A journal practice has many benefits.
First of all, it’s a safe space to reflect and vent. And more importantly, writing helps to manage stress and improve wellbeing. Business owners can use journalling strategically for brainstorming, goal setting, and accountability.
While it’s therapeutic to sit down with a beautiful notebook and let the ink flow, there are advantages to keeping an online journal. And yes this can be done with just a document and a table of contents. But to really elevate your journalling, digital is the way to go. There are platforms built just to enhance your journalling experience. So here are the best online journals for you in 2023.
What to look for in an online journal
Obviously, privacy is most important. After all, since you’ll be sharing personal feelings and inside details about your business, you want to keep your journal confidential. Also, flexibility matters, so the best online journal has an app to access on your iPhone or Android. Here is the checklist of features used to select the best online journals:
- Full encryption for safety
- Passwords for privacy
- Mobile App for flexibility
- Synching for seamless entries
- Backups for data security
- Export options to print or store your writing
For how to get started with journalling, read this article.
It makes sense that Penzu tops the list, because it’s been my favourite for over 10 years. First of all, it’s very secure. In addition to locking with a password, it has bank-level encryption software. Another great feature is email reminders to encourage consistency or writing. The free plan has everything you need. Or elevate to the Pro plan to get more customisation options for fonts, colours, and backgrounds. Also, with Pro you can have more than one journal, each with its own name and cover. This is useful to categorise writing into different topics.
Free Plan
Paid Plan – Pro is $19.99 per year, Pro Plus is $49.99 per year
What stands out about EverNote is its integration features. For example, connect your journal writing here with a calendar to set deadlines or tasks. It also has a list making section to organise tasks and ideas. Access more storage space and customisation features by upgrading to a paid plan.
Free Plan
Paid Plan – Personal is $99.00 per year, Professional is $130.00 per year
This online journal levels up the security with biometrics, so you can feel safe that no one else will get a peek at your writing. Go with the premium plan to gain additional personalisation options. These include leaving voice notes, and being able to handwrite entries. Also, you get unlimited storage.
Free Plan
Paid Plan – Premium is $35.04 per year
This online journal option is sleek and has many display options. Organise thoughts as a bullet journal, in checklists, or tables. What makes Journal Cloud stand out are the resources available to support journalling. For example, there are coaches to help get the thoughts flowing. Also, there are templates to give entries more structure.
No Free Plan
Paid Plan is $50.04 a year
Finally, Memento is for iPhone users. With secure backups to iCloud, there is no worry of losing entries. It offers templates to focus on specific goals, which helps categorise your writing. However, what makes Momento different is its ability to connect to social media accounts. This allows you to import photos or video from your feed into your journal. Specifically, this is useful for business owners to capture ideas and inspiration for marketing, branding, and customer service. Also, there is a fun “this time last year” alert which can create opportunities to reflect and review.
Free download on iPhones
Paid premium plan is $3.49 monthly
Conclusion
Given that we all spend so much time on our devices, it makes sense to do our journalling there also. As shown above, these are the best online journals for entrepreneurs. They are secure, private, and easily accessed. More importantly, they offer ways to customise and organise information. This makes it easy to access thoughts and reflections on business successes and strategies.
