https://github.com/brennanbrown/enjoyment-work
🗃️ A Digital Garden: Capturing my daily thoughts and progress, as well as curated ideas with unique synthesis—a personal zettelkasten. Built on Simply Jekyll by Raghuveer S.
https://github.com/brennanbrown/enjoyment-work
digital-garden jekyll obsidian
Last synced: about 1 month ago
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🗃️ A Digital Garden: Capturing my daily thoughts and progress, as well as curated ideas with unique synthesis—a personal zettelkasten. Built on Simply Jekyll by Raghuveer S.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/brennanbrown/enjoyment-work
- Owner: brennanbrown
- License: mit
- Created: 2020-11-17T06:18:31.000Z (almost 5 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2025-08-20T22:37:20.000Z (about 2 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-08-21T00:25:56.257Z (about 2 months ago)
- Topics: digital-garden, jekyll, obsidian
- Language: HTML
- Homepage: https://enjoyment-work.netlify.app
- Size: 2.65 MB
- Stars: 107
- Watchers: 2
- Forks: 11
- Open Issues: 3
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
- Funding: .github/FUNDING.yml
- License: LICENSE
Awesome Lists containing this project
- jimsghstars - brennanbrown/enjoyment-work - 🗃️ A Digital Garden: Capturing my daily thoughts and progress, as well as curated ideas with unique synthesis—a personal zettelkasten. Built on Simply Jekyll by Raghuveer S. (HTML)
- awesome-starred - brennanbrown/enjoyment-work - 🗃️ A Digital Garden: Capturing my daily thoughts and progress, as well as curated ideas with unique synthesis—a personal zettelkasten. Built on Simply Jekyll by Raghuveer S. (jekyll)
README
Enjoyment Work: Theme for Jekyll
An extensive Jekyll theme designed to have similar functionality to Roam Research.
Explore the docs »
View Demo
·
Report Bug
·
Request Feature
> Note: A new update was released in 2025. See the detailed changes in the [Changelog](./CHANGELOG.md).
## About The Project
**Enjoyment Work** is an academic / research-focused theme that provides extensive features for note-taking and personal growth. It is based off of the [Digital Garden](https://github.com/MaggieAppleton/digital-gardeners) philosophy, which you can read more about on the [**demo site**](https://enjoyment-work.netlify.app)
The next step for Enjoyment Work is to properly configure the syntax required to work with [**Obsidian**](https://obsidian.md/), a powerful knowledge base that works on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files. Which would ultimately allow somebody to turn their Obsidian notes into an online blog by simply using the `_notes` directory.
There are several other planned features in the [Roadmap](#roadmap) ahead, as the project is far from perfect. It is currently using the Bootstrap 4 framework, which although is powerful and extensive, does slow thing down, along with the rather large `style.css` file which needs to be trimmed down and converted into SASS.
If you like the idea of being able to use Jekyll as a free alternative to Roam Research, Notion, etc. then please feel free to [**use this template**](https://github.com/brennanbrown/enjoyment-work/generate), or even better, contribute to this project by [submitting a pull request](https://github.com/brennanbrown/enjoyment-work/pulls) or [creating an issue](https://github.com/brennanbrown/enjoyment-work/issues)! First-time contributors are definitely welcomed!
In addition, I have created three other free Jekyll themes that you might be interested in:
- :potable_water: [**Watery**](https://github.com/brennanbrown/watery): A minimalist, bare-bones theme for Jekyll only using the Water.css framework while still following the best practices for accessibility and search-engine optimization.
- :notebook_with_decorative_cover: [**Purelog**](https://github.com/brennanbrown/purelog): A responsive sidebar Jekyll theme using the Pure.css framework, designed for writers and bloggers of all kinds.
- [**Classic Spirits**](https://github.com/brennanbrown/classic-spirit): A classic sidebar Jekyll theme for old-school blogging, created with the Bulma framework. Built on Soot Spirits by Abhishek Nagekar.
### Features
Here are a few interesting features of this Jekyll theme:
- A fully customizable and empty `_BLANK_config.yml` to make getting up-and-running easy.
- A speedy, on-site search function using [Simply Jekyll Search](https://github.com/christian-fei/Simple-Jekyll-Search).
- Custom collections for different types of material (note-taking, journal writing, etc.)
- An auto-generating `/archive` page that displays all entries from _all_ collections.
- Auto-generating `/tags` and `/categories` pages.
- Breadcrumbs for improved navigation and SEO.
- Having a `_pages` collection for easier organization.
- An author bio at the end of each post. (Located in `_inclues/author.html`)
- Full Rouge support for [syntax highlighting](https://spsarolkar.github.io/rouge-theme-preview/). (Currently using `base16.dark`)
- Auto-generated RSS feed, sitemap, accessibility features, and search-engine optimization.
