Text files used to be a thing.

Why don’t just use something like Joplin? Or you could try NovelWriter. Both are open source and easy to use.

It sounds like you might like Logsec. I use it for general note-keeping, but I think it would work really well as a journal because it defaults to a new time-stamped entry when you open it. These entries are presented chronology like a journal, and you can create links to other pages if you want to dive further into a specific topic.

Also, all entries are saved as standard markdown files, so they would be easy to adapt to another software later if needed. This also makes it really easy to sync data between devices with something like Syncthing.

Try looking into these (not yet cited here):

• Siyuan
• AppFlowey
• Affine Pro

Joplin synced to a self-hosted sync server with E2EE on, that's my setup. Works great.

I don't do journaling full time, but Joplin has been great. FOSS, cross-platform, allows you to pick sync target (if you want any, I use my cloud provider) and on top of it all it supports e2e encryption of your notes.

Nicest thing (personally): allows you to export markdown/html/pdf/etc..

Was going to say Obsidian, but upon verifying, realized that it's not actually open source. Interesting.

CherryTree LibreOffice You know, it's all about taste, and the system you set up. What is "modern" to you? Share a picture? What do you mean by "cool"? Safe, is that encryption, or the ability to not lose your entries, like backup and such?

I do pen and paper.

I also write cursive as an obfuscation tactic. Makes it harder for the younger generations to figure out what my thoughts were.

What are you looking for features? A Simple text editor and saving as markdown is not good enough? Can save it in a cloud host.

I discovered Trilium a couple days before discovering the project was dead. But here is TriliumNext now so it's not that much of a problem (yay opensource!)

Works great on a computer, not as much on a phone. There are android apps to send directly something to it, but reading its content involves the webapp directly... which isn't that bad but overall that's not ideal. Still, after years of trying floss journaling apps one after another, it's the only one I kept more than a couple weeks.

Notesnook.

It’s FOSS, it’s loaded with features, it’s cross-platform, and offers a self-hostable FOSS sync server, too.

What about just a simple paper notebook?

(I'm not trying to be a jerk)

For android I tend to like Safe Notes. It's relatively simple, encrypted with either passphrase or biometrics, and stored locally, with a way to back up to a file. Just make sure you memorize/save the passphrase so you don't lose your entries. It's android only though, if that matters. I only use it for shorter stuff, so I'm not sure how well it works for longer entries.

What about https://storypad.me/

Notesnook might work for you.

Jrnl on pc and sync the folder to my android and use markor there.

I have tried all the biggest name tools, but have concluded that analog pen and paper work best
Especially if you care about security much

AnyType is an interesting option.

I used to use RedNotebook[0] wayback when, but have since switched to Emacs and am therefore now an insufferable org-mode/roam user.

0: https://rednotebook.app/

if you don't mind a lil scripting, I use silverbullet quite a bit for journaling as well as note taking.

Standard Notes. You can even self host.

Check out simplenote

After reading all the comments I think that what you need is a voice recorder, make entries Star Trek style and run the audio files through a transcription tool in bulk once a month or so. Or just keep them in audio format.

@Sauron Joplin (mentioned earlier) is fantastic. I use Standard Notes. Big fan.

TrilliumNext Notes is a great one.

I'm not one for journalling but I was looking for notes and I didn't like Logseq since it was to journally for me. https://logseq.com/