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    Showcase: Daily notes

    A showcase of different daily notes setups in Tana—by the community, for the community!
    • Apr 04, 2024
    Daily notes showcase

    Every couple of months or so, a question like the above ("Please show me some examples of X, I need inspo") will pop up in the community. These conversation starters spur some great responses, with many sharing examples, and even more benefiting from seeing so many different ways to do one thing. But as the chat timeline grows, the thread recedes into obscurity...

    ...which is why we decided to gather a bunch of examples from our Ambassadors, Navigators and wonderful community members to create our first ever showcase article focused on Daily notes, which is easily shareable and won't disappear with time. We are very excited to start this tradition, and hope to do this for many other features and topics in the future.

    📓 The possibilities in Tana's Daily notes

    From the insights that flowed out of a recent discussion, it is clear that the daily notes page in Tana is a sacred, personal space for many. Personal, because people's brains and daily lives are vastly different. Sacred, because over time you will learn what works best for you, and obversely what feels downright wrong to you. (And things change constantly with these pages, as some of the authors will willingly admit.)

    The solution to ones Daily notes page is invariably some kind of answer to the question What's most important for you to do on any given day?, ranging from the aspirational to the downright imperative.

    For this showcase, we divided the article in two:

    • Part 1 is an index (or deconstruction if you may) of common use cases across all the examples.
    • Part 2 is the actual showcase. Each person's Daily page is accompanied by their description of how it works as a whole.

    If you prefer to start with a menu of what's possible, → go to Part 1

    If you prefer to start with examples of full working setups, → go to Part 2

    When looking at these examples, remember that there is no wrong answer, only a trunk of possibilities that you can try on for size. So, let's dive in! 👇

    ℹ️ Before we begin

    All the examples below shows what can be done if you have a supertag on your day nodes. If you don't have one yet and want one, you can create one like this, see below screenshot

    🧱 Part 1: Use cases

    From the examples we received, we saw five common uses across the various daily pages:

    We'll go through each use case and pull examples from the showcases that will be briefly described.

    Use case: Overview

    ↑ Kamara's Big picture node 🖼️

    An overview gives you a good map (and reminder) of where you stand in this moment, relative to the churning wheels of the larger timescales of your life. What was your Word for the Year again? Are these the priorities in my life? What did I do last week? Tana can help you quickly reset the GPS and rear-view mirrors of your life by bringing these views straight into your daily notes.

    Timeline

    Get an overview of what's happened in various parts of your graph

    A simple timeline view could be a search that looks for things that have been edited the past 7 days. Several setups have search nodes like this, like Maciej's Daily/7-day queries, and Aaron's Recent activity node.

    Zooming out

    Get the best view of where you've been, and where you are heading

    • Kamara's Big Picture and Time machine search nodes.
      • The Big Picture search node finds relevant planning and review nodes for every timescale, which she pipes straight into her daily notes. Example: on April 3, this search node finds what she planned and reviewed for Week 14, Month of April, and Year of 2024.
      • The Time machine is also a search node that finds the daily nodes from 1 week, 1 month, 1 quarter and 1 year ago - a great way to see what you were up to in both the recent and not so recent past.
    • Aaron has a Today's look back field that resurfaces a random journal entry using field initialization set to random. (You'll see many different implementations of the random node throughout the showcase, especially in the Serendipity section!)

    Front of mind

    Cut the noise and get to the important things

    • Andrew's Spotlight tag and Maciej's Now supertag are very similar - a simple supertag created for the sole reason to mark currently important nodes. Think of it as an alternative to the Pinned nodes section in the sidebar.
    • Ev's Get Current Dashboard shows her tabs surfacing current items relevant for different intervals of time (Today/This week/This month)
    • Theo's button-initialized Quick SN(A)CK dashboard only shows him the topics and notes that are front of mind for him now

    Happening now

    The most conventional use of the daily notes is to know what's happening on this day. The most common implementation of this is for task/habit/routine management, which is covered in the next section: Manage tasks/habits.

    Use case: Manage tasks/habits

    ↑ R.J.'s Daily Task dashboard ✅

    Task and habit/routine management is a very popular use of the daily notes page. Implementation can range from a simple list of unchecked items, to elaborate orchestrations that serve you exactly the right items at the right time.

