It is no secret that I keep a journal (it might not be very well known too, but it is private anyway). It is not a fancy hard copy journal that some talented people fill with really neat doodles and such, but rather a boring collection of Markdown-formatted text files, put into version control (a private Git repository), because of course it is.

This journal serves as a second memory storage, to look back at what happened on a certain date, as the 5-minute-journal that keeps me grounded on the important things in life, and as a place to quickly jot down some thoughts that occurred to me.

Something I still want to do, is connect it to my second brain, so I can work on the thoughts resulting from the braindump, and provide backlinks to relevant information.

As I want to keep clear daily entries, and make notes throughout the day, I quickly developed a little helper script, as a computer is good in helping with repeating tasks. My journal log files are created afresh for every new month, and have a pre-defined part and divider for every day. After that, a timestamp is entered and my favourite text editor is opened at the right place, in a distraction-free state with Goyo and Pencil.

I copied this little helper here wholesale, for fun and maybe to inspire someone:

#!/bin/bash
DATETIME=$(date +%Y%m%d\ %a\ %H:%M:%S)
MONTH=$(date +%Y%m)
DAY=$(date +%Y%m%d)
DAYOFWEEK=$(date +%u)
TIME=$(date +%H:%M)
LOGDIR="$HOME/.my/journal/"
LOGFILE="${LOGDIR}${MONTH}_journal.md"

# Dutch days of the week
DAYNL[1]='maandag'
DAYNL[2]='dinsdag'
DAYNL[3]='woensdag'
DAYNL[4]='donderdag'
DAYNL[5]='vrijdag'
DAYNL[6]='zaterdag'
DAYNL[7]='zondag'

cd "${LOGDIR}" || exit

# Convenience so scriptname can be used to do the git pushing and pulling
if [ "${1}" == "push" ]; then
    git push
    exit
elif [ "${1}" == "pull" ]; then
    git pull
    exit
fi

if [ ! -f "${LOGFILE}" ]; then
    echo "A new month has begun, starting with a fresh log"
    touch "${LOGFILE}"
    git add "${LOGFILE}"
fi

if ! grep -q "${DAY}" "${LOGFILE}"; then
    # No day heading for today found yet, create one
    {
        echo
        echo
        echo "## ${DAY} ${DAYNL[${DAYOFWEEK}]}"
        echo
        # Five minute journal
        #echo "I am grateful for"
        #echo "What would make today great?"
        #echo "Daily affirmations. I am"
        #echo
        #echo "3 amazing things that happened today"
        #echo "How could I have made today even better?"
        # Five minute journal, Dutch
        echo "Ik ben dankbaar voor"
        echo "Wat zou vandaag goed maken?"
        echo "Dagelijkse bevestiging. Ik ben"
        echo
        echo "Drie geweldige dingen die vandaag gebeurd zijn:"
        echo "1."
        echo "2."
        echo "3."
        echo
        echo "Hoe had ik vandaag beter kunnen maken?"
        echo ">"
        echo
        echo "Cogitorama:"
        echo
        echo "Food:"
        echo "Weer:"
    } >> "${LOGFILE}"
fi

echo >> "$LOGFILE"
echo -n "${TIME} " >> "${LOGFILE}"

if [ -z "$1" ]; then
    vim -c "setlocal spell spelllang=nl|set nofoldenable|Goyo|Pencil" '+ normal GA' "${LOGFILE}"
else
    echo "$@" >> "${LOGFILE}"
fi

COMMITDATETIME=$(date +%Y%m%d\ %a\ %H:%M:%S)
git commit "${LOGFILE}" -m "journal entry from $DATETIME saved at $COMMITDATETIME"