Working with Notes
Master your daily workflow with Notes—from quick capture to knowledge organization, linking, and productivity shortcuts.
Daily Notes
Daily Notes are auto-dated entries that make journaling, planning, and thought capture effortless. Every day gets its own note automatically.
Accessing Daily Notes
Press ⌘D (Mac) or Ctrl D (Windows/Linux) from anywhere in Deva to instantly jump to today's daily note. You can also click "Daily Notes" in the sidebar or search by date using ;search or ⌘K.
Use Cases for Daily Notes
Use daily notes for morning planning (priorities and focus), thought capture (ideas, meeting notes, questions), end-of-day reflection (accomplishments and tomorrow's top 3), or habit building (⌘D every morning builds consistency).
Example:
Organizing Your Notes
All Notes View
The complete list of every note you've created, showing subject, snippet, and last updated date. Sort by newest, oldest, recently updated, or alphabetically. Filter by all notes, private only, public only, or notes used for Deva responses.
Search
Quick Search - Type ; followed by a word while editing to see matching note suggestions. Example: ;project shows all notes with "project."
Global Search - Press ⌘K (when no text is selected) to search across all note titles and content. Search is instant, case-insensitive, and matches partial words.
Organization Strategies
While Deva doesn't have formal tags, you can organize notes by:
Prefix Titles - Use "Project - Alpha Launch" or "Meeting - Weekly Sync" and search by prefix.
[[Links]] as Tags - Create notes like [[#productivity]] and link to them from relevant notes.
Root Note Directory - Use your Root Note as a table of contents linking to major topics.
Note Linking & Connections
Build a web of knowledge by linking notes together. Connections help you discover insights and build context for your AI.
[[Double Bracket]] Linking
Create links between notes using [[double brackets]]. Type [[ to trigger note suggestions, then select or create a note.
Quick link shortcut: Highlight text and press ⌘⇧K to wrap it in [[brackets]] automatically.
Backlinks: See incoming connections in the Backlinks panel (right sidebar). Discover related content and see how ideas connect across your knowledge base.
Building a knowledge web: Create hub notes for major topics, link liberally (more connections = better discovery), and use natural language when linking ("I learned this from [[James Clear]]").
Keyboard Shortcuts Reference
⌘D / Ctrl D
Jump to today's daily note
⌘K / Ctrl K
Global search (no text) / Create hyperlink (text selected)
⌘⇧K / Ctrl Shift K
Create [[note link]] (wraps selection in brackets)
⌘Enter / Ctrl Enter
Send inline @deva prompt
⌘⇧F / Ctrl Shift F
Focus mode (hide sidebars)
[[
Trigger note suggester
Tips & Productivity Features
Focus Mode - Press ⌘⇧F to hide both sidebars for distraction-free writing. Perfect for deep work sessions.
Templates - Create reusable note structures. Save them as regular notes with "Template -" prefix, then copy when needed:
Sync - Notes sync in real-time across desktop, mobile, and PWA. Changes appear instantly on all devices. Offline access available when PWA installed.
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