Insights

For /monthly -- read all journal entries from the current calendar month (1st-last day). If today is the 1st-3rd, default to the previous month. The user can specify "this month" to override.

Journal entries are in: [VAULT_PATH]/Journals/

CRITICAL: How to find entries by date

DO NOT grep thousands of files. Use the journal index instead.

Step 0: Load the journal index

Read [VAULT_PATH]/Meta/journal-index.json. Structure: {"total": N, "last_updated": "YYYY-MM-DD", "entries": [{file, date, floor, floor_level}, ...]}. Access entries via idx["entries"], then filter by entry["date"].

If the index doesn't exist or is more than 7 days old, rebuild it first:

/usr/bin/python3 "[VAULT_PATH]/Meta/scripts/build-journal-index.py"

Step 1: Filter entries by date range

From idx["entries"], filter where entry["date"] starts with the target YYYY-MM (monthly) or falls within the target Mon-Sun range (weekly).

Floor counting: Some entries tag multiple floors (stored as a list, e.g. [Courage, Fear, Love]). When computing floor distribution, EXPAND multi-floor entries: if an entry tags 3 floors, count +1 for each. Do NOT count the list as a single item. Verify by running a Python script against the index rather than hand-counting.

Step 2: Read ONLY the matching files

Read the full content of each matching file. Do NOT read files outside the date range. With the index, you're reading 5-15 files instead of searching the entire vault.

Step 2b: Pull RescueTime + session time data (if available)

If the RescueTime MCP is connected: Try calling mcp__rescuetime__get_daily_summary for each day. If the MCP is disconnected or returns errors, note "RescueTime unavailable for this period" in the report and skip all RescueTime-dependent sections. Do NOT silently omit. For weekly, also call mcp__rescuetime__get_productivity_trend with days: 7.

If a Time Tracking file exists (check CLAUDE.md for the path, typically ⚙️ Meta/Time Tracking.md): Read it and filter entries for the period. This shows what categories were worked on during Claude Code sessions (Writing, Business, Vault, Personal, Admin). Merge with RescueTime app data for a combined picture: RescueTime shows which apps were used, session logs show what purpose they served.

Add to the report if data is available:

• Average daily Productivity Pulse for the period
• Total productive vs. distracting hours
• Top 3 apps by time
• Session time breakdown by category
• Notable gaps or mismatches (e.g., "12h in Obsidian but only 3h tagged as Writing in sessions")

Step 2c: Data availability check

Before writing the report, check which data sources exist for the target period:

• Time Tracking file: does it have entries for this month?
• Deep Work Chain: does it have entries for this month?
• Decisions folder: do any decision files fall in this period?
• Skill usage log: any entries for this period?
• RescueTime MCP: is it connected?

If a data source has no entries for the period, skip that section silently. If 3+ data sources are missing, add a one-line note at the top: "Note: some tracking systems started after this period. Sections that depend on them are omitted."

Report Structure

1. The week/month at a glance

• How many entries (and any gaps, gaps often mean good stretches)
• Floor distribution: how many entries on each floor, primary floor for the period
• Floor trend: up, down, or stable vs. previous period
• Habit tracking summary: gym count, average bedtime, scroll incidents
• Time allocation (if RescueTime or Time Tracking data available): where hours actually went vs. where priorities say they should go

1b. Floor-Topic Correlations

Compute a matrix: for each floor that appeared 3+ times this period, count how many entries co-occur with each topic cluster. Use keyword matching against entry content. Define 5-7 topic clusters relevant to the user's life (e.g., work, writing, money, relationships, health, spiritual, social). Present as a table (floor rows x topic columns). Then write 3-4 bullet points naming the strongest correlations: "Money correlates with Fear (7) and barely with Peace (2). When you think about money, you're on the worried floors."

Only report what the data shows. Do not interpret beyond the numbers.

2. What stood out

• 2-3 most significant moments, themes, or shifts
• Recurring people, topics, or triggers
• What they said they'd do vs. what actually happened

3. Patterns a life coach would flag

Be direct. Coach energy. Specific references to entries:

• "You mentioned [person] three times and each time your floor dropped. That's data."
• "You set a gym goal of 4x. You hit 2. Two weeks in a row. What's actually in the way?"
• "You had three great days then stopped journaling. The good streak disappeared because you didn't document it."
• "You're spending mental energy on [thing] that isn't in your current priorities. Add it or let it go."

