Create an org-journal template for daily journal entry

Question

I was just wondering if there is a way to create a standard set of sections for my daily journal entry. So if I want a section for Todos, and another section for meetings, etc. Is it possible to just create a standard template in emacs that gets built when a new journal file is created?

UPDATED TO CLARIFY:

I just wanted to clarify any ambiguity. Org-journal will create a new empty journal file for each day. The file is usually named with the date, so "20151106". The file is empty when it is created.

So I wanted to create a set of org bulletted sections that were created in the new file. So they should include:

• Tasks
• Exercise
• Meal Plan

That way I don't have to manually create these each time a new journal entry is created.

Answer 1

I have a hack that uses a hook on org-journal-after-entry-create-hook to insert a daily template

  (defun pc/new-buffer-p ()
    (not (file-exists-p (buffer-file-name))))

  (defun pc/insert-journal-template ()
    (let ((template-file (expand-file-name "template.org" org-directory)))
      (when (pc/new-buffer-p)
        (save-excursion
          (goto-char (point-min))
          (insert-file-contents template-file)))))

  (add-hook 'org-journal-after-entry-create-hook #'pc/insert-journal-template)

Answer 2

Updated answer

Here's a capture template that will get you started. You may want to change org-directory into the directory where you want to store the journal files.

(setq org-capture-templates '(("j" "Journal" entry (file
                                                (expand-file-name (concat (format-time-string "%Y%m%d") ".org") org-directory))
                           "* Tasks%?\n* Exercise\n* Meal plan")))