Using Evernote to keep a journal and feeding stuff from Facebook and Twitter etc. into it automatically using IFTTT has proved to be a winning combination. This combination has been made far far better and more powerful with the added ability to create weblog postings directly to a Postach.io weblog using Evernote. Approaching a journal in this way makes publishing simple and yet keeps all your material under your own control within the searchable Evernote system.

I've been surprised how often it is useful and enjoyable to be able to refer back to things and it's also interesting how stuff posted on Twitter and Facebook, though transient, does give a little insight into things as they were at a particular time.

Does it all matter in the grand scheme of things? Probably not, but for me at least a journal makes some sense of the passing time and stops memories and events just becoming an impenetrable fog. There is no doubt, based on my experience, that the value of a written and searchable record rises as time passes. Initially it can feel like a chore but after a while I've come to value these records more and more.

Ask yourself the question, what did you do on the 23rd October 2014? If you have no idea, which I wouldn't have without my journal, maybe a brief written record would have made that day just a little more valued, we only have so many of them!