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A dependable Obsidian review system can start with two built-in plugins: Daily notes creates or opens a note for the current date, while Templates inserts the same useful structure every time. Configure those first, then add a community periodic-notes plugin only if you genuinely need separate weekly or monthly pages.
This approach keeps daily capture simple, gives recurring reviews a predictable home, and avoids locking your vault into a large automation stack. The steps below use Obsidian’s current labels, including Open today’s daily note and Create a daily note from template.
What this workflow is designed to do
The core of the system is one date-based note per day. Obsidian’s built-in Daily notes plugin opens today’s note when it exists and creates it when it does not. By default, the file name follows the YYYY-MM-DD pattern, so notes sort chronologically in the file browser and are easy to identify later. The official documentation describes this behavior and the relevant settings at Obsidian Help’s Daily notes page.
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A template adds the repeatable parts of your day—such as priorities, a meeting log, decisions, or an end-of-day review—without requiring a third-party automation plugin. Weekly and monthly notes are a separate requirement. Daily notes alone do not create those longer-period pages. If you need them, a community plugin commonly known as Periodic Notes is the extension to investigate, but its current compatibility and settings should be checked in Obsidian before you rely on it.
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The result is a two-stage design:
- Stage 1: core-only daily capture with a controlled folder, date format, and template.
- Stage 2: optional weekly or monthly periods, added only when daily notes no longer provide enough review structure.
What you need before configuring Obsidian
- An Obsidian vault where you can create and edit notes.
- Permission to change that vault’s settings.
- A decision about whether daily files should live in the vault root or a dedicated folder.
- A short list of sections you will actually use every day. Start with the minimum; a template that is too long becomes friction.
Sync or Publish are optional Obsidian services, not prerequisites for this workflow. The Help home page identifies core plugins as built-in features that can be enabled or disabled and lists Sync and Publish as add-ons: Obsidian Help.
Enable the two core plugins
Core plugins ship with Obsidian but may be turned off in a vault. Enable both before creating a template.
- Open Settings from the gear icon.
- Select Core plugins.
- Find Daily notes and switch it on.
- Find Templates and switch it on.
- Leave other plugins disabled until you know which problem they solve.
Enabling a plugin does not create files or alter existing notes. It simply makes the plugin’s commands and settings available. If a later step refers to a setting you cannot see, return to this screen and confirm that the relevant core plugin is enabled.
Configure Daily notes
Choose where new daily files go
Open Settings → Daily notes. The New file location (wording can vary slightly by release) controls the folder used when Obsidian creates a daily note.
- Vault root: the simplest choice for a small vault. New daily files appear beside your other top-level folders.
- A dedicated folder, such as
Daily: keeps date notes together and leaves project folders uncluttered. - Nested folders generated from the date format: useful for a long-running vault. Obsidian’s documentation explains that date formatting can organize daily notes into subfolders; choose a format with path separators only after testing it on a nonessential note.
Create the destination folder first if your version does not offer to create it automatically. Moving a daily note later does not change its date, but it can make links or scripts that assume the old location harder to maintain.
Set the date format and file name
The default YYYY-MM-DD name is a strong general-purpose choice: it is unambiguous, sorts correctly, and does not depend on the language of your operating system. Change it only for a clear organizational reason.
For a year-and-month hierarchy, a format such as YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DD can express the year and month as folders followed by the full date. Treat this as an example of the documented date-format feature, not a requirement; enter the pattern supported by your Obsidian release and verify the first note before adopting it across the vault.
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Keep the date portion in the file name even when you use folders. A note called 2026-10-16 remains self-describing if it is moved, linked from another note, or exported.
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Understand the date used for “today”
Daily notes is date-driven: the command labeled Open today’s daily note looks for the current date’s file and creates it if absent. That means opening the command is the reliable way to start a day; manually making a file with a similar name can bypass the configured template and location. If you work across time zones or keep Obsidian open overnight, check the date shown in the note before recording time-sensitive information.
Create a practical daily template
Make a separate template note
Create a normal note that will serve only as the template. Give it a stable name such as Daily note template and place it in a folder reserved for templates, for example Templates. Do not store the template in the same folder where Daily notes creates dated files; separating them makes it less likely that you will edit the template by mistake.
Templates is a core plugin for inserting predefined text. Its documentation describes a template folder and the built-in variables {{title}}, {{date}}, and {{time}}. The documentation copy is available at Obsidian’s Templates documentation copy. Because that page is community-hosted, use the controls visible in your installed version if a label differs.
