Time tracking bash function

now() {
        file="$HOME/.now"
        if [ ! -f $file ]; then
                touch $file
        fi
        if [[ -z $@ ]]; then
                today="$(date "+%Y-%m-%d")"
                grep --color=never $today $file | cut -d' ' -f2-
        else
                stamp="$(date "+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")"
                echo $stamp - "$@" >> $file
        fi
}