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My Improved Obsidian Habit Tracker: Simpler, Faster, Better — Transcript

by Mike Schmitz · 3,658 words · 549 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00A while back, I shared how I track
0:02habits in Obsidian using a canvas
0:04dashboard, and that video helped a lot
0:07of people set up their first Obsidian
0:09habit tracking workflow. But, there were
0:11three problems with that setup.
0:14First, it required Tracker, a powerful
0:16community plugin, but one which added
0:18friction and meant more things that
0:20could break whenever Obsidian got
0:23updated. Second, customizing it took way
0:26longer because everything [music] was
0:27hard-coded into the code snippet itself.
0:31And third, it was really slow to load
0:33the data whenever you went to view that
0:35dashboard. So, I rebuilt the whole
0:38system using a single plugin that you're
0:40probably already using, Dataview. The
0:43new version is faster to set up, easier
0:46to customize, doesn't require any
0:48updating, displays your dashboard data
0:50instantly, and now shows even more habit
0:53data all in one place. And in this
0:56video, I'm going to walk you through the
0:57complete setup process
0:58>> [music]
0:59>> step-by-step, so you can have the same
1:01system running in your own Obsidian
1:03vault in just about 20 minutes. Now,
1:05before we get into the setup, I want to
1:07make the case for why you'd want to
1:09track habits inside of Obsidian at all
1:11because there are plenty of dedicated
1:13habit tracking apps out there. Some of
1:15them are really nice. So, why not just
1:17use one of those?
1:19Well, the answer, my friend, is context.
1:22Most habit tracking apps are built
1:24around the don't break the chain concept
1:27which is popularized by comedian Jerry
1:29Seinfeld. Story goes that a young comic
1:31came up to Seinfeld after a show once
1:33and asked if he had any advice for an
1:35aspiring young comic. Jerry told him,
1:37"Get a big wall calendar and put a big
1:40red X on each day that you write new
1:42material. After a while, you'll have a
1:44chain," he said, "and your only job then
1:46is to not break the chain." Now, the
1:48principle here is that seeing that chain
1:50or streak grow is pretty motivating. And
1:52often, that's enough to keep you going
1:54when you don't really feel like it.
1:56There's something powerful about seeing
1:57a long streak develop like that and not
2:01wanting to mess it up by breaking it.
2:02Now, any app can help you track your
2:04streaks, but here's what a dedicated
2:06habit tracking app cannot do. It cannot
2:08tell you why you broke that chain.
2:12Hey, why?
2:14>> [laughter]
2:15>> When I look at my reading habit in
2:17Obsidian, for example, and I see a
2:182-week gap, I can actually go back to my
2:21daily notes from that stretch and figure
2:23out what was happening. Maybe it was a
2:24stressful season at work. Maybe my
2:26energy was low. Maybe I was traveling.
2:28The context is all right there, sitting
2:31in my daily notes right next to the data
2:33that's fueling my habit dashboard
2:35because it's all in the same system.
2:38And that is something a standalone app
2:40will never be able to give you. It can
2:41show you the gap, but it can't help you
2:44understand it. And that matters most
2:46when you sit down to do your reviews.
2:49The goal is not just to see how
2:51consistent you were, it's to understand
2:53your patterns well enough to help you
2:55actually get better, to make those small
2:581% improvements.
3:00You need to understand why your system
3:02broke before you can accurately diagnose
3:05and fix it. That requires context. And
3:07if you use your daily notes the way that
3:09I do, Obsidian is where all that context
3:11already lives. So, that's why I track
3:13habits here instead of a separate app.
3:16Everything's connected, and that's kind
3:18of the whole point. Okay, now before we
3:19build anything, let me show you what the
3:21finished product looks like, so you know
3:22exactly what you're working towards. And
3:24if you want a done-for-you version of
3:26this, I've actually included the updated
3:28version of this dashboard in my
3:30Practical PKM Starter Vault, which you
3:32can download for free right now at
3:33vault.practicalpkm.com.
3:36I highly recommend you download that if
3:38you are following along at home. So,
3:39this is my habit tracking dashboard.
