August 13, 2022
1 minute read
Obsidian is my current app of choice for taking notes. Although I briefly switched to NotePlan, I eventually returned to Obsidian. I am still configuring it to match my workflow. One feature I like is having a notes section in my Daily Note where I can quickly jot down thoughts or ideas. I prefer to have timestamps for each entry and wanted to add notes to this section outside of Obsidian. I found a quick and easy solution by using Alfred to send text to Apple Shortcuts and form a URL to send to Obsidian using the Advanced URI plugin.
To get started, I created a simple Shortcut that takes the text from Alfred and formats it with the current date. Next, I encoded the text and appended it to the base URL. Finally, I opened the full URL, which added the line to my Daily Note.
To make this even more efficient, I created an Alfred workflow that passes the text to the Shortcut. Now, whenever I activate Alfred and type “qn” followed by my note, it will be added to my Daily Note with a timestamp.
Although there are many enhancements that could be made to this workflow, such as creating the entry via quick actions or highlighted text, this quick and easy solution works well for me. I hope it will be useful to others who use Obsidian or similar note-taking apps.
