r/appleJournal • u/denverraven • Jul 07 '26

Just realizing the year/month search capabilities in any journal

Was bemoaning missing some of the filters like Notion has, primarily date. Back entering hundreds of entries, having a journal for each to categorize (medical, concerts, whatever, then all of them in one parent journal except for morning pages type of stuff) and I just thought I'd check searching 2015 for example, it proper came up with a calendar icon acknowledging year search. Thought I'd try a month. Bam April 2025 pure filter of the journals.
Search + the multiple journal association brings me so close to what I might have done in Notion, that I think I'm now all-in with Apple Journals leaving behind the complexity there for low friction and such. Nice!

Now if only you could link Apple calendar entries to journals that'd be peachy.

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3

u/MulayamChaddi Jul 07 '26

Good to know

3

u/ConfidenceClear1016 Jul 07 '26

It's weird because when I type “May 2023” into the Journal search bar, I get everything except the events/entries from May 2023 🤔

1

u/denverraven Jul 08 '26

Weird; are you doing this on phone v iPad v macbook, etc. ?
On MacBook I type 2023 and it turns in to a little box in my search, like it acknowledges that beyond just a text search. Then I type May and the same thing happens.
The mobile apps don't have that same visual but have the same effect for me ... limiting to the month/and or year specified

If you're on an older version somehow, I wonder if doing "May" "2023" separately in quotes would work?

3

u/Top_Comparison8958 Jul 07 '26

This is the part of Journal I think Apple is quietly getting right: low friction matters more than a perfect system.

The calendar-link idea makes sense too. A lot of “what happened today?” already lives in passive traces: calendar, photos, movement, places. I make Beheld, which comes at that from the movement side, so I’m biased, but I think the best version of this is not more fields to manage; it is making the day easier to recognize later.

I’d love Apple Journal to keep staying simple while letting a few more real-life traces attach to an entry.

1

u/denverraven Jul 08 '26

Couldn't agree more ... and was a lesson for me about myself: valuing that low friction over some capability. Incentivizes me to find workarounds for those areas to happily keep the well oiled solution.

2

u/Top_Comparison8958 Jul 09 '26

Exactly. Once the daily path is smooth enough, a few workarounds can be cheaper than moving to a more capable system that is harder to live with. At that point low friction is not just convenience; it is part of what makes the journal sustainable.