Getting Your Handwriting Organized in the Apple Ecosystem
I started using Goodnotes for journaling back in 2019 when I was still doing most of my planning in physical notebooks. The transition felt clunky at first. My handwriting looked terrible on the screen because I was pressing too hard and my pen angle was wrong for a glass surface. After about three weeks my hand found its rhythm and I stopped fighting the tool. That's the short version of how this actually works in practice. Goodnotes is an app made by Goodnotes Limited that runs on iPad and iPhone. It uses Apple Pencil for writing, drawing, and annotation. A "Journal Goodnotes" setup basically means you're using that same app but with lined or dot-grid page templates instead of blank ones, so your digital notes look like a real notebook. The templates are what make it function as a journal rather than a generic note-taking space. You can get these through the built-in template library in the app, or download them from places like Etsy or Reddit communities where people share their own created layouts. The free templates are fine. The paid ones usually just have fancier covers and extra spread designs that don't actually change how the app works underneath.
Setting It Up Without Overcomplicating Things
First, download Goodnotes from the App Store. It's not free but it's a one-time purchase, not a subscription. Open the app and you'll see a default set of folders. Create a new folder called Journal or whatever you want to call it, then tap the plus button to add pages from the template gallery. The pen settings matter more than people realize. Go to your pen preferences and pick a ballpoint or rollerball tip. The default fountain pen feels too slippery for journaling because it has almost no friction on the screen. Ballpoint gives you enough resistance that your handwriting stops looking like you're signing autographs on a wet surface. Set the opacity to around 85 percent. Full opacity makes everything look unnaturally bold and flat. Import your chosen template into that folder. Some people import PDFs directly, which works fine. I use the native Goodnotes template format because it lets you resize the written content later without breaking the lines. PDF imports lock your text to that exact layout and if you need more space halfway through a spread you're stuck.
How the Writing Flow Actually Works Day to Day
I keep Goodnotes open on one side of the split screen when I'm multitasking on iPad. Write for ten minutes, check something on Safari, write for another ten. It's not meditative like paper journaling but it's functional. The search function alone justifies using it. I can type a keyword and find a entry from six months ago in about two seconds. With paper you're flipping through pages hoping you remember which section you wrote in. The undo stack in Goodnotes is generous but not infinite. I hit undo maybe twice a day and it always finds the right spot. The magic wand eraser is useful for quick corrections without switching tools. Press and hold on the wand, drag over the mistake, release. It takes out the ink but leaves the template lines untouched. That's something a lot of beginners miss and end up erasing their entire page by accident.
Get the Full Details
A Real Problem I Ran Into and How I Fixed It
About a year into using it for daily journaling, I hit a wall with the export function. I had about 400 pages of entries and wanted to back them up to Google Drive. Goodnotes exports individual pages as PNGs or the whole notebook as a single PDF. The single PDF option was creating files over 500MB that would time out mid-upload on my home wifi. Nothing dramatic, just constant failures. The workaround is to export in batches of about 50 pages at a time. Goodnotes doesn't advertise this but you can select a range of pages before exporting. It cuts the file sizes down to something reasonable and the uploads complete in under a minute each. I do this once a month as a routine backup. Takes about ten minutes total and I've never lost a page since I started doing it.
Things Goodnotes Does Poorly
Long-form writing is where the app shows its age. If you write more than four pages in a sitting without pausing, the app starts to lag. Not crash, just noticeable stuttering between strokes. This is most obvious when you're keeping a continuous journal entry across multiple spreads. The pencil latency increases and your writing looks jumpy in playback mode if you ever review it. Cloud sync is another weak spot. Goodnotes uses its own cloud system and iCloud, but they don't sync in real time the way you'd expect. I've had entries appear on my iPad but not my iPhone for anywhere from a few minutes to a couple hours. If you're relying on journal access across both devices throughout the day, plan for that gap. Don't treat it as a live multi-device system. There's also no native tagging system inside journal entries themselves. You can tag entire notebooks but not specific pages within them. If your journaling gets into the habit of categorizing entries by mood or topic, you're doing it manually with keywords in the title or page notes. It works but it's not elegant.
What to Do If Goodnotes Isn't Working for You
Notion is the main alternative people consider and it's better for structured long-form writing. The writing experience is smoother for long sessions and the tagging system is genuinely useful. But Notion doesn't support Apple Pencil input at all, so if your journaling involves sketches, doodles, or just handwritten text that feels personal, Notion strips that away. You're trading tactile feel for organizational power. Apple's free Notes app has improved enough that casual journalers might not need anything else. Handwriting in Notes isn't as polished and the template options are nonexistent, but it syncs instantly across devices and costs nothing. If your journal is mostly typed notes with occasional sketches, it's worth trying before buying anything. Goodnotes itself has a subscription tier called Goodnotes Plus that adds unlimited cloud storage and some advanced features. The free tier gives you enough for a personal journal. I've never paid for it and I don't see the point. The core journaling experience is identical between the two tiers. The only thing Plus changes is how many pages you can store in their cloud, and you can work around that limit with the batch export method I mentioned.
