For years I’ve tried to keep a daily diary / journal and have struggled with two problems: Remembering to write, and finding something to write. Lately I’ve tackled the second, and the first is easily solved when you think about it…
In this exercise, I’m using 2 apps on iOS: Day One, an excellent diary app, and Workflow, an excellent automation app. I’ve created a little Workflow module that does the following:
- Downloads a daily motivational quote (although you could replace this with any RSS feed item)
- Looks up my calendar for the day
- Asks me 2 questions (In my example: What do I plan on doing, and how will I do good that day)
- Rolls it all together and creates a new entry in Day One.
So with 1 tap of the Workflow shortcut, I have my phone prompting me to create my diary entry (and I can customize the workflow whenever I like). You can get my Morning Journal Workflow here if you’ve already got Workflow installed.
So get Workflow, Get Day One, and get journaling. Having problems with the first issue (i.e. remembering?). Well, just ask Siri to remind you or set a reminder to recur daily. Problems solved!
Hi Jon! Great Addition to workflow. I just bought it just to use your workflow. Unfortunately the link seems to be down. Could you update that? Thanks a lot!
Workflow must have changed something on their end… Try this link that I just generated from the app : https://workflow.is/workflows/bd494fd723914f8ab6b2c200acd74d26
Thanks a lot :)!
Is there anyway to have the script automatically tag the entry? I have a morning and evening journal workflow but I’d like to have the entry tagged during creation.
Not that I can think of – however I’ll keep my eye out and see if an auto-tagging solution becomes available.
Perhaps you’ve found this by now (very late reply but I’ve just started working with Workflow and have been searching for examples). The Create Day One Entry input includes a field for tag and journal specifications.
Hi John! Thank you for sharing this. I’m trying to implement the workflow but am unable to because I get the following error on the “Get Items from RSS feed” action: XML document is not a valid web feed document. It would be helpful if I could understand how can I fix this. I am new to Workflow.
It’s likely that the RSS feed that I had in my original workflow has died – you may have to download the workflow template and edit it manually.
How did you get the green “input” into the create day one journal at the end?