· · ·
How has it been?
Take your time. Aim for 30 minutes.
Free writing
Photos from this entry
Up to 5 photos. Drag them in, paste from the clipboard, or click to browse. iPhone and Google Photos HEIC files are converted for you. They're stored with the entry, so pick the ones that tell the story.
Now rate it, 1 to 10
1–9 and 0 for ten score the entry, and rescore it · Enter starts the list, then moves down it · Ctrl+Enter saves · Esc keeps a draft
Entry saved
Well done. Sitting down counts.
Before you close the page, here's what Looking Back noted across your recent entries, and where your goals stand.
Search your journal
Your library
People & topics
The names and subjects that keep coming back, weighted towards what's still live.
Read it back
Re-read the period, write down what it taught you, then set the next goals.
The next six months
Goals
Career, personal and health to start with, plus any group you want to add. Set them each review, and keep them honest as you write.
Settings
You & your rhythm
Your profile and the rhythm you want to keep.
Entry sections
The lists you fill in every entry. Free writing and the 1 to 10 score are always there. Set them up once and keep them steady, so Looking Back can follow each one over time.
For example "Things I'd do differently" as a list, or one row for a section you'd rather write in full. Changes apply from your next entry. Past entries keep the sections they were written with.
Backup
Take it with you
Your journal is kept on your account. These are copies of your own, so it never depends on one place.
Automatic backup
Pick a folder once and Looking Back writes a backup file there every time you save: entries, goals and reviews. Choose a folder inside Google Drive or Dropbox and it's backed up to the cloud too.
Full archive
Everything, in one .zip: your writing, a plain-text copy you can read anywhere, and every photo as an ordinary JPEG. This is the one that works on any device and doesn't need Looking Back to open. Take one a month.
JSON backup
Just the writing: entries, goals, reviews and profile. Smaller and quicker than the archive, but it carries no photos.
Readable text
The whole journal as plain text: every entry, every period review, and the goals that went with each one. For printing, or for your future self.
Restore a backup
Load a .zip archive or a .json backup. It only ever adds: an entry, review or photo already here is left exactly as it is, so nothing you've written can be overwritten. Worth doing once with your latest archive, just to prove the round trip works.