[prithsr]

I know this thread seems to be Obsidian specific, but wanted to share: I've been writing down every detail of my day since January 2021 on Diarly. I pay $15 a year to have it sync across iCloud devices. I have two "journals" - one for personal, and one for work. From thoughts, to encounters during the day, to what food I ate, I write everything. It has dramatically improved my day-to-day. I've had trouble remembering my whole life, and now I can just look back and find the exact date where I did something (the search feature is pretty spot on). It's even improved my retention skills - e.g. "i don't remember what day this happened, but I am positive xyz happened because I remember writing about it". Strongly strongly recommend it to all.

[pkoird]

The major thing that people overlook in note-taking is "habit". Doesn't matter if you use Notepad, Obsidian or just plain pen&paper, the single most thing that matters is that you do it consistently. And like you said, consistent note-taking is a great cognitive exercise and has long term benefits.

[runevault]

I'd say it depends a lot on why. Tools like Obsidian/Notion/etc making it easier to crosslink things has value depending on how you use it. But a taken note is still better than no note even if just for the mental exercise I agree.

[chriskrycho]

Yes, and when combined with search (including just grep/rg/etc. on the command line!) it becomes really, really powerful. It's hard to explain just how powerful, because it's the kind of thing that, like compounding interest, really only shows up as you continue investing over time, but it really pays huge dividends.

[belmont_sup]

I do this too for the past 12 years on DayOne! What started off as a “why am I doing this” first entry has now become an almost daily thought splurge.

It’s great for myself that always forget the little, prized memories too.

[buzzy_hacker]

Do you do this at the end of the day or throughout the day?

[tarentel]

Not the op but I keep a record of my work day. I try to do it as it happens but 50% of the time things come up so I'll usually spend some time before signing off to try to capture everything.

[rchaud]

Diarly seems like a nice tool, and very affordable.

Unfortunately it's Mac/iOS only. I have a Mac but zero interest in using iOS.

[kar5pt]

Are you concerned with the privacy implications of uploading every detail of your life to a cloud server?

[ZetaZero]

> I pay $15 a year to have it sync across iCloud devices.

Curious how you do this? The Obsidian Sync option is $96/year.

[krimpenrik]

I use obsidian with Synthing works like a charm sync it to my phone and laptop and to my server where it gets backed up

[darrmit]

Obsidian works perfectly fine with iCloud Drive if you're bought into the Apple ecosystem. It also works well with Google Drive, but that doesn't play well with iOS.

[bojo]

Obsidian has their own sync platform independent of the rest. Diarly's $15/yr covers a handful of premium options, one of which is iCloud sync.

[dexterdog]

He's not using Obsidian. I use Obsidian with syncthing (not really an iOS option) so I pay nothing.