The Threads That Wove Daily Inventory

DailyInventory has drawn from a variety of psychological, spiritual, and religious sources and woven proven pieces from those practices into a ten-minute routine you can complete on your phone.

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Ignatian Examen (16th c.) Jesuit founder St. Ignatius created a five-step review—presence, gratitude, replay, insight, and intention—into a prayer a person could complete in a few quiet minutes. The structure endures because it brings the days into focus and invites positive action: “What happened, how did I respond, and what’s my very next step?” Daily Inventory builds on a foundation of Ignatian Examen. Jesuits.org

AA’s Tenth Step (1939) 400-and-some-odd years later, in Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill Wilson wrote the 12 Steps of AA, Step 10 being a “personal inventory” to spot resentments before they snowball, and to notice when we’re wrong and “promptly admit” new mistakes. The idea of making a habit a daily self-assessment was by inspired by the Tenth Step. aa.org

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (1970s → present) In simple terms, CBT says: notice what happened, notice the story you told yourself, and check if that story is true. This often cools strong emotions and points to a next small step. CBT is one of the most studied tools in psychology, and influences the prompts in DailyInventory.

Positive-Psychology Gratitude Work (1990s → present) For many years, psychology primarily studied mental health problems. Positive psychology changes the focus to well-being, strengths, and meaning. In this field, gratitude practices have especially strong evidence that gratitude interventions improve mental health in addition to reducing anxiety and depression symptoms. DailyInventory builds on this and includes gratitude in each inventory.

Behavior Design At Stanford University’s Behavior Design Lab, BJ Fogg developed a Behavior Model that shows when Motivation, Ability, and a Prompt converge, behavior happens. Designing change means shrinking behaviors until they’re easy and reliably prompted. DailyInventory’s brief sessions and simple prompts apply this: small, repeatable actions triggered by a clear prompts make for an easy-to-keep habit.

How they tie together Each source provides a different thread: Examen creates order, AA’s Step Ten brings honesty, CBT supplies cognitive precision, and gratitude research supplies affective lift. Wrapping them in an easy-to-build habit keeps the whole package usable for the long term.

The result is a nightly ritual that is small enough to finish and deep enough to matter.