Thanks to a post from David H in the Hemispheric Views chat, I’ve been considering a switch from Day One to Everlog for my journaling. I started using Day One back in 2012 and have around 10,000 entries, plus there isn’t anything particularly wrong with Day One. Given that I’m still tempted, there’s something worth exploring. So I want to think through this change before making it.
The basic function of Everlog is very similar to Day One or any other journaling app: you create dated entries in a journal. Everlog supports multiple journals, attachments, tags, templates, and locations. All things you would expect and that I find useful. The app is very well designed, responsive, and easy to use. I can quickly get to a blank entry and start typing, easily add photos, and tags, and search works well.
One very obvious difference is the price. Everlog is $19.99/year and Day One is $31.99 (though there are several different plans for Day One). Although not a big difference, it is enough to be part of the considerations.
Another difference, which has pros and cons, is that Everlog is from a single developer while Day One has an extensive team. Most of my favourite apps are from solo developers (Albums, Reeder, Overcast, Finalist, HealthFit) and I find they have an attention to detail and passion for development that is worth supporting. A risk, of course, is that the developer might choose to stop development, leaving my journal stranded in an abandoned app. Day One has, presumably, dozens of people (though many working on other platforms) and is less likely to abandon iOS.
There are a few things missing from Everlog that will be more or less important, based on what you want.
There is no web app. I do use the Day One web app for posting while at work. This is mostly just for convenience though, it isn’t an essential feature for me. In fact, I think it might be better if my personal journal was only accessible via my personal phone to better separate from work.
There is no Apple Watch app. Although I like the idea of making a quick entry in Day One from my watch, I have never actually used it. So, in practice, also not an essential feature.
You can’t post from email. I use this to integrate my micro.blog posts into Day One. However, I’m not convinced that I want to mix my blog in with my journal and have been considering disabling this anyway.
Day One integrates with Strava. I was curious about this when it was announced. Having used it for a while now, it hasn’t replaced separate entries that I still make in my main journal about how my training is going. So, also not essential.
Although Everlog does have support for locations, it isn’t as robust as in Day One. Day One keeps track of your location history, making it easier to start an entry from a location or changing the entry’s location based on the date and time. Day One also defaults to the location of a photo. Lastly, Day One has a nice map view of entries, relative to Everlog’s list-based, hierarchical approach.
A small thing that I’ve appreciated is Everlog’s much more appealing presentation of content from the built-in Journal Suggestions from iOS (screenshots below). Day One’s presentation is surprisingly plain.
Importing from Day One into Everlog was very easy. The text, images, and other metadata of close to 10,000 entries were all quickly and correctly transferred. However, I expect this is mostly a one-way transfer. Although Day One has some import functions, I expect it would be much more challenging to import back into Day One from Everlog.
So, what to do? I’m still quite interested in switching to Everlog. Honestly, I think this is mostly about favouring an indie developer focused on iOS over a large team focused on a journaling platform. I’m also not entirely keen on Day One’s (totally optional) push towards AI integration. My real concern is the lock-in of my journal in a specific app. This is true for both Everlog and Day One, though Everlog supports flexible exports (JSON, txt, PDF). If I do end up switching apps again, I suspect Everlog will be a better starting point. Eventually I anticipate that I’ll end up with an app-agnostic approach that uses plain text and this concern will be mitigated.
As usual, the decision rests on why I even journal in the first place. I have two reasons: one is as a record of what I’ve done, basically an annotated history that I can reference; two is a place I work through thoughts, ideas, and feelings. The first reason is where most of these features matter, especially the ability to search and the long-term viability of the app. The second reason is much more ephemeral and doesn’t require much structure. Everlog is quite capable of supporting both of these reasons. I’m going to make this switch, save a bit of money, and support an indie developer.
Although I don’t have much use for AI, and certainly have many concerns, I’m also quite curious about it. As an experiment, I pointed Claude at my list of blog entries on books I’ve read, asked it to identify any series from the list, and find the next book in that series. I sometimes lose track of which series I’ve started and wanted to see if I’d missed any.
Claude quickly and correctly identified all of the series I’d started. Other than a strange confidence that Alecto the Ninth had been released (I had to point it to the Wikipedia entry to get it to admit the mistake), it also correctly listed the next books in any unfinished series. Also, it helpfully noted that I’d read a few books in the Culture series, but had missed a couple of the most highly rated books. I’ve added these to my “Want to Read” list.
This isn’t using AI to code up my own blog engine. But, it is using AI to help me answer an actual question, based on my own information, that was important to me. And, although, it was quick and effective, the societal, political, environmental, and economic costs are all very valid concerns.
