Fair enough, it's an excellent way to do it. I talked about it in another video on the channel, did you download the folder structure or you created it from scratch?
About exporting / backing up, there is 2 ways I'm using. First is adding a second account in Apple Note. This is tight to your email. a folder called Notes will be created ans you can simply drag your note there. Note will be converted as "draft" email with no sender no recipient. This is an old way, but still valid. Second, I have built a Shortcut app for MacOS. I still need to perfect it, but for now, you select the content of you note, share with the shortcut app. The Shortcut will create a Markdown file on your Download directory, using the first line as filename. That way I can also save it into my Obsidian vault if needed. It might work on iOS too, with the Files app.
Very nice ! I have a similar system but the main difference is that I don't make all the notes for a year in advance. My automation creates a new note every day at 5 past midnight. Your system makes more sense since you can you back or ahead in time to write things down. I also have a shortcut on my homescreen to open todays note. YT doesnt allow me to post a link to it but it's very easy to make. All it does is open the note that has todays date as its title. The date needs to be the same format as the date in the title otherwise it won't find it.
awesome, love this concept, thank you for sharing and your generosity in building the shortcuts for there world 🙂 Look forward the the next one in the series too ✌🏻
How would Apple’s new Journal app stack up against Apple Notes for journaling, especially when using the Forever Diary method? I'd love to see a comparison video of these two. It seems like the Journal app could make content creation easier with its suggestions and seamless integration of videos, photos, music, and more, allowing for more interactive entries. However, it might fall short in terms of functionality compared to Notes, which offers features like tags, search, filtering, and better organization. Could you create a comparison video to explore these differences?
Hiya- Thanks for your videos on the Forever Diary-it’s already changing my life. 😊 However, I downloaded your automation for opening today’s note and it is not working properly. It worked correctly the first time only, but now pops up a window asking me to select a note. It doesn’t even show the correct date in the list for me to choose. Any ideas on what might be wrong? Is it something I may have done/be doing incorrectly, or is it a glitch in the automation? I’m a total noob when it comes to shortcuts/automations and wouldn’t know how to fix it. Hopefully I can get it working, because this would be the single most useful thing to have. Thanks! - Doug
Thanks Doug! Also for spotting an error in the automation 👍🏻. I think I have fixed it. Can you please download it again, and see if this time it works as expected?
I tried it again by re-requesting the link by the email signup form and it doesn’t work either. Did you update the link in the auto-response email? Is there another way for me to go download it? Thanks for your quick response-sorry to be a pain. - dpk
I have over ten years of photos on my iPad. I plan to use those photos to “trigger” memories from the last decade….for starters. I just looked at a photo of a car club wine outing and realized that at least three of the people in that photo are no longer with us…so I better hurry and update my Forever Journal before I’m no longer around
The automation is not working. For some reason, it’s not opening up today’s date, but a list of notes that are in the default “notes” folder. I’m guessing this has to do with the date formatting. What should we do to tweak it so the shortcut can read the dates properly?
Hi - sorry about that and thanks for your comment. What format do you have the notes in? Do they have a leading zero? For example is today called “8 October” or “08 October”?
I see. I updated the setup script to always create notes with a leading zero. Did you run an old version (or maybe you created the structure a few months back)? In any case, the way to fix it is to manually add leading zeros to notes that have a *single* digit (so 8 become 08, but 12 stay 12, etc). please let me know if it works. Happy Journaling!
@@Patrick-NP I’ve been using it since July. I just had to do it manually. It works now! It was a bit a of a pain but well worth it. Thank you so much for your help and for the great content you produce. You me made love Notes. Keep it up!
I implemented the Forever Diary system in Obsidian. It's super easy to do and I do fel safer
Fair enough, it's an excellent way to do it. I talked about it in another video on the channel, did you download the folder structure or you created it from scratch?
About exporting / backing up, there is 2 ways I'm using.
First is adding a second account in Apple Note. This is tight to your email. a folder called Notes will be created ans you can simply drag your note there. Note will be converted as "draft" email with no sender no recipient. This is an old way, but still valid.
