Task Rollover

Move all open tasks (- [ ]) from previous daily notes into today's daily note, then mark them as forwarded in the source. This prevents duplicate tasks across multiple dailies.

When to use

• During daily prep ("prep my day", "roll tasks forward", "move yesterday's tasks")
• Any time you notice open tasks sitting on old daily notes

Prerequisites

• Obsidian vault with daily notes in a Dailies/ directory
• Daily note filenames follow YYYY-MM-DD.md format
• Today's daily note should already exist (create it first if not)

Process

Step 1: Scan for open tasks

Search all files in Dailies/ with dates BEFORE today for unchecked tasks (- [ ]).

grep -rl '^\- \[ \]' <vault_path>/Dailies/ | sort

Exclude today's daily from the results.

Step 2: Collect open tasks from each source daily

For each daily note with open tasks:

1. Standalone tasks: Lines starting with - [ ] that are NOT indented inside meeting notes or other structured content. These are top-level tasks below a --- separator or in a "Moved Open Tasks" section.
2. Nested tasks in meeting notes: Tasks (- [ ]) indented inside meeting records. These need special handling (see Step 5).

Step 3: Process each task for today's note

For each standalone open task:

1. Add a rollover arrow (➡️) if the task has a #today tag. Place the arrow before #today. If it already has arrows, add one more.
   • Tasks WITHOUT #today get moved as-is (no arrow added).
   • The arrow count represents how many days the task has rolled over while tagged #today.
2. Add a source date suffix if the task doesn't already have one. Format: [[Dailies/YYYY-MM-DD|YYYY-MM-DD]] using the source daily's date. If the task already has a date suffix (from a previous rollover), keep the ORIGINAL source date, not the intermediate daily.
3. Preserve everything else on the task line: tags, links, emoji, formatting.

Step 4: Write to today's daily

Add rolled-over tasks to today's daily note (before the Priority Focus section if one exists). Use two sections:

### 🔥 #today items (rolled from yesterday)

- [ ] Task with arrows ➡️➡️➡️ #today [[Dailies/2026-05-11|2026-05-11]]
- [ ] Another task ➡️➡️ #today [[Dailies/2026-05-12|2026-05-12]]

### 📥 Moved Open Tasks

- [ ] Regular open task [[Dailies/2026-05-14|2026-05-14]]
- [ ] Another one #followup [[Dailies/2026-05-12|2026-05-12]]

The 🔥 section contains only #today-tagged items, sorted by arrow count descending. The 📥 section contains everything else, sorted by source date (oldest first).

If there are no #today items, omit the 🔥 section entirely.

Rollover escalation thresholds:

• 2+ arrows: mention these items need attention when presenting to the user
• 3+ arrows: flag with ⚠️ and suggest the user make a decision
• 4+ arrows: flag with 🚨 and be direct that the item needs to either happen today or be removed from #today

Step 5: Clean up source dailies

For each source daily note:

1. Mark standalone open tasks as forwarded: Change - [ ] to - [>] in the source file. This preserves the task text as a historical record while signaling it's been moved forward.
2. Convert nested meeting-note tasks from - [ ] to plain - (remove the checkbox). This preserves the meeting context while preventing duplicate task appearances in Obsidian's task queries.
3. Keep completed tasks (- [x]) in place. They're part of the historical record.
4. Keep the Priority Focus section and any DataviewJS blocks. They're part of that day's record.

Step 6: Verify

After all moves:

• Confirm zero - [ ] remain in any daily note before today
• Confirm today's daily has all tasks accounted for
• Report summary: "Moved N tasks from M daily notes. X items flagged for escalation."

Rules

• MOVE, not copy. Tasks must be marked as forwarded ([>]) in source after adding to target. No duplicates.
• One arrow per rollover. Only add ➡️ when moving a #today task forward. Do not add arrows in-place without moving.
• Preserve original source dates. The [[Dailies/...]] suffix should always point to where the task was FIRST created, not the last daily it sat on.
• Never modify completed tasks. - [x] items stay where they are.
• Never move tasks from today's own daily. Only process dailies with dates strictly before today.
• Idempotent. Running this twice on the same day should not create duplicates or add extra arrows. Tasks already marked [>] are skipped.

Example

Before (2026-05-12.md):

- [ ] ➡️ #today post update about ticket cleanup [[Dailies/2026-05-11|2026-05-11]]
- [ ] #followup Send summary to Sam
- [ ] Check on issue 4661 #followup [[Dailies/2026-04-20|2026-04-20]]

After moving to 2026-05-13.md:

### 🔥 #today items (rolled from yesterday)

- [ ] ➡️➡️ #today post update about ticket cleanup [[Dailies/2026-05-11|2026-05-11]]

### 📥 Moved Open Tasks

- [ ] #followup Send summary to Sam [[Dailies/2026-05-12|2026-05-12]]
- [ ] Check on issue 4661 #followup [[Dailies/2026-04-20|2026-04-20]]

2026-05-12.md after cleanup:

- [>] ➡️ #today post update about ticket cleanup [[Dailies/2026-05-11|2026-05-11]]
- [>] #followup Send summary to Sam
- [>] Check on issue 4661 #followup [[Dailies/2026-04-20|2026-04-20]]

Open tasks marked as forwarded. Completed tasks and meeting notes preserved.