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Claude Just Gave My Obsidian Journaling Workflow a HUGE Upgrade — Transcript

by Mike Schmitz · 2,886 words · 420 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00I've been journaling in Obsidian ever
0:01since I first started using the app over
0:025 years ago.
0:04>> [music]
0:04>> One of the reasons that this works so
0:06well is Obsidian's daily notes feature,
0:08though over time I've crafted my own
0:10journaling workflows to assign scores
0:11using a method called daily questions
0:13>> [music]
0:14>> that focuses on my intentions rather
0:16than the outcomes. This workflow was
0:19great and I've used it every day, but
0:21with the release of the Basis core
0:22plugin this year, it became clear that I
0:24would need to update this workflow to
0:26use the note properties instead of the
0:28tags that I've been using since the
0:29beginning.
0:30So, a few weeks ago I bit the bullet and
0:32I updated everything from that tag-based
0:34workflow that I've been using for years
0:36to note properties instead, [music]
0:38including the shortcut that I used to
0:40capture the values as part of my
0:41journaling workflow, and the graphs that
0:43I used to visualize the data. [music]
0:44And in this video, I want to show you
0:46what I changed, how I updated that
0:48shortcut, and most importantly, [music]
0:50I want to show you the beautiful, brand
0:52new journaling dashboard I was able to
0:54create as a result. [music]
0:56Now, I did a video a while back on the
0:57specifics of my entire daily questions
0:59workflow. The link to that video will be
1:01in the description below this one, but
1:03the short version here is that instead
1:04of using prompts like what did I
1:06accomplish today, I reframe the prompts
1:08in several important areas to focus on
1:10the intentions, not the outcomes. And
1:12this is the thing that has helped my
1:14journaling habit finally stick. Is I was
1:17no longer tracking outcomes that I
1:19really couldn't directly control, and I
1:21focused on my effort instead. So, every
1:23day I ask myself a series of questions
1:25that all begin with did I do my best to?
1:28Like, did I do my best to love my wife?
1:30Did I do my best to be a good friend?
1:33Did I do my best to create something?
1:36And I rate myself on a scale from 1 to
1:3910, and I log the scores in my Obsidian
1:42daily note. Now, for a long time I
1:44logged these scores as values attached
1:46to tags that I visualized using the
1:48Tracker community plugin. I created a
1:50canvas dashboard to track my scores for
1:52each area in a code block, and every
1:54quarter I'd review this dashboard as
1:56part of my personal retreat process, as
1:58well as update the dates in those code
2:00blocks so it is ready for the next
2:02round. It's a system that's worked for
2:04me for years, but I knew it needed to be
2:05updated for a couple of reasons.
2:08First, the tracker plugin is always kind
2:10of bugged me. It can be slow in
2:11rendering all that data, and the graphs
2:13don't look all that great. It was
2:15annoying to have to manually update the
2:16dates in the code blocks each quarter,
2:18and when you look at where Obsidian is
2:20going with bases and properties, I knew
2:22the writing was on the wall. My
2:24tag-based journaling workflow was going
2:25to need to be replaced with one that
2:27used note properties instead. And
2:29honestly, I've been dragging my feet
2:30with moving everything to properties
2:32because I have over 1,000 daily notes
2:35with these daily questions values saved
2:37as tags. But recently, I came across a
2:39pretty cool plugin at the recommendation
2:41of someone in the library, which is my
2:43private PKM community, called Life
2:45Tracker, that allows you to create a
2:47dashboard in bases to visualize your
2:49property metadata.
2:51It looked like a great way to visualize
2:53my note metadata, and it even has a view
2:55to make entering missing metadata easy.
2:57Using this, I would still have to make
2:59the switch from tags to properties, but
3:00this looked like an easy way to remove
3:02my reliance on the tracker plugin, and
3:04would at least free me from editing
3:06those code snippets every 90 days.
