Journal · Core · Free
One page a day, written a note at a time.
One page per day, written a note at a time, with guided templates, photos, tags, search, a cover and writing insights.
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Notes, then a pageEvery note you save lands on today's page with its time. The page you write at night closes the day, marked "PAGE".
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A prompt, or nonePick "Evening review", "Morning reflection", "Weekly check-in" or "Decision log", or start from "Free write", a blank page.
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The month, filling inA dot under each day you wrote, larger the more you wrote, with your streak, your longest run and your last 30 days counted above the list.
Your first week in Journal
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Save a note
Type into "What's on your mind?" and tap the arrow. It lands on today's page under "Today", with the time.
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Write the page
At night, tap + and pick "Evening review", or "Free write" for a blank page. Tap "Start writing →" and answer what it asks.
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Read the month
By the weekend the month at the top has a few dots. Tap one to open that day, and its notes and page.
Every step, in detail
- 1 Open Journal and type into "What's on your mind?" on today's card. Tap the arrow to save it as a note on today's page.
- 2 Add up to ten photos with the photo button, or tap the microphone to dictate.
- 3 For a longer entry, tap + ("New guided entry"), pick a template such as "Free write", "Morning reflection" or "Evening review", and tap "Start writing →".
- 4 The month at the top marks each day you wrote with a dot. Tap a day to open it.
- 5 Open a day to read it, add a note, or give it a cover from the … menu.
A day, a note at a time
A day in Journal is one page. Each note you save from “What’s on your mind?” joins it with the time you wrote it, and the page you write at night closes the day, last in line.
Sample · Tuesday, October 20
Today · 3 notes Today’s page ›
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Walked the long way to the station. Cold enough for gloves.
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Lunch with Ana. She moves to Lisbon in March and already sounds lighter about it. #friends
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Shipped the export fix. Two weeks on one bug, and it was a time zone. #work
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✦ Page · Evening review
- One win today
- The fix is out, and I stopped checking the logs by six.
- What was hard
- Saying no to Thursday’s planning meeting. I said it anyway.
- Energy today
- Good
- Tomorrow’s focus
- Draft the spring plan with Ana’s dates in it.
How the page comes together
- Type into “What’s on your mind?” and tap the arrow. The note lands on today’s page under “Today”, at its time. Add up to ten photos, or tap the microphone and say it.
- A #tag inside a note, such as #work, joins the day’s tags, so the whole page turns up under that chip.
- “Today’s page ›” opens the day. “Write today’s page” starts the long entry; tap + instead to pick a template first.
- Under each day, a short line sums it up: words, notes, and your mood and energy when you gave them.
Notes and pages sync through iCloud with the rest of HourLife, so the same journal is on each of your devices.
The month fills in
The month sits above the list. Every day you wrote carries a dot, and the dot grows with the words. Today wears the sun’s ring. Underneath, three numbers keep count.
Sample · October 2026, up to the 20th
October 2026 ⌄
- Streak
- 6
- Longest
- 10
- Last 30 days
- 24/30
The dot is the words
- 1–39 words
- 40–119
- 120–299
- 300 and more
The three numbers
- Streak is the run of days with a page, ending today. Here, 6: the 15th to the 20th, after a blank 14th.
- Longest is your best run ever. Here, 10 days, ending July 5.
- Last 30 days counts the days you wrote, not the words: 24 of 30.
Tap a dotted day to jump to it. While you search, the days that don’t match fade.
Insights: how you write
“Insights”, in the … menu, reads everything you have written and says it back in plain sentences, each over its own chart. These are the cards it would show for the same sample.
Sample · 208 days, to Tuesday, October 20
Writing · 30 days
You’ve written 2,361 words this month.
Up 14% from last month.
- this month
- 2,361
- avg / entry
- 177
- all time
- 23,761
Your rhythm
You write most on Wednesdays.
Across 134 daily entries.
Streaks
You’re on a 6-day streak.
Best ever: 10 days, set in July 2026.
Mood
Your entries average 3.5 / 5 in mood.
Themes
Your top themes: #work, #family, #run.
#work appears in 31 entries.
Consistency
Your last 208 days at a glance.
- Brief
- Deep
- Missed
A prompt, or none
Tap + and “Choose Template” opens. A template splits the page into prompts, so the evening is a few short answers instead of a blank page. Before noon it suggests “Morning reflection”; after 6 PM, “Evening review”.
