Work Journal
Notes
History you can actually search
- Capture from the hotkey, the tray menu, or relaunch.
- Read today, yesterday, this or last week or month, per Project or all.
- Search text to jump to the day it lives on.
- Reword, refile, or delete. No trash.
Local-first Notes + Tasks for macOS
jot work down as you do it.
One hotkey captures a Note, another creates a Task. Yesterday reads back as Markdown — or as prose from your own model.
macOS Apple Silicon · MIT · No account, no server.
- No account, no server. Notes and Tasks are a SQLite file on your Mac.
- Export everything to Markdown any time. Nothing is locked in.
- The network is touched only for a standup post you request and an update you confirm.
Work Journal — Yesterday
● 3 today
Type a line and press Enter — stays here, in this page. Yesterday’s Digest, verbatim.
One line per Note
Capture in seconds, reads back as clean bullets.
Tasks beside Notes
Dates, times, repeats. Past dates read as overdue.
Markdown out
Copy any range, yesterday from the tray, or Export all.
Your model or none
Prose only if you point a key. Key stays in keychain.
How it works
Capture in a keystroke, file as you type, read back as Markdown.
Three moments in order — during the day, at the boundary, the next morning. That order is the whole product, so it is the one numbered list on this page.
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01 — Capture
One line, then gone
The Note hotkey opens a text field over whatever you are doing. Write the line, press Enter, the window is gone.
#api fixed retry storm on checkout
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02 — File
The marker is the filing
Start the line with
#nameand the Note is filed under that Project. Names you used are offered as you type.#website rewrote hero, kept the xattr note
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03 — Read back
Yesterday, ready to paste
The tray copies Yesterday’s Digest with no window open. One click further gives the Standup Material or a Post.
## Yesterday - #api fixed retry storm…
Capabilities
Everything around that loop, and nothing else.
The app’s vocabulary is small on purpose: Notes recover work that happened, Tasks hold work still to do. These groups sit side by side — none comes before the other.
Tasks
Commitments with a schedule
- Its own hotkey and always-ready window. Enter commits one Task.
- A date, with an optional time. Past dates read as overdue.
- Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or every N. One open occurrence, never a backlog.
- A dated Task with a time raises a local macOS alert. Nothing leaves your Mac.
Standup Post
Yesterday, written up when you want it
- Yesterday’s Digest from the tray. Markdown, nothing to configure.
- Standup Material one click in. Paste as-is with no model.
- Or a Standup Post in prose. Read before copying; never kept.
Meetings & the rest
The day, even what you forgot
- Today’s calendar meetings can become Notes. Off until you pick calendars.
- Copy the range on screen; Export the whole journal.
- Remap hotkeys, follow system theme, start at login.
About
Built for standup time.
I built Work Journal because every standup asked what I did yesterday, and my answer came from memory and chat history. Now it comes from one-line notes I typed as the work happened.
It isn’t trying to be a project manager, a knowledge base, or a second brain. Notes recover what happened, Tasks hold what remains — everything else lives somewhere else. That’s it.
Download for macOS
Apple Silicon only. Unsigned build — clear it once, then Settings updates itself.
Download for macOSLatest release ·
Unsigned build? One command, once
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Work Journal.app"
After dragging it to Applications. A copy you compiled yourself was never quarantined and needs nothing.
- Download, drag to Applications, clear quarantine once.
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Press the Note hotkey, type
#test first note, press Enter. - Tomorrow: tray menu → Copy Yesterday’s Notes. That’s it.