Dual Journaling with Vimwiki: How to Separate Personal and Business Notes

In the previous post, we built a powerful journaling system using Vimwiki. It’s a fantastic setup, but as you use it more, a common problem emerges: professional meeting notes mix with personal reflections, and work to-dos get tangled with weekend plans.

Changelog

This guide will show you how to build a dual-wiki system to cleanly separate your personal and business notes. We will cover how to create both daily Journal Entries and topic-based General Notes in their correct contexts.

Step 1: Understanding the Structure

Before we configure anything, let’s understand the hierarchy we are building. A Wiki is the main container for a context (e.g., “Business”). Within that wiki, there are two types of notes:

• General Notes: Topic-based pages like “Project Alpha Ideas” or “Meeting Checklists”. They live in the root of the wiki.
• Journal Entries: Date-based, daily logs. They live in the diary/ subdirectory.

This is the structure we will create:

~/Nextcloud/Notes/
├── wiki-business/
│   ├── diary/
│   │   └── 2025-07-04.md
│   ├── Project Alpha.md
│   └── index.md
│   └── template-business-journal.md
│
└── wiki-personal/
    ├── diary/
    │   └── 2025-07-04.md
    ├── Holiday Plans.md
    └── index.md
    └── template-personal-journal.md

This clean separation is the key to an organized system.

Step 2: Update Your Vimwiki Configuration

First, configure your ~/.vimrc to define the two wikis. Using expand('~') makes the configuration robust.

" Vimwiki Configuration for multiple wikis
let g:vimwiki_list = [
  \ {
    \ 'path': expand('~') . '/Nextcloud/Notes/wiki-business/',
    \ 'diary_template': 'template-business-journal.md',
    \ 'syntax': 'markdown', 'ext': '.md'
  \ },
  \ {
    \ 'path': expand('~') . '/Nextcloud/Notes/wiki-personal/',
    \ 'diary_template': 'template-personal-journal.md',
    \ 'syntax': 'markdown', 'ext': '.md'
  \ }
\]

" Optional: Set a default wiki (1=first, 2=second).
let g:vimwiki_start_wiki = 2 " Make the personal wiki the default

" These settings apply to all wikis in the list
let g:vimwiki_markdown_link_ext = 1
let g:vimwiki_auto_diary_index = 1

Next, create the necessary directories in your terminal:

mkdir -p ~/Nextcloud/Notes/wiki-business/diary
mkdir -p ~/Nextcloud/Notes/wiki-personal/diary

Step 3: Create Context-Specific Journal Templates

Create a unique template for each journal. Each template file must be placed in the root directory of its corresponding wiki.

Business Journal Template

Create the file ~/Nextcloud/Notes/wiki-business/template-business-journal.md:

# %Y-%m-%d — Business Journal

## 🎯 Today's Top 3 Priorities
- [ ] 
- [ ] 
- [ ] 

Personal Journal Template

Create the file ~/Nextcloud/Notes/wiki-personal/template-personal-journal.md:

# %Y-%m-%d — Personal Journal

## 🙏 Gratitude
- 

## 💡 Ideas & Thoughts
- 

Step 4: The Core Solution: Custom Vim Functions

A standard Vimwiki installation has two limitations for our workflow:

1. :VimwikiMakeDiaryNote does not automatically apply templates.
2. There is no direct command to create a new, named topic note.

We will solve both issues with two dedicated functions in our ~/.vimrc.

In Your .vimrc

Add these two functions and their corresponding shortcuts to your Vim configuration.

