Gournal

I'm excited to share something I've been working on. It's called Gournal, which is a throwback to an absurd scene from a comedy I love about a summer camp. I was inspired by bullet journals, but knew that I didn't want to write in a journal by hand.

The concept is simple: set habits you want to track each month, then check them off as you go. The main screen shows a month-long view of the habits with a checkbox for each day. Complete the habit? Check the box. That simple satisfaction is the point.

You also have the option to write a short reflection on the day next to the habit tracking. I've been using it to jot down the most resonant moment, feeling, or idea from the day.

In this way, I get a view of my month that fits on the screen of my phone. I can tell that I need to be better about getting into bed early.

Gournal should look like a hand written journal. The UI uses Special Elite font, giving it that distinctive 1940s typewriter aesthetic. I wanted it to feel like you had meticulously put the paper through a typewriter to set the page just right. For user inputs I chose Caveat, which looks a bit like my handwriting, only legible.

I want the interactions to to feel like I'm writing on high quality paper with a nice inky pen. I spent a lot of time designing custom checkboxes and check marks, ten of each. Every habit gets randomly assigned checkboxes when created, and each completed task gets a random checkmark. This gives your Gournal an organic, handwritten aesthetic.

Want to share your progress? You can make your Gournal public with a custom URL. You can visit mine at verynormal.dev/jesse. You can share your habits, reflections or both.

If you have habits to track, I invite you to give Gournal a try.