While I’m still on the lookout for the best note taking app, every time I try a new app, I always return to Notion if I find I’m not satisfied with it. This happened before when I still used Evernote– I kept trying to move away from Evernote but it wasn’t worth it (until, you know, Evernote tanked their app). I think I keep coming back to Notion because it gives me a lot to experiment with, and there are a near endless combination of ways to put blocks together to make something cool.
One night last week I pondered to myself, “can I replicate DayOne functionality in Notion?” So I spent an hour tinkering, which resulted in my Simple Journal Notion template. This is the first Notion template published on the Notion Template Gallery, which is pretty neat!
Journal Template
This template is cool because it is simple: and that’s key when it comes to journaling. I tried to make the UI as unobtrusive as possible, and easy to navigate on mobile. The template is also neat because it has an “on this day” and “on this date” feature. Meaning, it will surface entries of yours from dates past (for example, if today is February 21, it will show posts from February 21 in years past), or days past (today’s a Wednesday? It will show all posts made on a Wednesday).
I’ve already modified my own personal template to include something called “Journeys.” These are entries that are all in one document, which helps give a nice timeline of events without the hassle of opening up multiple entries.
Another modification I want to add: AI generated entry summaries. Maybe I’ll add that when I sign up for Notion AI, someday. I’m also curious and want to see how Notion Q&A will work with this; frankly, that’s the primary reason I’m (currently) using Notion to journal.
Anyway, go check out the template and make it your own! Let me know your thoughts, and any ideas for improvements you may have, in the comments.
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