    Nodes/tags

    Keeping it simple

    • Andrew's Routine supertag is a short list of things he wants to do everyday, baked into his daily notes.
    • Kamara has a Due Today search node that finds all kinds of different tasks that have some date related to today.
    • Aaron's simple habit checkboxes include morning reading, walk, discussion, rewirement - baked right into the template. He also has a Next actions search node for tasks.
    • An's Next tasks search node is also simple, and he also keeps a list of things to process.

    Dashboards

    A symphony of tasks

    • R.J.'s Daily Task Dashboard is the backbone of his system, serving him a menu of scheduled and overdue tasks that he picks from to build his daily agenda. A trick he uses is to switch to Calendar view which enables him to drag/drop to reschedule tasks.
    • Ev's Daily Rhythms dashboard is one of the first things she sees on her daily notes, which puts her key habits and values front and centre in an accessible way.
    • Eneko's Todos dashboard is a workflow similar to R.J.'s, and is based on Emmanuel's template.

    Use case: Input/Do work

    ↑ Theo's beautifully blank work surface 🫶

    One of the original uses of the daily notes page is as a work surface or scratchpad to jot things down as they come up. An evolution of this is to use it as a workbench, a place where you assemble all the items you're working on that day.

    Workbench

    A clean surface to do work on

    • Theo's daily notes page is the most pristine day page of all, a totally empty surface... until he starts doing work. The buttons on his day tag represent different workflows that he can activate from here, such as starting his morning pages, or retrieving all the most interesting notes from his PKM so he can dive right into deep work with them.
    • Santi's Daily Task and Notes processing is another very simple daily notes setup that only uses two search nodes. Both retrieve items created less than 24h ago, one for incoming tasks and another for incoming notes. He has a custom tool he uses to send these notes to Tana.
    • R.J.'s Agenda & Log is the continuation of his Task dashboard. Tasks get picked and arranged on the Agenda node. As he goes through his day, the tasks get processed one by one, and at the end of the day the result is a log of everything he did that day.
    • Aaron's Today's KA field instantiates a random node from his #ka (knowledge article) repository, inviting him to do deep work on it. He has an elaborate way to process these notes, which involves some custom AI commands.
    • Eneko's Daily log is his workbench where he plans his day. He does time-blocking with the #log tag, tracking which tasks he does work on and for what length of time. For rapid logging, he uses his own Inbox node for input.

    Dashboards

    The all-in-one worknode

    • Ev's Spark Labs is a portal right into the heart of her comprehensive content creation process, ensuring that no good idea goes in without multiplying into 10 more good ideas. (Her content creation process is covered elsewhere)
    • Maciej has a dashboard of Questions that he has received from his students that are taking his course, separated by status.
    • Theo's most interesting notes from his PKM is presented to him in a dashboard layout, to keep things organized.

    Use case: Self-reflect

    ↑ An's morning reflection 🌅

    The practice of writing to understand ourselves is an ancient practice. Some journaling practices like Morning pages require no prompts to get started. Others start with randomly picked thoughtful questions to get the juices flowing.

    • Aaron's Today's journal field is simple, the prompt in the description asking for reflection and gratitude.
    • Theo's Morning pages is triggered by a button which deposits a node tagged #morning pages w he can record a voice memo or type his thoughts into. He does the same for his Daily review, which retrieves 3 random journal prompts he can reflect on every day.
    • An's AM Morning pages field is baked into the day template, along with the PM Reflections field

    Use case: Create serendipity

    ↑ Eneko's randomly generated reminders 🎲

    It is fun to be presented with old quotes you highlighted in the past but that you don't remember so it's like rediscovering old hits from the past. It is also fun to pull a random Tarot card from the deck. And, depending on the content, the same thing can be a spaced repetition system for your knowledge, or vocab for language learning. All because we have a field option for resurfacing random nodes.

