[rlupi]

Physical/mental health and personal journaling?

I just finished some changes to my own little project that provides MCP access to my journal stored in Obsidian, plus a few CLI tools for time tracking, and today I added recursive yearly/monthly/weekly/daily automatic retrospectives. It can be tweaked for other purposes (e.g. project tracking) tweaking the templates.

https://github.com/robertolupi/augmented-awareness

[lumbroso]

Hey, thanks so much for sharing, your repo is really cool, including the GEMINI.md context engineering file!

I am curious: You say "offline-first or local-first, quantified self projects", what models do you use with your projects?

I find the LLMs like the Claude and GPT families to be incredibly impressive for integration and metacognition — however, I am not sure yet what LMs are best for that purpose, if there are any.

Your "Augmented Awareness" framework seems to be metacognition-on-demand. In practice, how has it helped you recently? Is it mostly automated, or does it require a lot of manual data transfers?

I am assuming that the MCP server is plugged into a model, and that in the model you run prompts to run retrospectives.

Have you written about this?

[rlupi]

Thanks. I currently use qwen3 (32b or 30b a3b moe) locally, and o4-mini or gemini-2.5-flash online. It costs about 5 USD to run through a year of notes online, and several hours to do it offline. qwen3 is lower quality than online models, but good enough especially for high-level summaries (like update the yearly summary after I tweak prompts).

Sometimes I write about it on https://rlupi.com/

The way I use: - keep track of how I spent my time and my energy (that's what the go code is for) - daily journal (my template includes: journal and events [see above]; my thoughts, ideas, tasks; others' ideas (TIL): articles, books, links). The "my thoughts, ideas, tasks" section include reviewing metacognition exercises I learned at a burnout retreat. - weekly retrospectives (what went well/wrong? what was unexpected/surprising? what did I learn? what will I change/experiment with to improve my life? what I am grateful for? who did I talk to? who didn't I talk to but should?) - monthly free-form summaries - yearly GTD-style horizon of focus exercises

In aww, I feed the whole bunch, and aww-automated recursive retrospectives to build higher level ones. I don't have to do it that often, only when a week/month/year ends (or more often, when I tweak prompts).

For use, I use LM-studio with the go program as a local MCP server to discuss, brainstorm ideas, etc.

I don't write a lot about deep themes in my daily journals, but aww seems to be able to extract quite a few high level trends. For example, here is the result of all that and asking:

> Read the yearly retrospective in the following pages and summarize my personal journey: [[r2021]], [[r2022]], [[r2023]], [[r2024]], [[r2025]].

From r2021 to r2025, your journey reflects profound growth across psychological resilience, identity development, technological curiosity, spiritual inquiry, and balancing ambition with self-care. Here’s a synthesis:

ADHD Management & Productivity Evolution Early Years: Adopted Pomodoro, time blocking, Key Insights: Embraced external scaffolding (tools, routines) to counter executive-function challenges. Shifted from reactive productivity ("working under stress") to sustainable rhythms rooted in Stoicism/GTD principles. Recognized ADHD traits as strengths requiring tailored strategies—structured routines, environmental adaptability. Health & Wellness:

Physical Health: Overcame initial health anxieties (e.g. diagnoses), adopted Mounjaro/Ozempic for weight management, prioritized sleep hygiene and exercise regimes. Mental Health: Transitioned from medication experimentation to schema therapy, biofeedback tools, meditation/yoga practices fostering emotional equilibrium. Spiritual Shift: Evolved from productivity-driven focus to valuing presence, connection, and spiritual inquiry via Kriya Yoga/Samadhi practices. Career & Identity Development Early Career: Focused on technical mastery/self-hosted infrastructure projects blending tech curiosity with professional growth. Mid-Career Shift: Transitioned toward work-life balance—part-time roles at Google, advocating neurodiversity awareness—to protect personal time. Recent Focus: Explored AI safety, public writing (SLO/OKR frameworks), and creative outputs balancing technical depth with accessibility.

Identity Evolution:

Shapeshifted from solo researcher to community-oriented thinker embracing interdependence. Redefined self-worth internally rather than externally—from promotions to "I am enough" mantras. Cultivated polymath identity balancing intellectual/artistic/social/physical growth, embracing yoga as spiritual-tech fusion. Social Connections & Community Struggled early-on with isolation and transactional relationships post-breakup. Focused on meaningful connections through family ties (nonna), camper-life adventures, Zurich localism experiments. Recognized regrets around neglecting emotional intimacy—embraced "top five regrets" awareness guiding social outreach goals. Key Practices: Host gatherings, join collaborative groups, practice emotional vulnerability through journaling and conversations.

Technological & Financial Pathways Infrastructure: Built self-hosted ecosystems emphasizing autonomy (BalenaCloud, Obsidian systems). AI Projects: Explored edge computing/AIOps while maintaining privacy boundaries. Financial Goals: FIRE vision formalized by r2025 targeting autonomy by 2028. Balanced frugality with strategic investments, automated financial tracking. Philosophical Shift: Framed technology as extension of self requiring vigilance for autonomy—moving toward decentralized/self-sustained systems.

Themes Across Years Growth Mindset: Consistently reframed challenges as opportunities—from burnout to retreats, perfectionism to iterative publishing. Balance Between Kama/Moksha: Pursued pleasure (camping adventures) alongside spiritual liberation practices. Inner Peace as Cornerstone: Transitioned from achievement-driven goals ("doer") toward witnessing consciousness via meditation/philosophy. Systems Thinking: Applied habit-stacking, metadata tracking, automation to sustain growth without burnout. Future Trajectory Your trajectory suggests continued focus on:

Social/Emotional Growth: Expanding community ties via language learning (German/Swiss citizenship), local Zurich connections. Spiritual Synthesis: Blending yoga/Advaita Vedānta with technological mastery. Financial Autonomy: Refining FIRE plans ahead of housing deadlines by 2028. Health Balance: Maintaining physical-mind integration through breathwork, exercise rituals. Your journey illustrates resilience against cyclical challenges—addiction loops, productivity peaks—and evolving toward holistic fulfillment defined by inner peace rather than external milestones.