Daily Journal
Capture daily notes in the user's Obsidian second brain without turning personal journaling into project management. Use second-brain for shared vault conventions.
The Daily Note Is a Journal, Not a Work Log
This is the distinction that decides almost every routing question here.
"Key conversations and action items are intended to be related to projects and tasks, whereas I want the journal to be more reflective of my day."
- How the user felt about something is journal content. "Frustrated with how the pricing call went" belongs in
## Mood / Energy.
- What was decided, said, or owed is not. "Talked to Sam about Wayfinder, he'll send the quote Friday" is a project conversation plus a task — route it to
project-tracking and task-tracking, and write nothing to the daily note.
Older daily notes contain ## Key Conversations and ## Action Items sections. That content was misrouted; its real homes are the project note and Tasks.md. Do not add to those sections, and do not rewrite or migrate the ones that exist — old prose stays exactly where it is.
Writing an Entry
Use obsidian__daily_log. It resolves the date, creates Daily/YYYY-MM-DD.md from the template if today has no note yet, and appends inside the section you name:
obsidian__daily_log section="Food" content="Made carbonara, first time with guanciale."
obsidian__daily_log section="Mood / Energy" content="Low energy all afternoon." date="2026-07-30"
- Omit
date for today. Only pass it when the user refers to another day — resolve a relative reference ("yesterday", "last friday") with obsidian__date_resolve first and pass its date:
obsidian__date_resolve expression="yesterday"
obsidian__daily_log section="Mood / Energy" content="Low energy all afternoon." date="2026-07-30"
- Preserve the user's wording and tone. Minimal cleanup, no summarizing.
- Repeat entries are skipped rather than duplicated, so a retry is safe.
- Wikilink people, projects, and knowledge notes you mention — same words, only brackets added. This is what connects journal entries into the graph.
nightly-consolidation will catch anything you miss.
Sections
section is a fixed list of seven. There is no eighth, and no free-text section: a journal with a stable shape is one the user can actually read back.
| The entry is about |
Section |
| Mood, energy, sleep, stress |
Mood / Energy |
| Weather observations |
Weather |
| Workouts, walks, sports, health activity |
Exercise |
| Books, shows, films, music, games, articles |
Media |
| Meals, snacks, restaurants, cooking |
Food |
| Things bought, subscriptions, notable spending |
Purchases |
| Reflections, memories, stray notes, anything else |
Random Thoughts |
If nothing else fits, it is a Random Thoughts entry. If it does not fit there either, it is probably not journal content — re-read the boundary above and route it.
Relationship to Other Skills
- A journal entry that contains a clear task: route to
task-tracking. Do not create tasks from journal text on your own inference.
- A journal entry that records a decision or project fact: route to
project-tracking.
- A journal entry that records a conversation or durable person context: route to
people-notes.
- Keep journaling capture-first.
nightly-consolidation does the deeper linking later.
Privacy and Tone
- Treat journal content as private.
- Do not repeat sensitive journal details outside the current direct channel unless necessary.
- Keep confirmations brief: say what date and section were updated.
1---2name: daily-journal3description: Capture personal daily diary entries in the Obsidian vault: mood, energy, weather, exercise, food, media, purchases, random thoughts. Use for "today I..." personal logs and observations. NOT for: reusable reference facts (knowledge-base), actionable work (task-tracking), project updates or conversation notes (project-tracking), or durable person context (people-notes).4---56# Daily Journal78Capture daily notes in the user's Obsidian second brain without turning personal journaling into project management. Use `second-brain` for shared vault conventions.910## The Daily Note Is a Journal, Not a Work Log1112This is the distinction that decides almost every routing question here.1314> "Key conversations and action items are intended to be related to projects and tasks, whereas I want the journal to be more reflective of my day."1516- **How the user felt about something** is journal content. "Frustrated with how the pricing call went" belongs in `## Mood / Energy`.17- **What was decided, said, or owed** is not. "Talked to Sam about Wayfinder, he'll send the quote Friday" is a project conversation plus a task — route it to `project-tracking` and `task-tracking`, and write nothing to the daily note.1819Older daily notes contain `## Key Conversations` and `## Action Items` sections. That content was misrouted; its real homes are the project note and `Tasks.md`. Do not add to those sections, and do not rewrite or migrate the ones that exist — old prose stays exactly where it is.2021## Writing an Entry2223Use `obsidian__daily_log`. It resolves the date, creates `Daily/YYYY-MM-DD.md` from the template if today has no note yet, and appends inside the section you name:2425```text26obsidian__daily_log section="Food" content="Made carbonara, first time with guanciale."27obsidian__daily_log section="Mood / Energy" content="Low energy all afternoon." date="2026-07-30"28```2930- Omit `date` for today. Only pass it when the user refers to another day — resolve a relative reference ("yesterday", "last friday") with `obsidian__date_resolve` first and pass its `date`:3132```text33obsidian__date_resolve expression="yesterday"34obsidian__daily_log section="Mood / Energy" content="Low energy all afternoon." date="2026-07-30"35```3637- Preserve the user's wording and tone. Minimal cleanup, no summarizing.38- Repeat entries are skipped rather than duplicated, so a retry is safe.39- Wikilink people, projects, and knowledge notes you mention — same words, only brackets added. This is what connects journal entries into the graph. `nightly-consolidation` will catch anything you miss.4041## Sections4243`section` is a fixed list of seven. There is no eighth, and no free-text section: a journal with a stable shape is one the user can actually read back.4445| The entry is about | Section |46|---|---|47| Mood, energy, sleep, stress | `Mood / Energy` |48| Weather observations | `Weather` |49| Workouts, walks, sports, health activity | `Exercise` |50| Books, shows, films, music, games, articles | `Media` |51| Meals, snacks, restaurants, cooking | `Food` |52| Things bought, subscriptions, notable spending | `Purchases` |53| Reflections, memories, stray notes, anything else | `Random Thoughts` |5455If nothing else fits, it is a `Random Thoughts` entry. If it does not fit *there* either, it is probably not journal content — re-read the boundary above and route it.5657## Relationship to Other Skills5859- A journal entry that contains a clear task: route to `task-tracking`. Do not create tasks from journal text on your own inference.60- A journal entry that records a decision or project fact: route to `project-tracking`.61- A journal entry that records a conversation or durable person context: route to `people-notes`.62- Keep journaling capture-first. `nightly-consolidation` does the deeper linking later.6364## Privacy and Tone6566- Treat journal content as private.67- Do not repeat sensitive journal details outside the current direct channel unless necessary.68- Keep confirmations brief: say what date and section were updated.
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