Hi, I’m Jenny.

I make YearDiary and I write everything on this site. YearDiary is a private digital 5 and 10 year journal for iPhone, iPad and Mac. You write a little each day, and the app shows you what you wrote on the same date one, five and ten years ago.

Why I built it

I’ve bought at least five regular diaries and two five-year diaries in my life. I started every one of them, and I stopped every one of them too. Lost them, forgot them, or convinced myself that missing a day meant I’d failed. The problem was never the habit. It was the format. A journal that lives in my phone removed the barrier: no searching for the book, no guilt about the gap, just a few lines that slowly grow into something I actually want to reread.

What I write about here

The articles on this site come out of years of keeping diaries on paper and on screens: how to build a journaling habit that survives real life, what multi-year journals give you that ordinary notebooks can’t, and how to rescue and digitize old diaries before the ink fades. When I compare apps, including my own, I say plainly what each one does well and where it falls short.

Get in touch

Questions, corrections or a diary story you want to share? Email me at contact@yeardiary.com. I read everything.