My Digital Journal in Evernote

While I definitely value a handwritten journal, I like to keep a digital log of some things. Momento for iPhone is great at pulling data from a variety of social networks, however, it is not available for iPad or Mac. Evernote is accessible on a variety of platforms, but does not have a stock way to pull in data from social networks.

Using IFTTT, we can address Evernote’s shortcoming. My goal is have a note for each day containing all my social media activity, contained inside a particular Evernote notebook.

Steps

0. Evernote: Create a notebook

I’m calling mine Captain’s Log. Call yours whatever you wish.

1. IFTTT Recipe to create new note

Create a recipe with the following trigger: Date & Time > Every day at. I chose 05:00.
For your action, choose Evernote > Create a note. My notes are titled, “Captain’s Log”. In the body, I put, “Created: {{CheckTime}}“. Since {{CheckTime}} include both the date and time, do not put {{CheckTime}} in the title unless you want a new note for each item.

2. Add Foursquare Check-ins to existing note

If Foursquare > Any new check-in then Evernote > Append to Note. Make sure you use the same exact note title and notebook as you did in Step 2.

3. Add Instagram photos by you to existing note

If Instagram > New photo by you then Evernote > Append to Note. Use the same note title and notebook.
NOTE: You could use a similar recipe to add any photos or videos you like, etc.

4. Add tweets and retweets by you to existing note

If Twitter > New tweet by you then Evernote > Append to Note. Use the same note title and notebook. I’ve included retweets and @replies in the trigger. I’m thinking about changing that to just @replies.

5. Add Twitter mentions of you to existing note

If Twitter > New mention of you then Evernote > Append to Note. Use the same note title and notebook.

Tips

You may want to tweak the body of each action to fit your journal style better. For example I modified my Foursquare recipe so that “I went to” precedes the venue name. Since the shout is included after the first sentence, I can use it to include any notes about the place.

IFTTT has an iOS app, useful for building and modifying recipes.

You can do the same thing with an RSS feed (such as for your blog).

Adios, Momento for iPhone.