Dale Majors recently crossed the impressive milestone of 3,100 consecutive days of journaling.
Dale lives in Farmington, Utah, and is an entrepreneur, investor, and adventurer. Dale runs GrandTrunk.com, a hammock and adventure travel company. Outside of entrepreneurship, Dale runs a coaching business called Venture Anyway that helps entrepreneurs grind less, and live more.
In this interview, we asked Dale about the importance of journaling and for advice on how to build a lasting journaling habit.
How long have you been keeping a journal?
Consistently for my streak of 3,117 days, but maybe once a month since 2001.
What makes journaling important to you?
My Mom was a great journal writer, and I was always inspired by her consistency and dedication in recording the happenings in our family. I’ve read my own journal entries from the past, and have been reminded about things I had forgotten about, it feels important to record feelings and happenings not only in my life, but in the life of my six kids as well.
What do you usually journal about?
I now do 99% of my journaling with dictation. Most days, I speak my answer to these questions:
- What were yesterdays highlights?
- What’s on my mind now?
- How could I make today amazing?
- What is the most important thing I could accomplish today?
- What’s new in the lives of my family members?
- What should I pray for?
I answer most of these questions every day, but if I don’t have a good answer, I just skip it. I use an Apple shortcut to ask me these questions and record the questions.
When do you journal each day?
I journal first thing, before I do anything else like check email, or pull up anything on my phone. It also happens on a walk outside with our dog Gemma.
What tips or advice would you give others who want to build a journaling habit/streak?
Doing this first thing every day has been very helpful. Also, beginning to use dictation has helped me 3x the length of my average entry.
What have you learned from keeping a journal for over 3,100 days?
I’ve learned that my energy and creativity moves up and down like a roller coaster, and that’s okay. I know there will be ups and downs. I’m grateful when I’m in an up, and hopeful when things are down.
What is your favorite thing about the Day One app?
I love the photo feature, even without the words, it’s so great to have a journal of great photos from each day over the last 8 years.
“Life is important, so we should record it! My mom was an amazing journal writer, and I was inspired to do the same.”
How has Day One helped you journal consistently for 3,100 days?
A neighbor of ours shared her journaling habit with my wife and it entailed starting from day 1, then progressing each day, she was on day 5,000 or so at the time.
What else you would like to share about your journaling streak?
When I first started journaling, my entries were very short and lacked substance, it was very much about the streak. As I continued to block out the time, the entries got better and better. I love that I’m now programmed to journal day in, day out!
Start Your Journaling Streak
with Day One
The Day One journaling app makes it easy to build and maintain a daily journaling habit. Daily journaling reminders, daily writing prompts, and journal streaks are designed to help keep you motivated and consistently journaling.
