Everlog

Being a creature of habit, I don’t tend to change up my tech routine very often. Once I find a workflow that clicks for me, I usually stick with it. Why fix what isn’t broken?

But lately, for one reason or another, I’ve found myself venturing out and trying new apps. Some are aides in my personal goals and self-fulfillment. Some are more practical than anything else. And some are just for fun.

I’ve found this process of researching and trying new apps to be really enjoyable and inspiring. So I thought I’d share a handful of the ones that I’ve been integrating into my daily use lately, along with the methods I use to find the tool that’s right for me.

Rather than a long list, I’ll be writing up a short post on each app and publishing them as I go. First up is Everlog, a journaling app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac made by Wessley Roche.

Journaling is a practice that I’ve had many starts and stops with over the years. I find keeping a journal to be really helpful when I make the time for it, and I go on long stretches of being really consistent with the discipline, but then I inevitably let it go after a while. So I’m trying once again to establish a habit of journaling, and that means finding the right app for the job.

I’ve used any number of journaling tools over the years, from a simple Pages document all the way up to Day One, the golden standard for journaling apps. But none of them have ever quite clicked for me long-term.

What I need is an app that’s totally focused on journaling—so not a full-on word processor or text editor—but isn’t bogged down with a bunch of distracting bells and whistles. I don’t want inspiring quotes, journal prompts, or “on this day last year” memories. I just want to open an app and start writing.

That’s exactly what Everlog offers. The app takes a date-based approach to journaling, grouping your entries by day and displaying them on a calendar. Each date has an indicator underneath to let you know that you wrote an entry that day, which I find quite motivating in building up my journaling practice.

The text editor in Everlog is very straightforward and supports Markdown, which is my preferred way of writing. But if you don’t use Markdown (or don’t even know what that is), don’t worry. It includes basic text editing tools like bold, underline, lists, and links. And it gives the option to attach photos to your entries if you like that sort of thing.

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Apologies that I can’t show you all of my journal entries! 😄

Besides the editor and the calendar-based list of entries, there isn’t much more to Everlog. There’s a sidebar where you can organize your entries into multiple journals for different areas of your life and even tag them with special labels. (I haven’t taken advantage of this feature yet, but I intend to.) And there are a few settings for adjusting the appearance of the app and locking your entries behind Face ID or Touch ID if you’d like. That’s really it.

And that’s what makes Everlog work so well for me. It’s a simple, well-designed, focused utility that does one thing really well: journaling. Which is exactly what I set out to find.

I actually came across the app on Twitter when it was in TestFlight beta over a year ago, but I didn’t have a daily journaling habit at the time, so it wasn’t really for me. When I recently started my search for a new journaling tool, I remembered Everlog and sought it out on Indie Apps Catalog to give it a proper try. I’m glad that I did.

The app is free if you keep your journal on a single device, but I want my entries synced via iCloud across all my devices, which requires a subscription to Everlog Premium ($2/month, $18/year, or $41 for lifetime access). The subscription also includes the aforementioned abilities to create multiple journals, tag entries, lock your journal with Face ID/Touch ID, and change the appearance of the app—all worthwhile features. And, of course, subscribing also supports Wesley, an indie app developer, as he continues to work on Everlog into the future.

I’m halfway through my two-week free trial of Everlog Premium, and I plan to pay the subscription fee when the time comes. This one has really impressed me, and I’m becoming more and more confident that it will be a good fit for many years of journaling to come.

You can download Everlog for free on the App Store.

Our New York Vacation

We’ve been back for a little over a week, but Katherine and I are still ecstatic over the trip we took to New York City. We had the best time just enjoying each other’s company and exploring the city together.

We got to visit all the sights we wanted to see:

• Statue of Liberty

• Empire State Building

• Coney Island

• Botanical Gardens

• One World Trade Center

• 9/11 Memorial and Museum

• Museum of Modern Art

• Rockefeller Center

• Madame Tussaud’s

We even made it over to Hoboken to try out the original Carlo’s Bakery of Cake Boss fame! And we took a carriage ride through the city’s gorgeous Central Park.

My favorite experience, though, had to be watching The Lion King on Broadway. I’ve been dreaming of seeing that show since I was a little kid, so getting to finally experience it was incredible. And it lived up to every expectation I had.

We took way more pictures than any of you would care to see, but here are a few of my favorite photos from the trip:

I’m so thankful for this amazing vacation we were able take and the special moments we spent just the two of us. It really was the time of our lives.

iPad Pros

This week, I had the privilege of guesting on the iPad Pros podcast to talk all about the new iPad mini and my experience with it a few weeks in. I’ve been a big fan of the show for years, so it was an honor to be asked to appear on it. My thanks to Tim for the great chat.

You can listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts or whichever podcast player you prefer. I’d love to hear what you think of it. And if you have any questions about the iPad mini yourself, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Thanks for reading! See you again soon.

Come From Away

I had the privilege today of publishing my first article over on Screen Times, a review of musical Come From Away.

This week, in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Apple are releasing Come From Away on Apple TV+. The film is a stage recording of the musical recorded live this May before an audience of 9/11 survivors and frontline workers.

Based on true events, the musical tells the story of a small community in Newfoundland, Canada, and the thousands of airline passengers stranded there after their flights are diverted in the wake of 9/11. The locals are tasked with taking in these “come from aways” and helping them as they deal with being far from home, all while coping with the horrific tragedy they’ve all just experienced.

You can read my full review on the Screen Times website.

While you’re there, be sure to check out some of the other great articles from Sigmund, Jonathan, and James. We cover everything Apple TV, TV+, Apple Arcade, and more. It’s such an honor to be part of the Screen Times team as co-host of Magic Rays of Light, and now I’m getting to write there, too!

Thanks in advance for checking out my review. If you watch Come From Away this weekend, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. Feel free to reach out in the comments or on social media.

Until next time, friends!

The Unofficial OpenBudget User Guide

Today, I’m excited to publish something I’ve been working on for a while: The Unofficial OpenBudget User Guide! This short book is an introduction and walkthrough of my favorite budgeting app, OpenBudget. You can download the guide by clicking the image of its cover below, and I’d be honored if you checked it out.

Since my last blog post about being a good power user, I’ve been thinking about ways that I can help support this tool that has brought so much value to me. Of course, I pay for the app and am always telling other people about it, which are important ways to contribute. But I wanted to do more.

I’m not good at too many things, but one thing I can do is write. And so I decided to use that skill to create something that might help other people discover and better use the app. This is the result of that work.

There’s a certain type of person who really enjoys reading manuals and guidebooks. I definitely fall into that category. Whenever I buy a video game, a gadget, or an app, I always read the documentation before diving in. It helps build the anticipation, and it makes me a better user in the long run.

I created the guide with that type of person in mind. If you enjoy reading through guidebooks, I hope this one will offer you that same feeling of enjoyment. Even if you’ve never tried the app, the goal is to give you a sense of what it’s like before you use it.

It’s also meant for those who are already using OpenBudget but want to make sure they’re getting the most out it. In the book, I break down every major feature and offer some helpful hints and hidden features that I’ve found extremely useful.

I hope you’ll give the guide a read. It’s something I really enjoyed putting together, and I did my best to make it a resource that others will find helpful. Thanks for checking it out. If you have any comments or questions on the guide, feel free to reach out.