A daily note you will actually use.
Short answer: four short parts, about five minutes in total. A morning intention, a place to capture, a few habits, and an end-of-day line with tomorrow's first step. Anything longer belongs in the weekly review.
Why daily notes die
Daily note templates grow. A gratitude section, a mood tracker, ten habits, a reading log. Each addition is reasonable; together they take twenty minutes, and the first busy day ends the habit. The rule that keeps a daily note alive is simple: if a section creates more friction than it removes, delete it.
The four parts
- Morning (2 min). What would make today matter? What are you carrying from yesterday?
- Capture. Anything on your mind, as it comes. Do not sort it now; that happens on Sunday.
- Habits. Three to five checkboxes. More than that and it becomes a chore list.
- End of day (3 min). What actually happened, one thing you learned, energy from 1 to 10, and the first thing you will do tomorrow.
Free template
Daily note for ObsidianWorks with the core Daily notes and Templates plugins. Set it as your daily note template.
Set it up in two minutes
Save the template in your templates folder. In Obsidian's settings, turn on the core Daily notes plugin, choose a folder for your daily notes and select the template. Opening today's note now creates it with the four parts ready.
Five minutes a day survives a busy week. Twenty does not.
Questions
What should be in a daily note?
Four things are enough: a morning intention, a place to capture thoughts, a few habit checkboxes, and a short end-of-day reflection with tomorrow's first step.
How do I create daily notes automatically in Obsidian?
Turn on the core Daily notes plugin, choose a folder and a template file, and Obsidian creates today's note from that template when you open it.
How long should a daily note take?
About five minutes in total. If it takes longer, it will not survive a busy week; move anything longer to the weekly review.
Is there a free daily note template for Obsidian?
Yes. The daily note template on this page is free, with no email: plain Markdown for Obsidian's core Daily notes and Templates plugins, with four parts that take about five minutes.
How Sylvics does it
The Sylvics daily note has the same four parts, drawn as a dashboard: the habits show streaks without guilt, and what you capture flows to the Inbox for Sunday. Try a day on the tour.