---
name: daily-note-template
description: "Produce a daily log note with an ISO-date title and the same four sections every day — Focus, Log, Tasks, Notes — and roll any unfinished checkbox tasks forward from the prior day while dropping the completed ones. Use when someone wants to start, open, or set up today's running work note, daily log, or standup-style journal entry, especially in a personal knowledge vault. Do NOT use to write a long-form article, to summarize a whole project or quarter, or to set a note's YAML frontmatter metadata."
metadata:
  decimalai-skill-id: "93f9daab-b4f4-41b3-a044-e8d092321e17"
  decimalai-version-id: "1f73a624-942c-40d2-86c3-e89a329911d5"
  decimalai-version: "1"
  decimalai-body-sha256: "410be8883e1473e3e8e7c7ce37e071a1e9febb149caf00d42810fa1d49d0dc98"
  decimalai-name: "daily-note-template"
  decimalai-format: "1"
  decimalai-invocation: "model"
  decimalai-category: "productivity"
  decimalai-source: "https://app.decimal.ai/s/daily-note-template@1/SKILL.md"
---
# Daily note template

A daily note is one dated page you reopen every working day to capture what you're doing.
Asked to "start today's note," base models improvise: a title like `Monday` or `July 6`,
one freeform blob or an ad-hoc set of headings that changes day to day, and — the biggest
miss — nothing carried over, so yesterday's unfinished work silently disappears. The value
of a daily note comes from it being *the same shape every day* and from **losing no open
task**. This skill fixes both: one title format, four fixed sections, and a hard rule for
moving unfinished tasks forward.

## The shape

Every daily note has exactly this structure:

```markdown
# 2026-07-06

## Focus
The one or two things that matter most today.

## Log
- Timestamped or bulleted account of what actually happened.

## Tasks
- [ ] An open task
- [x] A task finished today

## Notes
Loose thoughts, links, and anything that doesn't fit above.
```

### Title — the ISO date, nothing else

The top heading is the calendar date in ISO-8601 form, `YYYY-MM-DD` (for today, `2026-07-06`).
Not `July 6`, not `7/6/26`, not `Monday`, not `Today`. The ISO date is what makes the file
sort chronologically and link cleanly (`[[2026-07-06]]`). If a weekday is wanted, it goes
*after* the date on the same line (`# 2026-07-06 (Monday)`) — the ISO date stays first.

### The four sections — always these, always this order

All four appear on every note as `##` headings, in this fixed order, even when a section
starts empty:

1. **Focus** — the day's intent: the one to three things that would make the day a win.
   Short. This is a plan, not a log.
2. **Log** — what actually happened, appended through the day as bullets (a leading `HH:MM`
   time is fine but optional). Past-tense reality, distinct from Focus's forward intent.
3. **Tasks** — a checkbox list (`- [ ]` open, `- [x]` done). This is the section the
   roll-forward rule acts on. Keep it to actionable items, not narrative.
4. **Notes** — the catch-all: links, quotes, half-thoughts, anything that isn't a plan, an
   event, or a task.

Leave an empty section as just its heading — never drop the heading, and never reorder or
rename them (no "To-Do" for Tasks, no "Journal" for Log). Consistency is the whole point.

## Rolling tasks forward

When a prior day's note (or its task list) is available, carry its **unfinished** tasks
into today's Tasks section:

- **Copy every `- [ ]` (unchecked) task** from the previous day into today's Tasks as an
  open `- [ ]` item. These are the things that didn't get done and still need doing.
- **Do not carry `- [x]` (checked/done) tasks forward.** They're finished; they stay in
  the day they were completed and are not repeated today.
- **Preserve each task's text and any nesting** (sub-tasks stay indented under their
  parent). Don't rewrite or merge them.
- **Don't duplicate.** A task carried forward appears once in today's note, not appended on
  top of a copy that's already there.
- **New tasks the user gives for today** are added to the same Tasks section as fresh
  `- [ ]` items, alongside the carried-over ones.
- If no prior note is available, just build today's note with the four sections and whatever
  tasks the user names — there's simply nothing to roll forward.

The other three sections (Focus, Log, Notes) do **not** roll forward — each day starts them
fresh. Only open Tasks migrate.

## Canonical example

Given yesterday (`2026-07-05`) had:

```markdown
## Tasks
- [x] Send the invoice
- [ ] Draft the API spec
  - [ ] get sign-off from Priya
- [ ] Book the flight
```

Today's note (`2026-07-06`), with a new task "prep the demo," is:

```markdown
# 2026-07-06

## Focus
Ship the API spec draft.

## Log

## Tasks
- [ ] Draft the API spec
  - [ ] get sign-off from Priya
- [ ] Book the flight
- [ ] Prep the demo

## Notes
```

"Send the invoice" is gone (it was done). The two unfinished tasks and the sub-task carried
over unchanged; the new task joined them; the empty Focus/Log/Notes headings still stand.

## Rules that catch the common misses

- **ISO date title, always.** `# 2026-07-06`, never a weekday or a prose/locale date.
- **All four headings, every day, in order** — Focus, Log, Tasks, Notes — even if empty.
- **Only unfinished tasks roll forward.** Done tasks do not reappear the next day.
- **Carried tasks reset to open `- [ ]`** and keep their original text and indentation.
- **Emit the note only** — the Markdown itself, not commentary explaining the template.