Script at ~/bin/journal I use to keep a journaling practice

journal.rb

#!/usr/bin/env ruby --disable-gems

require "date"
require "fileutils"

JOURNAL_DIR = File.expand_path("~/Google Drive/writing/journal")

now = DateTime.now
date = now.strftime("%F")

entry = "#{JOURNAL_DIR}/#{date}.md"
new_entry = !File.exist?(entry)

open(entry, "a") do |f|
  if new_entry
    f << "# #{now.strftime("%A %d %B %Y %H:%M")}\n\n"
  else
    f << "\n\n"
    f << "# #{now.strftime("%H:%M")}\n\n"
  end
end

`open "#{entry}"`

The script creates text files in JOURNAL_DIR with a consistent format and name scheme. I use plain text files to ensure I will be able to read them without too much hassle in the distant feature. The text files contain a heading with the date and time and are named 2021-02-01.md, 2021-01-31.md, etc, so they are chronologically sorted in the directory. If a day has several entries I just add a heading to the existing entry. I can edit those files with any editor (in my case IA Writer) and they are automatically backed up to Google Drive (Dropbox or iCloud would work too).