I let generative artificial intelligence illustrate my journal entries: Here’s why I’m so intrigued

You’ve probably used generative AI to help with brainstorming, note-taking, and other creative projects. But have you thought about using it to liven up your journal entries? I was curious to see if it would work and the results were spectacular.

What did I illustrate with generative artificial intelligence?

To make it a fair experiment, I used some notes and scenarios for artificial intelligence that I tried to illustrate.

1. My goals for the next year

I’ve set some big goals for 2025 and naturally spend a lot of time visualizing. Well, that’s how I like to say “my brain wanders in countless directions”. I’ve made a significant effort to stop procrastinating and start working on my goals, but I was curious about how Adobe Firefly interpreted my goals.

Here was the challenge I gave the software:

My goals for 2025 are to achieve a high level of financial security, commit to five CrossFit workouts a week, and have the best mental health of my life by doubling down on my journaling and meditation. I also want to reach C1 speaking Danish and start winter swimming at least twice a week. In addition, I try to eat a 90% unprocessed diet and limit my intake of content even more than I already have.

Your job, if you choose to accept it, is to create an illustration that will allow me to visualize my goals. Please create an image with all of the above so I can refer to it at any time. I don’t want any text on my image.

This picture is quite stunning and fits what I was looking for – I like hiking and want to spend more time in nature next year.

I tried the same prompt in ChatGPT, but it didn’t produce exactly what I was looking for, and it also contained text (most of which was unreadable). This is despite trying to get around the fact that generative AI is notoriously bad at generating text.

2. The progress I have made in the last few months

I am a very goal-oriented person, but sometimes I lose track of my achievements. To remind myself how far I’ve come recently, I gave Adobe Firefly the following challenge:

I’ve made a lot of new friends over the past few months. I was also more consistent with my progress in the gym and cut my phone time to less than an hour a day. Additionally, I am now meditating and journaling consistently again. I am proud of these achievements and want to illustrate them. Can you picture a person writing in a journal and working towards a big goal?

Clearly, as you can see, Firefly loves the mountains as much as I do…

With this challenge, I realized the importance of being specific; the image above was part of my fourth attempt. Using a clear AI prompting formula would make things less strenuous.

3. My weekly overview

While I’m good at wrapping things up, I could have done better with my week’s rating. To solve this problem, I now allocate time in my schedule for weekly reviews, and I asked Firefly to illustrate their latest review:

I want a picture that represents my last week. This week I’ve been sticking to four workouts a week and signed up for a new business software tool to help with my travel blog. I also had success with my new weekly schedule. Can you create a picture that shows all of this?

Let’s just say that the climate where I am at the time of writing is definitely not beach weather. Still, I think this picture sums up my review pretty well…

4. My priorities

Having lots of ideas has the advantage of being wildly creative. However, it also has some disadvantages; one of them is forgetting what to focus on. So I thought it would be a good idea to let a generative AI visualize what I should focus on at this time in my life.

Here was the prompt I provided:

I should focus on: gym, business development and language learning. Create a picture using a laptop, notepad and some kettlebells.

The image I got was simple but effective…

He outlined everything I wanted to focus on with utmost simplicity, which motivates me to improve my task management and productivity.

Why I enjoyed this exercise

Even though prompting was more complicated than expected, I still really enjoyed the activity. Here are some of the main reasons.

1. I was able to visualize my personal goals better

Visualization, in my opinion, is one of the most effective ways to achieve your goals. You have to believe that you can do something, and sometimes creating an image to remind you of what you want helps.

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Most of my visions are pretty abstract and as a result it definitely helps to see something that represents them in a more organized way. I will probably revisit Firefly and upgrade these visualizations in due course.

2. The depiction of my growth became a reality

In addition to looking into the future, I also liked this experiment because it clearly showed me what I learned last time. As a result, it reminds me that greatness is bigger than I often think. This can be especially powerful for annual reviews, especially when you’ve made huge progress in certain areas.

Like visualizing my personal goals, I want to revisit these images every three months or so. This would make it easier to understand that I am making progress and continue working at the next level.

3. It helped me see weekly patterns

Another great thing I’ve noticed about the weekly reviews is that each week is different. Naturally, you will have ups and downs, and there will often be a theme that ties all of your events together.

Using AI to generate my weekly review images makes it easier for me to uncover those themes for each week. It would be fun to look back in a year or so if I continued this practice.

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AI isn’t just for bringing your ideas to life, it’s also great for illustrating your notes and journal entries. You can use your images to highlight the good times and the bad times, and thinking this way can make it easier to take the next step forward.