jrnl

Command line time tracking and journaling utility

Overview

jrnl is a set of bash utilities used to record and query time spent on activities.

There are currently three utilities:

• jrnl: records the time spent on an activity,
• jrnl_proj: queries time spent on a specific activity,
• jrnl_date: queries which activities were worked on during a specific day.

jrnl

jrnl records the time you spent on a specific activity. It allows recording of activity or work item numbers, project codes, a description on the activity, and the time spent (in hours).

Each time the utility is run, a new entry is added to a plain text file called journal.txt.

Multiple project codes and activity numbers can be specified for each entry.

Project codes and activity numbers (work items) are alphanumeric and do not have a fixed length.

Usage:

> ./jrnl project_code work_item "brief description" hours

Example:

> ./jrnl 001 jrnl_time_tracking "Wrote README.md for jrnl utilities" 0.5

In this example, a project code of 001 is specified. The work item is jrnl_time_tracking, and the time spent is 0.5 hours.

Example:

> ./jrnl 8472/74656 98765 "Added annotations to map" 1.5

In this example, the work item 98765 belongs to two different project codes, 8472 and 74656. The time spent on this activity was 1.5 hours.

jrnl_proj

jrnl_proj queries the journal.txt file and returns the time spent on the specified activity or project.

The query is not case sensitive.

Usage:

> ./jrnl_proj number

Example:

> ./jrnl_proj jrnl_time_tracking

2021-06-27: test note
Total hours:0.5

This query returns the date and total time spent on the jrnl_time_tracking activity.

Example:

> ./jrnl_proj 8572

2021-06-28: Investigated error in navigation algorithm
2021-06-29: Started work on correcting error in navigation algorithm
2021-06-30: Completed correction to fix error in navigation algorithm
2021-07-01: Added annotations to map
Total hours:16.5

This query returns the dates and total time spent on project 8472.

jrnl_date

jrnl_date displays the activies worked on during the specified date. If no date is specified, it returns the activies worked on today.

Usage:

> ./jrnl_date [YYYY-MM-DD]

Example:

> ./jrnl_date

Entries for 2021-07-01

8472/74656 :98765 Added annotations to map : 1.5

----

Total8472/74656 hours: 1.5

Total hours: 1.5

Example:

> ./jrnl_date 2021-06-30

Entries for 2021-06-30

8472/74656 :98764 Completed correction to fix error in navigation algorithm : 2.0

-----

Total8472/74656 hours: 2

Total hours: 2