journal

Journal

Fast, frictionless note-taking for daily journaling. Optimized for speed with automatic entity linking and smart formatting.

Quick Start

/journal [note content]

Examples:

/journal fixed upload bug in payment flow
/journal need to update React components for the new API
/journal learned about DNS configuration today

Core Workflow

1. Parse Entry Type (Instant)

Identify entry type from context:

• Task completion → [x] (completed work)
• New task → [ ] (todo)
• Problem/issue → 📝
• Learning/insight → 📝
• Idea → 💭
• Food/calorie log → 🍱 (also cross-post if a diet/fitness project exists — see §5)

2. Auto-Link Entities (Zero Confirmation)

Priority search order:

1. Projects: 01_Project/*.md
2. Areas: 02_Area/**/*.md
3. Resources: 03_Resource/**/*.md

Auto-link rules:

• Exact filename match (case-insensitive) → auto-link immediately
• Partial filename match → auto-link
• No match → skip (don't ask, don't link)

Never ask for confirmation. Speed is the priority.

3. Format Entry

Task completions:

[x] [Task description] - [[Auto-linked Entity]]

New tasks:

[ ] [Task description] - [[Auto-linked Entity]]

Problems/Notes:

📝 [Description] - [[Auto-linked Entity]]

Ideas:

💭 [Idea] - [[Auto-linked Entity]]

4. Add to Daily Note

Location: Periodic_notes/YYYY/<MonthName>/YYYY-MM-DD.md (or wherever the vault keeps daily notes — match the vault's structure)

Section placement:

• Work-related → ### Work: section
• Life/personal → ### Life: section
• General notes → ### Notes: section

Match the existing daily-note style. Preserve existing content. If no daily note exists, create one with a basic structure.

5. Special: Cross-Posting (Optional)

If the user maintains a topical tracking project (e.g. 01_Project/diet-project.md, 01_Project/fitness-tracker.md), cross-post relevant entries to it:

• Food/calorie logs → diet project's calorie log table
• Workout entries → fitness project
• Reading notes → reading project (if any)

Detect the relevant project by matching keywords in the entry against active project filenames. Skip if no matching project exists.

6. Optional: Create New Entity (Rare)

Only if an unlinked entity is:

• An important proper noun (a real person, a specific project name)
• Clearly note-worthy (not a generic term)

Then ask once:

"Create note for X?" Yes/No/Skip

Skip for: generic terms (bug, fix, DNS, authentication), common words, minor concepts already covered by existing notes.

Examples

Task with auto-link

User: "/journal fixed upload bug in payment flow"

Process:
1. Parse → Task completion [x]
2. Search → Found: "Payment Flow.md"
3. Auto-link → [[Payment Flow]]
4. Add → [x] Fixed upload bug in payment flow - [[Payment Flow]]

Multiple auto-links

User: "/journal need to update React components for the new API"

Process:
1. Parse → New task [ ]
2. Search → Found: "React.md" and "API.md"
3. Add → [ ] Update React components for the new API - [[React]] [[API]]

No matches (fast path)

User: "/journal learned about DNS configuration today"

Process:
1. Parse → Learning 📝
2. Search → no matches; "DNS" is generic → skip linking
3. Add → 📝 Learned about DNS configuration today

Key Principles

✅ Speed first — auto-link immediately, no confirmation ✅ Simple is better — don't over-analyze entities ✅ One question max — only ask when creating an important new entity note ✅ Skip generic terms — don't link common words ✅ Match existing daily-note style ✅ Frictionless — the goal is fast, uninterrupted journaling

Speed Targets

• Simple entry with auto-link: < 3 seconds
• Entry with new entity creation: < 10 seconds
• Entry with no links: < 2 seconds

The goal: make journaling so fast it becomes a frictionless habit.

Related Skills

• create-note — for creating new entity notes (journal calls this when needed)
• weekly-review — uses journal entries for the weekly recap
• monthly-review — uses journal entries for monthly analysis