Birthday and Date Reminders
Track birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, document expirations, and any recurring date with multi-stage reminders that surface in your morning briefing.
This recipe uses Obsidian Reminders, a free Obsidian plugin that triggers notifications based on a simple date syntax in your markdown files. Jesse reads these same files during the morning routine and surfaces upcoming reminders in the briefing.
Prerequisites
- Obsidian with the Reminders plugin installed
- The plugin’s “Reminder Format” set to include
(@YYYY-MM-DD)syntax
Vault Structure
Create a Knowledge/Reminders/ directory in your vault. Each category of reminders gets its own file:
Knowledge/Reminders/
├── Family-Dates.md # Birthdays, anniversaries, personal dates
├── Company-Holidays.md # Your org's holiday calendar
├── School-Holidays.md # If you have kids in school
├── Document-Expirations.md # Passports, IDs, car inspections
└── DST-Transitions.md # Daylight saving time changes (if international)
How Reminders Work
The Obsidian Reminders plugin watches for this syntax:
- [ ] Reminder text (@YYYY-MM-DD)
- [ ] Reminder with time (@YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM)
When the date arrives, Obsidian shows a notification. When you check the box, the reminder is done.
Jesse reads these files during the morning routine (Phase 1: Gather) and includes any unchecked reminders matching today or this week in the briefing.
Multi-Stage Reminders
The real power is in setting up multiple reminders per event at different lead times. For a birthday:
### Mom's Birthday (Aug 12 -- turning 80)
- [ ] Mom's birthday in 1 month -- turning 80! Plan something special? (@2026-07-13)
- [ ] Mom's birthday in 1 week -- turning 80 (@2026-08-05)
- [ ] Mom's birthday tomorrow -- turning 80 (@2026-08-11)
- [ ] Happy 80th birthday Mom! (@2026-08-12)
The 1-month reminder gives you time to plan. The 1-week reminder is a nudge. The day-before is your last chance. The day-of is a greeting prompt.
For less significant dates, two stages might be enough:
### Memorial Day (May 25)
- [ ] Company closed May 25 (Memorial Day) -- 1 week reminder (@2026-05-18)
- [ ] Company closed tomorrow (Memorial Day) (@2026-05-24)
JESSE.md Configuration
Add this to your start-of-day routine in the Gather phase:
7. **Read all files in Knowledge/Reminders/** -- Find unchecked reminders
(`- [ ]`) with dates matching today or this week. Surface in briefing.
Example: Family Dates File
A complete family dates file includes a reference table and reminders:
# Family Dates and Reminders
## Birthdays
| Who | Date | Age This Year |
|-----|------|---------------|
| Mom | August 12 | 80 |
| Dad | September 18 | 81 |
| Partner | June 29 | 46 |
| Kid 1 | April 11 | 9 |
| Kid 2 | April 21 | 11 |
## Anniversaries
| Date | What | Years |
|------|------|-------|
| June 19 | Wedding anniversary | 16 |
## Key Dates
| Date | What | Notes |
|------|------|-------|
| Mar 8 | International Women's Day | Big in Italy. Flowers. |
| Mar 19 | Father's Day (Italy) | San Giuseppe |
## Reminders
### Kid 1's Birthday (Apr 11 -- turning 9)
- [ ] Birthday in 1 month -- turning 9, start planning (@2026-03-12)
- [ ] Birthday in 1 week (@2026-04-04)
- [ ] Birthday tomorrow -- turning 9 (@2026-04-10)
- [ ] Happy 9th birthday! (@2026-04-11)
Document Expiration Tracking
The same pattern works for documents that expire:
# Document Expirations
## Passports
| Who | Passport # | Issued | Expires | Renew By |
|-----|-----------|--------|---------|----------|
| You | AB123456 | 2020-03-15 | 2030-03-15 | 2029-09-15 |
## Reminders
### Your Passport (expires 2030-03-15)
- [ ] Passport expires in 6 months -- start renewal (@2029-09-15)
- [ ] Passport expires in 3 months (@2029-12-15)
- [ ] Passport expires in 1 month -- urgent (@2030-02-15)
DST Transition Tracking
If you work across time zones, DST transitions cause meeting offsets. Track them:
### US Spring Forward (Mar 8)
- [ ] US clocks spring forward Sunday. Meetings with US team shift
1hr for 3 weeks until EU changes Mar 29. (@2026-03-05)
- [ ] US springs forward tomorrow. Expect meeting time shifts. (@2026-03-07)
Tips and Gotchas
Set reminders when you create the event, not later. The whole point is that you set them up once and forget about them until they surface.
Use the reference tables. The tables at the top of each file make it easy to look up dates without scrolling through reminders. Jesse also uses them to calculate ages and milestones.
Annual refresh. At the start of each year, ask Jesse to generate next year’s reminders from the reference tables. It takes about 30 seconds.
Check off reminders when you see them. Obsidian Reminders will keep nagging until you check the box. Jesse won’t re-surface checked items.
Keep it in Knowledge/Reminders/, not in project files. Reminders are reference data, not TODO items. They feed into Dashboard.md and Today.md during the morning routine, but they live separately.