4. Patterns a therapist would explore

Gentler. Curious. Not prescriptive:

• "There's a thread of [emotion] running through several entries you haven't named directly."
• "You mentioned [person/situation] casually but it appeared in 4 out of 7 entries. More space than you realize."
• "The gap between what you say you want and what you're doing about it showed up again. Not failure, information."
• "Your highest-floor entry was [entry]. What was different about that day?"

5. Panel thoughts on the week/month

Select 3-5 advisors most relevant to what came up. 1-2 sentences each, in character. Challenge assumptions, don't just validate.

Use the full advisory panel. Each advisor has a distinct voice, match it when they speak.

Wealth & Strategy -- for money, business models, leverage, risk, and building wealth:

• Naval Ravikant -- leverage through code and media, wealth vs. status games, specific knowledge. Speaks in compressed, philosophical one-liners.
• Warren Buffett -- patience, compounding, circle of competence, margin of safety. Folksy midwestern wisdom, says "no" to almost everything.
• Ray Dalio -- radical transparency, principles-based decisions, pain + reflection = progress. Systematic, almost clinical.
• Alex Hormozi -- offers, value equations, volume over perfection, "do the boring work." Blunt, high-energy, zero fluff.
• Steven Wheelwright -- operations strategy, focused factories, process-product alignment. Academic but practical.
• Luis Carlos Velez -- Colombian media/business perspective, directness, entrepreneurship in LatAm. Provocative, no sugarcoating.
• Kim Borrero -- Colombian venture/startup ecosystem, founder-investor dynamics in emerging markets. Strategic and connected.
• David Moreno -- Colombian tech entrepreneurship, Rappi-era thinking, scaling in LatAm. Builder mindset.
• Marc Andreessen -- software eating the world, techno-optimism, building in uncertain markets. Bold, contrarian.
• Stephen Schwarzman -- scale, deal-making, "go big or go home," institutional relationship-building. Corporate gravitas.
• Howard Marks -- second-level thinking, risk vs. uncertainty, market cycles. Thoughtful, memo-style reasoning.
• Sam Zell -- contrarian real estate, finding value where others see risk, "dance on the grave." Irreverent, street-smart.
• Robert Kiyosaki -- cash flow over salary, assets vs. liabilities, financial literacy gaps. Repetitive but motivating.
• Ken Griffin -- high-performance culture, precision, competing at the highest level. Intense, data-driven.
• Luis Carlos Sarmiento -- Colombian business dynasty, long-term positioning, banking and infrastructure. Old-school power, quiet strategy.

Leadership -- for managing people, making decisions, and growing as a leader:

• Sheryl Sandberg -- leaning in, resilience after loss, navigating power as a woman. Polished, direct, empathetic.
• Keith Rabois -- operator mentality, barrels vs. ammunition, editing not writing. Sharp, impatient with mediocrity.
• Patrick Collison -- craft, speed, taste, building for decades. Quietly intense, bookish, precise.
• Reid Hoffman -- blitzscaling, alliance-building, permanent beta. Strategic networker, thinks in systems.
• Adam Grant -- givers vs. takers, originals, rethinking. Evidence-based, generous, occasionally contrarian.
• Tony Robbins -- state management, peak performance, massive action. Big energy, sometimes too much, but moves people.
• Richard Branson -- adventure, brand-as-personality, "screw it let's do it." Dyslexic entrepreneur who proved them wrong.

Gatherings -- for how people come together, events, and creating belonging:

• Priya Parker -- purposeful gathering, generous authority, "who not how many." Reframes every event as a choice about what matters.

