daily-journal

Daily Journal

An interactive, conversational skill for creating meaningful daily journal entries. Conversation first, data second.

Table of Contents

1. Philosophy
2. Flow Diagram
3. Time-Aware Interaction
4. The Conversation
5. Using Data as Memory Aid
6. Markdown Conventions
7. Template Structure
8. CLI Reference

Philosophy

Commits are not what matters. They're often mechanical, LLM-generated, or busywork. A journal should capture:

• What you actually focused on
• How you felt about the work
• What's still open in your mind
• The human experience of the day

Conversation first, data second. Ask the user about their day. Use collected data (git, sessions) only as a memory jogger for days when they can't remember what they did.

Context matters. Weekends are different from workdays. Mornings are different from evenings. Hobby projects are valid. Tooling optimization is valid.

Flow Diagram

flowchart TD
    Start([/daily-journal]) --> CheckTime{What time is it?}

    CheckTime -->|Morning| MorningFlow
    CheckTime -->|Afternoon/Evening| EveningFlow

    subgraph MorningFlow[Morning: Planning Mode]
        M1[Read yesterday's entry] --> M2[Show yesterday's open questions]
        M2 --> M3{Ask: What's your focus today?}
        M3 --> M4{Ask: Any carryover from yesterday?}
        M4 --> M5[Create/update today's entry with intentions]
    end

    subgraph EveningFlow[Afternoon/Evening: Reflection Mode]
        E1{Ask: What did you work on?} --> E2{Ask: How did it go?}
        E2 --> E3{Ask: What's still open?}
        E3 --> E4[Offer data as memory aid]
        E4 --> E5{Anything else to add?}
        E5 --> E6[Synthesize journal from conversation]
    end

    subgraph DataAid[Data as Memory Aid]
        D1[Run collect_day_data.py] --> D2[Show: I see activity in X...]
        D2 --> D3{Worth mentioning?}
        D3 -->|Yes| D4[User describes in their words]
        D3 -->|No| D5[Skip]
    end

    E4 --> DataAid
    DataAid --> E5

    MorningFlow --> Save
    EveningFlow --> Save

    Save[Save to Obsidian] --> End([Done])

    style MorningFlow fill:#e8f4e8
    style EveningFlow fill:#e8e8f4
    style DataAid fill:#f4f4e8