    • Kamara's examples of things with serendipity: A Daily Bible verse, Readwise highlights, Media from her bank
    • Eneko's examples: Daily greek words, highlights, reminders to self, before starting the day
    • Aaron has a robust preloaded section in his Today page that is all run by serendipity, including fields such as: Image, Music, Fave problem, Quote, Challenge

    Use case: Aesthetics

    ↑ These banners are a vibe! 😍

    While no amount of charms you buy for your Crocs will make them look better, using emojis and creating banners can significantly increase the visual appeal of your daily pages.

    • An's Shutdown routine turns his daily page into an artefact of memory that he can look back on and be reminded of all the things that happened that day. A custom banner prompt field allows him to influence the prompt when he goes to make an AI-generated banner of his day.
    • Ev's banner generation is influenced by her Word of the Year, which she has permanently present on her day page, again, as a constant reminder.
    • Many users use a couple of emojis in their template, but Kamara, Theo and Ev are all extra generous in their use of emoji's, making their daily notes stand out among the rest.

    🏆 Part 2: Showcase

    Now for the fun part: The actual Daily notes showcase!

    For quick navigation, here's a list of the entrants:

    For the ones with larger setups, we asked them to pick one ☝️ part they couldn't live without, just to spice things up 🌶️

    📑 Ev's daily notes

    Here's Ev:

    My daily page is my daily driver. It's not just where I see everything I have on for the day, it's where I get all my work done. My goal with my daily page is to not have to jump around to any other section in Tana while I'm working. I find this give me maximum flow in my work. So I take more of a maximalist approach, but can hide sections if I want to stay focused.

    My Word Of The Year Banner: I create a new banner each day based on my Word Of The Year. This has no actual function except that if I'm going to be in my day page all day I want to look at nice things.

    Daily Log: This is like my journal where I jot things down all day. I find it helpful to keep at the top to remind myself to do it.

    Daily Rhythms Section: These include anything I want to keep track of that happen daily. From habit tracking, to my Bible Reading, Health & Tribe Engagement. This keeps my most important values & habits front & Centre

    Get Current Section: This section is where I spend the majority of my time. I can see a good overview of everything going on for me from what is happening today, this week & this month to current projects and goals I am working on.

    Spark Lab Section: This section is for my thinking & writing which is a big part of my work. It contains incoming notes & ideas in my Spark Journal that I go through each day.

    My Idea Library for ideas I'm building & all my upcoming content. Of course it's taken quite a few iterations to get to this state and I'm sure it will morph again in the future. But for now this is how I use my Daily Page.

    ☝️ If I could keep only one thing from my template:

    I think it would have to be my today view. Having everything that connects to today in one view really does make it easy to plan & get through the day.

    📑 Theo's daily notes

    Here's Theo:

    My daily page changes frequently. I’d say it’s the most agile tag in my system. And so far, the general trajectory has been to make it less busy and more flexible to any given day.

    While I want my #day page to be simple, I also want it to give me smart cues that help me get started. In this version I have three fun command nodes attached to the #day tag. They all have a similar feature where they insert some other node into my daily page. Here’s what they do:

    Morning pages

    When clicked it inserts an empty node tagged #morning page with the Journal date field auto-initialized to the day I’m on. I often use my custom keyboard shortcut for the Capture voice command, option+v (for voice), to speak out my morning page, which gets transcribed and given a title/description automagically.If I can’t talk out loud, I simply type the morning page out in the child nodes and click the attached command to get a title/description.

    These morning pages are part of my journalling practice and come together nicely on my #week tag.

    Quick SN(A)CK

    This one is rather simple. When clicked it inserts a tabs view with a set of searches using the Insert cloned copies of nodes command (same as for Morning page). These searches surface the nodes in my PKM system SN(A)CK that I’m currently the most curious about, based on a spaced repetition system, and the most recent sources, notes, creations, and knowledge I have interacted with.

    Daily Review

    This one is slightly more complex as it uses some rather underdocumented (and underdeveloped) features, but I think it’s a lot of fun and really powerful. Like the two other commands, this command also inserts a node when clicked (but this time using the Insert Tana paste command).

    The node inserted is tagged with my #daily review tag which auto-initializes with three random journalling prompts. They are automatically viewed as a table and have the contextual field (column) Answer tied to them.