3:41It's a canvas file in Obsidian, and each
3:43habit gets its own card on the canvas.
3:46As you can see, I'm currently tracking
3:47five different habits: reading, writing,
3:49planning, prayer, and shutdown.
3:51And each one has its own calendar view
3:53with streak stats built right in.
3:56Each card shows a full month calendar
3:58grid laid out Monday through Sunday.
4:00Completed days show up as solid green
4:01circles. Missed days, which means a
4:03daily note exists but I didn't check the
4:05box, show up as red rings. And the days
4:08without any data are just plain numbers.
4:11But, here's the part I really love. When
4:12you complete consecutive days, the
4:14dashboard draws green connecting lines
4:16between them. So, your streaks become
4:18this visual chain across the weeks and
4:20months in your habit calendar. You can
4:22literally see your consistency at a
4:24glance. And once the chain starts
4:26forming, you really don't want to break
4:27it. You can also navigate between months
4:30using the previous and next buttons at
4:32the top of the calendar. And if you
4:33click on any day, it opens the daily
4:34note for that day. So, if you notice a
4:37gap in your streak and you want to know
4:38what happened, you're one click away
4:40from getting that context. Now, below
4:42the calendar on each card, you've also
4:44got a stats bar with five different
4:46numbers.
4:47The current streak is how many days in a
4:48row you've completed this habit leading
4:50up to today.
4:51The longest streak is your personal best
4:53shown in gold, which is a great
4:55motivator. The longest break is your
4:57biggest gap between completions shown in
5:00red. This is honestly one of the most
5:01useful numbers because it shows you your
5:03worst-case pattern. If your longest
5:05break is 3 days, it tells you something
5:07very different than if it's 3 weeks. And
5:09then, you've also got your overall
5:10completion percentage from all the daily
5:12notes in your vault as well as the total
5:14number of days completed. Now, the key
5:16to making this actually work is to
5:18remove as much friction as possible when
5:20you're logging these habits.
5:21So, to log the habits that you see here
5:23really only takes about 30 seconds every
5:25day. I open my daily note, I go to the
5:27properties, I toggle the boxes for the
5:29habits I completed, and I'm done. That's
5:31it. This is not meant to be a journaling
5:33session or a deep reflection every
5:34single day. It's a quick data entry
5:37point. The dashboard is where you do the
5:39reflecting, and you can do that on your
5:40own schedule. Maybe during your weekly
5:42review, when something feels off, or
5:44like I said earlier, as part of your
5:45quarterly personal retreat. So, when you
5:47look at this dashboard and you notice a
5:49gap forming, that's your signal to click
5:51into those daily notes from that period
5:52and figure out what actually happened
5:54here. The dashboard shows you the
5:56pattern, but the daily notes have the
5:57data. That's where you figure out what
5:59went wrong and act on it. Okay, so to
6:01set this up, you first need to add some
6:03habits that you want to track to your
6:04daily notes template file. The habits
6:07are tracked using checkbox properties in
6:09your daily note properties. The ones
6:11that I use are actually included in my
6:13current daily note template file, which
6:14is also inside that free Obsidian
6:16Starter Vault. You can find that and
6:18modify it to your liking in the
6:19templates folder. Now, if you're adding
6:21these from scratch, just add a checkbox
6:23property for each habit you want to
6:24track and set the default value to
6:27false. That's going to make it unchecked
6:29by default. Now, when you create a daily
6:31note using this template, those
6:33properties will appear at the top as
6:35checkboxes that you can toggle. So, just
6:37click a checkbox, and the default value
6:39changes from false to true. Toggle the
6:41checkboxes for the habits that you
6:43complete each day, and you're done.
6:44That's the entire check-in workflow.
6:47Now, a piece of advice that I learned
6:49the hard way. I recommend you actually
6:51track fewer habits here than you think
6:53you should. I know it's tempting to
6:54throw 15 things on this list: drink
6:56water, meditate, read, exercise,
6:58journal, take vitamins, stretch, floss.
7:00But, if you're trying to build
7:01consistency, a shorter list is way more
7:04effective than a longer one. I keep mine
7:07between three to five habits at a time.
