journal supports entries.

If he replied the same day you can paste his reply in the same entry, just below your original email. Make sure and write something like: Mentors Response to My Email

Now you make sure and save the entry and you are done! Writing a long entry never felt so easy!

There may be some rogue exceptions, but this method should be nearly universal. It is simply the process of taking words you have written and pasting them into your journal entries. I have been doing it for years and it is a great way to see details about your life that you would never include otherwise.

Give it a whirl and leave your experience in the comments below!

Player above not working? Either click here, or right-click and “Save Link” to download the episode.

4 Ways To Digitize Your Handwritten Journals

1. Use a Flat Bed Scanner
2. Use a Scanner App for Smartphones and Tablets
   1. CamScanner Plus
3. Use a Transcription Service
   1. How Much to Charge for Transcribing Books | eHow.com
4. Use a Book Scanning Service
   1. http://boundbookscanning.com/

If you have done a diligent search for a quality journal app for your smartphone and tablet you may have been attacked by a flurry of features.

Emoticons!

Links!

Video!

…and so on.

As great as these sound and as wonderful as it is to capture your life in such a variety of ways, I argue against using most multimedia features that digital journals offer these days. The exception?

Pictures.

If it isn’t clear already, I teach that you shouldn’t use these sort of bells and whistles because in the end you can’t print them (alright, maybe emoticons, but… whatever )

Until the day where printed paper is as interactive and dynamic as screens are today, it is wise to limit your journal entries to text and pictures because in the end that is the only thing that your printer can handle. The Harry Potter type newspapers will hopefully prove me wrong in a decade or two, but until then we should prepare for someday printing our journals.

So all of that begs the question- why would you want to print your digital journal?

Haven’t you seen any zombie/Apocalypse movies? The power isn’t on at the end of the world! Your PDFs will be of no use!

All joking aside, having a printed version of your already electronic journal is just an added measure of protection. Even though you should have a few redundant copies of the PDF (or .txt) versions of your journals, there is nothing to say that those files will be transferred correctly and in due time to your posterity upon your passing. There is also no guarantee that the file formats won’t change in the next few decades.

And not only is having a printed version another level of backup for your journals, there is a certain level of nostalgia in having and holding a physical copy of your words. I’ve done this on a couple of occasions and  it is wonderful. It would be very easy to pass down a printed copy (or multiple if you want to press the print button a couple of times) to your children or grandchildren when the time comes.

Again, this is just me (and remember that I am more on the capturing life side of journaling) but I think everyone should seriously consider eventually printing their journals out. Knowing that this will be part of your eventual exit strategy will change the way you approach your daily journaling because you will focus more on words and pictures and less on audio/visual and proprietary file formats.

Look for more information on the specifics of printing in future blog posts and podcast episodes, but until then you can always take your electronic files and get the printed out at places like lulu.com, createspace.com and shutterfly.com.

Have you ever considered printing out your journal?

Player above not working? Either click here, or right-click and “Save Link” to download the episode.

There are a bunch of ways to capture your life using technology. I try and use many and I’m sure you are using many as well whether you know it or not. In episode 2 of the CLTT podcast I share 10 ways that I am currently sharing my life using technology.

Did I miss something or do you have some suggestions or ideas of your own? Please add them in the comments below!

Also, this podcast is now available on iTunes! Please subscribe by clicking on the link below:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast/id642681104

Episode 2 Notes:

The 10 Ways I am Catching My Life Using Technology

1. Digital Journaling
2. Pictures and Videos
3. FitBit
4. Yearly Family Videos
5. Emailing
6. Google Calendar
7. Shutterfly
8. Websites
9. Invention Journal
10. Social Media

Benefits of Digital Journaling

Penzu

LDS Journal

Wonderful Days

Diaro 3

FitBit Website

Our Family Videos Website

Google Calendar

Shutterfly

101 Reasons to Write a Journal

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Keeping a journal is similar to exercise. Some people start it out strong; going to the gym every day, doing the necessary warm-ups and buying the required items but there will come a point where the thrill and excitement fizzles up. For people who want to keep a journal, the problem is not in the determination or the time. Sometimes, we just don’t know what to write about. We face an empty piece of paper with a pen at hand just letting precious time pass by. Then we give up.

If you are one of the many people who encounter such problems then you don’t have to worry anymore. With the iOS app named Roller Journal, you will never have to worry about not knowing what to write anymore.

Roller Journal is not like your everyday ordinary journal app. Aside from giving you a place to write a journal, it actually helps your write one. It gives you notifications at different times of day that it notices you tend to write. Find it hard to start a new entry every day? Roller Journal has a couple of open ended questions (typically called prompts in the journaling world) that will help you start your journal. It also has milestones or achievements especially made for people who crave for “reward” in keeping a journal.

