Personal Practice Journal: Day One + Siri Shortcuts

For over a year now, I’ve been working on refining my journaling habit for my personal practice sessions. I’ve always been a believer that journaling (not just for practicing) can be helpful in a couple of ways, two in particular:

• First, it allows me to quickly review at the end of the day how my plan went, so I can properly divide my allotted time the next day to be as impactful as possible.

• Second, I find it helps my mental health tremendously. Writing down how my practicing went helps me unload that mental weight, think critically about how to respond, and then leave it alone so I can move on with my day.

I’ve done a lot of homework on which tool to use for journaling, and for me, Day One is definitely the app of choice. Day One has apps for iOS and Mac and I really love writing in them, especially on the iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard.

The journal entries can easily include pictures, microphone input for dictation, and much more, and I’m finding more uses for the rich features each time I’m writing. Siri Shortcuts was the tool that made this really take off for me. By pre-populating a list of prompts, the input is very easy. I find my entries are faster, yet more thorough using this shortcut, and it takes me very little time to enter.

If you’d like to give this a whirl, download my Shortcut and give it a try! Open the shortcut and simply replace my repertoire list with yours, then at the bottom redirect to your DayOne Journal and you should be off and running.