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‎frontend/posts/daily-journaling-report-3.md‎

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---
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title: "[Daily Journaling] Report 3"
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slug: daily-journaling-report-3
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published: 2025-08-12
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description: >
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The third report in the series on "daily journaling" with my second-brain setup.
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---
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It has been just under 7 months since my last overhaul of my daily journaling system and how I use
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it. In that time, I have had some significant life changes that have led me to a different usage
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pattern of my devices. My needs have changed with respect to my "second brain".
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Last year, every morning would start with me making a cup of coffee (a pourover) and sitting down to
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turn on my computer. As soon as I was logged in, I would pop open my second-brain and write all of
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my morning subconcious/shower thoughts, review the previous day, set an intention for that day, and
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then make a todo list. It quickly became my mornning ritual, cultivating my digital home where I
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track of my tasks and any thoughts that pop into my head.
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However, this year has brought on a more nomadic lifestyle. The months of April and May barely saw
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me turn on my computer more than once a week. During this time, I still needed some-what daily todo
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lists and reverted to using the ever-present Obsidian on my phone. As this muscle memory was
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defined, I found myself duplicating my todo list between devices on the days where I would use both,
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depending on the context and what I needed. And every pragmatic software engineer bristles at
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breaking DRY principles.
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## Updates - Goodbye Apple (Set up Note Syncing)
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How do you solve a duplication error when data in needed in more than one place? You've probably
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already guessed. I needed to sync my notes between my mobile device and my laptop. So, as any
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engineering leader worth their salt, I sat down and did a return on investment analysis:
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<details>
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<summary>Journal Excerpt - Investment ROI</summary>
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> ## Notes Syncing
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> ### Problem
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> I keep running into the issue where I want my `~/second-brain` and my phone
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> notes app to sync so that I don't have to manually copy my list between devices.
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> ### Solution Requirements
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> 1. Full Neovim use while on laptop (unopinionated markdown files)
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> 2. Mobile App markdown editor
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> 3. Note syncing (could be manual)
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> 4. Optimize for laptop power usage and only an extension with the phone
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>
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> | ID | Solution | Cost |
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> | -- | -------- | ---- |
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> | 1 | Pay for Obsidian Sync | $4/mo |
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> | 2 | SyncThing + Android | $400 |
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> | 3 | Custom Mobile App | $400+ |
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> | 4 | Mobile Git Editor | $35/yr |
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>
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> #### Obsidian Sync
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>
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> This incurs an ongoing cost forever. I also believe that I would have to open
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> Obsidian on my laptop to make sure that it syncs before opening my second brain.
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> This workflow feels pretty clunky and I don't think it solves my issue with
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> syncing.
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>
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> #### Syncthing + Android
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>
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> SyncThing doesn't work on iOS because of folder "security" measures.
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>
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> This could be free if I use the current Pixel that I have. However, I really
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> dislike the bulky camera on the back. I think if I went this route, I'd like to
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> get a new phone.
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>
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> #### Custom Mobile App
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>
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> This is the most interesting, but also most complicated. I would love a PWA that
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> has an offline mode that I built myself. However, this would take quite a bit of
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> time to build the mobile/web app portion and then the backend portion.
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>
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> Even with a PWA, iOS makes it completely frustrating...I would probably switch
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> to Android anyway.
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>
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> #### Mobile Git Editor
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>
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> Since `~/second-brain` already uses git to sync, I could just figure out how to
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> use Git on the phone. However, this doesn't come with automations built-in to do
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> things like Daily Notes and the like.
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>
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>
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> ### Selected Solution
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>
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> Set up Obsidian and SyncThing on the current Pixel. If it works, buy the 9a with
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> the smaller camera. I have until 8/15 for the current $400 deal.
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</details>
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**TL;DR:**
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> I will be experimenting with Obsidian and SyncThing on my current Pixel tomorrow
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> evening. If it works, I'll buy the 9a because of the smaller camera. I have
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> until 8/15 for the current $400 deal.
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In the end, I decided not to purchase a new Pixel since my Pixel 7 works just fine and seems a lot
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thinner with a the needed protective case.
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### Solution Implementation
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SyncThing is designed to be a distributed file syncing system. This means that you can share a local
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folder with many other devices. While my phone is almost never off, it might lose internet access
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through a connection issue or airplane mode. While syncing dirctly between my laptop and phone would
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probably work for the majority of the time, I decided on a more complex syncing architecture through
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my NAS.
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I have a somewhat extensive homelab setup that includes a Synology NAS. Installing SyncThing from
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the third-party registry was easy. Adding SyncThing to my NixOS laptop was a little more interesting
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with the general lack of user friendly documentation for most NixOS packages, but it quickly fit
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into the declarative nature of its configuration.
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Choosing this solution required switching to an Android-based phone over an iPhone. iPhones have
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pretty locked down security features which do not allow applications to share files, which is needed
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in this case.
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I took this time to finally switch to GrapheneOS since I have been meaning to switch for the last
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few years (and even had a Pixel 7 from a few years ago when I was trying to get ready to switch).
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The setup of SyncThing and Obsidian was straight forward and the Storage Space feature was a great
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use to allow both both Obsidian and SyncThing to access the same files.
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### Gotchas
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I did run into a few issues that needed resolving while testing the end-to-end system. The first is
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that reusing folder labels and folder IDs after deletion leads to weird global sync states. During
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any future testing, I would recommend rotating at least the folder ID with every additional folder
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test, if not both. I ended up wiping the NAS SyncThing index DB multiple times to fix the global
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issue because I had been testing with the `second-brain` label with the same static folderID from
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the NixOS declarative configuration.
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Additionally, the `.stignore` file is different on every device and should be created before syncing
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anything off the local device. I wanted to ignore the `.obsidian` directory on my phone because it
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is different than the one on my laptop (on the rare occasion that I use Obsidian on my laptop). I
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also didn't want the updates to the obsidian workspace files to constantly sync. I made a similar
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choice with the laptops's `.zk/notebook.db` file which constantly changes with every edit. However,
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care must be taken if the file was previously synced. In such a case, the file should be added to
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the remote device's `.stignore` file before deleting to make sure that the deletion is not synced
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across all devices as well.
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## Conclusion
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In the short few days since getting this set up, it has been great to be able to drop in on my
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laptop's daily note from my phone, and make updates on the move as needed. It has been well worth
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the pain of switching phones.

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