Goal Reminder Automation with n8n

Today, we’re sharing an automation that will help you remember your daily goals in a simple and effective way. To do this, we’ll use n8n, an open-source automation tool that allows you to connect your favorite applications and services.

In our latest article, we talked about the importance of starting with small automations and why you should implement them in your daily routine.

To better structure the process, we will divide it into the following steps:

• What do we need?
• How are we going to do it?
• How are we going to automate it?
• Conclusions

What do we need?

For this automation, we require the following:

• A CSV file containing the date and daily goals to be reminded of.
• An automation platform: In this case, we will use n8n, though we could opt for alternatives like Zapier or Integromat.
• A Telegram bot to receive notifications about our daily goals.
• A server to run n8n. For this example, we’ll use Docker as the deployment environment.

How are we going to do it?

We’ll use n8n to:

• Read the CSV file with the goals.
• Filter out only the goals for the current day.
• Send a reminder message to Telegram.

Like any engineering project, the process will evolve over time. During development, we identified a possible scenario: what happens if there are no goals for the current day? In this case, we decided to send a reminder message prompting the user to add new goals.

How are we going to automate it?

We will implement two key processes in n8n:

Process 1: Read the CSV file and send a message to Telegram

1. Automatic execution: We use a Cron node to run the workflow daily at 9:00 a.m.
2. Reading the file: We read the file and convert it into JSON format.
3. Filtering data: We apply a filter to retrieve only the goals for the current day.
4. Data verification: We use an If node to check if the filter returns results. If the node receives no data, we need to force an empty value since by default, a workflow with no data stops.
5. Telegram notification:
   • If there are goals, the bot sends a message with the tasks for the day.
   • If there are no goals, the bot reminds the user to add new tasks.

Process 2: Upload new data through a form

To update our goals, we use a form integrated into n8n. This form allows new goals to be entered easily, keeping the entire process within a single platform.

1. We create a form with the necessary fields.
2. We configure a Form node that activates when the form is submitted.
3. We convert the entered data into a compatible format.
4. We write the data to the CSV file so the workflow continues to function correctly.

Conclusion

This automation minimizes manual effort and ensures that we never forget our daily goals. With virtually no maintenance required, it runs automatically, sending reminders and promoting discipline in personal planning.

Small automations, big wins.

👉 Contact us today to optimize your processes.