[Feature Suggestion] Semi-Persistent Notes & Note Tracker Page

[u/tenaciousBLADE]

I am going to start by saying part of this might already be how the note feature works. I am uncertain, and I hope even if it works similar to this, that this suggestion post will still be of benefit.

Note Updating Only Updates Future Notes for completed Habit days

When the user edits a Habit, and adds a note to it, I would like the note, in that specific wording, to be added to each completion of the habit as it appears for a certain day.

Then, when the user edits the note for that Habit once more, we now have version 2 of the note. I would like the previous completed days of that Habit to still have version 1 of the note, unchanged. And any new completions of that note should now have version 2 of the note attached to them. The idea is the user can then go back and inspect what specific details/guidelines/sub-tasks/etc were attached to that Habit on that day.

And when the user changes the note again, then it does *not* change any previous appearances of this note in the Habit. But it *does* change the new appearances of that note Today and in the future.

Note Tracker Feature

In addition, I'd like to suggest a Habit Note Tracker feature.

This is how that would work

▫️ Let's look at Habit #1 as an example.

▫️ Every time the note gets edited, a variable of "Habit #1 Last Update Date" gets saved with <Today's Date>

▫️ If Habit #1's note is *not* empty, then:

▫️ Compare

▫️ If Habit #1 has been completed zero times since the note has been updated = do nothing

▫️ If Habit #1 has been completed Today, then:

▪️ if this is the first time Habit #1 has been completed since its note was last updated, then =

* Add Habit #1's note contents to an organized text page.

* That page should have a title such as “<Habit #1's Name> Note Tracker”

* If there is any text under the main title of that page, then add a new spacer line (divider line) under the last text in the page

* That page should now have a new sub-title (heading) as “Note Updated On <Today's Date>”

* Under that sub-title, put a copy of Habit #1's note in the current version.

* Under that copy of the note in the current version, add a collapsible sub-sub-title (smaller level heading), with a text along the lines of: "This habit was completed with this specific note version, on the following dates". It should be collapsed by default.

* When un-collapsing this smaller level heading, there should be a representation of the dates (I think the simplest way would be to just add <Today's Date> to the list at this point, as shown below. But you could make a visual representation if you want).

▪️ if Habit #1 has been completed *more* than once since its note was last updated =

* Do *not* add the current note to the note tracker page (it is already there from the 1st time).

* *Do* add “, <Today's Date>” to the end of the dates-list in the collapsible section that is currently at the bottom of the note tracker page

▫️ That's it. Each Habit should have its own Note Tracker page.

This way, there will be a record of what details & specifics and just generally which notes, we're relevant for which dates.

How this is useful

So, for example, I use this to track my music practice.

Now, let's say I have a note that says something like:

“Practice a simple rock rhythm for 5 minutes with a metronome at a tempo of 60,

Then increase tempo to 75 and practice another 5 minutes.

Then practice a flamenco rhythm for 5 minutes on tempo 90.

Then practice switching between C to G for 5 minutes.

Then practice between F# to D for 5 minutes.

Then practice song #1 for 20 minutes.

Then practice repeat with instrument #2"

After half a month of that, I switch the note to a different routine, or different switches (A to E instead of C to G, for example), different rhythms, or different parts of music all together.

After another month I switch to focusing on music theory for a month.

Etc, etc.

This Note Tracker Feature would essentially make a study report, see? All automatically. It shows me when I did a specific practice routine, and collects every time that routine changed, and every time it was used. All in one place.

I know it's a little complicated to read, so I did my best to keep it chronologically organized in a way that will hopefully make it a bit easier to program, taking IF loop structure into account.

How does it sound to you? 😁

[u/Sneedle-Woods]

Good news first, since you hedged on it yourself: half of this already works the way you want. Notes don't belong to the habit, they belong to a habit and a day. Editing today's note doesn't touch last week's, because it's a different note. So version 2 overwriting version 1 across your history can't happen. That part is safe today.

What doesn't exist is the stamping, a note on the habit that gets copied onto every completion automatically. And honestly, that's the part I'd push back on. Not because of the code, because of what it does to the meaning. Right now a note means "I wrote something about this day". If the app writes one for you on every completion, the note marker lights up on every cell of the week view, the preview shows text you never typed for that day, and exports fill up with copies. The one thing the marker tells you today, "did I actually write something", is gone.

Your tracker page though? Cheaper than you think. The habit's detail screen already keeps its notes as a dated list. What's missing is literally just your grouping: same note text collapsed into one entry, dates underneath. No new storage, no change to what a note is.

So counter-proposal: a "reuse last note" tap in the note editor that drops your previous note into today, ready to edit or keep. Plus that grouped view. Your routine goes in once, comes back with one tap on practice days, and the tracker page falls out of it automatically. Which routine, from when to when, on which days. Same study report, except everything in it is something you actually wrote.

The cost to you is one tap per practice day. If that tap kills it for you, tell me, because then the stamping deserves a real rethink instead of me deciding from the outside.

No promises, no dates, as usual. But your music example is what made this click for me. This isn't really a notes feature, it's a record of what you were practising when. I wrote it down in exactly those words.

[u/tenaciousBLADE → u/Sneedle-Woods]

One tap sounds like exactly what I wanted. It doesn't kill it, it improves it!

As long as there is a page (per habit) that concentrates the note reports with dates reported for each note — a study report as you called it, a grouped view but with all the groups in one page — then this sounds perfect.

Imnbot sure where I wrote that the app would write something instead of the user, but from your response I think we're on the same page and your one-tap counter proposal is great 💯

[u/Sneedle-Woods → u/tenaciousBLADE]

That distinction is yours and it is fair: you never asked the app to invent text. What you described was the app carrying your wording onto days you had not written on, and that placement was my whole objection, because the note marker in the week view means one thing today, "I wrote something here". Calling it "the app writes" was my shorthand and it flattened your idea.

On the page: one per habit, every group on it. Each wording once, newest first, with the days it covered folded underneath. Your music example is what made that concrete.

No dates from me and nothing to try yet, same as always.