Apple’s Journal is a great way to keep a journal. With the release of OS 26, Journal is available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Although Journal is well integrated in the system, and supports the system share sheet, it does not support some of the common methods through which Drafts integrates with other app, such as URL schemes. It does, however, provide Shortcuts integration. By combining a simple shortcut with a Drafts action, it is easy to create journal entries from drafts. This tip covers a basic setup to do that.
The “Send to Journal” Action
The “Send to Journal” example action, when used in combination with the “Send to Journal” shortcut (both linked below), takes the current draft and creates a journal entry with the first line of the draft as the title, and body as the content. Any Markdown in your draft will be converted to rich text. It will also be posted to your journal on the original creation date of the draft – so if you come back later to a draft to send it, it will be posted to the right date.
To use the action:
- Install the Send to Journal action in Drafts.
- Install the Send to Journal shortcut in Shortcuts.
- Write a journal entry in Drafts, using the first line as the title, and the remaining text as your entry.
- Run the “Send to Journal” action you installed above.
- (You may get some permissions prompts to agree to the first time running it – just “always allow” to not seem them again in the future)
- Open the Journal app, and confirm your entry.
Customization
This example works as-is, but can also be customized once installed. You can, for example, edit the “Create Entry” step in the shortcut to target a specific journal in the Journals app. Please ask below if you need assistance making any modifications.