You’ve all heard it before. Journaling is important. Everyone should do it. It’s good for you. Blah blah blah. I used to think it was all made up. I didn’t think that journaling could have a positive impact on my life. I tried to start a couple of times, and I always stopped because I didn’t enjoy it. I thought journaling wasn’t for me. But then I discovered an app that changed all that.

Day One is a journaling app for Mac and iOS. It features a gorgeous interface, effortless syncing between devices over iCloud or Dropbox, and some extra tools for power users. I’ve tried journaling by hand, in a word processor, and in other journaling apps, and none of those methods has even begun to compare to the awesome experience I’ve had with Day One.

Day One really simply gets out of the way and lets you write. The interface is simple, and they don’t bombard you with anything that’s going to distract you. I’ve found that Day One is designed to really let my creative juices flow. I can just sit there and write for as long as I need to. It’s enjoyable and elegant, but it doesn’t get in the way of self-expression, which is its main purpose.

The app also offers cool features like adding photos to your entries. They are displayed beautifully along with whatever you’ve written. You can add tags to entries to create categories. Day One allows you to export all your entries into PDFs for safe-keeping. The app automatically adds location and weather information to every entry. You can write your entries in Markdown, which is something I really enjoy. And on iOS, you can even have the app automatically record what song you’re listening to while you write. It’s a pretty neat new addition.

I write in my Day One journal every day. Usually, I just write about the events of the day and how they made me feel. Sitting down and writing it all out gives me time to process what happened to me that day and really think about how I felt and why. It gives me an opportunity to reflect on my life in a meaningful way, and that has been really good for me.

You can use Day One for more than just a personal journal, though. You can write out ideas or use Day One to save pictures along with write-ups about them. You can use it as a travel journal or just to jot down notes really quickly throughout the day. The potential uses are endless.

And soon, Day One will be giving users the ability to share their entries with the world, if they choose to do so. They are currently testing a new feature called Publish that allows you to choose an individual entry and share it on a gorgeous webpage for all to see. Obviously you wouldn’t want to publish all of your private entries this way, but if you want to write something and share it quickly, Day One gives you the opportunity to do that.

If you’re not journaling, you really should be. I know it sounds uncomfortable and lame. And I know many of you have probably tried journaling and given up on it. I really think that if you give Day One a chance, you’ll love it. You can even tell the app to remind you at a certain time of day to write in your journal. If you’ll invest the few minutes each day it takes to meaningfully journal, I think you’ll find it very beneficial. I know I really have.

Check out Day One on the Mac App Store ($9.99) or the iOS App Store ($4.99), or visit their website for more information. Thank you guys for reading this edition of Stuff Devon Likes. Have a great day, and happy journalling!