    I love that I get three random journalling prompts from my collection of prompts each day. Makes it way more exciting to do my daily review (and more likely that I’ll actually do it)! Sidenote: I often use option+v to answer these as well. The contextual Answer field is also a really nice feature because it shows up empty each time a journalling prompt shows up. And over time, my answers get neatly aggregated under all of the prompt nodes, with each answer being tied to their #daily review node.

    So that’s it. Quite simple, but each command gives me a jumpstart into taking action or a cue for my mind to wander and reflect. And as my workflows evolve I can make new commands like these that give me the scaffolding I need — when I need it.

    ☝️ If I could keep only one thing from my template:

    It would to start every day off with an optional clean slate. That gives me the space for information to flow in harmony with my thinking.

    📑 Maciej's daily notes

    Maciej has a number of search nodes within a field that gives him an overview of changes happening in the graph. This is followed by two dashboard views of the things he needs to review daily.

    Fig. 1/2: “Aktualne działania”: Supertag that is broader than “now”, more similar to “this month focus”.

    Fig. 3: “Pytania kursantów”: A quick access to node with questions from my course attendees.

    Fig. 4: For now: My current tasks.

    📑 Kamara's daily notes

    Kamara has written an entire piece explaining her daily notes page which you can read here: Managing my day in Tana

    ☝️ If I could keep only one thing from my template:

    The resurfaced media and content. I'm big on spaced repetition and serendipity, and the random initialization allows for both.

    📑 R.J.'s daily notes

    Here's R.J.:

    My day in Tana is powered by my Agenda. When the day is over, I have a Log of the work I completed. My goal for the agenda and log is a simple, fluid flow that mimics bullet journaling. But behind the scenes, my tasks, projects, roles, and various dashboards are doing the heavy lifting.

    Let me walk you through three screenshots of my daily planning process: the dashboard I use to create my agenda, the agenda itself, and a log of the previous day's work.

    Daily Tasks Dashboard

    I use a Daily Tasks Dashboard (fig. 1) to assemble my agenda for the day. There are four tabs: Today's Events, Due & Overdue Tasks, Project Reviews, and Upcoming Tasks.

    I start with Today's Events, where I add information from my calendar to a calendar view in Tana.

    Then I move to my Due & Overdue Tasks, and example of which is pictured. I typically view this in a calendar view, too—for ease of rescheduling as needed—but it's a bit easier to see in the standard list view. This query presents me with every task and recurring task that is scheduled for tomorrow or overdue. While in this query, I reschedule any work I think it's unlikely I'll accomplish tomorrow.

    My Project Reviews tab shows me a query of the projects that are due for review tomorrow. It's usually only three or four that "come due" on a given day, so it's a quick process. I rarely use the Upcoming Tasks tab because I handle that in a weekly planning flow, but it's there in case I want to look further ahead.

    Agenda

    The next image is my completed agenda (fig. 2) for the day listed above. This begins as a query of the events and tasks scheduled for the day, but I convert them to plain nodes so I can structure them in my agenda layout.

    If you compare this image to the one above, you'll see a few tasks did indeed get rescheduled as I assembled the agenda. Days have limited capacities, and I've learned to observe that!

    You may note that the heading for this node says Agenda & Log. That's because, as the day progresses, the plan becomes the result. It's rare that a day goes exactly according to plan. I often reschedule as needed on the fly. But having everything laid out in an easy to follow agenda makes me wildly more productive than not having that agenda!

    Log

    The last image is my Log (fig. 3) from the previous day. The last task (incomplete at the moment of this capture) is creating the walkthrough you're reading right now!

    The log is simply a list of the completed work. I "open" a log entry when I start the work and "close" it when I finish, which has the additional benefit of committing me to that work while I'm doing it.

    In closing

    While the result may look somewhat daunting, I promise it isn't. Creating my agenda every day is a simple, reliable process. And working through it is just as straightforward.

    Most of the fancy footwork I ask of Tana is being done "offstage," which allows me to do my work every day free of distractions. I can go find information if necessary, but mostly I want it delivered to me exactly when I need it. And that's what Tana does for me!

