A simple "notes" Rakefile based on the Octopress default Rakefile. I created this for a notes project.

Rakefile

require 'stringex'

# rake command that generates a new post and opens in default text editor
desc "Generates a new note"
task :post, :title do |t, name|
  if name.title
    title = name.title
  else
    title = get_stdin("Enter a title: ")
  end
  filename = "_posts/#{Time.now.strftime('%Y-%m-%d')}-#{title.to_url}.md"
  open(filename, 'w') do |post|
    post.puts "---"
    post.puts "layout: note"
    post.puts "title: \'#{title.gsub(/&/,'&')}\'"
    post.puts "date: #{Time.now.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M')}"
    post.puts "---"
  end
  puts "Created new post: #{filename}"
  system "open #{filename}"
end

# ---
# helper function
# ---

def get_stdin(message)
  print message
  STDIN.gets.chomp
end