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Why Every Journal I Make Is Digital
Privacy was the constraint I designed inside, not a feature I added later.
By Simone Pleifer · September 2026 · 6 min read
Founder of Journals by Simone. MSc in Nutritional Sciences. Over 14 years in clinical research in the pharmaceutical industry. Developer of the four-step method behind the Emotional Clarity Journey, written for people carrying secret love, situationships and unspoken feelings.
Every journal in this shop was built as a digital product from the first page, and privacy is the reason. A journal for feelings you have not said out loud should not need a hiding place, an explanation, or a parcel at your door. Here is the decision behind that, what it cost, and how you still write by hand.
There is a version of this brand that would have been easier to sell. Beautiful bound books, a photograph of one lying open on a linen bedspread, the smell of new paper as part of the pitch. People love that object, and so do I.
I did not build that, and the reason is not a strategy I arrived at later. It came from the situation the journals were written for.
Why is every journal here digital?
I started Journals by Simone during a time of secret love, and I know that question from the inside. Before you write a single honest line, you are already solving a logistics problem: which drawer it goes in, what happens if the wrong person opens it, and whether the cover looks innocent enough from across the room.
So privacy was not a feature I added to a finished product. It was the constraint I designed inside from the beginning, and going digital was what that constraint asked for. Nothing arrives at your door, nothing sits on a shelf, and the file lives behind the passcode you already use forty times a day.
Is a file really more private than a notebook?
There is no account to create, no app to install and no Journals by Simone server holding your entries. What you buy is a PDF that lands in your inbox and then belongs to your device. You can open it in GoodNotes, in Notability, or in whatever reader is already on your phone. The Emotional Clarity Calendar runs in your browser and stores nothing you write into it.
The comparison that matters is not file against notebook in the abstract. It is this file against a physical object in a home you share with other people. A notebook needs a place that only one person ever opens, and most homes do not have one. If the practical side of that is what you are working out right now, I wrote about it in detail in how to keep a journal nobody can find.
What I gave up to keep it this way
It also photographs badly next to a linen bedspread, which is a real disadvantage in a business where most discovery happens on Instagram. And it asks something of you at the start, because you have to decide where the file goes and which device is genuinely yours, instead of simply holding an object.
What I kept in exchange is the part that decides whether the journal works at all. A cover nobody sees is a fair price for a page you can be completely honest on.
| The decision | What it costs | What it keeps |
|---|---|---|
| No bound object | Nothing to unwrap, nothing on a shelf | Nothing that needs a hiding place or an explanation |
| Delivered as a file | You choose the device and the folder yourself | It arrives minutes after checkout, anywhere in the world |
| Printing happens at home | You use your own paper and printer | You print one page or all of them, and you decide what stays |
| No account, no app | No synced library across your devices | No login, no stored entries, nothing tied to your name |
Can I still write by hand?
Writing with a stylus in GoodNotes or Notability is handwriting in every sense that matters. When Pennebaker and Beall ran the founding study on expressive writing in 1986, the finding was about what people wrote, not what they wrote on. Only the group that wrote about the event together with the feelings attached to it saw a measurable difference over the following months.
Printing single pages has one advantage a bound book cannot offer. A page you fill by hand can afterwards be kept, filed, or destroyed, and that choice is yours page by page. A bound book keeps everything, including the entries you would not want anyone to read, and including the ones you would not want to read again yourself.
"A cover nobody sees is a fair price for a page you can be completely honest on."
Simone Pleifer · Journals by Simone
What digital made possible that print never did
It keeps the work where it belongs as well. There is no stock to hold and nothing to pack, so my time goes into the prompts and the research behind them rather than into logistics. When a structure turns out to be sharper in the second version, I can revise it.
Printed editions of the Love in Secrecy journals are not available at the moment. The digital editions are the complete product, the same ninety days and the same pages, and they are the format I would point you to either way.
Frequently asked questions
Why are the journals digital and not printed?
Privacy decided the format. A guided journal for feelings you have not said out loud is only useful if you can write honestly in it, and an object in a shared home cannot promise that. The digital edition arrives as a download and lives behind the passcode you already use.
Do I need an app or an account?
No. Every journal is a PDF delivered to your email after checkout. It opens in GoodNotes, Notability, or any reader already on your device. There is nothing to install, no account to create, and no entry of yours is stored by Journals by Simone.
Can I print a digital journal at home?
Yes. Every journal is laid out to print cleanly in A5 or A4, as a complete edition or one page at a time. Printing single pages has an advantage a bound book does not: once a page is written, you decide whether it stays or goes.
Is writing by hand better than typing?
The research compares handwriting with typing, not paper with screens, and in the best known study the handwriting was done with a digital pen on a screen. Writing with a stylus in GoodNotes is the same setup. What matters more is what you write.
Are printed editions coming back?
Printed editions are not available at the moment. The digital editions are the complete product, with the same ninety days and the same pages, and every one of them is built to print at home if you want paper under your hands.
Where to start
- The first 7 days of the Emotional Clarity Calendar, free, the shortest first step, one structured prompt and one short grounding ritual per day.
- What If 7-Day Journal, one focused week on a single question, nine euros, downloads in minutes.
- Emotional Clarity Calendar, thirty days with one prompt and one small practice a day.
- What emotional clarity journaling is, the four steps behind every prompt, if you want the method first.
The decision behind all of it stays the same one I made at the start. Somebody carrying a feeling that has no public name should not have to organise a hiding place before they are allowed to write about it. Take the object away, and what is left is the writing, on the evening you decide to begin.
Sources
- Pennebaker, J.W. and Beall, S.K. (1986). Confronting a traumatic event: Toward an understanding of inhibition and disease. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95(3), 274–281. doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.95.3.274 (PubMed 3745650, verified 6 September 2026)
Simone Pleifer, MSc
Simone Pleifer, MSc, is the founder of Journals by Simone and the creator of the Emotional Clarity Journey system. She holds an MSc in Nutritional Science and has 14 years of experience in pharmaceutical clinical research. Her work bridges scientific rigour and emotional depth for people navigating secret love, situationships, and unspoken feelings. She is currently developing a supplement line to complement the ECJ system.
About Simone