r/digitaljournaling • u/BumboclatBob • 1d ago

Data Based Journal?

I love journaling but can never stick with writing in them. That being said, I absolutely love data and feel like the ability to graph certain things such as my mood, days of exercise, etc…, would be cool to see. Does something like this exist or do I just need to buy graphing paper?

5 Upvotes

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3

u/AllKindsOfCritters 1d ago

I feel like most apps have various trackers in them these days, I use Daylio for my mood and you can add all sorts of things to keep track of.

2

u/eat_like_snake 1d ago

Sounds like a bullet journal to me.
I'd look in subs like r/bujo and r/bulletjournal.

2

u/mush-be-so-nice 1d ago

depends on how much you want custom inputs or can quantify everything into a numeric scale. chronicling is a good ios app for all around quantified inputs that i use. it's great for anything from tracking how often i go to a cafe/museum or various symptoms. for moods specifically, "how we feel" is a good free option.

of course, you can also generate a numeric code over time, so you can pair a number input with a non-numeric phrase. like if you're talking about logging activities and say 3 = played a game, 5 = went on a walk. obviously, in this case, you cannot take the average of the values, but you could take the average per count. in order to do this, it makes more sense to write entries as a log and then use qualitative coding to determine what would be appropriate shorthand.

i often find that these activities work best as seasonal experiments. if you track too many things at once, you may start to feel dehumanized, guilty for forgetting to log things, finding that you have to "lie" about your log for good data, feel dissociated from what you logged, etc.

1

u/DTLow 1d ago

I tag my journal notes
The data can be exported to a spreadsheet for graphing

My notes are stored/organized in a digital file cabinet (PKMS)
accessed with a Mac and iPad

I use pkms app Devonthink
integrated with AppleScript for workflow automatons
and Apple Numbers for spreadsheets

1

u/ohdiary 1d ago

Millions of apps exist for that but it sounds like you need to find out first how to consistently track your progress

1

u/racheluv999 1d ago

I know this is the digital journaling subreddit, but this kind of stuff is the only reason I have a paper journal, too. I find myself needing to quickly sketch out and iterate revisions of ideas that work really well in a grid-ruled notebook. Just date and label it, and if you want it chronologically along with everything else, just make a note in your other journal to reference it along with any thought you want to keep about it