I set up a version of this after watching your Forever diary video about four months back. However after seeing this video I started adding links. I did it a tad differently in that I have one main or Index note with links to 12 notes one for each month. Each month note has links to a note per day plus a link back to the index note. I put this at the top and bottom of the days of the month. It’s a long list. Each day has its own note with a link back to its month page and also the main index note. This is time consuming but I did three hours on two of my weekend days and it’s sorted now. I didn’t do links to the next and last days because I’m hopping in and out of this diary. So I find this tree structure better for my needs. But a big thank you for posting that original video which sparked in me the will to have a go.

@Patrick-NP

24 күн бұрын

Cheers! and thanks for sharing your setup

I like the idea of the "Forever Diary" you presented and I also adopted the idea of labeling each day with the line Year - Weekday - Location as a heading. However, I have changed the names of the notes so that the day is always displayed with two digits. This is how my shortcut for the homescreen works, which automatically opens the note entry for the current day based on the current date and I can then insert the heading directly from the clipboard with one click. I also added some weather Details from the weatherapp - think it would be nice after a few years. Many thanks for the great shortcut.

@Patrick-NP

19 күн бұрын

Fantastic! I love the fact you tweaked it to suit your preferences/workflow. thanks for sharing!

What an amazing concept. At the end of the video, I immediately started setting this up. I caught myself staring at the paused iPad screen, just imagining all the possibilities and uses of this practice. You have a unique, interesting channel.

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

Thanks!! The best thing is that the more you write in it, the more you want to write. Happy journaling! :)

I love this. I just set it up and made my first entry. I love how you focus on Apple Notes. This has been my go-to notes app for a couple years and I’m always looking to improve how I use it.

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

Awesome! Thank you!

Such a great idea! Made all the better by how simple and flexible it is. Thanks for sharing!

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it!

This is an awesome idea! thanks!

@Patrick-NP

15 күн бұрын

Thanks! ☺️

I've never been able to keep a diary or journal going. But I often think back to where I was and what I was doing at this time a year ago or ten years ago or.... Needless to say, my recollections are fuzzy and inaccurate. You have given me the perfect system. I'm starting to set it up today. I plan to backfill it as much as I can. Thank you for this brilliant idea.

@Patrick-NP

27 күн бұрын

That's great!! Happy journaling!

This came RIGHT on time. I can't wait to put this into action! Thanks for sharing!

@Patrick-NP

24 күн бұрын

That's great, enjoy your Forever Diary! 👍

This is brilliant! It’s like the hard copy 5-year diaries, but on steroids. 😅

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

indeed! :) thanks!

This is perfect! I made an Apple Shortcut that opens today’s date everyday. It was much simpler to do this with only the dd MMMM format. I love using this now!

@Patrick-NP

27 күн бұрын

Great! Happy journaling!

@D33Arts

22 күн бұрын

I also have a shortcut that opens a list of all the days of the month, but it fails if I add the day of the month to go directly to that note, would your solution do this?

@alethacook1145

17 күн бұрын

@@D33Arts I use the custom string on the Format Date so that it always opens today’s date. I left off the year of that custom string. Admittedly, the custom date format often breaks in iOS shortcuts and had to be repaired on Mac OS shortcuts. So, yes it fails when I switch between the OSs with this shortcut.

@D33Arts

17 күн бұрын

@@alethacook1145 Thanks for your reply-I will give it a try and see how it goes.

This is an incredible idea! I love this. Thank you for sharing it

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

Thank you! 😊

I have been doing this since 2022 and Apple notes nicely organizes them for me by year. I do lock the pages since it's my private journal. I don't create all the pages in advance...just start a new note every day that I choose to journal as I don't have time to do it every single day.

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

Great, thank you for sharing!

Incredible idea. I never go back and read my previous journals, but I wish I did. This makes such an amazing way to do that without being overwhelmed.

@Patrick-NP

12 күн бұрын

Thanks a lot. The more you write it, the better it becomes. And after a few years, it becomes invaluable. I hope you'll give it a go!

Yea! Soo happy to see this video. Thanks!

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

Thank you! 😀

Genius bro! I'm going to try and start this for July. Thank you 😊

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

Thanks! Have fun!

Love this. Wanted a shortcut on my desktop that referenced a formatted date to open today’s note so any time I can just pop open the correct note without having to check the date then open folders to get to it. I am new to shortcuts and just couldnt figure out how to send the formatted-today variable to open my note. Can you create such a thing for us?

This is awesome . I’m doing something very similar in Anytype across all my devices

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

Thanks! good luck with your setup!

I really like this idea. I don’t use Apple Notes so much but use an app called UpNote (as it is iOS and Windows capable) and am now implementing this method of yours into my diary system. I currently have over 4, 000 diary notes and will be converting them to 366 notes - love this idea - Thanks!

@Patrick-NP

27 күн бұрын

thanks! it will take you a while to reorganise 4k notes, but once you do it, it'll be amazing!

This is such a great idea!

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

Thanks!!

Inspiring idea! Thank you.

@Patrick-NP

25 күн бұрын

Thank you for stopping by! :)

What a brilliant idea well done and thank you for sharing

@Patrick-NP

22 күн бұрын

Thank you! 😊

This is brilliant! Thank you.

@Patrick-NP

24 күн бұрын

thanks!

Great idea! Will try it out!

@Patrick-NP

25 күн бұрын

Thanks, Have fun!

That’s a Good & interesting idea/take on journaling. !

