Using Obsidian for daily task and timeline management

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Posted by MadaboutDana
Jul 9, 2025 at 09:28 AM

As most of you probably know, I now use Obsidian as my base PKM, and have gradually removed all other apps and subscriptions, persuaded by the sheer power and flexibility of Obsidian and its plugins.

But some apps work very well alongside Obsidian, so I thought I’d update you on a couple of them.

First, exclusively on macOS, is the very pleasant and cheap Type, which is a simple note-keeping app that appears in the menu bar – simple, but flexible. Basically, you create a note file in a given folder, and you can then create little notes within that note – time-stamped if you wish. It’s a great (and extremely inexpensive) way of generating a simple time tracker.

Of course I started using Type with Obsidian more or less straight away, by putting a time-tracking note inside my main Vault. But then I thought to myself: I already keep a daily journal in Obsidian, with a separate note for each day in which I list my main tasks for that day (as well as any thoughts I may have). What if I could include my time-tracker inside that daily note (rather than keeping it separate)?

And sure enough, by “importing” my daily journal note (typically named “2025-07-09.md”) into Type (which basically means, focusing Type on that note), I found that Type automatically adds time-stamped entries to the bottom of the note *without* disturbing any of the (sometimes extensive) information and thoughts I also keep there and, of course, update during the day.

Of course I could also do this using Obsidian (there are plenty of time-stamping plugins available), but Type is so fast and convenient (and can also hover on top of other windows if you wish) that I use it by preference, not least because the keyboard shortcut allows me to use it while working in any application. So now, every morning, I “import” my daily journal note into Type and start to create a timeline as I work on various tasks during the day. Meaning all my day-related records are in the same place.

Another interesting app is TaskForge, which offers a very flexible way of managing tasks in Obsidian via a very simple interface that on macOS and iOS at least is independent of Obsidian Sync (uses iCloud instead). However, a version for Android is imminent, and I’ll be interested to see how that works (I use an Android smartphone – Fairphone – and an Android tablet nowadays, so am increasingly interested in multi-cross-platform solutions). Of course TickTick is another well-established option – but while there are plugins for syncing TickTick with Obsidian, I like the look of TaskForge (taskforge.md).

Cheers!
Bill

Posted by Paul Korm
Jul 10, 2025 at 01:26 PM

I am in my sixth year of generating Daily Notes in Obsidian. I create the note via the “Open today’s daily note” ribbon button, and then populate the note with a Typinator macro expansion (“obs.daily”) that runs a series of scripts and API calls to gather some state-data I need from various data sources, as well as executing macOS Shortcuts to insert today’s calendar appointments and the weather forecast. My daily note has a built-in Dataview search to grab links to any same-day notes that are created during the day, and a link to the same-date notes from a year ago and two years ago so I can quickly refresh my awareness of history.

I really like this process.

I’m also moving away from this process. I’ve started using Tana’s daily note for journaling. My Tana #day tag has automation built in that does a lot of what I was doing in Obsidian to populate or start-up the daily note. The main reason I’m enjoying Tana more for daily notes is that Tana is a massive graph database where every entry is a node that I can click into and immediately expand on the details. Or I can select text in a node and immediately add a reference to other nodes by typing @ and selecting from the references that Tana presents. Of I can add supertags such as #task, #event, #person, #dream, and automatically add fields or other metadata (even AI-completions) to the node I’m tagging. None of this is possible without extra effort in Obsidian, or isn’t remotely possible in Obsidian.

Another factor is really disliking (are we thinking “hate”?) Obsidian sync and the Obsidian mobile app. Tana’s iPhone app is excellent, and because Tana is presented via standard web tech, the content on the phone is pretty much the same as it is in a desktop browser without the annoyance of Obsidian sync.

Posted by MadaboutDana
Jul 11, 2025 at 10:01 AM

Oh wow, that sounds seriously sophisticated! I’ve installed and then uninstalled Dataview several times – it’s amazing, but also complex. Personally, I’ve (so far) had a good experience with Obsidian Sync (although it is odd that the number of files shown on my various platforms never exactly match!). There are a growing number of alternatives available via plugins, however.

TaskForge is pretty good, but also fairly basic. But it’s pretty good on mobile (although you often have to launch Obsidian before it syncs properly – fair enough, I guess).

I like the sound of Tana and shall have a look forthwith.

And yes, I’ve just taken the plunge and installed a plugin that syncs TickTick with Obsidian. Seems to kind of work, but uses some pretty complicated properties/numerical references/tagging to do so… Fortunately I’m no longer using TickTick in anger, so it’s more of an experiment than anything else (also, like you, because the TickTick mobile apps are generally better than Obsidian’s).

Cheers,
Bill

Paul Korm wrote:
I am in my sixth year of generating Daily Notes in Obsidian. I create
>the note via the “Open today’s daily note” ribbon button, and then
>populate the note with a Typinator macro expansion (“obs.daily”) that
>runs a series of scripts and API calls to gather some state-data I need
>from various data sources, as well as executing macOS Shortcuts to
>insert today’s calendar appointments and the weather forecast. My
>daily note has a built-in Dataview search to grab links to any same-day
>notes that are created during the day, and a link to the same-date notes
>from a year ago and two years ago so I can quickly refresh my awareness
>of history.
> >I really like this process.
> >I’m also moving away from this process. I’ve started using Tana’s
>daily note for journaling. My Tana #day tag has automation built in
>that does a lot of what I was doing in Obsidian to populate or start-up
>the daily note. The main reason I’m enjoying Tana more for daily notes
>is that Tana is a massive graph database where every entry is a node
>that I can click into and immediately expand on the details. Or I can
>select text in a node and immediately add a reference to other nodes by
>typing @ and selecting from the references that Tana presents. Of I can
>add supertags such as #task, #event, #person, #dream, and automatically
>add fields or other metadata (even AI-completions) to the node I’m
>tagging. None of this is possible without extra effort in Obsidian, or
>isn’t remotely possible in Obsidian.
> >Another factor is really disliking (are we thinking “hate”?) Obsidian
>sync and the Obsidian mobile app. Tana’s iPhone app is excellent, and
>because Tana is presented via standard web tech, the content on the
>phone is pretty much the same as it is in a desktop browser without the
>annoyance of Obsidian sync.

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