Obsidian Daily Notes: Set Up the Folder, Date Format and Template

Obsidian's daily notes come from Daily notes, a core plugin that ships with the app. Turn it on in Settings → Core plugins, then select Open today's daily note, the calendar icon in the ribbon. Obsidian opens the note named after today's date, or creates it if it doesn't exist yet.

By default the note is named in the YYYY-MM-DD format. Three settings under Settings → Daily notes change the rest:

• Date format: how each note is named, for example YYYY-MM-DD or dddd, MMMM D, YYYY.
• New file location: the folder new daily notes go in, for example Daily.
• Template file location: a note whose contents every new daily note starts with.

That's the whole setup. The rest of this guide covers subfolders by year and month, templates, opening tomorrow's note, quick capture on your phone, and summarizing a week of daily notes with AI. Steps follow the official Obsidian help, checked November 3, 2026.

Set up daily notes step by step

1. Open Settings → Core plugins and turn on Daily notes.
2. Create a folder for them, for example Daily.
3. Open Settings → Daily notes (under Plugin options) and set New file location to that folder.
4. Leave Date format at YYYY-MM-DD, or pick your own. The setting shows a preview of today's name as you type.
5. Optional: create a template note and set Template file location to it (see below).
6. Select Open today's daily note in the ribbon, or run it from the command palette.

To open it faster, give it a hotkey: open Settings → Hotkeys, search for Open today's daily note and select the + next to it. Obsidian sets no hotkey for it by default.

To open today's note every time Obsidian starts, set Settings → Files & Links → Default file to open to Daily note. This replaced the plugin's old "Open daily note on startup" option in Obsidian 1.11.

Put daily notes in year and month folders

The date format can create folders too: each / starts a new folder. Obsidian's own example, YYYY/MMMM/YYYY-MMM-DD, files January 1, 2023 as 2023/January/2023-Jan-01.

The codes are Moment.js format tokens. Keep the full date in the file name itself, as in YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DD, so notes stay unique and sort by date in any folder. Changing the format later doesn't rename the notes you already have.

Start every daily note from a template

1. Create a note, for example Templates/Daily, with the structure you want:

   ---
   date: "{{date:YYYY-MM-DD}}"
   tags:
     - daily
   ---
   # {{date:dddd, MMMM D}}
   
   ## Tasks
   
   - [ ]
   
   ## Notes
   

2. Open Settings → Daily notes and set Template file location to that note.

Obsidian uses the template the next time it creates a daily note; notes that already exist don't change. In the template, {{date}} is the note's date, {{time}} the time, and {{title}} the note's title. Add a format after a colon, as in {{date:YYYY-MM-DD}}.

Two tips from the help. Edit the template in Source mode, or keep variables in properties in quotes as above, because Live Preview's properties panel can overwrite an unquoted variable. And with Daily notes on, a date property in any note becomes a link to that day's daily note.

Want a full layout to start from? Our daily note template has priorities, an inbox, open loops and an end-of-day review, and 10 free Obsidian templates covers weekly and monthly notes too.

Open yesterday's or tomorrow's daily note

The plugin has three commands: Open today's daily note, Open previous daily note and Open next daily note. Previous and next only jump between daily notes that already exist. They skip missing days, and Open next daily note won't create tomorrow's note.

To create tomorrow's note or link to it, use one of these community plugins:

• Templater puts dynamic dates in a template. <% tp.date.now("YYYY-MM-DD", 1, tp.file.title, "YYYY-MM-DD") %> is the day after the note's own date, so a link to it at the top of each daily note is a link to tomorrow. Our templates guide has a copy-ready header with yesterday and tomorrow links.
• Calendar adds a month view in the sidebar. Select any day, tomorrow included, to open or create its note. Its last release was in 2021, but it is still widely used.
• Natural Language Dates turns words such as "tomorrow" or "next Friday" into date links.

Periodic Notes adds weekly and monthly notes that work like daily notes.

Quick daily notes on your phone

Daily notes work the same on iPhone, iPad and Android. Mobile has no ribbon, so the calendar icon sits in the menu; you can also add Open today's daily note to the mobile toolbar.

• iPhone and iPad: on iOS and iPadOS 18 and later, add Obsidian's Open daily note widget to the Lock Screen, Control Center or Home Screen. Apple Shortcuts gets Open Daily Note, Capture to Daily Note and Get Daily Note actions; Capture to Daily Note adds text to today's note without opening the app. Widgets aren't available while Require Face ID is on.
• Quick Capture on iPhone: with Obsidian 1.14 and iOS 26 or later, the Quick Capture widget can append typed text or a transcribed voice note to today's daily note, before your vault finishes loading.
• Android: add Obsidian's Daily Note widget to your home screen, or long-press the Obsidian icon for the Daily note shortcut.

Review a week of daily notes with AI

Daily notes pile up fast, and the useful part is often what links them: the task that kept moving, the idea from Tuesday. An AI plugin can read them back to you.

With SystemSculpt, free to install, open chat, type @ and add this week's daily notes, then ask for a recap, the open tasks or tomorrow's top three priorities. The chat is saved as a Markdown note in your vault, and the AI can write the answer into a note for you. On desktop it can run your own signed-in Claude Code or Codex with no SystemSculpt plan; on your phone it uses hosted SystemSculpt AI. Eligible new accounts can claim 500 one-time starter credits with no card; Monthly ($9 a month) and Yearly ($90 a year) include a monthly credit allowance. See pricing.

We make SystemSculpt. New chats start in Auto, where hosted AI creates and edits notes without asking and asks before moving or deleting; switch to Ask mode to approve every change.

Questions

How do I turn on daily notes in Obsidian? Open Settings → Core plugins and turn on Daily notes. Then select Open today's daily note, the calendar icon in the ribbon, or run it from the command palette.

Where does Obsidian save daily notes? In the folder set under Settings → Daily notes → New file location. Set it to a folder such as Daily to keep them together, or put / in the date format, as in YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DD, to file them by year and month.

Where is the daily notes template file location setting? In Settings → Daily notes, under Plugin options. Select the note you want as the template; Obsidian uses it the next time it creates a daily note.

Can Obsidian create tomorrow's daily note? Not with the core plugin: Open next daily note only opens a daily note that already exists. The Calendar plugin creates a note for any day you select, and Templater can link each daily note to the next day.

How do I open today's daily note automatically? Set Settings → Files & Links → Default file to open to Daily note. It replaced the old "Open daily note on startup" option in Obsidian 1.11.

Do daily notes work on mobile? Yes, on iPhone, iPad and Android. iOS has an Open daily note widget, Quick Capture and Shortcuts actions, including Capture to Daily Note; Android has a Daily Note widget and shortcut.

Can AI summarize my daily notes? Yes, with a plugin. SystemSculpt chat can read the daily notes you add with @ and answer with a recap, open tasks or a plan, saved as Markdown in your vault.

Install SystemSculpt free from the Obsidian plugin directory, or compare its plans.

Sources

Checked November 3, 2026.

• Obsidian help: Daily notes, Templates, Properties, Hotkeys, Obsidian for iOS and iPadOS, Obsidian for Android, Mobile
• Obsidian: 1.11.5 changelog
• Templater: date module
• Calendar: repository; Periodic Notes: repository; Natural Language Dates: repository
• SystemSculpt: chat docs, pricing, privacy policy