    ☝️ If I could keep only one thing from my template:

    The agenda. Assembling events and tasks scheduled for tomorrow in a query, and then making them plain nodes so I can manipulate them as needed, makes planning the day easy.

    📑 Andrew's daily notes

    My daily notes page consists of the following:

    Routine: A super-simple habit tracker

    Daily motivation: A few quotes I like

    Tracking dashboard:

    • Spotlight: Things I do not want to lose from sight
    • Processing: Content notes that I need to process
    • Maintenance: Important nodes that require some housekeeping, which I do when I’m in a low energy mode
    • Protocols: Checklists & relevant routines I do not want to forget. The query is dynamic, shows only relevant protocols

    ☝️ If I could keep only one thing from my template:

    Spotlight.

    📑 Eneko's daily notes

    Eneko has written an entire piece explaining his daily notes page which you can read here: Project Management and getting things done with Tana

    ☝️ If I could keep only one thing from my template:

    If I had to keep only one thing I guess it would be listing out the todos for the day! Logging is great but at the end of the day it’s al about getting things done for me.

    📑 Santi's daily notes

    My daily page is based on the most minimal approach I could get away with. I've been removing things until I kept the two important things I frequently use.

    The first one is my inbox for recent tasks I've created.

    The second one is for my most recent quick notes.They each search for their respective supertags:"#inbox tasks" "#quick capture notes"

    Both of them are constrained within the last 24 hours.

    As simple as this looks, it took me quite a while to get here because speed is everything in my workflow.

    So, I created a Python script that works as my own version of Tana Capture on my computer, allowing me to capture notes and tasks with their correct supertags without even needing to open Tana for extra speed.

    📑 Aaron's daily notes

    Here's Aaron:

    Here is my 'Morning Tana' daily page. This leads me through a one-hour practice that, without exaggeration has transformed the tempo of my thought-life.(My #ka Knowledge Article tag is the key to all of it)

    Summary. My daily page is used for a Morning Tana contemplative practice. It takes one hour, starting at 6:30am.

    First 15 minutes, I listen to my daily random selected music, while reading the daily quote, above for the to day, and also read a daily meditation. This is about getting into a awakened and passionate state of mind.

    Next 30 minutes, I go for a walk in my neighborhood, early morning when noone is out on the Streets, and I think about what I've read and heard while walking. If anything jumps into my mind I record it as a voice note in Tana Capture

    Last 15 minutes, I come back in and get back on my daily page, I add any new journal entries if new thoughts distill, I record then. Lastly I open my daily knowledge article, ka, which is areas of curiosity, and it includes ai prompts to pull in a 600 word essay on the topic of the day, giving me a summary on the topic, contemporary authors who have written on it, and a list of other similar related topics, which I then tag as their own new #ka for future morning sessions.

    By the time it's over 60 minutes later, I feel as though I've already had a fulfilling day, regardless of anything else that comes at me. I spent an hour living out the love of thought life I want to have, and Tana is the heart of how and why it works.

    ☝️ If I could keep only one thing from my template:

    If I would keep one thing, it would have to be the Daily random instances from my quote library, this is the magic that keeps my long term notes and thoughts recirculating with my present state of mind on a daily and weekly basis. It also creates brand new connections in my mind when it gets paired with my other daily content. Nothing else like it!

    📑 An's daily notes

    Here's An:

    I want to share my day page because it was so simple to setup and gives my days structure. I practice the morning pages, bullet journal and GTD methods. I was surprised how easy it was to combine all three methods into my day and how flexible Tana is.

    The cool thing is the data on the day page is not an isolated island, but I can aggregate those data into my weekly, monthly and yearly reviews without the need to open the day page again.

    I hope this will inspire more people to think about their daily structure.

    ☝️ If I could keep only one thing from my template:

    That’s easy. For me it’s the reflections field. It’s where I write down everyday, what I struggled with, what I learned, insights and any observations about me and my world around me. The nodes have a #log supertag and a “Part of” field where different nodes can be linked to. For instance the objectives from Bri’s template or Knowledge from Theo’s SNACK template. With Tana I feel I have finally found a place to process my reflections and aggregate them for weekly, monthly and annually review.