Jour — Guided Journaling
A guide to happier living
Free From Forward Human Inc, withjour.com Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 12.0 or later
Jour combines two hot trends in the App Store: guided self–improvement and note–taking. It’s a cross–between a scrapbook and a life coach, asking you to record how you feel and what makes you happy or sad, and then providing coaching to help you find ways to live a happier life.
It’s divided into two sections: entries, where you note your thoughts and feelings; and journeys, where you’ll find the guided lessons. Entries makes good use of frequently used phrases like “right now I feel…” or “I’ve noticed recently…” to help you focus, and you can set alarms to remind you to update your journal every day. The journeys section offers guidance on better sleep, hitting goals, resolving conflicts, and other topics.
The app is best enjoyed on iPhone or iPod touch: like many such apps it works on iPad but doesn’t feel optimized for the bigger screen. We also encountered performance issues on our iPad Pro: from time to time the text input in the app’s daily entry section would slow down dramatically, with a very noticeable lag between typing and the text appearing on screen that persisted until we restarted the device. We couldn’t replicate this problem in other apps.
Jour is the kind of app where what you get out of it depends on what you put into it. Journaling and mindfulness have proven benefits for mental health and focus, and Jour is a nice place to do them.
THE BOTTOM LINE. If you use it regularly, Jour may be able to help find your happy place.
Solid