📓 Journal

✨ What It Does

Journal gives you a quiet space to write—whether you’re logging a quick gratitude list or a full retrospective. Entries stay organized by month, templates keep prompts handy, and optional encryption makes sure private thoughts stay private.

🚪 Access & Activation

Enable Journal from Settings → Features → Journal. See the Enabling Features guide for details on feature toggles and visibility options.

Encryption is opt-in. Open the lock icon in the desktop header (or the same section in Settings) to turn it on, set a reminder, and store the key on your device.

🧭 Core Workflow

• Browse months with the header navigator or the calendar in the sidebar; entries are grouped by day with an at-a-glance word count.
• Click Write (desktop) or the floating pencil (mobile) to start an entry. The editor autosaves to local storage, tracks word goals, and lets you adjust the date if you’re backfilling.
• Open any card to edit in-place. Hold Cmd/Ctrl while clicking to multi-select when you’re planning bulk actions.
• Use the template shelf to drop in a favorite prompt or a platform starter entry—it opens the create modal prefilled with that content.

🛠️ In-Feature Settings

• Entry form controls:
  • Date picker with big calendar tile for quick backdating.
  • Title field (fancy font) and rich text body with toolbar shortcuts.
  • Optional word goal badge you can toggle or tweak per device.
• Entry menus support rename, delete, and encryption toggles (Mark as Encrypted/Unencrypted, Encrypt Content, Decrypt).
• The floating bulk toolbar appears when you select multiple entries—use it to mark as encrypted, decrypt, or delete in batches.

🔐 Global Settings & Privacy

• The encryption widget in the desktop header manages the master switch. When encryption is on, you must store the key locally; we never keep it on the server.
• Lose the key and encrypted entries stay unreadable—use the password reminder field to set a hint you’ll remember.
• Some features (Journal and Affirmations) share the same encryption setting, so flipping it affects both.
• Journal entries stay private unless you share them manually.

📊 Widgets & Dashboards

• Add the Journal Stats widget from the My Day editor to surface total entries, month counts, word totals, and your active streak. Each stat can be toggled on/off in widget settings.

⚡ Alfred & Quick Actions

Learn more about Alfred in the Alfred & Spotlight guide.

• Create a new journal entry: opens the full Journal page
• Create a quick journal entry: opens the modal for quick capture without leaving your current view

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

• Cmd/Ctrl + K: open Alfred to access Journal commands
• Cmd/Ctrl + click on an entry card to multi-select it for bulk encryption or deletion

🏆 Timeline & Points

• Every entry contributes +2 points to the leaderboard (Journal entry in the point system).
• Entries stay private by default; share links manually if you want peers to read them.

🔗 Integrations & Dependencies

• Encryption settings apply globally, so once you flip the switch, other encrypted features (like Affirmations) expect the same key.
• Journal Stats widget pulls from the TRPC stats endpoint—the same data powers the sidebar stats in the Journal page.
• The month navigator and calendar share the selected date; changing one updates the other and all queries.

💡 Tips & Edge Cases

• Multi-select is desktop-first: use the shortcut above when you need to bulk encrypt or delete. On touch devices, use the long-press selection affordance instead.
• Use the Decrypt modal when someone shared the key with you—you can preview decrypted content before committing to save it unencrypted.
• If you write daily, set a word goal so the progress bar nudges you toward the streak target. Goals are stored per device, so adjust them separately on mobile if needed.