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Use only the sections you will maintain
A useful starting template might look like this:
# {{date}}
## Priorities
- [ ]
- [ ]
- [ ]
## Schedule
## Notes and decisions
## Follow-up
## Evening review
- What moved forward?
- What needs a next action?The date heading and task list are examples, not required content. Replace them with the headings that match your work. If you rarely review a section, remove it rather than allowing the template to become a daily checklist you ignore.
Configure template variables and formats
{{title}} inserts the title of the note receiving the template. {{date}} inserts the current date, and {{time}} inserts the current time. Templates settings let you choose the date and time formats; set those formats deliberately so the heading in your note agrees with the file name.
| Variable | What it supplies | Good use in a daily note |
|---|---|---|
{{title}} |
The destination note's title | A heading or a reference in a metadata block |
{{date}} |
The date when the template is inserted | The note's visible date heading |
{{time}} |
The time when the template is inserted | A timestamp for an event or first capture |
Do not add variables you cannot explain. A literal variable that your installed version does not support is more confusing than plain text.
Tell Daily notes to use the template
- Return to Settings → Daily notes.
- Find Template file location.
- Select the template note you created.
- Close settings and create a date that does not already exist, or use a test date in a temporary vault.
- Open Open today's daily note to confirm that the structure appears automatically.
The template is applied when a new daily note is created. It does not retroactively rewrite notes that already exist, and changing the template later does not alter earlier daily files.
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Use the dependable core routes
Daily notes provides several ways to reach the current note:
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- Click the calendar or daily-note button in the ribbon if it is visible.
- Open the Command palette and run Open today's daily note.
- Assign a hotkey to that command if you use it repeatedly.
The command palette route is the best baseline because it works even when you have rearranged the ribbon. It also makes the intended action explicit: open today's page, creating it from the configured template if necessary.
Capture first, process later
Use the daily page as an inbox for the day rather than a replacement for every project note. Record a decision, paste a useful excerpt, or write a next action while the context is fresh. During your review, move durable information to a project or reference note and leave a link in the daily note if the chronology matters.
Keep task syntax consistent. Standard Markdown checkboxes such as - [ ] and - [x] are readable in plain text and do not depend on a task-management add-on. If you later add a plugin that searches tasks, consistent syntax makes migration easier.
Decide whether you need weekly or monthly notes
The built-in Daily notes plugin is about date-based daily files. It is not evidence that Obsidian's core plugins create weekly or monthly notes. If your review cadence requires one page per week or month, treat that as a separate design decision.
When core-only is enough
Stay with Daily notes and Templates when you can answer these questions with daily pages alone:
- Can you find the week's important events by opening or searching the relevant daily notes?
- Can your weekly review live in a normal note that you create when needed?
- Do you prefer fewer settings and no dependency on a community-maintained extension?
You can create an ordinary note named for a period, such as 2026-W42 review or 2026-10 monthly review, and link to the daily notes it summarizes. This manual approach is slower than automation but transparent and resilient.
When a periodic-notes plugin is justified
Search results for Periodic Notes describe a community plugin that extends daily-note behavior with weekly and monthly notes. That is different from the built-in Daily notes plugin. Before installing it, open Obsidian's current Community plugins listing, read the plugin's current description and compatibility information, and confirm that its settings match your vault's date formats and folders.
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Compare the two paths
| Workflow | Supported cadence | Plugins to configure | Best fit | Main trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core-only | Daily notes | Daily notes and Templates | People who want reliable daily capture and occasional manual reviews | Weekly and monthly pages require manual creation |
| Daily plus Periodic Notes | Daily, plus the weekly/monthly periods offered by the community plugin | Daily notes, Templates, and the community plugin | People who perform formal recurring reviews and want those pages generated | More configuration and a dependency whose current compatibility must be checked |
Choose the first path if the extra periods are merely a preference. Choose the second only when manually creating review pages is a recurring source of friction.
Design a weekly and monthly review without over-automating
Whether you use a community plugin or create review notes manually, define what each period is for before choosing folders or commands.
Weekly review
A weekly note should compress the daily stream into decisions and next actions. A simple structure is:
- Highlights: outcomes, not every activity.
- Open loops: tasks that need a named next step.
- Decisions: links to project notes or source material.
- Next week: the small set of priorities that will guide new daily notes.