Roller Journal is easy to use and you can use it right after installation. It will provide you a short and basic overview of the app and its features. Honestly, even if you missed this part you wouldn’t have much of a problem as it is user-friendly.

After installing the app, you can start your journal writing adventure. Tapping “Start a New Entry” will trigger the app to ask simple questions such as:

1. What are you looking forward to?
2. If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be?
3. What’s one thing you’d like to change about today?

It’s as if somebody is actually asking you questions to help you express yourself. As soon as you answer a question, you will be taken to the next questions. You will also have the choice to skip questions if you don’t see them fit. Roller has the capability to track a specific question and your answers to that said questions. This is a good way to track changes and gain insight about yourself.

If you think the built in questions are getting too repetitive then you can always purchase questions packs for new questions. Also, the app allows you to categorize the questions into three types:

• Always Ask Me
• Never Ask Me
• Ask Me Randomly

As the titles suggest, the categories basically group the questions that you want to be asked, questions that you don’t want to be asked about and the questions that you might like to answer every now and then. If you still think the default questions and the paid question packs don’t trigger the writer in you then you can create your own questions.

Some people really consider journal writing to be a part of their lives while others see it as a very troublesome activity. If you are the latter and would really want to try it out. Roller Journal is a good way to motivate yourself and stimulate the hidden creative talent in you. Roller Journal is currently $1.99.

Catch this video for a great visual of how Roller Journal works by the developer. (click here if it isn’t showing up)

Player above not working? Either click here, or right-click and “Save Link” to download the episode.

Finally, the Capturing Life Through Technology Podcast is here!

As I mentioned in a previous post, there are two broad reasons to keep a journal: improving your life or capturing your life. As I indicated, I tend to be more passionate about the latter and I feel that there isn’t enough information on the best ways to capture your life… using technology. This is why I have opted to create this podcast not exclusively focused on journaling. As you will learn in this podcast, CLTT will include topics such as amateur photography, picture and video storage and backup, social media, analog to digital conversion (VHS to DVD anyone?), digitizing printed materials (scanning scrapbooks…), digital journaling and much more.

Your feedback is very valuable to me in this podcast. I am a podcast junkie when it comes to listening to them but am new to creating them. Be patient with me as I find my voice and make this content as good as I possibly can. It will get better (my next podcast I will try and limit to only saying “so” to a hundred or so times:)

To listen to this and future podcasts you can listen right within this post by clicking the play button or you can actually subscribe to it using iTunes or other podcast catcher software.

The show notes are below and please leave your feedback and questions in the comments.

Episode #1: Introduction and My Picture Process

The 5 Step Process

1. Capturing
2. Transferring
3. Organization
4. Backup
5. Retrieval 

Sprint- I am Unlimited Commercial.

Dropbox- Online storage and file management.

Belvedere- Automated folder/file management for Windows.

Hazel- Automated folder/file management for Mac.

Crashplan- Online backup 

I’m a stat nerd, so to be honest, I’m not sure why I haven’t done this before. It all started with a simple question I had the other day:

How much have I really written in my journals?

It wasn’t the sort of question that has no answer or is not quantifiable, it was a very clear and direct question that I knew I could find the answer to. I turned to the tool that I have become oh-so-familiar with as an aspiring engineer- a spreadsheet.

Now I must be clear on a few points. First of all, I didn’t count every word in my handwritten journals. Time doesn’t grow on trees! Instead I took an estimation based on words per page and how many pages (each journal has the same number because they are the exact same type of journals). While the actual numbers may fluctuate a little, I think my numbers are not far off from reality.

Also, note that the journals I kept when I was a kid are at my parents house and are not included in this. This is okay though because most of them were written out of duty and probably would have only contributed a few thousand or so words to the total.

These numbers also do not include all of the other writing I have done over the years including books, blogs and emails. This is just personal and private journal numbers.

So those asterisks aside, I have written (around) 371,193 words in my personal journals since August 1999.

Sound impressive? Well, it isn’t really. In fact, several of you have emailed me and mentioned that you have been writing in journals since well before I entered this world.

I mean, it is a lot, but not really in the context of other efforts. For example, if I was writing the Harry Potter books I would be about half way through the 4th one. If I was writing the Bible I wouldn’t even be half way finished. The novel I wrote a few years back is around 92,000 words which is fairly long these days.

It would be more interesting if I were able to know how many entries and how long each of them are. This would allow me to know the word count by month and year, which would be telling. It would also be nice to see how many pictures I have included in my digital journals. A more detailed version of this report may happen in the future.

