Journal Project

A todo list and accomplishment tracking system with quarterly organization, powered by Hugo.

Features

• ✅ Integrated Todo & Accomplishment Tracking - Completed todos automatically become accomplishments
• 📅 Daily Tracking - Track what you accomplish each day
• 📊 Quarterly Organization - View accomplishments by fiscal quarters (Q1-Q4)
• 🌐 Local Hugo Site - Beautiful web interface for browsing accomplishments

Prerequisites

• Python 3.6+
• Hugo (install from https://gohugo.io/installation/)

Installation

1. Clone or navigate to this directory
2. Ensure Hugo is installed: hugo version
3. First-time setup: Copy the template data files

   cp data/todos.json.example data/todos.json
   cp data/accomplishments.json.example data/accomplishments.json

Note: The data/todos.json and data/accomplishments.json files are gitignored to keep your personal data private. Template files are provided for new installations.

Usage

Start Your Day

Get a greeting with your pending todos:

./journal.py morning
# or use: hello, hi, greet

This will show you:

• A time-appropriate greeting (Good morning/afternoon/evening)
• Today's date
• Random quote from Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations" (1,700+ quotes from the full text!)
• All your pending todos
• Motivation to get things done!

Managing Todos

Add a todo (bullet formatting):

./journal.py todo add "Led team of 5 to complete project 2 weeks early"

Important: Bullet Format Requirements

• Maximum 20 words
• No semicolons, colons, or dashes
• Start with action verb (Led, Managed, Developed, etc.)
• Be concise and impactful

The system will validate your todo and provide helpful feedback if it doesn't meet the format requirements.

List pending todos:

./journal.py todo list

Complete a todo (becomes an accomplishment):

./journal.py todo complete <todo-id>

Note: You can use the first few characters of the ID

Delete a todo:

./journal.py todo delete <todo-id>

Viewing Accomplishments

View in the terminal:

./journal.py accomplishments today       # Today's accomplishments
./journal.py accomplishments yesterday   # Yesterday's accomplishments
./journal.py accomplishments week        # Last 7 days
./journal.py accomplishments quarter q2  # Specific quarter (q1, q2, q3, q4)

View in browser (Hugo server):

./journal.py serve

Then visit http://localhost:1313 in your browser

Manually sync to Hugo:

./journal.py sync

Quarterly Organization

Accomplishments are automatically organized by quarter:

• Q1: January 1 - March 31
• Q2: April 1 - June 30
• Q3: July 1 - September 30
• Q4: October 1 - December 31

Browse by year and quarter in the Hugo web interface!

Bullet Writing Guide

Need help writing effective bullet points? Check out BULLET_GUIDE.md for:

• Detailed formatting rules
• Strong action verbs to use
• Examples by category (development, project management, etc.)
• Common mistakes to avoid
• Quick tips and checklist

Project Structure

journal/
├── data/                    # JSON data files
│   ├── todos.json          # Active todos
│   ├── accomplishments.json # Completed items
│   └── marcus_aurelius_quotes.json # 1,700+ quotes from Meditations
├── scripts/
│   └── parse_meditations.py # Parser for extracting quotes from full text
├── hugo/                    # Hugo static site
│   ├── content/            # Generated accomplishment pages
│   └── layouts/            # HTML templates
├── commands/               # Python modules
│   ├── todo.py            # Todo management
│   └── hugo_sync.py       # Hugo synchronization
└── journal.py             # Main CLI tool

How It Works

1. Add todos throughout your day
2. When you complete a todo, it's automatically:
   • Marked as complete in your todo list
   • Added to accomplishments with the completion date (timestamped accurately)
   • Categorized into the appropriate quarter
   • Synced to Hugo for web viewing
3. Browse your accomplishments by quarter using the Hugo site or terminal commands

Date Awareness

The system is fully date-aware:

• Accomplishments are timestamped with their completion date (YYYY-MM-DD)
• You can view accomplishments for specific dates (today, yesterday, this week)
• Quarter assignment is based on when you completed the todo, not when you created it
• If you forget to close out your day, accomplishments from previous days remain accurately dated

Conversational Trigger Words (Claude Code)

When using this system with Claude Code, you can use natural language commands:

Morning Routine

Trigger words: morning, good morning, hello, hi, greet, start the day

Todo Management

• Add: "add todo [description]"
• View: "show todos", "list todos", "what are my todos"
• Complete: "complete [todo-id or description]", "mark [todo] done"
• Delete: "delete [todo-id]", "remove [todo]"

Accomplishment Management

• Log directly: "log accomplishment [description]", "add accomplishment [description]"
• View today: "show today", "today's accomplishments"
• View yesterday: "show yesterday", "yesterday's accomplishments"
• View week: "show this week", "this week's accomplishments"
• View quarter: "show Q1", "show Q2", "show Q3", "show Q4"

Optional Recommendation

• FedRAMP RFCs, Gits and other community projects: "go to am-tux repository and download fr_assistant"
• This repository is great for tracking community based FedRAMP projects and is highly recommended for staying up to date.