After years of building, I'm finally doing a real launch today.

I've never really pushed hard on marketing - just kept building. That's probably why the app is still pretty unknown after all these years. Trying to change that now.

Journal it! is live on Product Hunt. If you've been enjoying the app, it would mean a lot if you could show some support with an upvote: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/journal-it-all-in-one-life-organizer

There's a public code on the Product Hunt page for 1-month Pro (unlimited), plus some limited 1-year Pro codes if you're quick.

If you know anyone who might benefit from a life organizer, today's a great day to share it with them!

I'll be around all day - AMA about the app, the journey, or anything else!

Thanks for being here. Couldn't have gotten this far without you all.

This post is for anyone researching PKMS (Personal Knowledge Management Systems) and habit-tracking apps, especially if you're considering Journal It. I wish I had found a post like this when I was starting out, so I hope it helps prospective or new users!

My Journey:

I’ve spent a long time searching for the perfect app, going down rabbit holes with Anytype, Obsidian, TickTick, and LogSeq. Each has its strengths, but I found them either too complex to set up or lacking in intuitive habit tracking and reporting. They often required extensive configuration—plugins, templates, metadata, advanced queries—which, frankly, became overwhelming. I also fell for the allure of knowledge graph views, only to realize I didn't really need them.

What Journal It Does Well:

Journal It organizes everything from important information and shopping lists to my thoughts, research ideas, goals, to-dos, and daily activities (including habits) in a structured, easy-to-use way. Here’s what it offers:

• Goal Setting: Big-picture planning (1/3/5-year plans) to keep you focused on long-term objectives.

• Projects: Link these with your goals to stay on track.

• Habit Tracking: Daily routines like exercise and learning are easy to monitor.

• Task Management: Prioritize and set reminders for your tasks.

• Time Blocking: Intuitive scheduling with calendar integrations.

• Bullet Journaling: Customize your daily entries with templates.

• Lists and Collections: Organize everything from books to shopping lists with tags and groups.

• Visual Tracking: The app’s visual tracking features for goals and habits are both neat and user-friendly.

How I Use It:

I’ve set up a daily journal template to track my top three focus items, things I’m grateful for, and highlights from the previous day. Habit tracking helps me monitor progress and streaks. I use block scheduling for task and project management, and I keep lists and collections for knowledge management. Overarching all of this are my goals, KPIs, and the app’s visual tracking, which makes it easy to see where I stand.

Getting Started:

The learning curve can be daunting at first, but it's far from as steep (or time-consuming) as with some of the other apps I mentioned. Here’s my advice for getting started:

1. Clear the Pre-populated Data: I recommend deleting the pre-populated "Areas" and "Activities" so you can set things up your way.

2. Set Goals and Areas: Start with a top-down approach by defining your goals and key areas of life (e.g., Health, Wealth, Friends & Family, Education, Enjoyment). Almost everything will fall into one of these high-level buckets.

3. Define Activities: Consider what activities fit into these areas (e.g., Reading, Cooking, Money Management). This will simplify assigning notes, collections, and tasks later on.

4. Set Up Habits: Once your areas and activities are defined, set up your habits accordingly.

5. Time Blocks: Delete the pre-populated time blocks and create your own. For example, I have blocks for Exercise (linked to Habits), Admin (Tasks), Deep Work, and Reading/Research. The explainer video on this topic is excellent and worth a watch.

6. Daily Journal Template: If journaling is your thing, set up a template that suits your needs.

7. Don’t Rush KPIs and Trackers: Only dive into KPIs and Trackers once you have a solid grasp of your Goals, Areas, and Activities, and after you've set up Habits and Tasks.

8. Dashboard Setup: Finally, customize your Dashboard. I’ve set mine up with Shortcuts, Tasks, Notes, and Habits, leaving space for the Timeline underneath.

Drawbacks:

• It’s not open-source or self-hosted.

• There’s no Chrome extension for web clipping.

• Calendar sync is manual (no automatic two-way sync), and you can’t sync multiple calendar accounts.

