Dayleaf

The art of looking back

Method guide · August 29, 2026

David Allen's Getting Things Done calls the weekly review "the critical success factor" — the habit that makes every other habit work. Journals are the same: writing is the deposit, re-reading is the interest. Most people never collect.

The ten-minute weekly review

  1. Scroll the week in the Timeline — every entry in order, searchable.
  2. Check the goals: daily, weekly, monthly — what got checked, what keeps not getting checked? (A goal missed three weeks straight isn't a discipline problem; it's the wrong goal.)
  3. Write the Sunday line: one entry summarizing the week — future-you's table of contents.
Dayleaf's On This Day resurfacing entries from past years

On This Day: the long look back

Reviews cover the week; On This Day covers the years. Open any date and Dayleaf shows what you wrote on that same date across every year you've kept the journal — last year's worry (resolved), two years ago's dinner (still funny). It's the feature that turns a journal from a habit into a relationship with your own history.

Search is a review tool

Wondering when the back pain started, what you thought of that restaurant, or how last year's launch actually felt? Full-text search across every planner answers in a keystroke — the kind of recall paper never had.

🕰 Anniversary trick: journal consistently for one year, and every day after that begins with a small gift from your past self.

Keep reading

How to build a daily journaling habit that sticksAtomic Habits' two-minute rule, habit stacking, and never-miss-twice — applied to a journal that lives on your calendar.One life, many plannersThe Bullet Journal Method's collections, rebuilt as color-coded planners for work, books, health, and more.Your camera roll already wrote half your journalDayleaf suggests your photos from each day — turn them into a photo journal in seconds.
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