And why you might want to consider the switch too.
Everything is shifting to digital, and my journaling seems to have followed suit. Quite unexpectedly, actually. As long as I can remember, I’ve been a pen and diary kind of person. My one real gripe was that I’d end up with just a handful of entries in an otherwise huge notebook, then start using the leftover pages for random calculations. Now my toddler wants to scribble in any book she finds, so if I leave it lying around, I risk her scribbles, and if I hide it away, it’s out of sight, out of mind.
Why I Even Considered Digital
When I think about how often I actually hold and use my phone, it’s a lot. And sometimes I’ve wished I had something genuinely productive to do on it, something that’s actually mine to look at, rather than something entirely out of my control, like an algorithm. That was part of the reason I decided to build an app that supports digital journaling in the first place. Let there be something on your phone that holds real value, your own thoughts, and helps you do something actually useful for your own growth.
Some people are intentional about avoiding digital clutter, or keeping minimal phones altogether, and I understand that instinct. A lot of the apps that come pre-installed on our phones are built for entertainment, optimized for mindless scrolling. It’s no wonder the Notes app ends up doing so much of the real work for people. A lot of us have a genuinely special relationship with our Notes app. We pour our hearts into it as easily as we jot down a grocery list. So part of what’s driving Renew90 as a digital journal is exactly that: bringing something onto your phone that actually makes it better, not just more entertaining.
Not Another Notes App
The move from a traditional to a digital journal didn’t mean I wanted another app cosplaying as the Notes app. The versatility of Notes is genuinely unmatched. But a journaling app that actually benefits you needs structure and direction, not another blank “what’s on your mind” text box. So Renew90, for the most part, is built to give you a reason to slow your thinking down. It’s not designed for an instant dopamine hit. It’s meant to slow you down, get you thinking, and remind you what you’re actually working toward.
It was a genuine step up, a real change of pace, I’ll admit. As someone who already used Notes for long-form, random writing, it wasn’t too steep a learning curve. What I loved, unlike my traditional journal, was getting an actual reminder to engage in something productive for once. I could read back on past entries and think more deeply, any time I wanted. I could customize the experience. I never had to wonder or plan out a chunk of time to journal, because my phone is with me almost always.
What Actually Changed for Me
On some days, journaling became the first thing I did when I picked up my phone in the morning, and the last thing before my evening check-in and sleep. I loved reading my reports too, the journaling summaries, having a tool I could genuinely reach for whenever I needed to understand how I felt, instead of defaulting to Google. That’s really what the Flip Journal ended up doing for me: helping me notice whether something actually needed Google, or just needed me to explore my own thoughts first. Later, I started testing how often I already had solutions to my own challenges sitting inside me, through the Flip Journal specifically. It was surprising how easy it had become to reach for Google by default, when I could just as easily sit with my own intuition or existing knowledge on the issue first. So I do think the specific features inside Renew90 helped make that shift stick.
Other digital journals offer their own version of this: recording entries in audio, which saves time for some people, or saving a photo alongside an entry so you can look back on a specific date. I do think digital journals, generally, have real potential to transform some of the more meaningful things you’re already doing on your phone into something useful. As someone who likes flexibility, I’ve enjoyed toggling between a digital and a traditional journal, but I find I get far more opportunities to actually journal digitally, purely because of how close my phone always is. And there’s an added benefit: the ability for pattern recognition to pick up on deeper patterns, not just how often I’m journaling, but real, meaningful correlations my traditional journal could never easily have shown me.
Would I Recommend It?
A resounding yes. If you already lean on your Notes app for this kind of thing, a proper digital journal gives you a more organized, more intentional home for those same thoughts. If journaling is a habit you’re trying to build, having it on your phone genuinely helps, just through proximity and access alone. Add in features like pattern recognition, habit tracking, and reports that show you what your journaling has actually been moving through over time, and it becomes a real, tangible support for building genuine emotional awareness, not just a nicer-looking notebook.
If you’re curious what a structured digital journal actually feels like day to day, Renew90 is available on iOS and Android.