The Journal - The Best software for Journaling and Tracking

The Journal is a great tool for helping you with your self improvement. You can track all kinds of things: From your exercise program, to your emotional control. You could use it to record your diet. Or you can analyze / explain that binge you went on. That way you can track patterns and triggers so you can do something about them. It is so much more than a diary.

I've been using The Journal for many years now, and don't know what I'd do without it. I use it to record my deepest thoughts, track changes to my health and my website. I record ideas for articles for my website and topics for fiction books I plan on writing. I track experiments with my garden - what got planted when and the results. And countless other things.

I started journaling long before there were computers much less journaling software. But finding something I wrote previously was a real problem. All you could do was flip page by page, trying to remember when it happened. I had separate journals for exercise, diets, an emotional upsets. Now everything is in one and it's easy to find entries with a search.

I often use it to slow my thoughts down when they are racing in circles. Writing down these racing thoughts really helps me calm down and work though a problem. I gage my personal development by reviewing what troubles and solutions I had over the years with a simple search..

Here are some of the best features of The Journal:

• Dated entries.
  This is a Regular feature you would expect from a journaling program. The calendar interface is very easy and complete. You can easily browse previous entries by date.
• Notebook entries.
  You can create general "notebook" entries that aren't tied to any particular date. I use this feature to maintain my current goals and plans as well as writing ideas and quotes I like..
• Search.
  Search through years of journal entries based on keywords, topics, dates or even a full text search -- a great reason never to use paper again.
• Rich text editor.
  The standard text editing tools you'd expect are all there: fonts, tables, hyperlinks, styles, headings, paragraph formatting, borders, background colors, bullets, outline mode, print preview, etc. For power users there are keyboard shortcuts galore.
• Spell checker and thesaurus.
  The spell checker is automatic, so you'll see the squiggly lines appear under misspelled words as you type. Right click on the word and you get suggested spellings. Add your own words to the spelling dictionary.
• Support for images, audio, video, spreadsheets, files, and more.
  The Journal can accept whatever digital items you want to add, so you aren't restricted to just text. Just drag and drop your photos, videos, and other items right into The Journal. This gives you a lot of flexibility in recording your thoughts and experiences.
• Categories.
  You can create multiple categories for your entries as well as nested subcategories. A category can contain either dated entries or loose-leaf entries. I like to keep everything simple, so I only use the standard Journal (dated) and Notebook (loose-leaf) categories. Categories would be useful if you want to create a separate diet/fitness log or if you want to separate your business and personal journaling. Subcategories could be used to organize chapters of a book you're writing.
• Tabbed interface.
  The tabbed interface makes it easy to switch between different categories and subcategories with a single mouse click. I use this frequently when I want to access my goals and plans (stored in the loose-leaf Notebook) while I'm writing a dated journal entry.
• Topics.
  If you're familiar with tagging, then you already know how topics work. You can assign one or more topics (tags) to any entry. Then you can search entries by topic. For example, you could list all the entries you've made regarding health and fitness. There are 60 built-in topics, and you can create your own topics as well.
• Reminders.
  Easily record appointments, recurring events, tasks, and special days. Let The Journal remind you of birthdays and anniversaries... or when it's time to take out the trash.
• Create your own journaling templates.
  Easily create your own templates for common types of entries. For example, if you have a favorite method for problem-solving, you can create a template that will automatically prompt you with your preferred list of problem-solving questions. I have a template that has my current intentions with a background of a sailboat I'm saving to purchase. It's a great way to keep focus.
• Privacy and security.
  Your journal is stored in an encrypted, password-protected database. So even if you share a computer with others, you can still keep your journal entries private.
• Portable.
  It fits on a flash drive and is completely portable. I take it back and forth to work. I use it on my PC and my laptop when I travel.

If you are at all interested in journaling, I strongly recommend you check out The Journal by DavidRM. Just click on the picture.