Daily Note

Create or update today's private journal entry with guided prompts, habit tracking, and metrics.

Location

All private notes live in content/private/ with flat structure (no subfolders).

Personal Config

IMPORTANT: Read .claude/skills/daily-note/habits-config.md for Alexander's specific habits and metric targets. Use those instead of the generic defaults.

Date Format

Daily notes: YYYY-MM-DD.md (ISO 8601)
Example: 2024-01-13.md

Phase 1: Check for Existing Note

Get today's date and check if a note exists:

Glob: content/private/{today YYYY-MM-DD}.md

If exists: Read the file and proceed to Phase 4 (Update Mode). If missing: Proceed to Phase 2 (Mode Selection).

Phase 2: Mode Selection

Ask user what kind of entry they want:

question: "What would you like to do?"
header: "Mode"
options:
  - label: "Quick capture"
    description: "Just log something quickly (1 min)"
  - label: "Morning check-in"
    description: "Start your day with intentions + habits"
  - label: "Evening reflection"
    description: "Review your day + track metrics"
  - label: "Full journal"
    description: "Complete daily entry with all sections"

Branch based on selection:

Quick capture → Phase 3A
Morning check-in → Phase 3B
Evening reflection → Phase 3C
Full journal → Phase 3D

Phase 3A: Quick Capture

Simple and fast - just capture a thought:

question: "What do you want to capture?"
header: "Capture"
options:
  - label: "A thought"
    description: "Something on your mind"
  - label: "A win"
    description: "Something good that happened"
  - label: "A learning"
    description: "Something you discovered"
  - label: "A todo"
    description: "Something to remember"

After user provides content, append to the appropriate section in the daily note.

Phase 3B: Morning Check-in

Step 1: How are you feeling?

question: "How are you feeling this morning?"
header: "Mood"
options:
  - label: "Great 😊"
    description: "Energized and ready"
  - label: "Good 🙂"
    description: "Steady and calm"
  - label: "Okay 😐"
    description: "Neutral"
  - label: "Low 😔"
    description: "Tired or down"

Step 2: Track habits

question: "Which habits did you complete?"
header: "Habits"
multiSelect: true
options:
  - label: "Morning walk"
    description: "Morning movement"
  - label: "Read (30 min)"
    description: "Books or articles"
  - label: "Workout"
    description: "Strength or cardio"
  - label: "Deep work (45 min)"
    description: "Focused work block"

Step 3: Intentions

Ask: "What's your main focus for today?" (free text input)

Step 4: Generate morning entry

Create/update the daily note with morning sections filled in.

Phase 3C: Evening Reflection

Step 1: How was your day?

question: "How did today go overall?"
header: "Day Rating"
options:
  - label: "Excellent ⭐⭐⭐"
    description: "Great day, accomplished a lot"
  - label: "Good ⭐⭐"
    description: "Solid day, decent progress"
  - label: "Mixed ⭐"
    description: "Some good, some challenges"
  - label: "Tough"
    description: "Difficult day"

Step 2: Track daily metrics

question: "Which metrics to log?"
header: "Metrics"
multiSelect: true
options:
  - label: "Steps"
    description: "Target: 7000+"
  - label: "Calories"
    description: "Target: < 2800"
  - label: "Protein"
    description: "Target: 180g+"
  - label: "Eating window"
    description: "Nothing after 20:00"

If metrics selected, ask for values:

Steps: "How many steps today?"
Calories: "Total calories?"
Protein: "Total protein (g)?"
Eating window: "Did you respect the eating window (nothing after 20:00)?"

Step 3: Track habits (if not done in morning)

question: "Which habits did you complete today?"
header: "Habits"
multiSelect: true
options:
  - label: "Morning walk"
    description: "Morning movement"
  - label: "Read (30 min)"
    description: "Books or articles"
  - label: "Workout"
    description: "Strength or cardio"
  - label: "Deep work (45 min)"
    description: "Focused work block"

Step 4: Wins and learnings

Ask: "What's one win from today?" (free text) Ask: "Any learnings or insights?" (free text, optional)

Step 5: Gratitude

question: "Want to capture gratitude?"
header: "Gratitude"
options:
  - label: "Yes"
    description: "Note what you're grateful for"
  - label: "Skip"
    description: "Not today"

If yes, ask: "What are you grateful for today?"

Step 6: Generate evening entry

Update the daily note with evening sections filled in.

Phase 3D: Full Journal

Run both morning and evening flows sequentially, plus:

Additional: Tomorrow

question: "Want to plan tomorrow?"
header: "Tomorrow"
options:
  - label: "Yes"
    description: "Set intentions for tomorrow"
  - label: "Skip"
    description: "Plan later"

If yes, ask: "What's your main priority for tomorrow?"

Additional: Links

Search for public notes created/modified today and suggest wiki-links:

Grep pattern: "date: {today}" glob: "content/*.md"

Phase 4: Update Mode (Existing Note)

When a daily note already exists:

4.1 Display Current State

Read the file and show:

Current mood and ratings
Habits already tracked
Metrics logged
Sections with content

4.2 Choose What to Update

question: "What would you like to add?"
header: "Update"
options:
  - label: "Quick thought"
    description: "Add something to captures"
  - label: "Track habits"
    description: "Log completed habits"
  - label: "Log metrics"
    description: "Add weight, sleep, etc."
  - label: "Evening review"
    description: "Complete the day's reflection"

Proceed to appropriate phase based on selection.

Daily Note Template

Full template with all possible sections:

---
title: "YYYY-MM-DD"
type: daily
date: YYYY-MM-DD
mood: good | great | okay | low
dayRating: 1 | 2 | 3
private: true
---

## Habits

- [ ] Morning walk
- [ ] Read (30 min)
- [ ] Workout
- [ ] Deep work (45 min)

## Metrics

| Metric | Value | Target |
|--------|-------|--------|
| Steps | | 7000+ |
| Calories | | < 2800 |
| Protein | | 180g+ |
| Eating window | | ✓ |

## Morning Intentions

{what to focus on today}

## Captures

- {quick thoughts throughout the day}

## Wins

- {good things that happened}

## Learnings

- {insights and discoveries}

## Gratitude

- {what you're thankful for}

## Tomorrow

- {priorities for the next day}

## Links Captured

- [[public-note-from-today]]

Habits Reference

Alexander's daily habits:

| Habit | Target | |-------|--------| | Morning walk | Daily | | Read | 30 min | | Workout | Daily | | Deep work | 45 min |

Metrics Reference

Alexander's daily metrics:

| Metric | Target | Format | |--------|--------|--------| | Steps | 7000+ | number | | Calories | < 2800 | number | | Protein | 180g+ | grams | | Eating window | Nothing after 20:00 | ✓ or ✗ |

Quality Checklist

Before saving:

[ ] Filename matches YYYY-MM-DD.md format
[ ] Frontmatter has type: daily and private: true
[ ] Date in title and frontmatter match
[ ] At least one section has content
[ ] Habits use checkbox format - [x] or - [ ]
[ ] Metrics table is properly formatted
[ ] Wiki-links use correct [[slug]] format

Tips for Good Journaling

Consistency > Length: A few bullet points daily beats long entries occasionally
Capture immediately: Log wins and learnings when they happen
Be honest: Track actual habits, not aspirational ones
Review weekly: Use /weekly-review to find patterns

Error Recovery

| Error | Recovery | |-------|----------| | User wants different date | Allow specifying date, adjust filename | | Wants to customize habits | Accept custom habit names | | Metric format unclear | Accept any format, don't enforce | | Section too long | Accept without truncation | | Wiki-link target doesn't exist | Warn but allow |