3:08So, I updated my daily notes template to
3:10add the daily questions metadata at the
3:12top, and I manually brought over about 2
3:14weeks of data so I could see what the
3:15data looked like when I created the
3:17graphs using this particular plugin.
3:20Now, first glance, I thought I had
3:22struck gold. I was able to create a
3:24pretty impressive-looking dashboard
3:26inside of a bases view that showed me
3:28historical data on all my journaling
3:30prompts using beautiful-looking line
3:32graphs, and I could even select from a
3:34few different colors to make it a little
3:35bit more visually appealing. Pretty
3:37quickly though, I started to hit the
3:38glass ceiling as I couldn't customize
3:40these charts exactly the way I wanted
3:43to, and there were a few types of charts
3:44that I wanted to use that were missing
3:46for other dashboards. So, as I started
3:48looking for ways to customize these
3:50graphs and build the ones I really
3:51wanted to use. I recalled Tim Miller
3:53writing about visualizing data in his
3:55daily notes using DataView JS. Now,
3:58unfortunately, I know nothing about
4:00writing DataView JS code, and I quickly
4:02got lost in those code explanations.
4:05But then I had a crazy idea.
4:08Could I get Claude to help me write the
4:10code to visualize the data the way I
4:13wanted to?
4:14And the short answer is absolutely yes.
4:17So, that is what I did. I built a
4:19beautiful new daily questions dashboard
4:21that looks like this, and I used Claude
4:23to help me write the queries to
4:24visualize the data the way I want. So,
4:26here's how I built this beautiful new
4:28daily questions dashboard. I started
4:30with a simple prompt. Help me write a
4:32DataView JS code block that will display
4:34number values from a specific property
4:36in my Obsidian note metadata over time.
4:38After going back and forth with Claude
4:40for a while, I was able to get a version
4:42that looks something like this.
4:44Now, this graph is pretty
4:45straightforward. It has a solid line
4:47that shows my daily questions scores for
4:48the specific property those scores are
4:50assigned to, and I initially asked it to
4:52show me the data for the last 90 days.
4:55There's a little bit of flex or tension
4:57in the line graph to make the lines
4:58curved, and the dotted line represents
5:00the average score for the time period
5:02shown on the graph.
5:04Now, honestly, this is already way
5:06better than my old tracker-based
5:08version, but then I got inspired by a
5:10feature that I saw in the life tracker
5:12plugin where you could select different
5:13time periods for the graph.
5:15So, I also was able to add a button to
5:18each code block that allows me to select
5:20different time periods to display on the
5:22graph. So, now I no longer have to
5:25update the date values in the tracker
5:27code, and I can just select the time
5:29period that I want from a drop-down
5:31menu. This is starting to look really
5:33great. And all the data instantly gets
5:35updated, the averages on the bottom are
5:37calculated just from the visualized data
5:39that's being shown in the graph, and
5:41this is kind of the best version of this
5:43that I've ever had. Now, all of All is
5:45displayed insanely fast thanks to
5:46DataView JS via the DataView plugin and
5:49the charting features provided by the
5:51Obsidian Charts plugin. So, if you try
5:53to implement DataViewJS without the
5:54Obsidian Charts plugin, you will
5:56probably get an error or a prompt to
5:58install that plugin. I provided links to
6:01both of those plugins below this video.
6:04Again, all of this is done with Vibe
6:05coding. I did it without actually
6:07knowing how to write any DataViewJS
6:09code, but by going back and forth with
6:11Claude, I did actually learn quite a bit
6:12about what the code was actually doing
6:14as Claude does a pretty good job of
6:16explaining what it's changing. So,
6:18here's a quick look at the code and
6:19what's actually going on here. Okay, so
6:21first there are three backticks and the
6:23word DataViewJS to indicate that this is
6:25a DataViewJS code block. Then, as you
6:28can see, Claude actually comments out
6:30the code so the first section here is
6:32used to make the header container which
6:34displays the header for the graph and
6:36the button to change the time period on
6:38the right.