7:09I add them one at a time, and I only add
7:11the ones that I genuinely care about
7:13sustaining right now. Not everything I
7:16theoretically want to do in an ideal
7:17version of my life.
7:19The things that I have firmly
7:20established as habits already, like
7:22Bible reading and stretching every day,
7:23I don't bother tracking here. The ones
7:25that appear in my daily note template
7:27are the ones that I'm trying to
7:29establish.
7:30So, the key is to keep this simple and
7:32minimal. If your daily check-in takes 30
7:34seconds, you'll do it every day. If it
7:36takes 5 minutes because you're starting
7:37to list 15 things and you're trying to
7:39remember, which ones did I do, which
7:41ones did I not do, you're going to start
7:42skipping days, and then you're going to
7:44stop checking in entirely. Then, the
7:46whole tracking system completely falls
7:48apart. And I've been there. The short
7:51list keeps the friction low enough that
7:52the habit of tracking your habits
7:54actually sticks. Now, for the mobile
7:56workflow, this is actually dead simple.
7:58In fact, most of the time that I log my
7:59habits, I'm doing it on my iPhone. You
8:01just open Obsidian on your phone, tap
8:03into today's daily note, toggle the
8:05checkboxes in the properties section,
8:07and you're done. Since I have quite a
8:09few properties in my note, I find it
8:11helpful to show these properties in the
8:12right sidebar instead of at the top of
8:14the note. This requires hiding the
8:16properties at the top of the note, which
8:18you can do by going to settings, editor,
8:21properties in document, and changing the
8:23setting to hidden.
8:25And then, to show those properties in
8:26the right sidebar, open up the command
8:29palette and run the properties view show
8:31file properties command. I also have it
8:33set to open straight to today's daily
8:35note whenever I open Obsidian on my
8:37phone, which you can configure under
8:38settings, files and links, default file
8:41to open.
8:42So, whenever I open Obsidian on my phone
8:44at the end of the day, it takes me
8:45straight to the daily note. I swipe to
8:47see the right sidebar, and I just check
8:49the boxes for the habits that I
8:50completed that day.
8:52And just so you understand what's
8:53happening under the hood here, when the
8:54dashboard reads your data, it's looking
8:56at these front matter properties across
8:59every note in your daily notes folder. A
9:01property set to true means that you
9:03completed the habit that day, false
9:05means you didn't. That's the raw data,
9:07and minimizing the friction when logging
9:09it means it's much more accurate. So,
9:12everything that the dashboard shows you,
9:13the calendar view, the streaks, the
9:15breaks, the completion percentage, it
9:17all comes from reading those true-false
9:19values across all your daily notes. Now,
9:22if it helps, let me walk you through why
9:23I picked the five habits that I'm
9:25tracking right now. Reading and writing
9:27are the two creative habits that drive
9:29my creator business. If I'm not reading,
9:31I'm not getting new ideas. If I'm not
9:33writing, I'm not synthesizing those
9:35ideas, figuring out what I think about
9:38them, and turning those ideas into
9:39content. Planning is my morning planning
9:42session where I look at my calendar, my
9:44task list, and I decide what I'm
9:45actually going to focus on that day, and
9:46then I time block my day in my Supernote
9:48Nomad. Prayer is a spiritual discipline
9:50I'm trying to get a little bit better
9:51at, and shutdown is my end-of-workday
9:53routine where I close out my tasks,
9:55review what got done, and mentally clock
9:57out, so I'm actually present with my
9:58family in the evening. Now, notice that
10:00none of these are things like drink
10:02eight glasses of water or do 50
10:03push-ups.
10:04Those quantitative habits might be
10:07worthwhile, but in my opinion, they
10:08don't need a tracking dashboard in
10:10Obsidian. The habits that I track here
10:12are the ones where consistency compounds
10:14over time, and where I want to see
10:17long-term patterns emerge, not just
10:20check today's checkbox. So, that's a
10:22good filter to use when you're deciding
10:24what to put on your own habit list.
10:26Okay, so now let's build the dashboard.
