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+ 19/06 — 2023 +

+ + 138.66 + + cm + + + 8.9 + + min +

+ Plain Text Journaling +

I cobbled together a journaling system with {neo,}vim, coreutils and +dateutils. This system is +loosely based on Ryder +Caroll’s Bullet Journal method.

The format

The journal for a given year is a directory:

λ ls journal/
+2022/   2023/

In each directory are 12 files, one for each month of the year, +numbered like so:

λ ls journal/2023/
+01  02  03  04  05  06  07  08  09  10  11  12

We can now begin writing stuff down:

λ vim journal/2023/1

Every month must start with a calendar of course, fill that in +with:

:read !cal -m

Your entry for January might look like this:

λ cat journal/2023/01
+    January 2023
+Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
+                   1
+ 2  3  4  5  6  7  8
+ 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
+16 17 18 19 20 21 22
+23 24 25 26 27 28 29
+30 31

I prefer planning week by week, as opposed to creating a task-list +every day, here’s what I have for the first couple of weeks:

    January 2023
+Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
+                   1
+ 2  3  4  5  6  7  8
+ 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
+16 17 18 19 20 21 22
+23 24 25 26 27 28 29
+30 31
+
+
+week 1
+
+done apply leaves
+done dload boarding pass
+moved reply to dan
+
+
+week 2
+
+todo reply to dan
+todo pack bags
+done travel insurance
+todo weigh luggage

I start the week by writing a header and each item that week is +placed on its own line. The items are prefixed with a todo +or a done signifier.

Form over function

Right off the bat, the signifiers look very noisy, Even more so once +we start introducing variety (I use “event”, “note” and “moved”):

week 1
+
+todo apply leaves
+done dload boarding pass
+todo reply to dan
+event fr trip
+note weight 68.6

We can clean this up with “abbreviations” +(:h abbreviations):

:iabbrev todo ·
+:iabbrev done ×

Now, typing this:

todo apply leaves

Automatically inserts:

· apply leaves

You can use x and o as well, but +× (U+00D7, MULTIPLICATION SIGN) and · (U+00B7, +MIDDLE DOT) are more … gourmet.

The other signifiers I use are:

- for note
o for event
> for moved.

Nit #2 is the lack of order. We can employ vim to introduce grouping +and sorting. Select the list of entries for this week:

vip         " line-wise select inner paragraph
+:'<,'>sort  " the markers '< and '> are automatically inserted,
+            " they mark the start and end of the selection

We end up with:

week 1
+
+· apply leaves
+· reply to dan
+× dload boarding pass

The lines are grouped by their signifiers, segregating todo items +from completed items. Luckily, MIDDLE DOT is lesser than MULTIPLICATION +SIGN, so todo items are placed at the top. The same goes for +o and x symbols, either set of signifiers will +result in the same sorting order.

We can shorten this select-paragraph-invoke-sort dance by setting the +formatprg variable:

:set formatprg=sort\ -V

Now, hitting gqip should automatically group and sort +the items for the week under the cursor, moving todo items to the top. +Finding signifier glyphs that suit your sorting preference is a fun +exercise.

Syntax highlighting

Adding color to items introduces another layer of visual distinction. +In truth, I like to deck it out just because.

First, create a few syntax groups:

:syntax match JournalAll /.*/        " captures the entire buffer
+:syntax match JournalDone /^×.*/     " lines containing 'done'  items: ×
+:syntax match JournalTodo /^·.*/     " lines containing 'todo'  items: ·
+:syntax match JournalEvent /^o.*/    " lines containing 'event' items: o
+:syntax match JournalNote /^- .*/    " lines containing 'note'  items: -
+:syntax match JournalMoved /^>.*/    " lines containing 'moved' items: >

Add highlights to each group:

:highlight JournalAll    ctermfg=12   " bright black
+:highlight JournalDone   ctermfg=12   " bright black
+:highlight JournalEvent  ctermfg=6    " cyan
+:highlight JournalMoved  ctermfg=5    " magenta
+:highlight JournalNote   ctermfg=3    " yellow

In my terminal, this is rendered like so:

