The Journal App Making Journal: Day 43

Storing local data with NSCoder, making journaling a habit, and continue to journal on Atomic Habits

Continue to journal on three questions everyday in this Journal App Making Journal.

1. What have I learned about app design and development today?

Continue to acquire app design and programming skills through the iOS App Development course on Udemy created by Angela Yu and the London App Brewery.

Learned about NSCoder today, as a new way to store data on the local device.

Yesterday, we learned the first and simplest way to store a small amount of data locally via the UserDefaults class of objects.

This is to achieve Local Data Persistence, where changes and data are not lost between sessions. UserDefaults however is to database systems the bicycle to modes of transportation. And like the push bike, it is purpose built, except not for complexity or scale.

So today, we upgrade! And begin to use a custom made local data file (eg. the Item.plist in the video) to store data via the NSCoder class of objects.

In this video, the local data file can be seen to record changes live. Everyday mystery unveiled, how brilliant.

2. What have I learned about other journal users today?

Continue to look into journal users under the #journaling hashtag on Medium.

The featured journal user today is: Jackie Schwabe

> About Jackie and her 30-day journaling challenge

In September 2019, Jackie wrote a blog about a 30-day journaling challenge, to look at a range of ideas about how to journal and their benefits. I have grouped her ideas into the following 6 areas, and take on looking into one area per day in the coming week.

1. General benefits of journaling.
2. Specific ways of journaling for productivity, planning, and learning.
3. Specific ways of journaling for imagination and creativity.
4. Specific ways of journaling for regulating moods and emotions.
5. How to establish a journaling habit.
6. Journaling systems, tools, and technologies.

> Key ideas I learned from Jackie today

Today, we look at the habit of journaling, theme no.5.

Amazingly, many of Jackie’s ideas coincide with those I have been following in the book Atomic Habits and have been journaling about in the section after this. For example,

• Jackie says, “What matters is consistency”; James Clear says, “An atomic habit is a little habit that is part of a larger system… If you want better results, forget about setting goals, focus on your system instead”.
• Jackie says, “keep it short”, “keep it simple… one sentence… is enough”; James suggests, “keep it easy”, and designs a dedicated One Line Per Day section in his Clear Habit Journal.
• Jackie says, “add it to your (existing) routine” and take your journal with you; James recommends the same idea in “habit stacking”.
• Jackie says, “set an alarm”; James says, the best way to change habits is to be intentional and specific, stating it as “I will do X at time Y in location Z.”
• Jackie says, experiment and play, trial and error, make a mess and accomplish more by “taking away the idea of perfection”; James wrote, “Too often, we fall into an all-or-nothing cycle … The problem is not slipping up; the problem is thinking that if you can’t do something perfectly, then you shouldn’t do it at all”.
• Jackie says, “fake (journaling) ‘til you make it”; James points out, “True behaviour change is identity change”.
• Jackie also highlights the importance of creating periodic reviews to gain benefits from journaling. We are likely to keep doing with something when we see benefits from it.
• I also love Jackie’s suggestion that journals don’t even require writing words. Drawings and images are equally good in the name of personalisation.

In physics, some of the longest undying quests have been about unifying the laws of our universe, a “theory of everything”. In psychology and behavioural change, isn’t it great to see ideas coming together in unification too.

Jackie finds what’s personalised, easy, automatic, enjoyable, and useful, is likely to persist. James finds the same with “atomic habits”. And the message from both is similar, good habits are the powerful compound interest of personal growth & long term fulfilment.

3. What have I learned about journaling products / technologies today?

Continue to look into other journaling products / technologies.

Featured journaling system today is: The implementation system for the popular book, Atomic Habit.

(This is a follow-up project after reviewing the Clear Habit Journal system on Day 35. It goes for 21 days and will end on Day 56.)

> Featured ideas from the book > Chapter 6 about the power of environment on habits

• The message today is definitely about noticing carefully and developing awareness for how our environment shapes our habits by making some things easier and others harder.
• It then follows that to change habits, let’s redesign our surroundings. “Every habit should have a home. … A stable environment where everything has a place and a purpose”, because habits are cued, and willpower / motivation are often “overrated” compared to the power of our environment.

> Featured lessons from Habit Academy video course > Module 5 about the feedback loop between identity / mindsets vs. habits / behaviours

• This video module today reinforced the messages from Chapter 2 of the book which was covered in the journal on Day 38.
• The specific action suggestions about how to reinvent a new identity is by focusing on “small wins” that move us towards that identity. Perhaps the proverbial “we are what we do”, so simply get started.
• Additionally, reinventing identities can be accelerated by choosing “keystone habits”, or elsewhere referred to as “foundational habits”, those most impactful and giving off rippling effects on many other areas of life.

> Using the Clear Habit Journal for my own habit change

• If I keep it simple and keep the bar low, as suggested, I can not be happier with the changes I have made so far. There is now an unbroken streak.
• I have not disclosed what habit I am changing, so I get to see the effect of Atomic Habits without mixing in the effect of disclosure. It has worked well.
• A habit tracker (ie. streak tracker) seems increasingly appealing at this point. I have not used it so far even though it is available in the Clear Habit Journal. It did not seem to matter in the first few days, because it was about getting started, not breaking the streak rather than counting days, and I could track things sufficiently in memory. As the days go on though, a tracker would feel rewarding and is now a good idea.

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