However, the surprising part to me was the breakdown between words that were handwritten and the digital ones I have been writing for the past several years. (blue is handwritten and green is digital)

If you are a stat nerd like me, you can see the full spreadsheet at the link below:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuF8CeDfDp59dHdMQWZxYTJDUzFCWllRM3R5UmYxeGc&usp=sharing

I also want to start giving an accountability for how much I am writing every month in my journal. This may or may not be interesting or helpful to you (let me know in the comments if you feel passionately either way) but I know that it will at least hold me accountable and help me do better. Here is my April report.

Entries: 11

Words: 3373

Words/Entry: 307

Pictures: 11

Pictures/Entry: 1

You can see the breakdown entry by entry in the spreadsheet link above. As you can see, my word count is all over the place with the low being in the 40′s and the high being nearly 2000.

I’m not arguing that this is the perfect way to journal but it is the way that works for me. I hope that you will find the way that works best for you. My goal for May is 4000 words. Stay tuned for next months report to see if I make it!

I also want to note that some of you may be thinking about the ‘private’ part of journaling that I always talk about. You may not be comfortable sharing how many words you write in your journal, and that’s fine. I personally am but I would never share what is actually written in the entries. That’s my personal line.

Anyone else keep track of how much they journal?

The more I have gotten to know the journaling community the more I have realized how diverse it is, which is contrary to what I initially thought. When I first started Easy Journaling I was sure that most people who kept a journal where similar to each other. Call it stereotyping or call it demographics but I was sure I knew what types of people were most likely to journal.

Obviously I was wrong as I have come to the realization that there are journalers of every age and stage in life and from every country and nationality in the world. This diversity has given the EJ community a unique flavor and voice.

I’ve also noticed that everyone has their own reason to write a journal. There are many reasons, as I have recently documented in 101 Reasons to Write a Journal, but these can actually be boiled down into two broad categories. That’s right, there are only two main reasons to keep a journal, coming from the guy that wrote about 101.

So here it is, you either journal to improve your life or to capture your life.

That’s it. All of my reasons and every other reason can fit into one of the much broader categories of either improving or capturing your life. If you disagree I am very much looking forward to your comments below this post, but please hear me out on this one.

Let’s dive into each of these categories a little more in depth. First, the improving. This reason to journal is what most of the journaling community focuses on. This is where the prompts, introspection and self-healing go. This is the self-discovery, conversations with the soul and finding your inner voice. If you will listen to virtually any journaling ‘guru’ you will get instruction that will show you how journaling can improve your life.

This is good. Journaling can be powerful and I am glad there is a strong movement showing this process of self improvement.

Now let’s talk about the other side, the capturing of your life. This can also be described as your personal history and includes everyone that wants to keep a personal journal to capture memories of this fleeting earth experience. This is the process of writing down to remember. In fact, this is the older form of journaling and much of our world history is based on personal journals recording life to remember it. In many ways, this type of journaling is closely related to family history and genealogy.

Capturing your life journaling is the reasons that many of us write down our life for our kids and future posterity. We want them to know us and the life we lived so that our history and memories can live on. We also write down their lives when they are too young to write it down themselves so that they can have a history of the tender moments of their youth. My parents did this for me and it is priceless.

Alright, so now that you understand the two broad reasons of keeping a journal I want to reveal the final piece of this puzzle that will show you that it makes sense. Because these aren’t two separate groups but rather ‘reasons’ or ‘categories’, most of us probably keep a journal for both of these reasons. Take me for example, I truly believe that keeping a personal journal can improve my life but in all honesty I typically do it to record my life history. Let’s give some numbers to it- I do it for about 20% self improvement and 80% capturing my life.

In fact, let’s look at it this way. Imagine a line with improving life on the left and capturing life on the right (see below). My dot is 80% towards the right which represents that I lean more towards the recording history. Everyone is somewhere on this line and although some would argue that they are 100% to one side or the other, I think we all do a little of both. Still, the side you are closer to is the group you identify with the most.

I’ve noticed this breakdown of the journaling community most recently in places like the popular Lifehacker.com. Those who follow this website are most likely to be young and techy. They want to use technology and tricks to optimize their processes in life.

Keeping a personal journal has been featured on Lifehacker several times recently and as I have listened to the comments I have noticed that these aren’t the traditional ‘journalers’. In fact, many of them don’t even like that title! Most of them (it seems, remember that this is only anecdotal) simply want to find the best way to record their life history, typically using the software and applications I speak most often about on this website.

This group also includes the growing (but very vocal) ‘plain text’ writers. Yes, I know who you are and what you do is probably beyond what I teach and even know! The way these users are utilizing plain text editors is actually closer to coding and programming than it is ‘traditional’ journaling. I respect much of what is happening in this community and hope to write more posts and mini-guides in the future that highlights this high level of journaling.

So, where are you on this spectrum? Do you journal more to improve your life or more to capture it? Let us all know your reasons and I’m sure many of you think I am way off base and I want to hear from you as well.