6:39The next section adds the header on the
6:41left and the next section configures the
6:43look of the drop-down selection button
6:45on the right. Now, this took a little
6:46bit of tweaking to get it the way that I
6:48wanted, but with some basic CSS
6:49knowledge, I was able to do it fairly
6:52easily. Now, next is the section that
6:54sets the path for the daily notes folder
6:56for the specific property that I want to
6:58chart and the date format of my daily
7:00notes files. Now, if you wanted to
7:02change the property that the code
7:04actually graphed, you just change this
7:06property name right here, which makes
7:09this really easy to customize.
7:11The next section is for the options that
7:13show up in the drop-down and the values
7:14associated with each. This sets which
7:17time periods I can choose from and how
7:18many entries back from the current day
7:20to look at, and the next section sets
7:22the default view to quarterly.
7:24The next section creates the main
7:26container and the following section
7:27creates the graph container. After that,
7:30we get the function to display the chart
7:32based on the time period selected, and
7:34the first thing here is to clear any
7:36previous data. Then to calculate the
7:38cutoff date and figure out how many days
7:40worth of data to show.
7:42The next step is to fetch all the daily
7:43notes that have the property value and
7:46sort them in ascending order, which is
7:48the order that we'll use for the chart
7:50with the chronological dates on the
7:51bottom.
7:52The next section sets the labels from
7:54the daily notes dates and the values
7:56from the selected property, which is
7:57what will show up on the graph. The next
8:00section calculates the average score,
8:02but only from the data that is displayed
8:04on the chart. This took a little bit of
8:05back and forth to get this right. This
8:07makes sure that the average is always
8:09accurately displayed.
8:11The next section defines the chart
8:13structure for the Obsidian Charts
8:14plugin, where it sets the chart type as
8:16line, hides the labels for the graph
8:18itself, and sets the color for the lines
8:20and the dots.
8:21There's a little bit of extra color data
8:22here because I wanted solid dots on my
8:24graph instead of open ones, which I
8:26think looks a little bit better.
8:28The next section is where I force the
8:29graph to go from 0 to 10.5, even though
8:32the scale is only 1 to 10. And that's
8:35because the dots were sliced in half
8:37visually at the top or the bottom of the
8:39graph if there wasn't a little extra
8:41room. And adding margin or padding
8:43didn't seem to help, so going to 10.5
8:45gives me that extra room that I need to
8:47make sure the dots display correctly at
8:48the top of the graph, but then you can
8:50see I also force specific tick marks, so
8:52the graph itself only shows 0 to 10.
8:55Now, this section makes sure that the
8:56legend is hidden, and the next section
8:58shows the dotted red average line.
9:00The next section is what renders the
9:01chart and displays the message, "Please
9:03install and or enable the Obsidian
9:05Charts plugin" if the plugin is not
9:07active.
9:08The next section displays the average
9:09from the available data below the chart,
9:11followed by a section that looks for new
9:13data period to be selected from the
9:15drop-down menu, and if it finds one,
9:17re-renders the chart. And finally, the
9:19bottom section here is the initial
9:21rendering of the chart, which is for the
9:23quarterly 90-day time period. And at the
9:25very end, there's again three backticks
9:28to close out the code block. Okay, so
9:30that's the code. Then, I just copied
9:32this and I changed the header text, the
9:33property name, and the color values so
9:35that when I displayed all of these on my
9:37canvas dashboard, they all had
9:39distinguishable colors. Then I had
9:41another crazy idea. Could I combine all
9:44of these into one graph and toggle the
9:46individual properties on or off?
9:49Again, yes. So, I created another
9:52combined code block which shows each
9:54property as a different color on the
9:56graph and the averages below the graph
9:58for each score being shown.
10:00This might be my favorite thing that I
10:03have ever made in Obsidian. With this,
10:06you can actually toggle the check boxes
10:08at the top to choose which lines show up
10:10on the graph. The averages at the bottom
10:12get displayed only for the visible lines
10:14on the graph. And again, there's a
10:16button to display different time
10:17periods, so you can select from weekly,
10:19monthly, quarterly, yearly, or all time
10:21view options.
