start-day

Create and populate a daily Obsidian note with prioritized todos and morning context.

Updated Aug 14, 2012
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/dakotahp/dotfiles --skill start-day-dakotahp
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: start-day
Source: https://github.com/dakotahp/dotfiles/tree/main/dot_config/claude/skills/start-day
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/dakotahp/dotfiles --skill start-day-dakotahp

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

What problem does it solve?

Automates the morning setup of a personal Obsidian daily note so you start each day with a synthesized, prioritized list of actionable tasks and a concise context line, eliminating manual triage of prior notes and deferred items.

Core Features & Use Cases

  • Creates today's note from your template and fills the Today's Priorities and Morning Context sections without interaction.
  • Processes prior unarchived inbox notes by extracting unchecked action items, appending avoidance items to the Avoidance Radar, creating idea stubs, filing learnings into area notes, writing a Distillation, and archiving the note.
  • Escalates repeatedly deferred todos, detects stale projects by index modification time, and injects a domain-aware nudge when appropriate.
  • Use case: Run first thing in the morning to roll forward yesterday's undone actions, surface 14+ day avoidance items, and seed priorities capped at six items for focused work.

Quick Start

Run the command /start-day to process any prior inbox notes, update avoidance and area files as needed, and populate today's daily note with priorities and morning context.

Frequently Asked Questions about start-day

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I automate daily note creation and roll over unfinished tasks in Obsidian?

Automating daily note creation populates today's Obsidian note with prioritized todos and rolled-over actions from prior inbox notes, requiring no manual triage or interaction. It closes out previous notes, updates the Avoidance Radar, and seeds up to six focused priorities.

What is an Avoidance Radar in task management and how does it track deferred todos?

An Avoidance Radar tracks deferred todos by appending unchecked action items from prior inbox notes and surfacing tasks that have been repeatedly deferred for 14 or more days. It injects domain-aware nudges into your daily note to escalate stale projects.

Can I use this daily note automation with a specific personal Obsidian vault?

This daily note automation operates specifically on a local personal Obsidian vault named ObsidianPersonal. It requires local filesystem access to compute file modification times and uses Obsidian CLI operations for reading, creating, appending, moving, and archiving notes.

How do I process and archive old Obsidian inbox notes automatically?

Processing and archiving old inbox notes extracts unchecked action items, creates idea stubs, files learnings into area notes, writes a distillation, and then moves the processed note to the archive. This requires non-interactive execution except for disambiguating 2_Areas matches.

Does Obsidian CLI support moving files and evaluating vault contents for task management?

Obsidian CLI supports moving files and evaluating vault contents through specific operations including daily, read, files, append, create, move, and eval. These commands enable automated note archiving, modification time checks, and daily note population.

Why are my stale projects not being detected in my Obsidian task management workflow?

Stale projects are detected by computing local filesystem file modification times against your index. If local filesystem access is unavailable or modification times are unchanged, the automation cannot detect stale projects or escalate repeatedly deferred todos to inject domain-aware nudges.