Gratitude Journal
Your gratitude journal on iPhone, two minutes each evening
You don’t need a fancy notebook or twenty quiet minutes. Write down three good things from today, tag them, pick a mood, and you’re done. VISIYA keeps your entries on a calendar and counts your streak.
What the journal does
One entry in two minutes
Every entry opens with “Three things I am grateful for today” and three empty lines. Write, tap Next, pick your tags and save. One sentence counts.
Tags and mood
Tag what you’re grateful for: Family, Food, Exercise, Weather or tags you make yourself. Add where you are and how you feel, from Awesome to Bad. To remove a tag you made, tap Edit.
Calendar and your week
Your week sits at the top, with a dot on every day you wrote. Open the calendar to flip back through the months, or add an entry for a day you missed.
Your achievements and streak
Open Your achievements to see your current and longest streak, your week, and four numbers: total entries, total words, your top category and your top mood.
Photos (Plus)
The beach at sunset, your kid’s first lost tooth: a photo turns an entry into a memory. Add one to any entry with VISIYA Plus.
An evening reminder
If you allow notifications, VISIYA checks in once a day, in the evening: What were you grateful for today? You can turn it off any time.
Prompts for when you’re stuck
Tap Inspiration and VISIYA drops a question into your entry. Your first two prompts are free; after that, prompts come with VISIYA Plus.
12 gratitude journal prompts
For the nights your mind goes blank. Copy one into VISIYA or into your notebook.
- 01What made you laugh today, even for a second?
- 02Who showed up for you this week?
- 03What small comfort got you through today?
- 04What can you do now that you couldn’t do a year ago?
- 05Which part of today would you happily live again?
- 06Which text, call or voice memo made you smile?
- 07What went better than you expected?
- 08What did your body carry you through today?
- 09What place near home are you glad exists?
- 10Who taught you something you still use, and what was it?
- 11What do you have now that you once wished for?
- 12What are you looking forward to tomorrow?
What the research says
The study most people mean is by Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2003, vol. 84, no. 2). In the first of three experiments, college students wrote down up to five things they were grateful for, once a week for about ten weeks. Compared with groups who listed hassles or simply events, they rated their lives as a whole more positively, felt more optimistic about the week ahead and reported fewer physical complaints. They also exercised more than the hassles group. In two follow-up studies with daily entries, the clearest result was more positive mood. What the study doesn’t show is that gratitude makes wishes come true or attracts anything. It measured how people said they felt, over a few weeks.
Frequently asked questions
Is VISIYA’s gratitude journal free?
Yes. Entries, tags, mood, the calendar, your streak and the reminder are all free. Photos and any prompts after your first two are part of VISIYA Plus.
What should I write in a gratitude journal?
Three small, specific things from today are plenty: the first warm morning, a long call with your mom, a meeting that went better than you feared. Specific beats profound. “Dad called just to chat” will mean more next year than “my family.”
Can I make my own tags?
Yes. Tap + to add your own tags for what you’re grateful for and where you are. To remove one, tap Edit, then ✕. Entries you already wrote keep their tags.
Does gratitude help with manifesting?
Plenty of people who manifest swear by it. The evidence says something more modest: in studies like Emmons and McCullough’s (2003), people who regularly wrote down what they were grateful for felt better about their lives. That’s a good enough reason to keep a journal.
Your future is worth picturing
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