Commentarii Roamani

We’re continuing our series: Pages/Systems Worth Building with a system for anyone who wants to bring more clarity, structure, and intention into their day.

Systems Worth Building: The [[Daily 5]]

This is a five-part daily routine built in Roam: a simple template for reviewing your tasks, planning your time, logging your day, reflecting, and capturing anything new that comes up.

🧰 The Tools

[[roam/templates]]:
​​
Use templates to create a consistent daily structure: activate any saved template by typing ;; and selecting it from the dropdown menu.

To install an extension, go to the left sidebar, and open Roam Depot. Search for the extension and click Install. Each extension comes with a description from its creator. For this routine we used:

• ​Nautilus by Tomáš Baránek: transforms your tasks list into a visual overview

• ​Google by David Vargas: connects to various Google services (we will use the Google Calendar) to your Roam graph

(Optional) If you don't use Google Calendar, and prefer to have a calendar within Roam, you can use the Full Calendar extension by Fabrice Gallet.

• ​Time Tracker by Fabrice Gallet: Track how much time you spend on each activity using categories and sub-categories. Set goals or limits, and get feedback on your daily and long-term time usage.

🪭 The Template

⚙️ How it works

[[Review]]

Start each day by:

• Surfacing unfinished tasks with this query: ​
  ​{{[[query]]: {and: [[TODO]] [[date]]}}} ​
  ​
• Pulling in events from your Google calendar

This step sets the stage for intentional planning; you can add other events or tasks as well.

[[Plan]]

Now that you know what’s on your plate, it’s time to build your day and map it out.

Time-blocking is a practice that has been used for ages (Beethoven and Carl Jung used a form of time-blocking) before being popularized by Cal Newport. It consists of assigning each chunk of time in your day to a specific task.

[[Log]]

As your day unfolds, use this section to track what you’re doing: when you start on a task, block reference it under here and open a log with the /current time feature. When you're finished or take a break, close the log by writing the time and use the Time Tracker extension to see how much time you spent.

This helps you track what you spend your time on, and the pace you work at. You can also drop in any new events or tasks that come up during the day after planning. Don't hesitate to explore more with the Time Tracker extension features.

[[Journal]]

This is your space to reflect: freely or with prompts. Use it to process how the day felt: what worked, what didn’t, what surprised you, or what you'd do differently... anything that comes to mind.

Not only does journalling help you be more aware about what you feel and want, but it's also really fun to dig up after some time has passed.

[[Catch]]

This is your drop zone for anything new that comes up during the day: tasks, ideas, events, random thoughts (or distractions you resisted). Instead of interrupting your flow or cluttering your plan, just toss them here.

🌱 Quality of Life Improvements

• Fix selecting blocks with the mouse when the blocks are aligned horizontally, such as with the horizontal [[block view]] or with css
• Auto scroll the page when selecting blocks with the mouse