My Ultra-Minimalist Obsidian Daily Note Gets Some Hidden Nav Power
What's superfluous in one Markdown editor can be a big help in another
I’ve just added some under-the-hood navigation to my super minimalist Obsidian daily note template.
From everything but the kitchen sink to nothing but the date, my daily note now links to the previous day, current day, week, month, and yearly plan.
But you wouldn’t know it from first glance.
It’s easy to remember which part of the date leads to which page, as it goes in order from the leaf to the tree: day → week → month → year.
Why have a link to the current day on the current day page, I imagine you’re asking?
Because it’s a handy way to get back to the file when it’s transcluded onto another page. And all my daily notes are embedded on the monthly page, so it’s something I use often to get back to the source. I know you can click the little link symbol to the side, but that’s fiddly. More often than not I can’t find it first time.
To me it makes more sense to click on the name of the day when the day is where I want to go.
Here’s the code from my new daily note template. It presumes that days, weeks, and months follow these patterns:
2022–01–17 Tue
2022-W03
2022–01
## [[{{date-1d:YYYY-MM-DD ddd}}|«]] [[{{date:YYYY-MM-DD ddd}}|{{date:dddd}}]] [[{{date:YYYY-[W]ww}}|{{date:D}}]] [[{{date:YYYY-MM}}|{{date:MMM}}]] [[{{date:YYYY}} Year Plan|{{date:YYYY}}]] [[{{date+1d:YYYY-MM-DD ddd}}|»]]If you’re thinking there’s no real need for any of this in Obsidian as the extra links can be accessed with keyboard shortcuts, you’re right. But in iA Writer, where keyboard shortcuts are thin on the ground, it’s invaluable.
It’s a good example of something that does no harm in one interface, while providing value in another.