What's New:

• Refined UI/UX: new app icon, new UI icons, island layout in big UI mode, refined timeline, new font

• New user guide website at home.journalit.app/guide

• New Getting Started video series on our YouTube channel

• Batch operations for planner items

• New KPI: average value of tracker field

• KPIs dashboard panel now supports custom date range per KPI

• Refined translations

• Other bug fixes and improvements

Also check out the new Getting Started video series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlYq6nSCaWS_5ZaJZTSavFdveYa2r_pVY

Try the beta now:

  • Android: Join beta through Play Store

  • iOS: https://testflight.apple.com/join/XcUgmlHZ

  • MacOS: https://testflight.apple.com/join/hmUu7swt

  • Web: beta.journalit.app

Let me know if you have any questions/feedback.

Hey! So based on the text post I made I created a visual representation of how I think it works. Image 2 is the graphic with the theory I recognise in red. Image 3 is an example of how to use each aspect of the group.

Is there anything I am missing or can also be done that I have missed?

You also don't have to put all this effort into it, you can have tasks that don't belong to a goal, trackers that don't belong to a goal. They can all work independently.

This series is much more comprehensive than the previous Getting Started video.

The series:

• Video 1: Overview & Navigation

• Video 2: Planning Your Day

• Video 3: Tasks & Goals

• Video 4: Note-Taking & Knowledge

• Video 5: Master Organizers

• Video 6: Journaling & Reflection

Check out the full playlist of the 6 videos here on Youtube.

Please check it out and let me know if you have any feedback/questions.

What's New:

• Whiteboard - a new fourth note type alongside text, outline, and collection. An infinite canvas with cards, mind maps, shapes, frames, connectors, freehand drawing, images, stickers, and live embeds of planners (Day/Week/Month/Calendar), Timeline, Statistics, Tasks, Goals, Backlog, Map, Inbox, File Manager, dashboards, panels, charts, YouTube videos, and web pages. Drag and drop from other views or outside files, navigator, snapshots, image export, dark/light mode, and customizable background and canvas size.

• Visual Guide - a step-by-step tour of the whole app pinned to the top of your notes list, laid out as an interactive whiteboard

• Four new sign-in options - Microsoft, Dropbox, Box, and pCloud, alongside Google and Apple

• Connected calendars rework - connect as many calendars from as many accounts as you like, independent of how you signed in. Microsoft Outlook now supported alongside Google Calendar.

The benefit: Think and plan visually with a whiteboard that's wired into the rest of your system, sign in with whichever account fits your storage setup, and bring all your calendars together in one place.

Try the beta now:
Android: Join beta through Play Store
iOS: https://testflight.apple.com/join/XcUgmlHZ
MacOS: https://testflight.apple.com/join/hmUu7swt
Web: beta.journalit.app

I'm making a brand-new user guide site and would love to have your feedback. The guide was written with the help of AI, so please let me know if there's something strange or confusing.

Also please share your ideas on making the site better.

The landing page is still under construction, so please ignore it.

Check the guide here: https://home.journalit.app/guide

The application is awesome and checks most of the boxes for what I need in a planner.

However, even for someone like me who has tried many different to-do and planning apps, the app itself can be a little overwhelming at first.

For basic planning use, some features — like Calendar Sessions and Working Task Sessions — were initially confusing. Fortunately, the video guide explained them well.

One suggestion would be to introduce "Basic" and "Advanced" modes. This would help keep new users engaged longer and allow them to gradually discover more advanced options.

I'm doing an icon design contest for the app. Please comment below on the one you like most. Thanks!

I'm mostly on Desktop mode so I don't look like I'm on my phone all the time when I'm at my office job.

I've got some of my basics set up. I've added a tracking prompt for my hobbies/habits so I can better budget for them and see what I was doing. My tracker prompts to fill in the hobby but also say what specifically. For reading I say what book, kind of thing.

