As we hear on a daily basis, it’s been a year like no other… a year to reassess, to take a step back, to try something new, or just simply a year to get through. I have found jotting down my thoughts, struggles and ideas during the lockdowns have helped relieve my mind and body of some stresses. Writing in a journal is nothing new, just ask Marco Polo… but it’s no secret it has real benefits as a platform for getting things off your chest. Diary entries can be a source of personal growth as well as a form of reflection, and with that (very deliberately used) word, I bring you on to this week’s tool review, ‘REFLECTION.APP’.

The app itself is an online diary, nothing necessarily groundbreaking but what caught my eye was the sense of tranquility and message of growth that the tool strives toward, and achieves. Its aesthetic is white, grey and ocean blue. Calm, easing colours, nothing busy or cluttered - readers of previous reviews may acknowledge I cannot ignore a cluttered webpage. I will confess I have used diaries sparingly in my life, sometimes I don’t want to pour my day out onto a page, that’s where REFLECTION is different. They have three tiers (sorry) of entries, ‘Highlight’, ‘Lowlight’, or ‘Free Write’, this allows you to categorise your musings and hopefully find solutions to your problems, and strength in your achievements. After categorising your entry - which can be any length, add a tag to increase the specificity of your writing, there are six templates to choose from, ‘Love’, ‘Play’, ‘Work’, ‘Soul’, ‘Body’, ‘Mind’ or you can customise and make your own (with the premium subscription)! 

The basic subscription is free and all you need to do is sign up, and that grants you unlimited entries and tags for your posts. The premium package sets you back £4.50 a month or £43 for 12 months (although there is a launch special of £32 for 12 months!!!), this includes adding images to your entries, custom tags to personalise your entries further, rich text formatting, auto-syncing between all your devices and many more features yet to be announced! So it’s hard to complain that the premium package is value for money should your needs need this level of catering.

What has always put me off before now when it comes to journals, is the need to use the whole page… a genuine void that needs to be filled. With REFLECTION, the page is as long as you want it to be, so whatever you want to say, you can, without the OCD of an incomplete page or going over two pages becoming an issue. Fully articulate your life covering a variety of topics, good days, bad days, the days you’ll never forget. Combine your personal and professional lives seamlessly and help your mind grow. The benefits of a journal are like a good sauce, you have to let it marinate. I like this app and can’t wait to see where the entries take me.

👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼/5.