Micro-Journaling with Inkwell

For some time now, I’ve been looking for a micro-journal. Just a place where I can occasionally write a few thoughts that’s private and easy to use. Despite there being a slew of both online and offline options, apps, and platforms, nothing has really been a good fit. But recently, I discovered Inkwell, and that all changed.

Outside of wanting a place to mouth off or vent a little, I’ve wanted something to help with rumination. Sometimes at night, I’ll find myself stuck in a thought loop or stressing about a certain situation, and when this gets to be too much, I end up getting out of bed, logging into my laptop, and journaling. I think this is a healthy reaction, but sometimes I don’t need a full deep-dive journal entry. Sometimes, I just need to say a few things about what is going on in my mind, and that’s why I wanted a micro-journaling solution. I’ve experimented with private blogs and using UpNote, Apple Journal, Day One, and a variety of other options, but it feels a bit like overkill to create a new entry for a short paragraph or two.

So, I started installing apps the past few weeks to see what works and what doesn’t. I discovered Journalistic.app, which looked promising, but the developer has stepped away from it. Most of the apps had issues. Sometimes it was the price, other times it was the privacy, and sometimes it was just poorly made. Then I ran across Inkwell, an app that was affordable (and had a $30 lifetime option, which always appeals to me), looked good, performed well, and offered great privacy options.

The ultimate question was… will I use it?

I’m sure, if you are like me, you’ve researched the hell out of an app to fix a problem, only to find a solution and realize it just wasn’t something you really wanted to do. I convinced myself that despite all this effort, I’d probably make one entry and then abandon it.

I found myself writing my first entry the very first night, when I found myself struggling to fall asleep. Three paragraphs later, I’d expressed myself and managed to slow the monkey mind.

The following morning, I was inspired to write a bit more after running some errands. Then once again later that afternoon when I had a few free moments. The lack of friction made opening the app encouraging to use, and the lack of bloat made it enjoyable.

I continued this cycle the following day, and then the next day, and the next. I found myself looking forward to writing a few thoughts about my day. I guess you could say it was almost like tweeting when Twitter first launched, but a bit more personal.

Inkwell was made by Mario Mouris, who wrote a post called Why I Built Inkwell that probably explains more about the app than I did. Sadly, the app does not have a website, and there are a dozen other apps/programs called Inkwell, which means it’s hard to find in a sea of inkwells.

Right now, it’s iOS only and is being maintained and improved. From my research, it looks like it launched around August 2025, so it’s still relatively new. If I had one request, I’d prefer there to be an option to export by Markdown and not just JSON. I swear, I have no idea why JSON seems to always be the default export, but I am not a fan.

So, to answer my question, yes, I will use this app. For how long? I don’t know. Hopefully for quite some time, since I made a lifetime purchase.