10:23The code block for this one is
10:24absolutely bonkers, so I'm not going to
10:26go through the whole thing here. But it
10:28does rely on a lot of the same logic.
10:31And I am building all of this stuff into
10:34the new version of Life HQ if you don't
10:35want to build this all yourself. I
10:37provide free updates to Life HQ to all
10:39customers, so if you already bought it,
10:40you're going to get this update for free
10:42pretty soon. Just want to make sure that
10:44everything is completely good to go
10:45before I add it there for everyone. But
10:48again, no properties are the key to
10:50making this all work and each graph is
10:52simply showing the numerical values
10:53associated with a particular property
10:56over time. So, as I shared earlier, the
10:58thing that drives this is my daily
11:00questions properties at the top of my
11:02daily note template file.
11:04So, you could manually update these
11:06every day, or you could use the command
11:07provided in the life tracker plugin. But
11:09I've been using a shortcut on my iPhone
11:11with actions provided by actions for
11:12Obsidian to capture these values easily
11:15at the end of my day without having to
11:16open up the Obsidian app. So, in order
11:19to update these, I also had to modify my
11:20daily questions shortcut that I walked
11:22through in this other video here. Now,
11:24the basic concept is still exactly the
11:26same. I answer prompts with numbers from
11:291 to 10 based on my intentions. Those
11:31responses get saved as variables, and
11:34then the variables get written to the
11:35current daily note using shortcuts
11:37actions from actions for Obsidian. The
11:40difference is that it's no longer a text
11:42block that gets inserted at a
11:44placeholder. For this to work, I had to
11:46first create a dictionary file in the
11:48shortcut with the key value pairs I
11:50wanted to set. Then I set the properties
11:53for the current daily note according to
11:54that dictionary. Now, this part gets a
11:56little bit technical. Short version here
11:58is that the set properties action adds
12:01my responses to the properties in the
12:03current daily note in a way that the
12:05workflow at the end of the day is
12:06exactly the same. So, here's what it
12:09looks like in action. First, I run the
12:11daily questions shortcut on my iPhone,
12:13which prompts me to provide number
12:14values for all my daily questions. Did I
12:17do my best to be spiritual? Did I do my
12:19best to love my wife? Did I do my best
12:21to love my kids? Did I do my best to be
12:23a good friend? Did I do my best to learn
12:25something? Did I do my best to create
12:27something? And did I do my best to
12:29exercise?
12:30Those responses are captured as
12:32variables, inserted into the dictionary,
12:35and then they get added to the
12:36properties in today's daily note in
12:38Obsidian. So, that's the shortcut, and
12:40if you want to use this for yourself,
12:42it's actually available inside my free
12:44Obsidian starter vault, which has a
12:45bunch of additional tips, templates, and
12:47resources to help you get more out of
12:49your notes and ideas. You can download
12:51that right now by going to
12:52vault.practicalpkm.com.
12:55All right, so that'll do it for this
12:57video on my updated digital journaling
12:58workflow. I walked through the code
13:00examples here so you can piece this
13:01together yourself if you want using
13:03Claude just like I did. But, as I
13:05mentioned, I'm also adding these
13:07personal dashboard tools into LifeHQ,
13:10which is my epic done-for-you Obsidian
13:11vault. It's the quickest way to get up
13:13and running with values-based
13:15productivity and creativity workflows.
13:17But, as I showed you in this video, it's
13:19easy to change and customize this to
13:21your liking so it fits the way that you
13:22work with your notes and ideas. I got a
13:25few more personal dashboards I'm working
13:27on for Life HQ as well, and you can find
13:29out more and get lifetime access to Life
13:31HQ at lifehq.practicalpkm.com.
13:36Thanks for watching, and we'll see you
13:38in another video.

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