Habit tracking

While this is not a part of my journaling system anymore, a few +headers and an awk script is all it takes to track habits. My weekly +entries would include a couple of habit headers like so:

week 1 --------------
+
+× wake up on time
+× water the plants
+
+spend 7.5 7 10
+---------------------
+
+
+week 2 --------------
+
+· make the bed
+· go to bed
+
+spend 30 2.75 6
+---------------------

Here, under the spend header in week 1, are a list of +expenditures accumulated over the week. The monthly spend is calculated +with this awk script:

BEGIN {spend=0;}
+/spend/ {for(i=1;i<=$NF;i++) spend+=$i;}
+END { printf spend "eur"}

And invoked like so:

λ awk -f spend.awk journal/2023/01
+63.25eur

Reflection

Journaling is not just about planning what is to come, but also +reflecting on what has passed. It would make sense to simultaneously +look at the past few weeks’ entries while making your current one. To +open multiple months of entries at the same time:

λ vim -O journal/2023/0{1,2,3}

Opens 3 months, side-by-side, in vertical splits:

JANUARY ------------  │  FEBRUARY -----------  │  MARCH --------------
+                      │                        │
+Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su  │  Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su  │  Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
+                   1  │         1  2  3  4  5  │         1  2  3  4  5
+ 2  3  4  5  6  7  8  │   6  7  8  9 10 11 12  │   6  7  8  9 10 11 12
+ 9 10 11 12 13 14 15  │  13 14 15 16 17 18 19  │  13 14 15 16 17 18 19
+16 17 18 19 20 21 22  │  20 21 22 23 24 25 26  │  20 21 22 23 24 25 26
+23 24 25 26 27 28 29  │  27 28                 │  27 28 29 30 31
+30 31                 │                        │
+                      │                        │
+                      │                        │
+WEEK 1 -------------  │  WEEK 1 -------------  │  WEEK 1 -------------
+                      │                        │
+> latex setup         │  > forex               │  - weight: 64
+× make the bed        │  × clean shoes         │  > close sg-pr
+× 03: dentist         │  × buy clothes         │  × facewash
+× integrate tsg       │  × draw                │  × groceries
+                      │                        │
+                      │                        │
+WEEK 2 -------------  │  WEEK 2 -------------  │  WEEK 2 -------------
+                      │                        │
+× latex setup         │  - viral fever         │  > close sg-pr
+× send invoice        │  × forex               │  × plan meet
+× stack-graph pr      │  × activate sim        │  × sg storage
+                      │  × bitlbee             │

Reducing friction

Journaling already requires a solid amount of discipline and +consistency. The added friction of typing +vim journal/$CURRENT_YEAR/$CURRENT_MONTH each time is doing +no favors.

To open the current month based on system time:

λ vim $(date +"%Y/%m")

To open all the months within a 2 month window of today, is a little +trickier. The command we wish to generate is (if today is 2023/12):

λ vim -O 2023/10 2023/11 2023/12 2024/01 2024/02

And that is where dateseq from dateutils comes in handy, for +example:

λ dateseq 2012-02-01 2012-03-01
+2012-02-01
+2012-02-02
+2012-02-03
+...
+2012-02-28
+2012-02-29
+2012-03-01

This script opens all months within a 2 month window of today:

λ vim -O $(
+  dateseq \
+      "$(date --date "2 months ago" +%Y/%m)" \
+      "$(date --date "2 months" +%Y/%m)" \
+      -i %Y/%m \
+      -f %Y/%m
+)

Fin

You can find a sample vimrc file here: cli/journal, along with +a nix flake file to kick things off.

Plain text journaling can be just as much fun as a pen and paper. +Throw in some ASCII art for each month, use swankier signifiers, or +louder syntax highlighting. Don’t expect forgiveness from org-mode users +though.

+ +

+ Hi. +

+ Subscribe +

I'm Akshay, programmer and pixel-artist.

+ I write open-source stuff to pass time. + I also design fonts: + scientifica, + curie. +

Send me a mail at nerdy@peppe.rs or a message at nerdypepper@irc.rizon.net.

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