📚 AI-Powered Journaling & Personal Growth System

A structured system for personal and professional development through daily journaling with AI support. This template helps you make growth visible, recognize patterns and capture meaningful reflections.

There is also a Dutch version.

🎯 Purpose

This journaling system is designed to:

• Track personal and professional growth through structured reflection
• Preserve insights from daily experiences, conversations and learning moments
• Recognize patterns in your thinking, behavior and development
• Collaborate with AI for improved self-knowledge and guidance
• Build a searchable archive of your thoughts and learning experiences
• Make growth visible for evaluations, conversations and career development

💡 Why This System?

Subtle but valuable growth often remains invisible in traditional evaluation systems. Through systematic documentation of:

• Daily experiences and concrete events
• Growth moments and breakthroughs (large and small)
• Patterns in your behavior, thinking and collaboration
• Skills evolution over time

You create an evidence base that shows your actual development. This approach helps you not only understand yourself better, but also make your value and growth visible to others.

🗂️ Structure

notes/
├── .cursor/
│   └── rules/                 # AI Coach configuration and rules
│       ├── ai-coach-personality.mdc  # Personality and character of your AI coach
│       ├── ai-coach-role.mdc         # Role and functions of your AI coach
│       ├── general-rules.mdc         # Project structure and workflow
│       ├── userprofile.mdc           # Reference to profile directory
│       ├── journaling-rules.mdc     # Daily journaling workflow
│       ├── reflection-rules.mdc      # End of day reflection methodology
│       └── evaluation-rules.mdc      # Weekly evaluation approach
├── profile/                   # Personal assessments and profiles (optional)
│   ├── big-five.md            # Big Five personality assessment
│   ├── disc.md                # DISC behavioral analysis  
│   ├── human-design.md        # Human Design body graph
│   ├── neurodivergence.md     # Neurodivergent traits
│   └── professional.md        # Professional background and expertise
├── work-evaluations/          # Performance reviews and growth plans (optional)
│   ├── [DATE]-annual-review.md            # Annual reviews
│   ├── [DATE]-half-year-checkin.md        # Half-year check-ins
│   └── persoonlijke-groei-plan-[YEAR].md  # Growth plans
├── journal/                   # Daily journaling and reflection
│   ├── [YEAR]/                # Year directory (e.g. 2025/)
│   │   └── [WEEK]/            # Week directory (e.g. 45/)
│   │       ├── 1-monday-[YEAR]-[MONTH]-[DAY].md
│   │       ├── 2-tuesday-[YEAR]-[MONTH]-[DAY].md
│   │       ├── 3-wednesday-[YEAR]-[MONTH]-[DAY].md
│   │       ├── 4-thursday-[YEAR]-[MONTH]-[DAY].md
│   │       ├── 5-friday-[YEAR]-[MONTH]-[DAY].md
│   │       ├── week-evaluation.md        # Weekly reflection
│   │       └── checkin.md (optional)     # For conversations with supervisor
│   ├── daily-journal-template.md         # Template for daily entries
│   ├── weekly-review-template.md         # Template for week evaluations
│   └── checkin-template.md               # Template for check-in reports
├── projects/                  # Project context and documentation (optional)
│   ├── _template.md           # Template for new projects
│   └── [project-name].md      # Project details and reflections
└── people/                    # Colleagues and collaboration partners (optional)
    ├── _template.md           # Template for new people
    └── [name].md              # Notes about individuals

📅 Week Structure Example

Each week follows a consistent structure within journal/[YEAR]/[WEEK_NUMBER]/:

journal/2025/45/
├── 1-monday-2025-11-03.md
├── 2-tuesday-2025-11-04.md
├── 3-wednesday-2025-11-05.md
├── 4-thursday-2025-11-06.md
├── 5-friday-2025-11-07.md
└── week-evaluation.md

Week numbers follow the ISO 8601 standard (use date +%V on Unix systems).

