Writing is a great way to think because the written word is a technology that allows you to travel through time. Journaling helps to ensure that you are not making the same mistakes you made a year ago, or a decade ago. As we grow, we should discard old problems to make way for new.
You cannot explore your mind or your spirit if you cannot focus, which includes not being able to focus because you feel like you are being watched. This is why you should write in a paper journal, or a journal that is not managed by a company.
You can easily make your own private journal stored on your devices.
Writing in a private journal
Writing is a form of thinking. Jordan Peterson said this in reference to his writing program: The Self Authoring Suite. Writing can help you process emotions from traumatic events that may become stuck in purgatory where they damage the Body, Mind, Or Spirit(BMS).
To journal privately on a computer, use a simple text editing software that is not connected to a corporation. Company software always has a back door, which, even if they never use that back door, creates a mental barrier that will prevent you from accessing your deepest thoughts and feelings.
Focus Writer
Focuswriter is a simple, open-source word processor. That means the code is public and visible, and there is no company or organization with access to your notes. No cloud, all your files are your responsibility. You can customize the background, as well as turn on a typewriter sound if you like.
Store your journal on a flash drive from Amazon. You just have to pick which one you want, they all do the same thing. For style preference, we like the Samsung Bar because it’s inexpensive and can be added to a keychain. Create a folder for each month and each year and make an entry for each day.
It’s recommended that you backup your entries somewhere, at least once a month, for most.
You just made you’re own journaling application for free.
If you want even more security and privacy, you can encrypt your drive with Veracrypt, for completely free; another open-source software everyone should know about, which password locks your entire drive, or a partition of your drive. We recommend using Veracrypt and creating a partition of a few gigabytes on a new flashdrive to start. Unless you’re adding photos to your journal entries–which is fine–you won’t need a large amount of space. With that being said, encrypt a partition large enough for your needs.
Be warned, if you forget the password, your drive will become useless. You can also store your digital or paper journal in a physical safe, like a book safe or a mini safe.
The Folly of Corporate-backed Journals
If a company of any size, from startup to corporation, has access to your journal, you are not journaling alone and it will not be the same. Journaling is like self-therapy. You need total and unshaken confidence in your privacy in order to be private with yourself.
Journaling is meant for you to have the deepest discussions with your soul about your pains, trauma, but also positive aspects like what you truly, truly want from life, which is never money, but some kind of meaning provided by fulfillment of some kind.
This cannot be completed with another person around; recall that legally corporations are persons in America, so treat them so.
If you journal in a corporate journal application, or a corporate notetaking application like Microsoft Onenote, your mind will not open to inspection because you feel like you are being watched. When you use a corporate journal, the corporation is in the room with you.
Journaling apps and services are undesirable for this reason; no matter why they say, they are not private. You create your privacy. Not a company. If you did not create your privacy, it isn’t real.
Corporations engineer distractions because a mind in solitude is not profitable. A Rational mind isn’t profitable for the corporation , unlike the emotional, uncontrolled, fear and excitement based mind.
It’s hard to understand that the past had solitude because, today, in an environment where corporations fight to destroy your attention span so they can take money from you and give it to others, you have to fight to have time to yourself.
Try one of these next?
15 comments
Hi,
I greatly appreciate your article because your method is exactly the one that I reasoned out while talking with a friend last night. I came upon him reading his old large book style journals…discussed with him why I prefer to type, and my worries about privacy, etc. Then eureka! I mentioned what if I used my laptop but saved my precious private thoughts to a thumb drive, backed up to an external hard drive, and stored them in a safe with a back-up in another location…I figured if this was possible, that there must be someone who discovered at least part of this journal-istic wheel before me…then the first search I type in lands me on your wonderful article! The reason I’m writing you is the one thing I hadn’t considered is what text writer to use, as I use a Mac…is text edit safe?
Do you have any suggestions other than “note” “text edit” program in the Mac?
Thanks,
David
Hi David,
Thanks for finding us and commenting. The method we recommend, is disconnecting from internet completely, first. Then, use the program focus writer–it’s like a text pad except with more customizable options including typewriter noises, and store your entries in a thumb drive and on an additional backup like a external hard drive; just as you mentioned.
It was really pleasing reading this during quarantine, I’m starting my journal today
but I got a question about keeping my journal update using my cellphone, Is there any app you recommend ?
Thanks again
i need some help but nevermind and also this app sucks
What do you need?
I liked your article. Thanks a lot. For now I Don’t need anything more. I will contact you when I do.
Please do.
I’ve been tryong to get to journaling and I need to do it in private like onlline so nobody won’t be snooping. everyone here been driving me nuts
Thank you for this clever approach to journaling. I used Life-journal for over 10 years and loved it however, when my computer had to be reformatted I could not find the software disk. The company now only has an online version. Who would want their journal online? Not me. The features I miss are the ability to include pictures, the random quote generator and the structure of the journal entries being organized by date on the side panel. Can you suggest any workarounds for a visual file management system? I just purchased the thumb-drive and downloaded focus.
We have looked for a perfect visual file management system for a long time and have not found something perfect. We have similar concerns around privacy. Our best recommendation at this point in time is Joplin, which is a open-source note taking application.
I wrote a comment. Did it get deleted?
Thank you for this recommendation. I have tried several different types of journaling software, and apps. Nothing has been what I was looking for until I found you site and the suggestion of this Open Source “FocusWriter” software. I wanted something that would remember where I left off, and was private. This is absolutely perfect! Thank you again.
Happy that you like it. Focus Writer is my favorite writing software. You may also like the open source Joplin application.
Hi,
Does Focus Writer keep local files in their database? Like any entries that I would write, do they have access to it?
I like the idea of using a thumb drive and then encrypting it.
This is the type of software that I’m looking for; no cloud syncing, no internet access, just simple note taking and saving it to a thumb drive.
Hey Bunni,
Focus writer is so simple it doesn’t have a database. It’s all you with text files. I did the same thing. No cloud access, simple, files are all mine. If you’re looking for an encryption tool, veracrypt is good. You make a partition in a drive, so you can rest assured that focus writer and a encrypted partition is basically impenetrable.
It’s also a great text editor for any kind of writing. Simple, no cloud, etc. I’m glad you like it.