" ----- FUNCTION 1: FOR DAILY JOURNAL ENTRIES -----
function! OpenJournalWithTemplate(wiki_index)
  " Switch to the correct wiki context
  execute 'VimwikiTabIndex ' . a:wiki_index
  " Create or open today's diary note
  VimwikiMakeDiaryNote
  " CRITICAL: Force Vim to update its state before we check the file
  redraw
  " Check if the file is new and empty
  if line('$') == 1 && getline(1) == ''
    let l:wiki_config = g:vimwiki_list[a:wiki_index - 1]
    let l:template_path = l:wiki_config.path . l:wiki_config.diary_template
    " If the template file exists, read its content into our new file
    if filereadable(l:template_path)
      execute '0read ' . l:template_path
      1delete " Delete the initial empty line
      normal! gg " Go to the top
    endif
  endif
endfunction

" ----- FUNCTION 2: FOR GENERAL TOPIC NOTES -----
function! CreateGeneralNote(wiki_index)
  " Switch to the correct wiki context
  execute 'VimwikiTabIndex ' . a:wiki_index
  " Open the index page of that wiki
  VimwikiIndex
  " Prompt the user for the name of the new note
  let l:note_name = input('Enter name for new note: ')
  " Proceed only if a name was entered
  if !empty(l:note_name)
    " Go to the end of the index file and add a new link
    call append(line('$'), '* [[' . l:note_name . ']]')
    " Move the cursor to the newly created line
    call cursor(line('$'), 1)
    " 'Press Enter' on the link to create and open the new file
    VimwikiFollowLink
  endif
endfunction

" ----- KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS -----
" For Journals (e.g., \jb for Journal-Business)
nnoremap <leader>jb :call OpenJournalWithTemplate(1)<CR>
nnoremap <leader>jp :call OpenJournalWithTemplate(2)<CR>

" For General Notes (e.g., \nb for Note-Business)
nnoremap <leader>nb :call CreateGeneralNote(1)<CR>
nnoremap <leader>np :call CreateGeneralNote(2)<CR>

In Your Shell (.bashrc or .zshrc)

Create a full set of aliases in your shell configuration to call these functions directly.

# Aliases for Journal Entries
alias journalb='vim -c "call OpenJournalWithTemplate(1)"'
alias journalp='vim -c "call OpenJournalWithTemplate(2)"'

# Aliases for General Topic Notes
alias noteb='vim -c "call CreateGeneralNote(1)"'
alias notep='vim -c "call CreateGeneralNote(2)"'

# Optional: Shorter aliases
alias jb='journalb'
alias jp='journalp'
alias nb='noteb'
alias np='notep'

Reload your shell (source ~/.bashrc or source ~/.zshrc) to activate them.

Step 5: How to Use Your Dual System

Your workflow is now clean, logical, and direct for both use cases.

Workflow 1: Create a Daily Journal Entry

Use this for date-based, chronological logs.

• From inside Vim: Press \jb (Business) or \jp (Personal).
• From your terminal: Run journalb or jb (Business) / journalp or jp (Personal).

Result: Today’s journal file is created in the diary/ folder, and the correct template is applied.

Workflow 2: Create a General Topic Note

Use this for any non-daily, topic-based note like a project plan, a checklist, or meeting notes.

• From inside Vim: Press \nb (Business) or \np (Personal).
• From your terminal: Run noteb or nb (Business) / notep or np (Personal).

Result: You will be prompted in Vim to enter a name for the new note. After you type a name and press Enter, the new file is created in the root of the correct wiki, and a link to it is automatically added to your index.md.

Step 6: Linking Between Wikis

The concept of linking between wikis is now much clearer. Imagine you’re in your personal journal and have an idea for a business project.

In your personal journal file, you can write:

## 💡 Ideas & Thoughts
- I just had an idea for work, I'll start a new note for it in my business wiki.
- To create it, I can just write the link here and press Enter: [[wiki1:My New Business Idea]]

• wiki1: tells Vimwiki to use the first wiki in your list (your business-wiki).

When you press Enter, Vimwiki creates the file My New Business Idea.md in the root of your wiki-business/ and opens it.

Summary

By creating two dedicated functions, you have built a powerful, intuitive, and robust system:

✅ A clean separation between your wiki-business and wiki-personal.
✅ A clear, direct workflow for creating both daily Journals and topic-based General Notes.
✅ Custom journal templates that are correctly and automatically applied.
✅ Lightning-fast, unambiguous shortcuts (jb, jp, nb, np) for both Vim and your shell.
✅ The power to intelligently link between worlds when needed.

This setup transforms a simple note-taking tool into a comprehensive life management system.