Psychology -- for inner work, patterns, emotional processing, and growth:

• Brene Brown -- vulnerability as courage, shame resilience, wholehearted living. Warm, research-backed, Texan-direct.
• Robert Greene -- power dynamics, mastery through patience, human nature. Strategic, historical, slightly dark.
• Debbie Ford -- shadow work, owning every part of yourself, "the dark side of the light chasers." Compassionate but unflinching.
• Gabor Mate -- trauma-informed everything, addiction as coping, the body keeps the score. Gentle, wise, occasionally devastating.
• Martin Seligman -- learned optimism, character strengths, positive psychology. Academic but practical.
• Jungian analyst voice -- archetypes, individuation, shadow integration, the unconscious speaking through patterns. Symbolic, deep.
• CBT voice -- cognitive distortions, thought records, behavioral activation. Structured, here's-what-to-do practical.
• Existential therapist voice -- meaning-making, freedom and responsibility, confronting mortality. Sits with the big questions.
• Inner child voice -- the wounded young self that drives adult reactions. Tender, protective, needs to be heard.
• Esther Perel (as therapist) -- dual-trained: relationships AND internal identity. Sees the erotic and the domestic, the self and the other.
• Lori Gottlieb -- "maybe you should talk to someone," blind spots, the stories we tell ourselves. Warm, witty, doesn't let you off the hook.

Relationships -- for love, dating, attachment, conflict, and connection:

• Esther Perel -- desire vs. security, erotic intelligence, the space between. European sophistication, accent and all.
• Stan Tatkin -- attachment science, PACT method, "your partner is not your enemy." Neuroscience-grounded, practical for couples.
• John & Julie Gottman -- the four horsemen, bids for connection, repair attempts. Decades of research, warmly clinical.
• Terry Real -- relational life therapy, "us consciousness," confronting grandiosity and shame. Direct, breaks the therapy rules.
• Sue Johnson -- emotionally focused therapy, attachment bonds, "hold me tight." Tender, sees the panic beneath the anger.
• Andrew Solomon -- far from the tree, radical acceptance of difference, love as expansion. Literary, deeply humane.
• Alain de Botton -- philosophy of everyday love, why we choose who we choose, romantic realism. Elegant, melancholy, wise.
• Matthew Hussey -- dating strategy, high-value behavior, confidence in pursuit. Practical, action-oriented, especially for women.
• William Ury -- getting to yes with yourself, negotiation as self-awareness, the "balcony." Calm, principled, sees the third way.
• Jay & Radhi Shetty -- purpose-driven relationships, monk mindset meets modern love. Spiritual but grounded.

Health -- for body, sleep, hormones, movement, and longevity:

• Peter Attia -- longevity, zone 2 cardio, metabolic health, "live longer and better." Medical precision, engineer's mind.
• Stacy Sims -- women's exercise physiology, "women are not small men," hormone-aware training. Evidence-based, fierce advocate.
• Lara Briden -- women's hormonal health, period repair, post-pill recovery. Naturopathic but scientifically rigorous.
• Chris Winter -- sleep science, circadian rhythms, "the sleep solution." Practical, demystifies insomnia.
• Alyssa Braddock -- sports nutrition, fueling performance, body composition without obsession. Balanced, athlete-focused.
• Rhonda Patrick -- micronutrients, sauna science, genetic optimization. Deep-dives that change behavior.
• Peter Levine -- somatic experiencing, trauma lives in the body, completing the stress cycle. Gentle, body-first.
• Bessel van der Kolk -- "the body keeps the score," trauma rewires the brain, movement and EMDR. Foundational, paradigm-shifting.

Wisdom -- for meaning, perspective, and the bigger picture:

• Thich Nhat Hanh -- mindfulness, interbeing, washing dishes to wash dishes. Gentle, present, profoundly simple.
• Marcus Aurelius -- stoic emperor, memento mori, control what you can. Journaled his own struggles two thousand years ago.
• Yuval Noah Harari -- sapiens-level perspective, stories that bind societies, what makes us human. Zooms way out.
• Mo Gawdat -- happiness as an equation, grief as teacher (lost his son), engineering joy. Optimistic despite everything.
• Jane Goodall -- patience, observation, hope as action, respecting other beings. Quiet moral authority.
• Charles Eisenstein -- the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible, gift economy, interbeing. Radical tenderness.
• Robin Wall Kimmerer -- braiding sweetgrass, indigenous wisdom meets science, reciprocity with the earth. Poetic, grounding.
• Maya Angelou -- "when people show you who they are, believe them," rising, courage, dignity. Voice of earned wisdom.
• Oprah Winfrey -- "what I know for sure," turning pain into purpose, living your best life. Earned every word of it.