Second, I have built a Shortcut app for MacOS. I still need to perfect it, but for now, you select the content of you note, share with the shortcut app. The Shortcut will create a Markdown file on your Download directory, using the first line as filename. That way I can also save it into my Obsidian vault if needed. It might work on iOS too, with the Files app.
Thanks for these tips. Don’t forget that obsidian has an importer plugin that brings over links and everything from Apple to obsidian
Very nice !
I have a similar system but the main difference is that I don't make all the notes for a year in advance. My automation creates a new note every day at 5 past midnight. Your system makes more sense since you can you back or ahead in time to write things down.
I also have a shortcut on my homescreen to open todays note. YT doesnt allow me to post a link to it but it's very easy to make. All it does is open the note that has todays date as its title. The date needs to be the same format as the date in the title otherwise it won't find it.
Thanks! Yes I find that having all the folders+notes ready removes friction when it’s time to write about old memories
Tysm for the shortcut, works fabulously! ❤
No problem 😊
Very interesting, simple and elegant.
Thank you! 😊
awesome, love this concept, thank you for sharing and your generosity in building the shortcuts for there world 🙂 Look forward the the next one in the series too ✌🏻
Thanks so much!
How would Apple’s new Journal app stack up against Apple Notes for journaling, especially when using the Forever Diary method? I'd love to see a comparison video of these two.
It seems like the Journal app could make content creation easier with its suggestions and seamless integration of videos, photos, music, and more, allowing for more interactive entries. However, it might fall short in terms of functionality compared to Notes, which offers features like tags, search, filtering, and better organization.
Could you create a comparison video to explore these differences?
Apple has a journal app tho, that’s what I use as a diary
Awesome videos, like your tracker 5:32 in the video #newsubscriber greetings from Sweden
Thanks!
Hiya-
Thanks for your videos on the Forever Diary-it’s already changing my life. 😊
However, I downloaded your automation for opening today’s note and it is not working properly. It worked correctly the first time only, but now pops up a window asking me to select a note. It doesn’t even show the correct date in the list for me to choose. Any ideas on what might be wrong? Is it something I may have done/be doing incorrectly, or is it a glitch in the automation? I’m a total noob when it comes to shortcuts/automations and wouldn’t know how to fix it.
Hopefully I can get it working, because this would be the single most useful thing to have. Thanks!
- Doug
Thanks Doug! Also for spotting an error in the automation 👍🏻. I think I have fixed it. Can you please download it again, and see if this time it works as expected?
I tried it again by re-requesting the link by the email signup form and it doesn’t work either. Did you update the link in the auto-response email? Is there another way for me to go download it? Thanks for your quick response-sorry to be a pain. - dpk
Try this link: www.icloud.com/shortcuts/f174e27cdbee4a0e98e3b9b82e412620 does it work?
Yes! It works perfectly now-thank you SO much!!
I have over ten years of photos on my iPad. I plan to use those photos to “trigger” memories from the last decade….for starters. I just looked at a photo of a car club wine outing and realized that at least three of the people in that photo are no longer with us…so I better hurry and update my Forever Journal before I’m no longer around
What about using automations to export notes? I lost all my notes a few years ago when Apple did an upgrade. They could offer no help so user beware.
The automation is not working. For some reason, it’s not opening up today’s date, but a list of notes that are in the default “notes” folder. I’m guessing this has to do with the date formatting. What should we do to tweak it so the shortcut can read the dates properly?
Hi - sorry about that and thanks for your comment. What format do you have the notes in? Do they have a leading zero? For example is today called “8 October” or “08 October”?
@@Patrick-NP No worries. No leading 0, just 8, because that’s how the shortcut was set up. Thanks for your help!
I see. I updated the setup script to always create notes with a leading zero. Did you run an old version (or maybe you created the structure a few months back)? In any case, the way to fix it is to manually add leading zeros to notes that have a *single* digit (so 8 become 08, but 12 stay 12, etc). please let me know if it works. Happy Journaling!
@@Patrick-NP I’ve been using it since July. I just had to do it manually. It works now! It was a bit a of a pain but well worth it. Thank you so much for your help and for the great content you produce. You me made love Notes. Keep it up!
Thanks, that's very kind! 👍