Note templates and repeating notes that make themselves

Most notes you write are not really new: the same meeting agenda, the same journal questions, the same Friday review. Barside handles them with note templates and repeating notes. Pick one of six ready-made templates, or save any note as your own, and the new note arrives with its headings and checklists in place, and the date wherever the template asks for it. A repeating note goes one step further: Barside makes it for you on a schedule, like a daily journal every weekday at 8:30. Barside is a free desktop app for Windows, Linux and Mac, and it all runs on your computer.

The six ready-made note templates

Each template starts with the structure a good note of its kind needs, plus a checklist whose items become real tasks.

The examples show a note made on Monday, September 28, 2026. The dates are filled in when the note is made, and they follow your computer's language settings.

How to start a note from a template

1. Above your notes, click From template. Or open the search bar (Alt+Shift+Space from any app, Ctrl+K in Barside), type tpl and choose New note from a template.
2. In Create in, pick the workspace for the new note.
3. Click a template under Ready-made or Your templates.
4. The new note opens with its headings and checklists in place, and the date filled in where the template uses one. Start typing.

Make your own template

Any note can become a template: a client kickoff, a bug report, a lesson plan, a recipe card.

1. Write a note the way you want future notes to start, with headings, checklists, tables and even drawings.
2. Open Note options and choose Save as template. With the note open, the search bar command Save this note as a template does the same.
3. Name the template, add a description if you like ("What it is for"), and click Save template.
4. It appears under Your templates the next time you choose From template.

A few rules keep new notes clean. Ticked boxes and due dates are cleared when you save a template, so every new note starts fresh. Excalidraw drawings in a template are copied into each new note, so each copy can be edited on its own. You can keep up to 200 templates of your own.

To change a template, save the improved note as a new template. If a repeating note uses the old one, click its pencil and pick the new template. Then delete the old one under Your templates in the Templates & repeating notes window, which you open from Settings. Deleting a template asks first, and it also deletes any repeating note that still uses it, though the notes it already made stay.

Placeholders that fill themselves in

Placeholders are words that Barside swaps for the date or time when it makes a note. Each one is a name written between double curly braces: two opening braces, the name, then two closing braces. They work in the text of any template, in the titles of the ready-made ones, and in the Note title of a repeating note:

• date, the full date, like Monday, September 28, 2026.
• shortDate, a short date, like Sep 28.
• time, the time, like 8:30 AM.
• weekday, the day of the week, like Monday.
• week, the week number of the year, like 40.

Four of the ready-made templates use them in their titles and first lines, such as the When line of Meeting notes. A note made from your own template takes the template's name as its title, so give a repeating note a Note title when you want the date in it, like "Standup · Tuesday" or "Sprint notes · Week 40". The Note title field shows four of them written out, as a reminder of the exact spelling.

Repeating notes: a note on a schedule

A repeating note makes a new note from a template at the times you choose, with no clicks from you.

1. In Settings, go to Templates & repeating notes and click Templates. The search bar opens the same window as Templates and repeating notes.
2. Under Repeating notes, click New repeating note.
3. Choose the Template and the Workspace. Add a Note title if you want one other than the template's.
4. Choose how it Repeats: Every day, Every weekday, Weekly on the days you tick, or Monthly on a day of the month. Then set the Time.
5. Click Save.

Each repeating note shows its schedule, its workspace and when the next note is due, like Every weekday at 08:30 · Life · Next Tue, Sep 29, 8:30 AM. Its switch pauses or resumes it, Create now makes the note right away, and the pencil and trash buttons edit or delete it. When a note is made, a quiet notification says New note ready; click it to open the note. You can keep up to 100 repeating notes.

When your computer was off

Repeating notes are made by Barside on your computer, so they follow a few sensible rules:

• One catch-up, never a pile. If Barside was not running at the scheduled time, it makes the latest missed note when it starts. Miss three journals and you get one: the most recent that was due, dated for the day it was due.
• Locked or asleep. While the screen is locked or the computer sleeps, repeating notes wait, and the note is made when you come back.
• Paused means paused. Turning a schedule back on starts from that moment, so you never get notes for the time it was off.
• Early counts. Making today's note with Create now counts as today's note, so the schedule does not make a second one later that day.
• Short months. A monthly note set for the 29th, 30th or 31st is made on the last day of shorter months.
• Deleting cleans up. Deleting a template also deletes the repeating notes that use it, and the notes they already made stay. Deleting a workspace deletes its notes and its repeating notes. If a repeating note ever cannot find its template or workspace, it pauses instead of failing over and over.

To keep repeating notes on time, let Barside start with your computer: turn on Start with Windows on Windows, or Open at login on Linux and in Barside for Mac, in Settings. Barside then waits quietly in the tray, or in the menu bar on a Mac.

Template ideas that work

• A daily journal, every weekday at 8:30. Three priorities to start the day, a short review to end it.
• A weekly review, Fridays at 16:00. Wins, lessons and next week's priorities, done with the task board open beside it.
• A one-on-one, weekly on Tuesdays. Link the person's note with [[ so their note collects every conversation.
• A monthly admin note on the 1st. Your own template with a checklist: invoices, receipts, backups, subscriptions.
• A client kickoff template. The questions you always ask, so you never forget one on a call.
• Research notes per question. One note per question, with sources and findings, linked to the project brief.
• Meeting notes from your calendar. Connect Google Calendar or Outlook and make a meeting note from any event, filled in with its title, time, people and place.

Note templates and repeating notes with the rest of Barside

• Calendar. Making a meeting note from a calendar event uses the Meeting notes template, filled in from the event, and each event gets one note at most. See the calendar next to your notes.
• Tasks. Checklists from templates are real tasks. Give items a date and they show up on the board, grouped by when they are due.
• Agents. A repeating note gives you the same structure every time, with no AI. A scheduled agent writes content with the AI you connect, like a Morning briefing on weekdays at 8:30 from your tasks, reminders and calendar. Use repeating notes for structure and AI agents that ask before they act for summaries.
• Daily briefing. Library's daily briefing lists the unchecked items from your journals and reviews next to your reminders and today's events.
• Backups and sync. Templates and repeating notes travel in ZIP backups. With Barside Plus, cloud sync keeps them the same on all your computers.

Details and limits

• Limits. Up to 200 templates of your own and 100 repeating notes.
• No editing in place. Save a new template to change one, then delete the old.
• Barside must be running. Repeating notes are made by Barside on your computer, with the catch-up rules above.
• Dates follow your computer's language settings.
• Systems. Templates and repeating notes work the same on Windows 10 and 11, on Linux and on Mac.

Privacy

Templates and repeating notes work from the notes on your computer, and they are not uploaded. There is no account to create. If you turn on cloud sync with Barside Plus, they sync like your notes. Read the privacy guide and how cloud sync handles your data.

How it compares

If you are moving from Notion, Evernote or OneNote, importing your notes takes a few minutes, and the templates here cover the pages people tend to rebuild again and again: meeting notes, journals, reviews and briefs. Read the Notion alternative, Evernote alternative and OneNote alternative guides, or the list of the best note-taking apps.

Works well with