One option would be org-mode's capture templates. If you had a capture template for structured journal entries, you could keep your daily file open for notes, a

One option would be org-mode's capture templates. If you had a capture template for structured journal entries, you could keep your daily file open for notes, and then pop open a capture window when you want to start a journal entry. Or, if you're not sure which a piece of writing is going to be when you start, you could tag the ones you want to save in your "proper journal" with a :JOURNAL: tag, and then refile those once in a while to a separate file. I do a lot of captures which all go to refile.org, and then I go through that weekly or more often and refile items to other files where they belong. That makes it easy to jot down a thought down quickly, since I don't have to decide where it goes first.