Creativity -- for making things, creative blocks, and artistic practice:

• Rick Rubin -- the creative act, removing yourself from the work, nature as source. Zen-like, minimal, listens more than speaks.
• Elizabeth Gilbert -- big magic, creative courage, curiosity over passion. Warm, funny, demystifies the creative life.
• Twyla Tharp -- the creative habit, showing up is the work, scratch and routine. Disciplined, no-nonsense choreographer energy.

5b. First-principles audit

Scan [VAULT_PATH]/Meta/Decisions/ for any decisions logged this period with stakes: high. Check whether they have deconstruct: true in their YAML frontmatter.

• If any high-stakes decisions were made WITHOUT a deconstruct pass, flag them:

  "You made [X] high-stakes decision(s) this week without running a first-principles check: [decision name(s)]. Not every decision needs one, but if any of these feel like you followed a playbook instead of thinking it through, it's not too late to run /deconstruct on them."

• If ALL high-stakes decisions were deconstructed, note it as a win.
• If there were no high-stakes decisions this period, skip this section silently.

This is the accountability loop for first-principles thinking. The deconstruct skill catches decisions in real time. This catches the ones that slipped through.

5b2. Decision retrospective

Scan [VAULT_PATH]/Meta/Decisions/ for active decision files (those NOT in the Archive/ subfolder). For each one:

1. Check if enough time has passed to evaluate the outcome. Use the speed field as a guide: if speed: Instant or speed: Hours, it's ready for retrospective within a week. If speed: Days, wait 2-4 weeks. If speed: Weeks, wait 1-3 months.
2. If ready: prompt the user to fill in Outcome (what actually happened) and Pattern (what this reveals about how they decide). Don't fill these in yourself; ask the user. The learning only works if they articulate it.
3. If Outcome AND Pattern are both filled in: move the file to [VAULT_PATH]/Meta/Decisions/Archive/. The decision is complete; it has taught what it can teach.
4. Surface any patterns across decisions: "You've made 3 decisions from a tired/anxious state this month, and 2 of them had worse outcomes than expected." Or: "Every time you decided quickly on hiring, the outcome was positive. Your instinct here is reliable."

If there are no active decisions to review, skip this section silently.

5c. Skill usage snapshot (if data exists)

Check if [VAULT_PATH]/Meta/skill-usage-log.jsonl exists and has entries for the period. If it does, include a brief summary:

• Which skills were used most this week/month
• Any skills that haven't been used at all (might indicate forgotten capabilities)
• Any usage spikes (e.g. "you ran /graphify 8 times this week, up from 2 last week")

Keep this to 2-3 sentences. If the log file doesn't exist or is empty, skip this section silently.

5d. Obsidian ecosystem check (monthly only, skip for /weekly)

Once a month, scan the Obsidian community plugin registry (github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-releases, specifically community-plugins.json) for:

• New AI, knowledge-graph, or automation plugins relevant to your setup
• Updates to plugins you use (Smart Connections, Local REST API)
• Community patterns or architecture ideas worth adopting

Keep to 2-3 sentences: what's new, whether any of it is worth installing or investigating. If nothing relevant, skip silently.

6. Wins to celebrate

Things that went well that might get overlooked. Good days matter MORE to document than bad ones.

7. One question to sit with

End with ONE question. Not homework. Not an action item. A question worth thinking about based on what the data showed. Make it specific to THEIR week, not a fortune cookie.

Save the Report

Journals are organized by month folder. Save reports INSIDE the appropriate month folder, not in a separate subfolder.

• Weekly: [VAULT_PATH]/Journals/{Month YYYY}/Mon. D-D, YYYY Weekly.md
  • Month folder is determined by the END date of the week.
  • Example: Journals/April 2026/Apr. 7-13, 2026 Weekly.md
  • If the week spans two months (e.g. Mar. 31–Apr. 6), use the month of the end date: Journals/April 2026/Mar. 31-Apr. 6, 2026 Weekly.md
  • Use 3-letter month abbreviation with period in the filename.
• Monthly: [VAULT_PATH]/Journals/{Month YYYY}/Mon. YYYY Monthly.md
  • Example: Journals/April 2026/Apr. 2026 Monthly.md

The month folder will already exist if journals are organized (run scripts/organize-journals.py to set that up). Create it if it doesn't exist.

Format:

---
creationDate: [today]