Published on Tuesday, 28 October 2025.

I've been using Sublime Text as my notes app at work for a while. I operate a "Day Note" kind of set up whereby I have a single markdown file for each work day that I fill with scratches, brain dumps, and to-do's.

These files are just markdown files kept on our shared server at work. I can access them through a browser or through any text editing software that can open files on that server.

It's boringly simple.

Often I'll need to add something quickly to my Day Note while I'm editing another file or in PowerPoint or something. For that I use a bash script I wrote.

Shut up and show me the code!

jrnl() {
  # Get today's date in YYYY-MM-DD format (e.g., 2024-10-22)
  TODAY_DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
  # Define the base directory for your scratchpad
  JRNL_DIR="$HOME/Documents/Day Notes/"
  # Construct the full path to today's journal file
  JRNL_FILE="$JRNL_DIR/$TODAY_DATE.md"
  # Ensure the directory exists (create it if it doesn't)
  mkdir -p "$JRNL_DIR"
  # Check if the file already exists to decide whether to add the H1 header
  if [ ! -f "$JRNL_FILE" ]; then
    touch "$JRNL_FILE" # Create the file if it doesn't exist
    # Add the H1 header with today's date (e.g., # Tuesday 28 October 2025)
    echo "# $(date +"%A %e %B %Y")" >> "$JRNL_FILE"
  else
    # If the file exists, just update its timestamp
    touch "$JRNL_FILE"
  fi
  # Check if a parameter was provided
  if [ -n "$1" ]; then # '-n' checks if the string is not empty
    # Get the current time for the timestamp
    CURRENT_TIME=$(date +"%H:%M") # e.g., 09:30
    # Append the parameter with the prepended timestamp to the bottom of the file
    echo "" >> "$JRNL_FILE" # Add a newline for better readability before the appended note
    echo "[$CURRENT_TIME] $1" >> "$JRNL_FILE"
    echo "Appended: \"[$CURRENT_TIME] $1\" to $JRNL_FILE" # Confirmation message
  else
    # Open the file when no parameter is given
    subl "$JRNL_FILE"
  fi
}

Usage

Stick that function in your .bashrc or .zshrc or wherever, restart your terminal with something like source ~/.bashrc and start typing the necessary incantations!

jrnl
# Create a file called 2025-10-28.md in the given folder if one doesn't exist already
# Open the file

jrnl "Contact IT about getting a licence for James"
# Create a file called 2025-10-28.md in the given folder if one doesn't exist already
# Appends the text in quotes to the end of the note

I have commented the lines so it's hopefully self explanatory. Essentially, it adds text to the end of a specified file from the terminal in an easier way than typing echo "some text" >> ~/Documents/Day Notes/2025-10-28.md every time.