Days in a Daze (without Daily Notes)

I started writing daily notes in Obsidian about a year ago—my first note is from August 30, 2023. Since then, I've written more than 240 daily notes—short(ish) entries that document my day—which means I've documented about 66% of all my days for the past year.

Here's what I've learned/noticed:

• When I document my day, I'm almost always surprised by how much has happened and how much I've actually accomplished. The nature of knowledge work is such that one can traverse massive swaths of cyberspace all while being tethered to a desk. It's very gratifying to see how many concrete actions I've taken and how many useful learnings I've added to the mental Rolodex at the end of the day.
• I feel much more satisfied and content with the day when I download everything into a note—even if I haven't accomplished everything I hoped to.
• When I don't document my day, I feel like my days are passing in a daze. Interactions, memories, conversations, and learnings slip away, and connections between events become elusive. There is a direct connection between remembering what has happened and a sense of progress.
• Even though I started out simply documenting what happened during the day, what I did, and what I learned, I've started writing more about feels and vibes as time goes on. My heart is coming closer to the surface, which is good for me and everyone around me.
• I've started using properties more frequently in Obsidian to make it easier to search for notes and trace connections between notes. In Obisidian, properties are essentially like tags, but they are more flexible. For example, I created a property for major software applications I use (e.g., Google Docs, WordPress, Basecamp, etc.) so I can trace my experience and encounters with those apps over time. This is very helpful when using the Graph view (as seen in the cover image for this post).
• Digital notes/journaling has been far superior than paper notes for me because I can find what I'm looking for with a full text search or tag filter instead of sifting through dense and nearly illegible cursive.

Daily Notes and reflective habits

From the beginning, I've wanted to conduct regular (or at least semi-regular) reviews of my notes on a weekly or monthly basis. I think that reading through my notes more frequently will help me see trends, patterns, and open loops that need tending. The reality is that reviewing my notes has not been as much of a priority as simply writing them so they are at least accessible for review.

There have also been lots of days that I've retroactively written from memory. After one particularly busy work week, I took a couple hours over a weekend to go back reconstruct the events of each day by looking at my calendar and emails. A lot of important things had happened, and I knew that I'd want to have it for future reference. It's far more work write up notes after the fact than it is to do it very same day.

One thing that I've been aiming for—but still fall short on—is writing writing my Daily Note before I leave work as part of my end-of-day routine. That's when the events of the day are freshest in my mind, plus it has the net effect of helping me close any outstanding mental loops. If I wait to write my note at the end of the day, there's a high likelihood that I won't do it.

I don't really enjoy writing my daily notes with dictation on my phone, and it's not something I want to do right before I go to bed, although there have been some evenings where I really needed to write to get my brain to shut off. Writing my notes often feels like turning off a bunch of circuit breakers in my mind one by one. As I offload everything from my brain to the page I feel like, "OK, I can let go of that thought because it's stored now."

The future of my notes

Writing daily notes semi-consistently has helped me get a sense of what's working well and what could be improved about my note taking process. Below is a summary of some of the main areas I'd like to improve:

More consistency day over day

I imagine that a better end-of-day workflow routine would dramatically help my note completion and percentage. I'd love to get to about a 80% coverage rate for my days. Missing some days is totally acceptable. Life happens, and it's more important to live it than document it. But I know that I feel much more thankful and satisfied in my days when I have the opportunity to document and reflect.

Updated Daily Notes template

One of my favorite features in Obsidian is the Daily Notes template, which enables me to spin up a new Daily Note with the current date as the title with just one click.

II've used the same base template for my notes from the beginning, which includes sections titled:

• What happened today
• What I did
• What I learned
• Things to do tomorrow
  Sometimes I've added a section titled "Quotes" to store great quotes from books, podcasts, or articles. I may have added other sections on an ad hoc basis, but the general template has stayed the same. It's time for a refresh.

The more I've written, the more I've realized that my main sections all focus on thinking and doing—reporting on the day, facts about what I accomplished, neato info, etc. None of my prompts are explicitly emotionally- or spiritually-focused. I tend to work those sorts of reflections—how I felt about the day, highlights about what the Lord did or spoke, and the like—under the "Things that happened today" section.

I want to continue going deeper into the emotional and spiritual side of things while taking my notes so they aren't quite as biased to thinking and doing. I've considered adding a section "What today felt like" or "Feels from the day."

Likewise, I may add a specific section that focuses on things that I'm hearing from God while reading my Bible and verses that stand out to me. I used to do this when I journaled in a paper journal, but the practice didn't carry over to Obsidian. In the long term (3+ years out), it's more valuable to capture those experiences and impressions than it is to remember that I sent an email to a colleague about a project we're working on together.

I find that I never really use the "Things to do tomorrow" because my Daily Notes are more about reflection and less about planning. To-dos and tasks get captured elsewhere. I need to eliminate that section.

I'd also like to include more images in my notes to capture a more complete picture (pun intended) of what's going on in my life. I'd like to do some research into how other Obsidian users file their images within their vaults so they can be accessed and linked to easily.

Regular reviews and reflection

Lastly, a more regular review would help surface insights. What's the point of putting in so much effort to record my days if I'm not looking back and mining out connections?

They say hindsight is 20/20, and I think Daily Notes help creates that sharp vision. A few months ago, I was sifting through some old notes, and I realized that I had been having an ongoing conversation with some colleagues about a technical problem at work for about six weeks. I quickly realized that the conversation had gone on far too long, and it was time to simply make a decision on how to solve the problem and move.

Conversations about problems that don't result in action steps float into the ether faster than helium-filled birthday party balloon that a kid forgot to hold. My notes helped me see that something was slipping in a way that To-dos and emails could never do. I'd probably have more realizations like that with a regular review practice. And fewer balloons would be lost.

A practice with purpose and benefits

Our days are few, fleeting, and glorious. I want to live present and attentive to what's happening—to see the story of my life unfold, not for navel gazing, but for memory and growth. Taking a few minutes to write about each day is the best way of Doing your future self a solid and staying attentive.

If you're interested in getting started with Daily Notes, check out my post (Almost) One Month of Daily Notes in Obsidian and take a look at Obsidian for yourself.