Dataview let’s you list notes, which contain certain keys. So you can index your notes automatically.
One can for example add category: and date: to the YAML and then use a dataview snippet like the following to list all work related notes and sort them by latest:
LIST
WHERE category = work
SORT date desc
With more keys you can make more conditions or show more information in a table. For example deadline: or urgency: in the YAML.
You can also check for notes, which are missing information in their YAML through:
TABLE
WHERE !category
There are lot of tutorials and the documentation online, if you want to know more.