"The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it" - James M. Barrie 

The art of maintaining a personal journal is a lapsing art. No doubt there are many of us who like to document our thoughts on paper but certainly not on a regular basis. Why? Our schedules don't allow us to enjoy this moment of self contemplation at the end of the day any more. Indeed it's a sad reality!

For those of us who still like to write and dabble those random thoughts, here is a useful tool on disposal - OhLife. A virtual web based journal that encourages users to type out their thoughts, it is free for use.

OhLife is one among the many startups sponsored by Y Combinator. To get started all you have to do is complete the sign up procedure to receive a confirmation email, inviting you to submit your first entry. The best thing about this web application is that it caters to the user's need to document their life's happenings in a absolutely private manner. Yes, it is an absolutely "see me" only kind of journal with a secure login password. You certainly won't find any social media sharing widgets. By no means the same as writing on paper, it still preserving the art of writing in a subtle manner for which it must be appreciated.

On the other hand, for those of you who must need constant reminders about important events, be business related or of a personal kind, OhLife is the tool for you. Once you start with the journal submissions, they send you prompt mails each day to add a new entry with a "past" write-up for reflection. Moreover all your writings are well archived for future reference. You can also schedule to receive email reminders by having your own settings. In addition, users can also add photos and opt for video journals as well.

The website is simple and clean to the core, be it design-wise or functionality. The creator duo - Reman Child and Shawn Gupta share the positive response they have received so far. "They report that 50% of users who complete their first entry have continued to add an entry at least once every other day". 

Having gone through UC Berkley and bitten by the startup bug, these gentlemen initially had a tough ride with their two ventures - ididwork.com and Meeting Mix. OhLife is their third initiative together. Their motivation came as they "learned how difficult it can be to get users to adopt new behaviors. But everyone already uses e-mail, and the pair eventually hit on the idea of using it to help would-be journalers jumpstart their daily writing practice."

With almost no social media exposure, the website has thrived entirely on its word-of-mouth mechanism.The very private nature of the service makes it an almost anti-phenomena to blogging. It's more about capturing the self rather than proselytizing one's life trajectory. Critics have raised doubts about their success if the website remains so closetted. However, people continue to use it and instead tweet and have testified it on Facebook groups as a viable tool.

The company still doesn't have a very tight monetization plan in place except its targeted ads that come with the prompt-emails sent to users.

In a nutshell, it is a great self preservation tool. Joan Didion has opined "The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself. I suppose that it begins or does not begin in the cradle."

So get set to record all those important parts of your life in words. Leave us a reply below if you liked the concept.

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