Monthly Review

Monthly Review

Aggregate weekly summaries into a comprehensive monthly overview.

Location

All private notes live in content/private/ with flat structure (no subfolders).

Date Format

• Monthly reviews: YYYY-MM.md
• Example: 2024-01.md for January 2024

Phase 1: Determine Month Boundaries

Identify the month being reviewed (default: previous month if early in month, current month otherwise).

Calculate:

• Month start and end dates
• ISO week numbers that fall within the month

Phase 2: Gather Weekly Reviews

2.1 Find Weekly Reviews

Search for weekly reviews from the target month:

Glob: content/private/YYYY-W*.md

Filter to weeks where week frontmatter falls within the month.

2.2 Load Content

Read each weekly review and extract:

• Week summaries
• Key events
• Learnings
• Public notes created

2.3 Present Summary

Display to user:

• Number of weekly reviews found
• Weeks covered (e.g., "W01-W04")
• Major themes identified

Phase 3: Generate Monthly Summary

3.1 Ask for User Input

question: "What were the big themes this month?"
header: "Themes"
options:
  - label: "Auto-generate"
    description: "Synthesize themes from weekly reviews"
  - label: "Manual"
    description: "I'll describe the month's themes"

If user chooses manual, gather their input.

3.2 Ask About Achievements

question: "Any notable achievements to highlight?"
header: "Wins"
options:
  - label: "Yes"
    description: "I have achievements to add"
  - label: "Extract from weeklies"
    description: "Pull from key events"

3.3 Create Monthly Note

Frontmatter:

---
title: "{Month Name} {YYYY}"
type: monthly
month: YYYY-MM
date: {first of next month YYYY-MM-DD}
weeks:
  - "[[YYYY-W01]]"
  - "[[YYYY-W02]]"
  - "[[YYYY-W03]]"
  - "[[YYYY-W04]]"
private: true
---

Body structure:

## Month Summary

{user themes or auto-generated summary}

## Themes

- Theme 1: {description}
- Theme 2: {description}

## Achievements

- Achievement 1
- Achievement 2

## Top Public Notes

- [[most-linked-note]] - {why it was significant}
- [[another-note]] - {context}

3.4 Review with User

Present the generated monthly review:

question: "Does this monthly summary look good?"
header: "Review"
options:
  - label: "Save"
    description: "Create the monthly review file"
  - label: "Edit"
    description: "Make changes before saving"

Phase 4: Save Monthly Review

Save to content/private/{YYYY-MM}.md.

Confirm with:

• File path
• Weeks covered
• Key themes and achievements

Template Reference

Full monthly review template:

---
title: "January 2024"
type: monthly
month: 2024-01
date: 2024-02-01
weeks:
  - "[[2024-W01]]"
  - "[[2024-W02]]"
  - "[[2024-W03]]"
  - "[[2024-W04]]"
private: true
---

## Month Summary

Overview of the month's patterns, progress, and observations.

## Themes

- **Work:** Major project focus or accomplishments
- **Learning:** Key topics studied or explored
- **Personal:** Life events or milestones

## Achievements

- Completed X project
- Published Y blog posts
- Read Z books

## Top Public Notes

- [[book-title]] - Major influence on thinking this month
- [[article-slug]] - Referenced multiple times in weeklies

Quality Checklist

Before saving:

• Filename matches YYYY-MM.md format
• Frontmatter has type: monthly and private: true
• Month in title and frontmatter match
• weeks array lists all weekly reviews included
• Themes synthesize patterns (not just aggregated lists)
• Achievements are concrete and specific
• Wiki-links use correct [[slug]] format

Edge Cases