digital-anti-bad-habit-notebook/Notes/__Using the vault.md

title: Contents

Inspiration

This vault is based on the analog Anti Bad Habit Notebook (external link) that I created long ago. Due to some health hassles, I've had to stop using analog notebooks which has caused me to re-create my analog notebooks within Obsidian. This is one of many such notebook conversions.

Setup

This vault requires a bit of setup. Below is everything that will need to be done prior to using this vault day to day.

• Edit _Templates/Habit.md
  • Simply clicking the _Templates folder name will give you a link to the Habits.md file
  • The array of habits needs to be updated: ["Habit1", "Habit2"]
  • The array of units needs to be updated: ["oz", "mg", "cigarette", "beer", "second", "session"]
  • Example: if you have "chewing-nails" habit you can track "sessions" or "time chewing as seconds"
• Add a note for each habit to the Notes directory
  • Should have the same name as your habit (ie. Habit1 or Habit2)
  • Document anything you need to be aware of for this habit, such as:
    • Goals
    • Withdrawal symptoms
• Edit _Dashboard.md
  • Update the links so they use your own habits instead of Habit1, Habit2, etc
  • Remove unneeded links as needed (ie. you are only tracking one habit)
  • Add any additional links as needed (ie. you are tracking more habits than the examples built into the vault)
• Update the Colored Tags Wrangler settings so each habit has it's own color defined
  • Remove/replace the existing example habits that are configured

Vault Layout & Use

• This vault assumes there will be no folders except the Log folder and no attachments added to notes
• The Log folder...
  • Contains a folder tree that looks like Habit/YYYY/MM/DD
  • Has folder notes for each folder within the tree that give a breakdown of habit information at each level
  • Simply click the Log folder name and then click the links on each note to drill down
• Log entries should have zero content, just the front matter properties at the top of the note
• The Notes folder contains miscellaneous notes and clicking on the folder name will show a list of links, one for each note that's available
• The _Dashboard is the starting point of the vault
  • It shows a high level overview of each habit so you can track progress "at a glance"
  • It has links so you can jump into more detailed areas of the log
• Entered quantities should be numeric
  • Whole numbers like 0, 10
  • Decimal fractions like 0.5, 0.33, 0.2

Why not part of another vault?

This was setup as an independent vault to facilitate fast sync, opening the vault quickly and adding new entries quickly. Including this as part of a larger vault would make it cumbersome and slower to use.

Given this is suppose to help you track a bad habit so you can ultimately break it, this vault was designed around speed and efficiency.

That said, the files created by this vault can be copied into another vault if desired. Each note will be tagged with the habit it represents to facilitate use with other vaults.

Troubleshooting

See the _Troubleshooting The Vault note for more information.

Going beyond bad habits

This vault can be helpful beyond simply tracking bad habits. Some additional capabilities of this vault:

• You can track withdrawal symptoms as a faux bad habit
  • Setup a habit called "habit1-withdrawl-symptom1" or similar and add entries when you have withdrawal symptoms
  • The "unit" can be whatever makes sense for a given withdrawal symptom
  • Be sure to keep each withdrawal symptom separate so they are easier to track and trend over time
• You can "flip the script" and use this to develop good habits
  • Example: tracking the days you miss taking your meds instead of tracking the days you do take your meds
• This vault can catch "extinction burst" events
• This vault can catch "spontaneous recovery" problems if you "keep it handy" after stopping a habit to track the "rare occasions" you partake of a bad habit even though it's been a long time
  • Example: having an annual drink to celebrate the new year despite being sober otherwise