10:27I'm going to walk you through this
10:28step-by-step, but I got to say up front,
10:30even if you've never touched a line of
10:32code before, there's really only one
10:34thing in this entire setup that you
10:35absolutely need to change to make it
10:38your own. Everything else, you can just
10:39copy and paste directly. So, there's two
10:42places where you're actually going to
10:43change text, but one thing that drives
10:46all of the data in the dashboard, and
10:48that one thing is the habit property,
10:50which is just the name of the checkbox
10:52in your daily note front matter that
10:54corresponds to the habit that you're
10:56tracking. I'm going to show you exactly
10:58where to find it and what to change it
10:59to when we get there. Okay, so first, to
11:02add these charts, you really just need a
11:04new canvas file. I call mine habit
11:06tracking dashboard, and then you just
11:09add cards for each habit that you want
11:10to visualize. Each habit gets its own
11:13card with the DataView JS code block
11:14that handles everything, reading your
11:16data, calculating the streaks, and
11:18rendering the calendar. Now, again, I
11:20generated these using Claude code, just
11:22like the new journaling dashboard that I
11:23described in this other YouTube video
11:25here. So, to create the charts, you just
11:27drag in a card, edit the code in the
11:29card, and paste in the code block. Now,
11:32there's a lot going on in this code, but
11:34I'll walk through a little bit of it
11:35here. So, first, at the very top is
11:36three backticks and the word DataView
11:38JS, which tells Obsidian that this is a
11:40code block, and it should use DataView
11:41to try to render it.
11:43The first section is the configuration
11:45section. This is where you change the
11:46habit that you want to track by typing
11:48the name of the property right here.
11:51That's the one thing you absolutely have
11:52to change.
11:53The next section creates a unique ID
11:55based on that habit property name, and
11:57the next big section is how it
11:59calculates the streak statistics. The
12:01next section is the function to render
12:03the calendar, a section for getting all
12:05the daily notes from the property based
12:07on the daily notes folder location,
12:09creates a map of dates for the habit
12:10completion,
12:12calculates the streaks,
12:13gets the first and last days of each
12:15month,
12:16gets the starting day of the week, which
12:17I have set to Monday,
12:19gets the month name,
12:21adds previous month dates,
12:23adds days from the current month, and
12:25builds an HTML calendar that includes
12:27both a next and previous button.
12:29This is the only other place where you
12:31might need to change something as the
12:32header text and the emoji that show up
12:34at the top of the calendar appear here.
12:37Then it renders each cell,
12:39checks for connections,
12:41has special logic for horizontal
12:42connections and week wrapping
12:44connections,
12:45uses darker colors for the previous
12:46month,
12:47defines the style for the dots,
12:49and also has a bunch of stuff here for
12:51displaying the line elements in the
12:53calendar.
12:54Below that is the HTML grid section.
12:57Now, at the very bottom, there's a
12:58section here which renders everything
13:00and creates event listeners to update
13:01when things get clicked on.
13:03At the very bottom, of course, there are
13:05three backticks to close the code block.
13:07So, that's basically what the code does,
13:09but there is one variation I want to
13:11show you here, and that is for my
13:12shutdown habit. That's my end of work
13:15day routine. I only do this on the
13:16weekdays. So, I have a slightly modified
13:19version of the code that actually skips
13:21weekends entirely. It doesn't count
13:24Saturdays or Sundays as miss days, and
13:26it doesn't break your streak if you skip
13:28the weekends. So, if you have habits
13:30that are weekday only, like a work
13:31routine or a commute-related habit, then
13:34this variant can be really handy. Modify
13:36that code block from the starter vault
13:38if you want that functionality.
13:40But, here's what I really want you to
13:41take away from this video. You do not
13:44need to be a power user to set this up.
13:47If you can create a canvas file, paste
13:49in a code block, change two lines of
13:51text, and toggle checkboxes in your
13:53daily note, you can have this running in
13:56your vault today. It's all built on one
13:58code block per habit, and once it's in
14:00place, you never have to touch this code
14:03again. You just check your boxes and let
14:04the dashboard do the rest. So, that's
14:06the dashboard setup. Now, let me show
14:08you how I actually use this day-to-day,
14:10because the system is only as good as
14:12your habit of using it. Now, daily
14:14interaction, as I mentioned before, is
14:15actually pretty minimal. When I complete
14:17a habit, I check the box in my daily
14:19note, as I described earlier on my phone
14:21at the end of the day. That's it.
