A habit tracker in Obsidian without Dataview

Tick a checkbox in each daily note. Two short blocks turn those ticks into a count, a streak, this week against last week, and a year of days. No Dataview and no JavaScript.

1Give every daily note a checkbox

One checkbox property per habit. In a daily note, add a property, set its type to Checkbox, and name it after the habit.

---
gym: true
meditate: true
read: false
---

## 2026-09-14

• 2026-09-14The note's name is its date. Anything after the date is fine: 2026-09-14 Monday counts too.
• gym: trueA ticked box counts as 1, an unticked one as 0.
• DiaryThe folder the blocks read from. Use the one your daily notes already live in.

2Count the days

Make a note for the tracker, say Habits.md, and paste this block. It is the top row of the picture above.

```stats
columns: 4
items:
  - { label: Gym days, source: Diary, field: gym, agg: sum, icon: 🏋️ }
  - { label: Longest gym streak, source: Diary, field: gym, agg: streak, unit: days, icon: 🔥 }
  - { label: Gym this week, source: Diary, field: gym, agg: sum, period: week, icon: 📅, compare: true, better: up }
  - { label: Gym this month, source: Diary, field: gym, agg: sum, period: month, icon: 🗓 }
```

• agg: sumAdds up the ticks, so it counts the ticked days.
• agg: streakThe longest run of ticked days on record. An unticked day breaks it, and so does a day with no note.
• period: weekOnly this week, ending today. The week starts on Monday or Sunday, as your language has it.
• compare: trueSets this week against the same days of last week. With better: up, a rise shows green.

3Paint the year

Paste this under the cards. Every ticked day gets a coloured cell. Click a cell to open that day's note.

```heatmap
source: Diary
field: gym
color: orange
title: Gym
```

Without range you get one grid per calendar year. range: 182d shows the last half year as one grid instead, which fits a phone better.

4The streak you are on

The longest streak is history. For the run you are on today, use current_streak. Here it is on a second habit, meditate:

Habits.mdCopy

```stats
columns: 2
items:
  - { label: Days in a row, source: Diary, field: meditate, agg: current_streak, unit: days, icon: 🔥 }
  - { label: Best streak, source: Diary, field: meditate, agg: streak, unit: days }
```

renders as

Today never breaks the run. Until you tick today's box, the count stops at yesterday. Only a missed yesterday ends the run.

The whole note

Everything above in one piece, ready to paste into an empty note.

```stats
columns: 4
items:
  - { label: Gym days, source: Diary, field: gym, agg: sum, icon: 🏋️ }
  - { label: Longest gym streak, source: Diary, field: gym, agg: streak, unit: days, icon: 🔥 }
  - { label: Gym this week, source: Diary, field: gym, agg: sum, period: week, icon: 📅, compare: true, better: up }
  - { label: Gym this month, source: Diary, field: gym, agg: sum, period: month, icon: 🗓 }
```

```heatmap
source: Diary
field: gym
color: orange
title: Gym
```

```stats
columns: 2
items:
  - { label: Days in a row, source: Diary, field: meditate, agg: current_streak, unit: days, icon: 🔥 }
  - { label: Best streak, source: Diary, field: meditate, agg: streak, unit: days }
```

The same tracker with Tracker or dataviewjs

If you searched for this, you have probably seen one of these. Both read the same gym: true notes.

```tracker
searchType: frontmatter
searchTarget: gym
folder: Diary
summary:
    template: "Gym days: {{sum()}}\nLongest streak: {{maxStreak()}} days\nCurrent streak: {{currentStreak()}} days"
```

```tracker
searchType: frontmatter
searchTarget: gym
folder: Diary
datasetName: Gym
month:
    startWeekOn: 'Mon'
```

```dataviewjs
const days = dv.pages('"Diary"')
  .where(p => p.file.day && p.gym === true)
  .sort(p => p.file.day)
  .map(p => p.file.day)
  .array();

let best = 0, run = 0, prev = null;
for (const d of days) {
  run = prev && d.diff(prev, "days").days === 1 ? run + 1 : 1;
  best = Math.max(best, run);
  prev = d;
}
dv.paragraph(`Gym days: ${days.length}`);
dv.paragraph(`Longest streak: ${best} days`);
```

Tracker also draws line, bar, pie and bullet charts from tags, text and inline fields. Dashy reads frontmatter only. If you track things that live in the text of your notes, Tracker is the better fit.

Variations

```heatmap
source: Diary
layers:
  - field: gym
    color: orange
    label: Gym
  - field: read
    color: green
    label: Reading
```

```stats
items:
  - label: Workdays in a row
    source: Diary
    field: gym
    agg: current_streak
    days: weekdays
```

```stats
items:
  - label: Days in a row
    source: Diary
    field: gym
    agg: current_streak
    skip_field: vacation
```

```stats
items:
  - label: 8000+ steps, days in a row
    source: Diary
    field: steps
    agg: current_streak
    at_least: 8000
```

If a block shows an error

A block that cannot draw says why, inside the note. The usual three:

• The field is missing. No note in Diary has gym. Check the spelling and the folder.
• The field holds text. gym: done is text, not a checkbox. Set the property type to Checkbox.
• No note has a date. A card with period says so when no note is named YYYY-MM-DD. If the date is a property, add date_field: date.

Related guides

A streak that skips weekends

Friday joins up with Monday. Holidays do not end the run.

Two activities on one heatmap

Each in its own colour, on one year of days.

A weekly chart without Tracker

A number summed by week, with a goal line.