@Patrick-NP

24 күн бұрын

Thanks!!

thanks for sharing this interesting idea ... I will for sure give it a try

@Patrick-NP

25 күн бұрын

Thanks! Have fun!

I just add the tag: #journal to every entry, and make a Smart Folder that finds them all. Then I just sort according to Date Created, and done. I don't limit myself to 1 entry every day, since Date Created will still sort them nicely and I can add other tags to try to find entries with different themes.

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

Interesting. How do you manage situations where you add a note (today) about something that happened a few years ago?

Interesting solutions, thanks for sharing 👍

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

Thanks!

I agree. This is a brilliant system.

@Patrick-NP

27 күн бұрын

Thank you!

Nice idea 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

Thank you! 😊

You talk about adding things from prior years. How do you handle entries that are not date specific? Or important events that you can’t remember the date?

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

Excellent questions. Might deserve a follow up video! As a quick, on-the-spot suggestion: if you can't remember the date, you could either place those events into a generic note (eg. "undated events"), while you figure out where they should go; or (and that's my preferred solution) you can place them into whatever day/month/year makes sense, even if it's a wild guess, so that you can at least see those memories once a year. If in the meantime you have managed to figure out the correct date for them, you can move them. For events that are not date-specific (I guess you mean something that could span several weeks, like a long holiday, or a semester at school, or a Yoga course...did I get this right?) If so, I would probably put my note on the day the course started, and cover several days in a single entry. Hope this helps!

Great Idea 💡❤

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

Thanks!

Very good idea. The new collapsible headers on iOS 18 makes it much less cluttered as well. But folders are not collaborative right?

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

Thanks! good point re: collapsible headers, they could be useful in case of very long notes. And yes you can share folders

@Praveen-or5ce

27 күн бұрын

@@Patrick-NPYou’re correct. I just checked that. Then it’s perfect! Thanks for the idea.

Genius...

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

Thanks! :)

Unfortunately I am on iOS 18 beta and the shortcut won’t work. Too bad, I was excited to implement it! Guess I can recreate it manually. Not sure if anyone was able to get it to work on the beta.

@Patrick-NP

27 күн бұрын

It definitely looks like there are some issues with the iOS18 beta. (to be fair, it's common to have bugs in a beta - let's just hope they're resolved before launch!)...

I have a problem about your diary organization, can you describe an example, eg for 2024. What would be the actual folder names

@Patrick-NP

24 күн бұрын

Hi - the year is irrelevant in the folder structure, as it is based only on months and days, as shown below (MONTHS are in capitals, for clarity): Forever Diary - 01 JANUARY - 01 January - 02 January - 03 January - 04 January - ... (rest of the days in January) - 02 FEBRUARY - 03 MARCH - 04 APRIL - ... (rest of the months) The years are only mentioned inside the single notes.

Just curious as to how long it takes to get the download? I subscribed earlier today. Thanks as I can’t wait to try this out. 😊😊

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

Thanks! :) you should receive the email with the link almost immediately 🤔 if you haven't received by now let me know and I'll send it manually. Sorry!

@anndunphy7264

28 күн бұрын

@@Patrick-NP just checked email again. Not in inbox or spam.

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

I've sent it manually, you should get my email in a moment

Don’t know if it’s because I’m on an iOS Beta 2 for my phone but it locks up 25% thru setting up after staring it on shortcuts.

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

That might be the case. maybe try the old "switch it off then back on again"?

@mike_cluett

28 күн бұрын

@@Patrick-NP I installed the short cut on my iPad which is 17.5 and it worked great and I can now access it on both the phone and iPad perfectly. Thanks.

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

That's great! Enjoy! :)

I didn’t know you could scan things using notes app until now.

@Patrick-NP

25 күн бұрын

Thanks! I'm glad I was able to show you something new!

Hi! I never got the download link.. can you send it to me directly? Thank you!

@Patrick-NP

27 күн бұрын

Hi, of course. Sorry about that. The email should go out automatically, not sure why it didn't happen. Is it possible you inserted the email with a typo? To send it manually I need your email address, either here, or by registering again

@stefanes2750

26 күн бұрын

@@Patrick-NP Hi Patrick, thank you! the mail came with a little delay 15 min ago, maybe there was a server overload or something - cant wait to use this amazing system!

@Patrick-NP

26 күн бұрын

Perfect, thanks!

Will this increase the size of Apple Notes a lot?

@Patrick-NP

6 күн бұрын

No, as it's mainly text based. If you start adding lots of photos it could be different, of course, depending on how much space you have left on you device.

good idea, but an iphone or ipad are way to distracting. I prefer a nice year long paper notebook and a decent pen. A pocket notebook takes up a lot less space and allows for 100% concentration on your writing.

@Patrick-NP

12 күн бұрын

Thanks. It is indeed a matter of personal preference!

How is this better than the Journal app?

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

The key difference is that you see everything you did on a specific day, in a single place. I wouldn't say it's "better", of course, as that depends on your needs/preferences. I'm only interested in providing a different perspective on things :)

@BroBrown357

27 күн бұрын

@@Patrick-NP Ok and I’ll have to watch your video again to see if it makes sense for me to try that or stick with Journal.

@69cressyp

3 күн бұрын

The lack of the Journal App on iPad makes this even more appealing

Good grief - Nothing says that you have to create ALL of the days,months at one time - just do it as you go from one day to the next.

@Patrick-NP

28 күн бұрын

Absolutely! You can create every note as and when it's needed. The automation just saves you time :)

366??

@Patrick-NP

25 күн бұрын

29th February :) which is actually one of the best notes, as you get to revisit those memories every 4 years