The Thursday Dispatch - 4 December 2025
I’m attempting to build a journaling habit this month. This started out with me attempting to move my blog posts over to the journaling app Day One, where I can print a book out of my posts. This then carried over into my trying to listen to an album every day this month, as there’s a lot of music I missed this year. This is when I noticed using this app logs “mindful minutes”, which count the same way meditation does within Apple Health. I don’t always have the mental state to meditate. Sometimes I’m the opposite and what I really need is to offload my brain a little bit. I’ve referred to this before as “clearing the cache”.
I’m challenging myself to use the prompts for most of my posts. If something is really on my mind, I’ll talk about it. But, most days I’ll be using the prompts. I’m doing this to force myself into thinking about something different. The prompts often make me think about something I haven’t considered yet, so it’s pushing me to think a little more critically.
I’m still leaning more into Day One, over something like Apple’s Journal app. It’s been around forever, is rock solid, and now has good ownership behind them that cares about writing in tools. I also enjoy how the app in some ways feels like a social media app. It’s pleasant to use and does little things like track your streak of how many days in a row you’ve written. There’s also the shared journals (paid feature), that act as sort of a community blog of sorts, where each side can post and comment on those posts. They’re a nice place to share dialog.
It’s too early to say whether or not I’m gaining some huge health benefits, but I’m sure over time I’ll feel something. I’m using this as an alternative to meditation, which I’m not always in the headspace to do. I feel that between the two, it’ll put me in a better mental state, especially during this stressful time of year.
Photo of the Week
I was sick last week. Griffey was a good source of comfort for me through the weekend.
This Past Week
Weekly Links
- My Social Media Superpower (And Why It Stopped Working) by David Sparks
- The 50 Best Albums of 2025 from Consequence of Sound
Songs in the Chaos
This is my weekly list of songs that either caught my attention or came to mind this past week. I post these throughout the week on a site called Crucial Tracks, where they’re also added to a playlist on Apple Music. Feel free to follow me on either space.