Day One 4+

Does what it says on the tin!

As someone a little too focused on productivity and self-realization tools, I’ve tried a lot of ways of journaling, blogging, publishing, and keeping it to myself. Day One is nice and clean - it’s pretty full-featured, but also lets you turn off, or even better, ignore, features that you don’t want. I’m appreciating being able to write in Markdown, but not having to, as that’s my mode in several wikis that I use for work.

Several years and several versions in, I’m really appreciating the line that Day One walks. It has a lot of features, but they don’t get in the way of my fairly simple use. And yet, every few months, I find some feature that helps me write more consistently, more quickly, or expand what I’m writing. The latest discovery was coming to understand the different views, and how satisfying it is to see a long streak in the calendar view. I’d only used timeline view before, but when I looked at the calendar - boom! Easy to use and it helps me write more.

I bought Day One (Classic) and wasn’t sure about the upgrade for a while. The new interface is a little more intuitive, and some of the new features are nice. I like multiple images, and I like having the “a year ago” feature without the data being in someone else’s—FB’s—control. I’m not keen on the switch to subscription, but as a developer I understand the tension between ongoing improvements and one-time purchases. The overall cost is still impressively low!

Five Years Deep, Still Five Stars

I instantly thought it was the best when the app was first released some five years ago. Five years later, it is still the reigning champ in the world of journaling. Flexible, powerful, uncluttered user experience, great customer service, reliable and constantly tweeked and improved to make it better- these are all the reasons this is worth your money. I definitely don’t prefer the subscription model that is emerging as the app industry-standard, but that’s not necessarily Day One’s problem. I get it- you’ve got to figure out a way to keep the lights on in a fiercly competitive industry, but still, I clearly realize that this is a way to make more money off of me for a longer amount of time. As a consumer I would much rather pay a one time fee and own the app and it’s features out-right without having to use a slice of my monthly disposable income on an ongoing subscription. But alas it appears that this is where the industry is headed and nobody really cares what a Joe Shmoe like me thinks. But I seriously love Day One- get it now! And if it doesn’t have a feature to address your super obscure need that literally no one else needs or wants, please don’t get all bent out of shape and leave them a one star review. Also, if you’re going to leave them a one star review at least have the class to punctuate your tasteless review. Nothing says intelligence like a paragraph without periods.

Developer Response ,

Thank you so much for your feedback!

For a person who doesn’t journal I blame this app for changing me.

I’m always told to write it down it will help in coping with issues of life or when you keep forgetting things. I had tried to work with those old composition books as they have been easy and cheap. I spent times writing and times not writing. I find that working with this older method works for some people but its doesn’t 100% work for me. I came across Day One by accident as I was looking for a good txt editor for my old Macbook pro. When I did my search I found a lot but noting that interest me. It wasn’t until I came across the Day One app and started to read over what it was. It was completly diffrent then what I was looking for but it was something that was diffrent then those old composition books a friend suggested I work with. On the technology spectrum I fall in a very rare group as I’m older then most when it comes to being tech savy but when I started using Day One I was kinda of blown away at how easy it was just to have items flow from my head onto the app. It wasn’t about writing with a keyboard over a pencil. It was just easy to get the thoughts from my head onto something I can save, review, and if something should happen a closing txt of what’s been on my mind for a while. I would highly recommend this app as my title points out I’m a person who doesn’t Journal until now.