Link each highlight to the relevant daily note or project note. The links preserve chronology without forcing the weekly page to duplicate all of the original text.
Monthly review
A monthly page should answer a broader question than a weekly page: what changed, what should stop, and what deserves investment next month? Keep it separate from the daily template so the daily capture process remains short. A monthly note can include:
- Projects completed, paused, or materially changed.
- Recurring problems that appeared in more than one week.
- Evidence for goals or metrics you already track.
- Commitments to carry into the next month.
Do not generate weekly or monthly files merely because the plugin can. Every additional note type creates another place to maintain naming, links, and templates.
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Keep locations predictable
A minimal vault can use a structure such as:
Templates/
Daily note template.md
Daily/
2026-10-16.md
Projects/
Reference/If you use date-based subfolders, apply the same rule to every daily note. Changing from a flat folder to nested folders halfway through a year is possible, but it creates two locations to search until you move or redirect older files.
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When a daily entry becomes durable knowledge, create or update the appropriate project or reference note and link back to the day. This preserves the original context while preventing the daily note from becoming an unsearchable transcript.
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Use properties only when they answer a question
Obsidian's Daily notes documentation includes guidance on daily notes and properties. If your release exposes property controls for daily notes, use them for information you will filter or sort—such as a status, project identifier, or review state. Avoid adding fields simply because they look structured. A property that is never queried is maintenance overhead, while a consistent property can make a later review much faster.
Troubleshoot the common failures
Today's note opens in the wrong place
- Check Settings → Daily notes → New file location.
- Confirm that a date format containing folder separators has not changed the destination unexpectedly.
- Search the vault for the date-based file name; an existing note in another folder may be the one Obsidian is opening.
The template does not appear
- Verify that both Daily notes and Templates are enabled under Settings → Core plugins.
- Recheck Settings → Daily notes → Template file location and select the actual template note, not its folder.
- Test with a date that has no existing file. Existing daily notes are not rebuilt when you assign a template.
- Make sure the template note was not moved or renamed after you selected it.
Variables remain as literal text
Literal {{date}} or {{time}} text usually means the file was created or edited without the Templates insertion process, the Templates plugin is disabled, or the syntax was changed. Compare the variable spelling with the documented forms and test in a newly created daily note. Plain headings are a safe fallback while you diagnose the issue.
The date in the heading and the file name disagree
Check the date and time formats in both Daily notes and Templates settings. Use one date convention, such as year-month-day, and avoid manually typing a different convention into the template. If a note was created around midnight, verify which date Obsidian used before filing time-sensitive entries.
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That is expected in a core-only setup. Daily notes does not supply those periods. If you installed a community plugin, confirm that it is enabled and read its current instructions; an older guide may describe commands or settings removed in a newer release. Do not treat a missing weekly command as evidence that your Daily notes configuration is broken.
Changing the template did not update old notes
Templates are applied when a new note is created. To update an existing note, edit it manually or use a deliberate batch-editing method that you understand and have backed up. Do not expect a template setting to rewrite historical notes automatically.
Maintain the workflow as your vault grows
Review the template monthly
Remove sections that consistently stay empty and add a section only after you have repeatedly needed it. A short template encourages capture; a comprehensive template often turns capture into administration.
Keep naming rules stable
Document your chosen date format and folder in the template note or a small vault guide. Stable names make links, searches, and future exports more dependable. If you change the rule, decide how older notes will remain discoverable before creating new files under the new rule.
Add automation one problem at a time
Start with the core workflow for at least several days. If the missing capability is specifically a weekly or monthly page, evaluate Periodic Notes. If the problem is task reporting, search, or dashboards, evaluate a tool designed for that problem rather than installing several unrelated plugins at once. Each plugin adds settings to maintain and another compatibility variable during upgrades.
The practical setup sequence
For most people, the complete initial setup is short:
- Enable Daily notes and Templates in Settings → Core plugins.
- Choose a daily-note folder and keep the default
YYYY-MM-DDformat unless you have a clear reason to change it. - Create one small template note with the sections you will actually use.
- Select it under Settings → Daily notes → Template file location.
- Run Open today's daily note and verify the new file, location, heading, and checkboxes.
- Use the daily page as a capture inbox, then link durable information to project or reference notes.
- Only after the daily workflow is comfortable, decide whether separate weekly or monthly notes justify a community plugin.
This sequence gives you a working daily system without assuming that weekly and monthly notes are part of Obsidian's built-in Daily notes plugin.
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