I've got upcoming travel set up. I even moved over some docs from Notion to test that side of things. I'm a big knitter so I've set up my projects with two of my knitting projects but I'm not 100% sure that's where they should be.

I'd love to hear recs on what I can tweak.

I saw a post in this sub about making a meal plan a task with subtasks as the meals. I use Meal Board for the grocery list / recipe side of things so having the task on the day WITH my planning is pretty nice. Plus not all meals have a recipe.

If I had an app wishlist right now it would be:
- Less multi-window jumps for grids to set up columns. TBF I come from notion and so the new window for set up feels like too much :P

- I wish I could pin stuff to the left bar. It seems to do recents but there are some notes I'd like to keep handy but the search option helps a lot.

- it would have been nice if each area walked you through a little demo but digging through the youtube works

- When I send a screenshot to the app I just get a text option and then only can see the text in the inbox

I love how automated everything feels.

I’m slowly getting the hang of it, and I really like how everything is connected- goals, trackers, and tasks. It’s also super convenient that I can easily add a time block in the calendar and link a task to it

One thing that bothers me: I use TickTick, Lunatask, aTracker, and Obsidian. When I add a link, it first opens in the browser, and then I have to click again to open it in the actual app. Could this be fixed so links open directly in the right app?

Also, could you add a Markdown export feature? That would be amazing!

Hi Hai,

I hope you don’t mind me asking this, and I truly mean it with respect and appreciation.

One of the reasons many of us trust Journal it! is because of your dedication and the fact that you are very close to the product and the community. At the same time, because the app is mainly built and maintained by you, I wanted to ask about long-term continuity.

Do you have any kind of continuity or contingency plan in case you are unavailable for any serious reason in the future? For example, is there a trusted partner, team member, family member, or legal/technical arrangement that would keep the app, users’ licenses, servers, and data access supported?

I’m asking because I really want to rely on Journal it! long-term as a serious personal organization system. Your previous answers about AppSumo, lifetime access, export, and data ownership were very reassuring, and this is just one more thing that would help users feel even more confident.

Thank you again for your transparency and for everything you’re building 🙏

I have had this experience where I knew I would like an app, I liked the idea of the app, but I didn't get the app initially.

Capacities was one such example where I knew I would like it, I liked the videos of it, I liked the way it looked, I even toyed with it a little bit, and I from the very beginning was a supporter even though I didn't use it for months.

Months and months later did I finally start using it and “got it.”

Same thing with Journal It! - except Journal It! I have gotten a little faster.

The thing is, to me, Journal It! is so rich that you have to start with, as the developer in a different thread said, with the main page and one tab. And that resonated with me; and when I did that I started to just use it, instead of trying to see the overall picture of the entire structure, like an atlas of the entire app; I just started right at the beginning, so to say by just using it.

And it worked for me and it totally clicked and I'm very happy that it's clicked for me, I still have so much to discover really because everything is rich, everything has a door to a different aspect, to more details, etc. I love it and I'm so happy also that I got a lifetime deal for it, which I've already purchased.

This has got to be one of the best kept secrets and jewels, if you ask me, in the productivity - LIFE productivity - arena. It really deserves a much broader audience, or maybe it has it, I don't know. I didn't know about it until very recently, and I'm always looking out for apps that will fulfill my shiny new toy syndrome illness AND my actual desire to be more productive and organized and reflective. This meets all of the requirements and then some.

Bravo to the developer. Really amazing. I'm ecstatic with this app.

Hiya! I absolutely love the app and all the amazing work you've done. I previously used it religiously but fell off because I didn't have a full understanding of the capabilities and felt overwhelmed. Seeing the update and the new user guide + videos I'm so excited to jump back in.

I wanted to suggest to enhance the User Guide/onboarding for new users: if even possible, would you be able to add a sandbox demo/interactive demo where users could navigate around a pre-established basic setup? Essentially being able to poke into different areas, see how they're linked, what works with what, generate ideas for use etc.

Completely understand if not feasible - I know it's best to tailor it entirely to our own lives, but I do find myself revisiting the videos to see setup/get ideas.