14:22Tracking all my habits takes about 10
14:25seconds.
14:26The dashboard isn't something that I
14:28look at every day, but it's there when I
14:30need it. Where it really earns its keep
14:33is in my reviews. So, about once a week,
14:35I'll pull up the dashboard, and I'll
14:37just scan for patterns. Not to judge
14:38myself, just to notice if anything feels
14:41off. Did I consistently miss my reading
14:44habit on Thursdays? Was there a stretch
14:46where I was firing on all cylinders? The
14:48calendar view makes those patterns
14:49obvious in a way that a simple streak
14:52number never could. But, the number that
14:54is most interesting to me is not the
14:56current streak or even the longest
14:57streak, it's the longest break. That
15:00number tells a different story. A long
15:03break is not a moral failure, but it is
15:05a signal that something is off. It's
15:07telling you that something happened
15:08during that stretch that made this habit
15:10especially hard to maintain, or maybe
15:13you just don't care enough about this
15:14thing to do it consistently anymore,
15:15which is completely fine. But, when I
15:17sit down for my quarterly review, and I
15:19see a longest break of, say, 18 days, my
15:22first question isn't why did I miss this
15:24so much? I try to figure out what was
15:26going on during those 18 days. And
15:29because all of that context lives right
15:31there in Obsidian, in my daily notes, my
15:33journal entries, my weekly reviews, I
15:35can actually go find it. That's the
15:37mindset shift that makes this system
15:39work. You're not tracking habits to
15:41create guilt if you don't do them.
15:43You're tracking habits to create data
15:45that supports the behavioral change that
15:47you want to make. That data is something
15:49that you can actually learn from. A
15:51streak is motivating, but understanding
15:53why the chain broke, and what was
15:55happening in your life when it did,
15:57that's what helps you actually build
15:59better habits over time. So, that's my
16:01updated habit tracking system, a custom
16:03canvas dashboard that gives you a
16:05calendar view of your completions and a
16:06streak summary of your current streak,
16:08longest streak, longest break, all
16:11powered by simple checkboxes in your
16:14daily notes. Now, if you want to get
16:15started with this quickly, I put
16:17together a free starter vault that
16:18includes the full habit tracking
16:20dashboard that you saw in this video.
16:22But, it's not going to look the same
16:23because there's no daily note data in
16:25there to populate it with.
16:26>> [music]
16:26>> The code blocks are all there, though,
16:27if you do want to customize them and add
16:29them to your own Obsidian vault. It
16:31includes the exact code blocks that I
16:33showed you in this video, along with the
16:34daily note template file with all the
16:36checkbox properties already set up. So,
16:39if you haven't yet, you can download it
16:40for free right now by going to
16:43vault.practicalpkm.com.
16:44[music]
16:46And if you want to take this even
16:47further, if you want your habit data to
16:48be part of a bigger life operating
16:51system that connects your daily notes,
16:52your weekly reviews, your quarterly
16:54retreats, and your long-term goals all
16:56in one place, that's exactly what LifeHQ
17:00is for. The dashboard that we built
17:02today is a great standalone tool, but
17:04inside of LifeHQ, it becomes one piece
17:07of a much bigger picture. Your habits,
17:09your projects, your reading, your
17:11journaling, it's all connected, all in
17:14Obsidian, all in one epic pre-built
17:16vault. LifeHQ also has over 60,000 words
17:20of documentation,
17:21>> [music]
17:21>> so you can customize things just the way
17:23you like them and really make it your
17:24own. So, if that sounds interesting, you
17:26can find out more at
17:27lifehq.practicalpkm.com.
17:29[music]
17:30Thanks for watching, and we'll see you
17:31in another video.
17:36Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go,
17:37go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go,
17:37go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go,
17:38go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go,
17:38go, go, go.

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