🚀 Getting Started

1. Configure Your AI Coach

Adjust the AI Coach configuration in .cursor/rules/:

• ai-coach-personality.mdc - Define the character and emotional attitude of your AI coach
• ai-coach-role.mdc - Determine the function and activities of your AI coach within this project
• general-rules.mdc - Basic project structure and workflow (adjust to your situation) Many placeholders are in [square brackets], adjust those especially (except for template files).

2. (Optional) Fill In Your Profiles

The profile/ directory helps your AI coach understand you better:

• big-five.md - Big Five personality assessment
• disc.md - DISC behavioral analysis
• human-design.md - Human Design body graph
• neurodivergence.md - Neurodivergent traits
• professional.md - Professional background and expertise

The more context your AI coach has, the better the guidance!

3. Start journaling

Start your first daily journal entry:

1. Create a directory structure: journal/[YEAR]/[WEEK_NUMBER]/
2. Use journal/daily-journal-template.md for your first entry
3. Share your thoughts, experiences and events with your AI coach
4. Reflect together at the end of the day

4. Weekly Evaluation

At the end of each week:

1. Use journal/weekly-review-template.md for your weekly evaluation
2. Analyze patterns and insights with your AI coach
3. Link experiences to your growth goals (if applicable)
4. Prepare check-ins with supervisors (if desired)

5. (Optional) Use People & Projects

• people/ - Document colleagues, collaboration patterns and team dynamics
• projects/ - Keep project context and link to journal entries
• work-evaluations/ - Store performance reviews and growth plans

🤝 Collaboration with AI

This system is designed to work seamlessly with AI support (such as Cursor, ChatGPT, Claude):

• Context-rich conversations - Your profiles and history provide deeper understanding
• Pattern recognition - AI helps identify trends in your thoughts and growth
• Personalized guidance - Recommendations based on your specific situation
• Structured reflection - Frameworks for meaningful growth
• Memory function - Refer back to earlier notes and patterns

📝 Journaling Workflow

Daily Routine

1. Start your day - Fill in the "🎯 Planned" section with your tasks
2. Throughout the day - Add events to "📝 Daily Flow"
3. End of day - Reflect together with your AI coach in "🔍 End of Day - Reflection"
4. Tasks for Later - Note what doesn't happen today

Natural Flow

• Be authentic - share what's on your mind, without filter
• No perfection needed - rough thoughts are fine, structure comes naturally
• Ask follow-up questions - let your AI coach help with clarification
• Make connections - link to projects, people and earlier entries

AI Coach Role

Your AI coach helps you with:

• Organizing thoughts into structured notes
• Asking clarifying questions to deepen insights
• Making connections between events and growth patterns
• Recognizing patterns over time
• Making senior skills and competencies visible

🔍 Tips & Best Practices

Cross-Referencing

• Link to projects: ([Project](../../projects/project.md)) in headers and tasks
• Link to people: [Name](../../people/name.md) in your notes
• Link to earlier entries: Refer to patterns and earlier moments

Consistency

• Use the templates for daily and weekly entries
• Follow the week structure: journal/[YEAR]/[WEEK_NUMBER]/
• File naming: [DAY_NUMBER]-[day]-[YEAR]-[MONTH]-[DAY].md

Depth

• Be specific in your observations - concrete examples work better than general statements
• Ask follow-up questions with your AI coach if something is unclear
• Link events to your growth goals (if applicable)

🌱 Philosophy

This journaling approach is built on:

• Safety - this is your safe space for growth and reflection
• Honesty - authentic sharing without filter or judgment
• Patience - growth takes time, small steps count
• Curiosity - keep learning and discovering, ask questions
• Visibility - make invisible growth explicit and tangible

---

🎯 Adapting For Your Situation

This template is a starting point - adapt it to your needs:

• Add extra sections to the daily template that work for you
• Create custom directories for your specific context
• Adjust the AI coach rules to your preferences
• Experiment with what works and what doesn't

Most important tip: Start simple, iterate and refine as you learn more about what you need!

---

Good luck with your growth journey! 🚀✨