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Free write
No prompts — blank page
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Evening review
Suggested after 6 PM
- One win today
- What was hardOptional
- Energy todayLow · Ok · Good · Great
- Tomorrow’s focusOptional
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Morning reflection
Suggested before noon
- Grateful for
- Today’s energyLow · Ok · Good · Great
- One thing to protect
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Weekly check-in
- Highlight of the week
- What drained youOptional
- What energized youOptional
- One thing to carry forwardOptional
- Next week intention
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Decision log
- What’s the decision
- Options considered
- Why this choice
- What could go wrongOptional
- + Create new template
Your own templates carry “Edit Template” and “Delete Template” in the picker. Deleting one keeps the pages written with it, prompts and all; the five built-in ones stay.
The writing prompt
A free-write page opens with one question above it, in italics, such as “What drained you? What filled you?” Tap “New prompt” for another. The question is kept with what you wrote.
Journal settings
- “Daily writing prompts” is on until you turn it off. Off, every page starts blank.
- “Full-screen editor button” puts an expand button on the capture card, for writing at length. It is on too.
- “Nightly journal reminder” sends “Take a moment to write about today.” at 9 PM, or a time you choose.
- “Planning Rhythm” picks when you plan: “Morning planning”, “Evening planning”, or “Morning + evening”.
Find it again
A journal is only as good as the way back into it. Under the capture card, the list of past days has six of them.
- Filter chips
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- All
- ★ Highlights
- ✦ Pages
- #work
- #family
- #run
- Search entries
- Looks through pages and notes alike. A miss says so: “I couldn’t find … yet.”
- Pin
- From a day’s … menu. A pinned day leaves the main list for “Pinned entries”, a row at its top with a count.
- Archive
- Hides a day from the list without deleting it. “Archived”, in Journal’s … menu, keeps them all and brings any back.
- On this day
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Open a day and, if you wrote on the same date in an earlier year, that page waits at the foot of it.
On this day · 1 year ago
First cold morning. Bought the gloves I should have bought last winter.
- Cover
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- Dusk
- Dawn
- Sage
- Ocean
- Lavender
- Ember
- Sand
- Night
- Rose
- Forest
- Mist
- Sunset
Tips
- Put a #tag in a note, such as #work or #family. It becomes a filter chip once you use it often.
- A "Nightly journal reminder" in Journal settings sends one nudge a day, at 9 PM unless you pick another time, to write about today.
- Template prompts marked "Optional" can be left empty, and the page still saves.
- Write a note the moment something happens and the page at night. The notes are what the page is written from.
Questions
About Journal day to day.
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What is the difference between a note and a page?
A note is a line you save from the capture card, with the time you wrote it. Every note on one day joins that day's page. The page itself is what you write with "Write today's page" or from a template, and it sits last in the day, marked "PAGE".
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Can I write without a prompt?
Yes. Pick "Free write" ("No prompts — blank page"), or turn off "Daily writing prompts" in Journal settings, and new pages open blank.
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How is my streak counted?
It is the run of days in a row with a page, ending today. "LONGEST" is your best run, and "LAST 30 DAYS" counts the days you wrote out of the last thirty.
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What happens when I delete an entry?
It moves to "Recently Deleted", in HourLife's Settings, where you can restore it for 30 days. After that it is removed for good.
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Can I add photos?
Up to ten at a time from the capture card, and any day can carry a cover, either a photo or a gradient such as Dusk, Sage or Ocean.
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Will it remind me to write?
Turn on "Nightly journal reminder" in Journal settings. It sends "Take a moment to write about today." once a day, at 9 PM unless you pick another time.
Works with
Where Journal hands off to the rest of HourLife.
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Today
The Journal card on Today shows today's latest notes and a field to add one, and Rest mode's "Write in journal →" opens today's page.
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Calendar
Journal entries appear on the Calendar timeline, and Calendar's + menu adds a "Journal Note" for a past day or a "Journal Intention" for a future one.
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Brain
When you process an item in Brain, "Write about this" turns it into a journal entry.
Read and try
Books from the library that Journal puts into practice, and something to try on paper or in the browser.
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The Artist's Way Julia Cameron Three longhand pages every morning, written for no one. Journal keeps a page a day the same way.
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The Power of Writing It Down Allison Fallon Fallon on writing as a way to think through what you are stuck on, which is what a guided template is for.
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Meditations Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius's private notebook, never meant for readers, and still the best case for writing to yourself.
Already have HourLife?
Journal is under Core in the module list. Its … menu holds "Insights", "Archived" and "Settings", and the Journal card on Today opens it on today.
Journal is in the Library, under Core. If it isn’t there, turn it on in Settings → Look & Feel → Modules.
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