I’m going to share some revolutionary journaling apps with you, but I also want you to know that you can just watch me talk about it on YouTube here if you don’t feel like reading. Ok, now that that’s out of the way…

Every time I talk to someone with ADHD about journaling, I get the same answer: “I can’t seem to make myself sit down and do it every day, no matter what I do.” And…I mean…same. The number of journals and special pens I’ve bought to “start my journaling practice,” and the number of times I’ve “restarted my journaling practice” are embarrassingly high. It seems that, no matter how hard I tried to be on top of journaling, I couldn’t do it.

It made no sense to me either. I love writing, I have a lot of thoughts. What else do I need, exactly? 

I stumbled on the answer one day, completely by accident, while my anxiety was bubbling over. I needed to talk to someone, and there wasn’t anyone around, much less anyone who’d want to hear me talk about everything that was bothering me for the next hour or two or however long I needed. I then remembered an old ADHD client asking me if I’d tried Journify, an app for voice journaling. 

This isn’t going to be about Journify, because weirdly they shut down but kept their app up on the app store for some reason, but they’re the gateway that led me to a relatively quiet revolution going on in the mental health and journaling world: AI journaling. 

Before I go into the two apps I’ve tried, I want to address the whole AI thing, because I know it’s a prickly subject right now. Frankly, I think we use AI for too many things that we shouldn’t. I think that it’s great for menial tasks and aiding in the creative process – notice I said aiding in it, not replacing it. These so-called “book publishers” who use AI to write books for them can fuck right off. But I do think that AI can be a helpful tool in a number of situations. This is absolutely one of those situations. 

Also, just a heads up on two things: 1. I am not being paid by these apps to talk about them, but there are affiliate links in here. I’d never in a million years suggest anything I didn’t 100% believe in, though. And 2. The first app is only for Apple users, so if you have an Android, you’ll want to skip to the second app. 

So let’s talk about the first voice journaling app that changed my life: 

Untold

I originally found Untold through a seemingly innocuous comment on Reddit, and it’s a testament to how a few words can really make an impact, because Untold became the most important app on my phone, sometimes multiple times a day, for months on end. 

I think, when people think of AI journaling, they think of a computer that’s just going to listen to you, repeat back what you’ve said without any soul or introspection, and then ask you stupid questions you’ve already answered. Untold completely busts that myth wide open. With a great text-to-speech feature that can record up to 24 hours worth of content, Untold will not only listen as you work through everything, but it’ll encourage you to delve deeper into the things that are clearly bothering you by prompting you with three additional relevant questions once you’ve finished. You can also jump to an “ask this entry” tab, which’ll give you some prompts for helpful or interesting things you can do with your entry, including turning it into a script for a difficult conversation; building an action plan, or just turning it into a whimsical short story to give you perspective. 

You can type if you so choose, and every entry is searchable. You can even run a separate “ask this entry” command if you have an overarching question that needs to be answered by multiple entries. 

Where Untold really shines, though, is its extra content. It can give you stories, psychological analysis, personality analyses, poems, and a shitton more, with your personal needs in the center of it. The most life-saving for me was the ability to generate meditations and sleep stories, though. It’s nice to meditate overall, but when you can do so regarding the things that are at the forefront of your mind lately, it makes a world of difference. My son struggles with anxiety, too, and being able to use this to help him get to sleep was beyond invaluable. 

I can’t say enough good things about this app, I really can’t. It has a special place in my heart, probably forever. I stopped using it, but I continuously think of returning to it. I still might, to be honest with you. I’ll get into why in a second, but first, let’s talk about the app I’m using now: 

Rosebud

I didn’t want to like Rosebud, I really didn’t. I already had Untold, and frankly, I didn’t want to have to change over. 

But I wound up changing over. 

Rosebud is, in some ways, less personalized and more straightforward than Untold in that it’s just a journaling app. There are no meditations, no stories, no extras in that regard. Entries also aren’t searchable, and you can’t go back to add to an entry you’ve already finished, which you can do in Untold. 

That said, I love Rosebud, because Rosebud talks back. 

I’m the kind of person who needs to talk things out with friends. Journaling alone with no input has its place, but often, I want input and insight from someone who isn’t me. Rosebud scratches that itch, because it doesn’t just respond to the things you say; it also points out unhelpful patterns, gives advice, and makes connections you might not have otherwise made. Once, I was upset about something and it was like, “have you considered that you’re using all-or-nothing thinking right now, and that this may not be the way things actually are?” 

And I couldn’t punch it or tell it to go fuck itself, because it’s a computer. All I could do is think about what it said and admit it was probably right. 

Rosebud also will suggest goals you can commit to based on your entries, becoming a habit tracker as well. It gives you weekly roundups of what you’ve been talking about, complete with insights to keep in mind and ways you’ve won that you may have overlooked. 

I’ve come to really appreciate the fact that Rosebud also has the option to keep different journals for different needs, too. You can either use one of the preloaded ones for things like positive thinking or familial relationships, or you can make your own. For example, I have one journal that’s a catch-all, and then I have another that’s for talking about my writing and keeping track of characters and plot ideas. The AI in the second one understands its job, and mainly talks to me about writing stuff, while the other keeps up with life. 

At the end of 2024, it also did a pretty neat thing where it gave me a “Wrapped” similar to Spotify’s end-of-year wrapped, where I found out what I talked about most, and what my year’s “Spirit Animal” was. It was kind of a cool little treat to stumble on. 

Rosebud is available for both Apple and Android, and while they charge 12.99 monthly or 107.99 a year, they do offer disability and student discounts, so it’s worth checking into if you think either of those will apply to you. They were actually super kind over there, and are offering 15% off for you guys if you use this link, or sign up with code adhdone at checkout. Just make sure you sign up on the web app and then download the phone app, because you can’t really do codes through the app store or the play store.

If you’re trying to decide which is for you, my suggestion would go like this: 

• If you need direct feedback when you’re talking things out, use Rosebud. 

• If you want more of a traditional journaling experience, use Untold. 
• If you want a little more of an assurance that you’ll return to the app the next day, try using Untold because you’ll have plenty of fun things to check back in for. 
• If you can’t afford therapy at the moment, the closest you’ll get is Rosebud. 
• If you want a more self-directed approach, use Untold. 
  
  

And if you’re still not sure, I suggest trying both. A free trial with either will tell you all you’ll need to know.

All of this to say that I realized that voice journaling worked for me because trying to sit, slow down, and write felt like a lot. My brain is often moving a mile a minute, and trying to write in line with my thoughts doesn’t work with me. But you know what can move as fast as my brain? My mouth. And once I realized that, my journaling problem disappeared. I now journal every day, sometimes even multiple times a day. I can honestly say that my mental health is better, my communication is better, and I feel like I can handle things much easier when I know I can talk them out any time. 

Whether you use these or something else, just remember that many ADHDers are external processors; keeping things inside will often overwhelm and overstimulate us. Get stuff out however you can, and watch how much lighter you feel – I promise you will. 

And if you do try either of these, let me know what you thought!