Tips & Best Practices

Get the most out of Journal Bases with these tips.

Workflow Tips

Start Small

Begin with daily notes. Add weekly reviews once you have a routine. Gradually add monthly, quarterly, and yearly reviews.

Consistent Review Schedule

Daily: Journal each morning or evening
Weekly: Sunday evening or Monday morning
Monthly: First day of each month
Quarterly: First week of each quarter
Yearly: First week of January

Use Templates

Create templates with prompts for each period type:

Daily template prompts:

What am I grateful for today?
What’s my main focus?
What did I learn?

Weekly template prompts:

What were my wins this week?
What challenges did I face?
What will I do differently?

Mark Reviews as Done

Use the “Mark as Done” feature to track completed reviews. This cascades to child periods, making it easy to see progress.

Organization Tips

Folder Structure

Keep period types in separate folders:

Journal/
  Daily/
  Weekly/
  Monthly/
  Quarterly/
  Yearly/

Nested Date Folders

For large journals, use nested folders:

Journal/Daily/2025/01/2025-01-15.md

Format: YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DD

Consistent Naming

Use the default formats or ensure formats are consistent:

Daily: YYYY-MM-DD (2025-01-15)
Weekly: gggg-[W]ww (2025-W03)
Monthly: YYYY-MM (2025-01)
Quarterly: YYYY-[Q]Q (2025-Q1)
Yearly: YYYY (2025)

View Tips

Periodic Notes View

Use Expand first card to jump straight into writing
Enable Show missing periods to fill gaps
Set Future periods to 1-2 for planning ahead

Periodic Review View

Collapse columns you’re not actively using
Adjust Column width based on your screen size
Use Previous/Next buttons to navigate without scrolling

Tab through elements
Use standard Obsidian shortcuts while editing

Troubleshooting

Notes Not Appearing

Verify the folder path in settings matches your actual folder
Check the date format matches your filenames exactly
Ensure the period type is enabled
Verify the Base query includes your journal folder

Create Buttons Not Working

Check if Templater is installed (if using templates)
Verify the template path is correct
Ensure you have write permissions to the folder

Settings Showing as Read-Only

This happens when Periodic Notes plugin is enabled. Either:

Make changes in Periodic Notes settings instead
Disable Periodic Notes to edit Journal Bases settings directly

Week Numbers Don’t Match

Journal Bases uses ISO 8601 week numbering:

Weeks start on Monday
Week 1 is the week containing January 4th
A week belongs to the year containing most of its days

Performance Issues

Disable period types you don’t use
Reduce the number of future periods shown
Collapse unused columns in Periodic Review view

Common Use Cases

Morning Journaling

Open Periodic Notes view
Set to Daily
Expand today’s note (or create if missing)
Write morning reflections

Weekly Review

Open Periodic Review view
Select the week to review
Read through daily notes on the left
Write weekly summary on the right
Mark as done when complete

Year-End Review

Open Periodic Review view
Select the year
Review quarterly summaries
Extract key themes and learnings
Write yearly reflection