What happened today?
Journal with Marcus is a private journal grounded in Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. You write what happened, and the app finds the passage that speaks to it, quotes it as he wrote it with the book and section, and asks you one question about what you wrote. What you write is not posted to a chatbot: the passage and the question are found on this device, and nothing you write leaves it unless you switch a feature on. It is not a quote app, not a way to read the book, not therapy, and not a conversation. One passage, one question, then back to your day.
What it does, shown rather than described
Choose a situation. What follows is what the app did with it: the real engine ran over each one when this page was built, and nothing below was written for the page. One of the five is a situation the book has nothing on, and the app says so instead of reaching for its best bad match.
An ordinary Tuesday
What was written
Nothing much happened. The meeting went well, I walked home while it was still light, and the kids were in a good mood for once. I realised on the way back that I had not looked at my phone all afternoon.
Marcus Aurelius
The safety of life is this, to examine everything all through, what it is itself, what is its material, what the formal part; with all thy soul to do justice and to say the truth. What remains except to enjoy life by joining one good thing to another so as not to leave even the smallest intervals between?
Question
What was the good thing today, and what is the next one to join it to?
Corrected in a meeting
What was written
My manager corrected me in front of everyone in the review this morning. I said nothing at the time, then spent the whole afternoon going over it and rehearsing what I should have said.
Marcus Aurelius
If any man is able to convince me and show me that I do not think or act right, I will gladly change; for I seek the truth by which no man was ever injured. But he is injured who abides in his error and ignorance.
Question
Is this person's behaviour a surprise, or is it what such a person does, as a fig tree gives figs?
What might be written next
Tomorrow I will make the point to my manager on our own, once, and stop rehearsing it.
The thing that keeps not getting done
What was written
I still haven't started the tax return. Every evening I decide it is tomorrow's job, and every evening I end up scrolling until midnight instead. I am not even sure what I am avoiding.
Marcus Aurelius
Remember how long thou hast been putting off these things, and how often thou hast received an opportunity from the gods, and yet dost not use it. Thou must now at last perceive of what universe thou art a part, and of what administrator of the universe thy existence is an efflux, and that a limit of time is fixed for thee, which if thou dost not use for clearing away the clouds from thy mind, it will go and thou wilt go, and it will never return.
Question
What is the thing you keep putting off, and what would it cost to begin it today rather than one day?
Something the book has nothing on
What was written
Bought seeds for the allotment. It is probably too late in the year for broad beans, but I have put some in anyway and covered them with fleece. I will see what comes up.
Nothing in Meditations sits close to this today. What you wrote is kept.
Waiting to hear
What was written
Interview tomorrow. I have prepared what I can, and I keep running the questions in my head anyway. I will not know the outcome until Friday and there is nothing more I can do about it.
Marcus Aurelius
Let not future things disturb thee, for thou wilt come to them, if it shall be necessary, having with thee the same reason which now thou usest for present things.
Question
How much of the weight is from the past or the future rather than from this hour?
Why another journal
A notebook gives you a blank page. A quote app gives you a line a day, chosen for nobody in particular. A chatbot gives you an answer, and then another. A diary app with a lock gives you somewhere safe to put things and no reason to look at them again.
Journal with Marcus does one thing that none of them does: it connects what you actually wrote to what Marcus actually wrote, and asks you one question about it. Then it stops. A good use of it takes about three minutes.
Read, reflect, journal, notice
- Read one passage, quoted as written and cited by book and section. Never paraphrased, never a slogan.
- Reflect on one question about what you wrote. The app asks; it does not advise, and it does not tell you what to think.
- Journal what you intend to do, or to watch for, if anything. That line is yours and it is optional.
- Notice, over time, what keeps coming up. The app will propose a pattern as a question, and you say whether it is so.
How it works, and plainly what it does not do.
What it will notice, and what it will not decide
Over months, the app will keep a private note of what recurs in your writing: the situations, the reactions, the ideas from Marcus you return to. It will use that note to ask a better question, in the form of a question. "You have written about recognition several times this month. Is that part of what is happening here?" It will never tell you what you are like. You can see the note, correct it, and remove any of it.
Where the writing goes
What you write stays on this device. There is no account, and nothing is sent anywhere unless you turn a feature on. The whole of it, in sentences you can check.
Where to start
It is a web app. There is no account, no email address and nothing to install first.