I've abandoned one of the main reasons many people use #Obsidian, the Daily Note. I just don't need a new markdown file created every day for the rest of my life. Here's what I'm doing instead.

For quite awhile now I've been using a journaling process called Interstitial Journaling*. Basically this is just writing down what and where you are and any fleeting notes you have. Some days I might only have a line or two and some days quite a lot depending on what's happening in life. It works for me but creating new files everyday via the Daily Notes plugin is just overkill.

Now, I have One Big Text File (OBTF). I've seen a couple in the Obsidian community discuss this and after trying it for awhile it just works better for my brain.

Here's how it works: Right now, I have a file called "OBTF - 2024" and I'll make a new one on January 1, 2025. I don't have to create a new one, it could just go on and on but I think it will make more sense to create new notes. I could go a whole decade that way and only have 10 notes as opposed to 3650. I like this so much that after I started doing this for a week a couple months ago I went back and merged all my 2024 daily notes into my OBTF then deleted all of them.

Here's the way I do it:
Everyday open Obsidian to the current OBTF and create a new line at the top of the file like this:

"##### 2024-11-30 - Saturday"

This creates an H5 heading with the date and day and it's easily done with the Templater Plugin. Since this file scrolls I don't really need the day of the week on there but I like seeing it later on when I scroll down and there is another benefit I'll get into in a later post. There are other people who scroll to the bottom and create their new entry there but I like this kind of blog form of writing.

Under the date I start each new line with a "-" character which creates unordered lists. Sometimes I enter the time if that seems relevant and sometimes just some notes I think will be handy later. Something like:

• 13:00 got to the coffee shop to do some journaling
  • ran into Bill and Kate from church. They have a new puppy named Max

Simple things like that. Later I can search or scroll the OBTF and find the entry if I'm trying to remember the name of Bill and Kate's new dog.

Do use a OBTF? Give your current set up some thought, it might prove a better solution for you. In a post soon, I'll get into how I'm linking to my OBTF in a way that helps bring things together in a unique way.

*If you'd like to read more about Interstitial Journaling, Anne-Laure Le Cunff has an excellent article here: Interstitial journaling: combining notes, to-do & time tracking - Ness Labs

The Templater code:

##### 2026-02-23 - Monday