Minimalist Daily Note Shortcut (and many others)

Shortcut: Daily Note for Bear
Shortcut: Log This in Bear

More instructions/Descriptions in the Shortcuts!

I use Apple Calendar and Reminders - that’s how the events, appointments, and tasks automatically show up in my daily note which is automated to run at 05:00. If you use Things or Todoist, you’ll have to make some modifications.

I use the “Log This” shortcut to add items to the daily note throughout the day. Very handy while driving (e.g., “Hey, Siri. Log this in Bear. Don’t forget…”)

I keep things minimal in daily note headers to make the note previews informative without having to open the note:

In addition to using special searches (e.g., @last7days @done), I tag by week number to make weekly reviews easier.

For those of you familiar with Bullet Journaling and Rapid Logging, I’ve taken some ideas from there - mostly with tasks. If a task/reminder isn’t completed, I assign a timeframe in brackets then use this Shortcut to send it back to Reminders with a link back to the Bear note:

Shortcut: Tasks to Scheduled Reminders

Or, you can use Shiny Frog’s Tasks to Reminders Shortcut which does the same thing without specific scheduling (download from their blog).

Then, I remove the task signifier and put an arrow in front of the task to show it’s been migrated. This allows me to track all migrated tasks using backlinks. Mostly, I do this with project tasks but this example is for a movie:

I also do something similar with dining reviews. I link the visit and write the review in the daily note using the “Log This” shortcut above. Then, I use the following shortcut to create a main restaurant note.

Shortcut: Dining Note for Bear

Lastly, as I often include photos in my daily and other notes, I use the following shortcuts to (1) merge the photos horizontally (you can change it to grid or vertical) and (2) resize the image to keep file sizes smaller:

Shortcut: Merge Photos Horizontally for Bear
Shortcut: Send Resized Photos to Bear

Anyway, modify these Shortcuts as you please.

6 Likes