Building a journal that talks back
I built a RAG system.1
RAG means Retrieval Augmented Generation. That means using AI that references your own data, not its training data or other outside sources.
I have journaled for years in Apple Notes. Sometimes, I’d paste a month’s worth of entries into ChatGPT and it to show me patterns in my thinking, Insights I was missing, and opportunities and actions I could have taken
What came back was surprisingly insightful. Journaling is great. A journal that talks back can be even better.
Building a Journaling RAG system
Building a RAG system requires creating a Project and adding your data sources to pull from. In this case, I uploaded journals from prior months (pasted into a Google Doc and downloaded as a PDF) to the Project in ChatGPT.
But I also wanted a frictionless way to get new entries into the Project. Typically when I journal, I don’t sit down and bang out 1000 words. When thoughts hit, I type them out quickly. I may have several entries in a day, or none.
I don’t want feedback on every entry—just when I proactively ask for it (like once a month).
Getting that frictionless input required using what I’d already learned about automations.
The Automation
An Apple Shortcut allows me to tap a button on my home screen, and a dialogue box pops up. I write my entry and hit ok.
The entry is whisked off to n8n, which in turn populates the data on a new row in a Google Sheet.
An easy journaling flow.
But there was so much debugging for a simple setup. Shortcut problems. n8n problems. Tags not sitting in their own column, but shoved into the entry column in Google Sheets. Or no data at all. Or only tags and no journal entry.
It’s a familiar pattern now: cycle through errors, carry the water back and forth, until the app works.
That’s learning to build, not learning to code.
The RAG Journal
With the bugs cleared, the Google Sheet receives the entries and is readable by the GPT. So when I do ask for insights about what I’ve journaled, the GPT has access to the older entries via PDF upload and recent stuff by reading the Google Sheet.
I have a fast and frictionless way to journal, and feedback on demand.
P.S.: An aside about AI selection
Out of curiosity, I ran a month’s worth of entries in Claude and asked it the same feedback question just to see if the response differed.
Claude was harsh.
It lectured me about actions it thought I should have taken (seemingly forgetting it didn’t have complete information about actions I did take).
It’s a good reminder: it pays to test different models. I am good with clear and actionable feedback. But I don’t need an AI version of R. Lee Ermey treating me like it’s day one of bootcamp.
Less impressive accomplishment than it sounds. Or maybe more. I’m not sure. That’s a weird acronym.