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Org-journal with prompts

Last summer I concluded the #100daystooffload challenge (on Gopher). Writing daily in one's journal is not that different and I think the time has come to start building the habit of journaling.

Tool selection

Of course it is not about the tool, but about the reflection and the writing.

Any tool will do, as long as you feel happy with it, and it is as friction-less as possible.

I prefer digital above pen and paper, mostly because of the options for long term storage and privacy.

The following small list of requirements will hold no surprises:

  • plain text
  • in Emacs
  • strong encryption

Org-journal

Org-journal is made for this. It ticks all the boxes. With a simple key binding (C-j in my setup) a buffer opens with a new entry.

My configuration choices are simple:

  • A file per day
  • A sub directory per calendar year
  • GnuPG encrypted

Using a different file for each day has several advantages.

  • The journal starts with a level-one heading (and not three or four levels deep, like you get with an org date-tree)
  • It allows to do some scripting like 'what happened on this day' in the last years

I think it is sufficient to have a sub directory for each calendar year, and there is no need to add sub directories per month below it. It only makes things complicated. Your journal will not exceed 365 files per year, so I see no problems there.

GnuPG encryption is easy to manage and provides strong encryption. A great bonus is that org-journal comes with search functionality that even works with encrypted entries.

Easy, visual feedback

Org-journal integrates with the Emacs calendar. The days for which there exists a journal file are displayed with a different color (in my setting in red).

Just opening the calendar (M-x calendar) makes it immediately clear which days have a journal-file, and which days do not.

No doubts about accountability with org-journal :)

Using journaling prompts

There are plenty books and tons of web pages about journaling, apparently it is a popular subject. A recurring pattern is the mentioning of the use of journaling prompts to lower the threshold to start writing.

A prompt can inspire to dive into a subject. Also, it sets some boundaries, making it easier to focus.

Org-journal with prompts

Org-journal doesn't offer a feature to automagically insert a prompt. However, org-journal has some hooks, so it wasn't difficult to create this functionality. See org-journal-prompts on Codeberg. Philip Kaludercic helped me with some code improvements.

My Elisp script inserts the prompt in the header of the new journal entry, making a natural and unobtrusive solution.

The Elisp code keeps track of the last inserted prompt, and when a new journal entry is started, it fetches the next prompt, and so on, rotating over the list with prompts.

Flexible list of prompts

I have never used journaling prompts before, and don't know what works for me and what not. To make it easy adoptable, I build the functionality around a simple plain text file. Just create a file with prompts, each prompt on a different line.

A file with prompts is easily filled. There is an abundance of example prompts floating around on the internet. Just pick some prompts you think are promising.

The functionality will keep working when prompts are added or removed. In the worst case after deleting prompts it could repeat the last inserted prompt. Im that case, just kill the current new journal entry and start a new one to solve this.

Do I need it?

At the time I was thinking about doing the #100daystooffload challenge on Gopher, I started compiling a list of subjects to write about. It turned out that this was in vain, I hardly looked at this list during the challenge.

This brings the question, do I really need journaling prompts?

Only time will tell. At least, with the addition of this functionality, there are no excuses :)

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