- Creates backlinks to other notes automatically
- Context menu on feed to instantly see related posts and backlinks
- Supports Roam-style double bracket link syntax to other notes
- On hover page previews
- Features a simple and responsive design
- Supports Markdown or HTML notes
## Installation
### Prerequisites
Jekyll requires the following:
- Ruby version **2.5.0** or higher
- RubyGems
- GCC and Make
See [Requirements](https://jekyllrb.com/docs/installation/#requirements) for guides and details.
### Instructions
1. Install all [prerequisites](https://jekyllrb.com/docs/installation/).
2. Install the jekyll and bundler [gems](https://jekyllrb.com/docs/ruby-101/#gems).
```
gem install jekyll bundler
```
3. Clone this repository.
```
git clone https://github.com/brennanbrown/enjoyment-work.git
```
4. Change into your new directory.
```
cd enjoyment-work
```
5. Install gems from the `Gemfile`.
```
bundle install
```
6. Build the site and make it available on a local server.
```
bundle exec jekyll serve
```
7. Browse to [http://localhost:4000](http://localhost:4000)
If you encounter any errors during this process, check that you have installed all the prerequisites in [Requirements](https://jekyllrb.com/docs/installation/#requirements).
If you still have issues, see [Troubleshooting](https://jekyllrb.com/docs/troubleshooting/#configuration-problems).
### Continuous Integration
This repo includes a GitHub Actions workflow (`.github/workflows/ci.yml`) that builds the site and runs HTMLProofer checks on PRs and pushes. Ensure you run `bundle install` locally after pulling to install the `html-proofer` gem.
## Getting Started
Once you have Jekyll up-and-running, there are only a few steps needed to make this theme your own:
1. Fill out the `_BLANK_config.yml` configuration file and replace the current `_config.yml`
2. Remove the `example_posts` folder in `_posts`, `_notes`, `_journals` and start writing your own!
3. Modify or remove the pages in `_pages` to however you see fit.
4. _(Optional)_ Modify or remove this `README.md` with information about your own project or blog.
5. _(Optional)_ Modify the CSS files in the `assets` folder to customize the site.
## Roadmap
There are several features that I'm still planning to create and integrate, including:
- Optimize and minify stylesheets and design. (SCSS pipeline added; continue trimming legacy CSS, consider reducing Bootstrap.)
- Configure to work with Obsidian out-of-the-box. (Wikilinks supported; add image/file embeds and edge cases.)
- Create a [Theme Gem](https://jekyllrb.com/docs/themes/#publishing-your-theme).
- "Deploy to Netlify" button. (Done.)
- Continuous integration with GitHub Actions + HTMLProofer. (Done.)
- Additional documentation for custom collections and auto-generated pages.
- More example posts and articles.
See the [open issues](https://github.com/brennanbrown/enjoyment-work/issues) for a list of proposed features (and known issues).
## Contributing
Contributions are what make the open source community such an amazing place to be learn, inspire, and create. Any contributions you make are **greatly appreciated**.
1. Fork the Project
2. Create your Feature Branch (`git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature`)
3. Commit your Changes (`git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature'`)
4. Push to the Branch (`git push origin feature/AmazingFeature`)
5. Open a Pull Request
## License
Distributed under the MIT License. You can use this project however you see fit without needing to give attribution.
See `LICENSE` for more information.
## Resources
While creating this theme, I came across a lot of helpful and hard-to-find resources. If you'd like to dive deeper into Jekyll, check them out:
- Jumping Into Jekyll: https://dev.to/brennan/jumping-into-jekyll-4o9h
- Jekyll Cheatsheet: https://devhints.io/jekyll
- Course on Jekyll: https://learn-the-web.algonquindesign.ca/topics/jekyll/
- Jekyll for Designers: http://simpleprimate.com/jekyll-for-designers/index.html
- Dynamic Copyright on Jekyll: https://michaelsoolee.com/jekyll-copyright/
- Creating breadcrumbs in Jekyll: https://jekyllcodex.org/without-plugin/breadcrumbs/
- Display all items from ALL collections: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31171041/listing-all-collections-in-jekyll
### Other Resources
- For markdown previews: https://jaspervdj.be/lorem-markdownum/
- Case Study on webfont performance: https://www.keycdn.com/blog/web-font-performance
- An extensive `.gitignore`: https://miguelmota.com/bytes/extensive-gitignore/
## Credit
[**Simply Jekyll**](https://github.com/raghuveerdotnet/simply-jekyll) was created by [Raghuveer S.](https://github.com/raghuveerdotnet)
[**Simple Jekyll Search**](https://github.com/christian-fei/Simple-Jekyll-Search) was created by [Christian Fei](https://github.com/christian-fei).