Using Idea Sketch on the iPad

I've been busy writing for another site on journaling. Here's part . . .

Journaling Start

I’ve been journaling now for about 16 years.  It all stared when my son’s 6th grade teacher gave them a year’s assignment: Keep a journal.  My son was not at all happy when he came home that day. To cheer him up I agreed to also keep a journal with him that year with the agreement to write every day.  So we went down to the local stationary store looking for the smallest diary we could find. When the year was up neither of us could stop.

My journaling has evolved over the years.  It stared with a postage stamp sized lockable journal and mutated to a larger 5 x 7 and then an 8 x 10 and then back down to the 6 x 8, which I think is the absolute idea size for a analog journal. By "analog" I mean a hand written journal.

In 2010 Buster Benson started  750words.com and I started to write online with a 750 word goal of writing each and every day.  This introduced me to digital journaling. Buster’s site displays graphs and statistics about your entries over time. If you don’t mind putting  your words out there, its a great place to write.

Journal Content

Eventually I discovered that my writing was more project based. I found myself writing about ides, directions, plans, writing, and productivity subjects. The advantage of digital soon became apparent : it's ability to search across days, months, and years. 

Of course, the digital journal has little personality. There is no sloppy hand writing or misspelled words or, if you are blessed with calligraphic ability, no beautiful writing. There is no change in pen style or colors as you move through the days and months of the year. There are no marked pages or glued in memorabilia. No, a digital journal is a sanitized thing. Even the editors atomically correct my spelling. My great great grandchildren will never know how terrible my spelling was.

Continue reading at www.EasyJournaling.com . . .

A Little More About Digital Journaling

Sam over at Easy Journaling runs an interesting site on digital journaling. He's got it all over there, reviews on iPad & iPhone journal apps as well as other software that runs on your notebook or desktop computers. It's all there. He, like me, is convinced that digital journaling is the way of the future. As I explain in my post at his site, books are wonderful but eventually they fill the house and the avid journaler begins to stress about where to keep all their diaries.

I see more and more apps that allow the writer the ability to sync their winsome words across all their devices. Write a little on the road in the iPad or jot a line or two on the iPhone. Then come back to the hotel room and finish up on the notebook computer. What all of this assumes is that the writer is always connected to the net, or at least can find a hot spot during the adventure. That's not always possible. I suppose most will eventually get to a Starbucks (or some other public place), connect to a WIFI, and sync then.

In the mean time I've been on the hunt for a good sketching program for the iPad. If I could find a good journaling and sketching program that would be grand.  So far, NotesPlus is my favorite.

Anyway, whatever your style of journaling is, remember to back it up to the cloud.

Happy journaling.

...dave
Today has been canceled. Go back to bed. -Unknown