280daily: Sum up your day in 280 characters.

If you ever kept a diary as a small child then you’ll know what fun it is and what great memories it unleashes when you stumble on it years down the line. A diary can also be an immense source of pleasure for generations of your family to come and an invaluable source of local everyday social history.

So why stop keeping a diary when your childhood ends? Time is probably the answer to that question but it doesn’t have to be a barrier with 280 Daily.

Forget trying to write an essay on every single minute of your day because you’ll soon tire of that days leaving large chunks of your life left blank. This app gives you 280 characters daily to précis the events which is roughly 50 words, exactly the size of this paragraph.

The system will also give you a nudge by sending an email reminder to make an entry on a daily, every other day or weekly basis so you have no excuses for forgetting.  There is also a reporting function that keeps you up to date with how much you’re writing, average word count etc. and other pointers.

Of course your diary or journal remains completely private to you and can be accessed from a desktop PC or mobile device meaning your holiday activities can be updated on your phone from the comfort of your sun lounger.

Settings can be customized and you can search back in time for any particular day and see what you were up to which could be useful if a friendly policeman ever asks you to account for your whereabouts. Photographs can be uploaded too to give an entry more depth.

If you want your entries in hard copy they can be easily exported to a PDF file and printed but the future of 280 Daily promises something much more exciting. A new feature is on the horizon where you can request your life history to be professionally bound in book form and sent to you.

Now that really would look good on the grandchildren’s bookshelves.

Conclusion
Family history should be encouraged vigorously in my opinion and this app fully appreciates the time constraints that often prevent regular diary or journal keeping.