Chapter 3 · The Day
Why Awaken Journal opens on today, and how to move between days, weeks and months
The short answer: Awaken Journal opens on today because today is the only day you can still do something about. Instead of a list of everything you've ever written, you get one page: today's Journal, To-Do and Finance together. To go anywhere else, tap the date at the top. A calendar opens, and any day you wrote on has a small dot under it. This post explains why it's built that way, how to move between days, why past days open to read but not to change, and where your weeks and months live.
The 30-second version: three apps become one Day View, a tap on the date opens yesterday, and the day closes into the calendar.
Chapter 2 was about how your writing is kept safe. Chapter 3 is about the day itself, starting with the first thing you see.
1 · Why a day, not a list
Most daily apps open on a list: of entries, of tasks, of spending. A list asks you to pick something, and it quietly invites you to scroll back through everything that came before.
A day asks a smaller, easier question: what's true right now? So when you open Awaken Journal, you land on today's page, called the Day View. Whatever modules you've kept on (Journal, To-Do, Finance) sit on that same page, in the order you chose in Settings → Modules. There's nothing to pick first. You can start writing straight away.
2 · How you know you're on today
The date across the top of the page, like "Monday 12 October", tells you which day you're looking at. On today, it has a small down arrow (▾) after it. On any past day, the arrow isn't there. That small mark is the quickest way to tell whether you're writing in today or just reading an older day.
3 · When does "today" end? The day cut-off
Plenty of people write their journal late at night, and midnight is a bad place for a day to end. If you write at 12:40 a.m. about the evening you just had, that entry belongs to the day before.
So you choose when your journal day ends: Settings → App Settings → Journal Settings → Day Cut-off Time, anywhere from 12 a.m. (midnight) to 7 a.m. With it set to 3 a.m., anything you write after midnight but before 3 still counts as the day before, and "today" only turns over at 3.
4 · Moving between days: the calendar
Tap the date at the top. A month calendar opens over the page:
- A small dot under a day means you wrote in your journal that day.
- The day you're looking at is raised, so you can see where you are.
- The ‹ and › arrows at the top move back or forward a month.
- Days still ahead are faded and can't be opened. There's nothing to read in them yet.
Tap any day to open it. To come back, tap the date again and pick today.
5 · Why past days open to read, not to change
When you open a day that's already over, you can read everything on it, but you can't add, edit or delete anything. Your Journal, To-Do and Finance for that day are all read-only.
That's on purpose. A journal you can quietly rewrite later stops telling you the truth about how a day actually went. Last Tuesday's page is a record of last Tuesday, written by the person you were then. Today's page is the one that's yours to fill. And if you write after midnight, the cut-off above is how that writing still lands on the right day.
6 · Weeks and months
Days are where you write. Weeks and months are where you step back and look.
- Your week: the button at the top right of the page with the small rising line opens the Weekly Review. You can fill in this week's review there, or open any of your previous weeks. On Sundays and Mondays, today's page also shows a card, "Complete this week's review", until that week's review is saved. Before 6 p.m. it offers "Review this evening" if now isn't a good time.
- Your scores over time: open Journal from the sidebar, then the Journal Score. It shows This Week, Last Week, This Month and Last Month, so you can see how often you showed up, not how much you wrote.
- A month at a glance: the calendar itself. Every dot is a day you showed up.
Which day your week starts on (Sunday or Monday) is a setting, covered in Chapter 1.
Check it yourself
- Open Awaken Journal. You land on today, with the small down arrow (▾) after the date.
- Tap the date. Find the dots: those are the days you wrote.
- Open yesterday. The arrow is gone, and nothing on the page can be changed.
- Tap the date again and pick today to come back.
Quick answers
Why does Awaken Journal open on today instead of a list of entries?
Because today is the one day still in front of you. A single day asks what's true right now; a list asks you to pick something and scroll back through the past.
How do I go to a different day?
Tap the date at the top of the page. A calendar opens; tap any day to open it. Days you wrote on have a small dot.
Can I edit a past journal entry?
No. Past days open to read, not to change, so each day stays a true record of how it went. Today's page is always the one you can write in.
I write after midnight. Which day does it count for?
That's up to you. In Settings → App Settings → Journal Settings → Day Cut-off Time, pick an hour from midnight to 7 a.m. Anything you write before that hour counts as the day before.
Where do I see my week or month?
The Weekly Review button at the top right shows your weeks, and the Journal Score shows this week, last week, this month and last month.
Where to go next
The rest of Chapter 3 is about the page around your day: the sidebar, the buttons up top, turning modules on and off, and why it looks the way it does.