I started reading: Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson. I’ve read that if I can get through the first couple of hundred pages, this is a great series. I’m up for the challenge! 📚
Listening to The Call by Broken Social Scene from Remember The Humans. Great to have a new album from this collective 🎵
Finished reading: The Republic of Alberta by Tyler Dawson make a compelling case that the rest of Canada needs to be paying attention to Alberta separatism. I remember how traumatic this was with Quebec and am not keen to do this again 📚
Now we know that there is no single, rational way to deal with this administration. The lesson for Canada is that diagnosis is not capacity. We can say sovereignty and “elbows up” as often as we like, and talk endlessly about the Arctic, pipelines, building Canada and middle power diplomacy. Unless we can actually build, buy, permit, deploy and defend at speed, sovereignty remains a slogan and security an aspiration. My original prescription was basically right. What I underestimated was how inadequately we are equipped to follow it.
RunnerCast is a great, single purpose app that tells me one thing: how is the weather for my run?
Prior to RunnerCast, I’d open up the Weather app on my phone and squint at various metrics. Now, I’m presented with a straightforward set of colours on a timeline and declarative sentence about if I should go now. I also appreciate that I can tweak my tolerance for temperature, precipitation, and other weather features to match my preferences.
Another helpful feature is that you can add in upcoming events (like the half marathon shown in the screenshot) to start preparing mentally for whatever is coming up on race day.
I’m fond of apps like these: well designed, specific, and useful.
🏃♂️ Proud to run alongside my son this morning for his first half marathon. We shaved about ten minutes off his two-hour goal!
Finished reading: The Governors General by John Fraser is a good companion to The Prime Ministers book. The Governor General as an important and misunderstood part of Canada’s government that deserves more attention. This book is a fun and personal start 📚
Finished reading: The Faith of Beasts by James S. A. Corey keeps delivering on the promise of the first book in the series. I’m a fan of the “clever humans fight overwhelmingly dominant aliens” genre. Remains to be seen if the humans actually win 📚
Thanks to a passcode debacle, I had to reset my iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch — so I used the moment to start fresh rather than restore from backups. I started with a clean install of each and have been rebuilding from there with an intention to minimize the total number of settings adjustments and apps. This moves me back towards my earlier, mostly defaults setup.
After the initial install, I added a handful of apps:
And then added back most of my portfolio of health apps: HealthFit, Strava, TrainingPeaks, Training Today, and Zwift Companion. TrainingPeaks is only to get workout from my coach, otherwise I’d be happy to exclude it. Plus, I keep getting closer to dropping Strava. I’m only using it these days to keep track of what my friends are up to, not for any of the actual fitness features.
Specifically on the iPad, I’d accumulated many “TV apps”, like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. I much prefer watching my shows on a proper TV. So, haven’t added these back to the iPad.
I’d also accumulated many experiments with home screens, focus modes, and widgets. I’m back to just a few simple ones now with very few apps or widgets on screens.
We’ll see how long this simplified approach actually lasts. I’m always keen to try out new apps and systems. That said, it is nice to have clean, simple setups that further reduce the temptation to stare at screens and fiddle with settings.
Office tension continues to rise as we enter the second month of a broken dishwasher
Finished reading: A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan continues this epic series. Hard to believe I’m only half way through the fourteen book series! 📚
Waking Up recently told me I’ve passed 300 hours of practice across just over 2,000 active days. That works out to about 10 minutes a day for five years, which is a small commitment that has compounded into something I care about.
So, why do I keep going? The most honest answer comes from the times I’ve skipped a couple of days: I feel more distractable and less centred. That’s the counterfactual and it’s more persuasive than any in-session feeling.
Beyond the functional benefit, I’m genuinely fascinated by consciousness—what it is, how it relates to experience, and whether attention can be trained in ways that matter. Waking Up is excellent here. The app has dozens of quality series with practitioners who take these questions seriously, and Sam Harris draws from both contemplative tradition and people doing rigorous philosophical and scientific work on the nature of mind.
The harder question, though, is whether any of this carries over. A couple of years ago, I went through some challenging work experiences and found that the equanimity I’d cultivated in practice didn’t transfer reliably. I found I was getting frustrated, saying to myself “but I meditate!”, which really just made the point that equanimity in a quiet room is not the same as out in life.
Over the past year, I’ve been deliberately working on that gap—paying attention to how I respond to frustration, pressure, and distraction in daily life, not just during a morning session. It’s slow going, but I’m noticing a real difference. This work connects well with my ongoing effort to be less distracted by technology, which also requires noticing when attention has been captured.
Everything seems to be coming together. Slowly, ten minutes at a time, but it is. That’s why I keep going.