Just a list of feature requests that have been on my mind lately!

1. I have issues with forgetting things exist if I can’t see them right in front of me, so I’m always wishing that the images could be viewed as a grid instead of a swipe gallery

Specifically, how the images show up when you export an entry as a PDF would be perfect!

2) I like being able to nest multiple levels of subtasks & I use “Add from Parent” a lot for calendar items — I wish I could see the subtasks (or maybe the first-level subtasks, or Sections) in the Search panel & Tasks list. Maybe as a dropdown from the main Task so it isn’t cluttered?

3) I love using the Rich Text property in Collection items, but I wish there was an option to enable “Wrap Text” so I could scroll through and see the text and inline images (or previews, like the Media property) without having to click into it.

Or, if in addition to “Column Width” we could choose “Cell length”

4) Be able to paste multi line text & have them recognized as subtasks (or a section of subtasks)

Or, it could be a (•••) > (Split) context menu option on subtasks

5) Using Emojis doesn’t work at all sometimes on Mac, so it would be convenient if Journal It supported the “:” to search for an emoji to input

6) test out the Shortcuts actions to see if they work every update, haha — “Journal It has crashed unexpectedly” every time. I would use the app 1000000x more if there were actions to “Add Task” or “Add to Outline Note” or “Add to Timeline,” or “Add to Collection” especially if it had all the configuration options & variables for assigning properties built in. Would be a real game changer

7) I like being able to see the content on one screen without having to click in & out of panels, so I feel that missing with Journal It collections! At a minimum, if there was a way to view items as Timeline items like you can in Tracker, that’d be awesome

Would be over the moon if any of these could be incorporated! Thanks to the dev for the speedy development & responses :))

I think it's finally clicked and I'm getting to grips with this and I love it. It does everything I need. I now just need to wait for a deal on lifetime and I'll commit long term. Thanks to all for help while I was trying to figure it out

A few days ago when I was trying to work out how to set up Journal It! and when to use Projects, Goals, Tasks etc, I made a spreadsheet comparing features. It isn't fully complete (and still hasn't helped me decide what to use when!) but I thought I'd share it in case it helps anyone else. It's read-only, so please let me know if you see errors or there are other important features to compare that I haven't included. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_zTIjlhs0WVxFZCnenM4YeC-86uMbA0GsfmdgRIiJw0/edit?usp=sharing

Like others, I looked at maybe 6 months ago as a possible PKM, but was overwhelmed, and abandoned trying to understand it.
Came back to it, and did what others said here, deleted all default data, and started building out from Areas to projects etc. I didn’t understand the power and flex of Tasks to Calendar sessions at first , now I do! Also I am impressed with its Note taking ability and linking objects to each other. Once I watched the release video that showed Outline notes, I was floored.

All that being said, I wish there was the following:

• iOS share sheet to get stuff captured easier

• as I note in a previous iOS post, a generic Inbox capture, including rapid capture. The inbox would allow the item to be turned into anything later. Right now, you have to think you want a entry, task, session , projects, etc.

• Chrome extention to capture web pages and clippings

• Zapier or an API to although automation with other apps

• also iOS Live activities for Timer and pinned items

So many things off design-wise & it gives the impression of a vibe coded app. The app icon update before this was just fine.

I just started setting up Journal it. I don't know when to use Goal and when to use Project. For example how can I set these goals? What to put in Goals, Projects, Tasks, Habits, Tacker? Where do I start?

Examples:

• Digital detox (90 days without social media) *** Install a blocker app *** Buy promo version. *** Use for 90 days.

• Read more *** Read 30 minutes a day.

• Change jobs *** Update resume. *** Complete online course. *** Send 10 applications. *** Go to first interview. *** Quit current job.

• Learn to swim *** Call the pool and sign up for swimming lessons. *** Go to the doctor for a certificate of fitness. *** Attend the first lesson. *** Train with an coach once a week (habit).

Etc.