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How I use Obsidian (2023)
- nivcmo 8mo ago[dead]
- seivan 8mo agoI've been doing this as well, but using regular editors. What benefit does Obsidian give here that a text editor doesn't give? You just want to write/paste something for storing but I never understood why I needed a different editor for it.
- true_religion 8mo agoWell, it has a bunch of plugins for making your notes folder into a database, or cataloguing meta data, or adding graphs, spreadsheets, mind maps, or flow charts, but I don’t really use any of those. The only thing I use is the Mathjax plug-in for keeping notes about interesting publications. Aside from its plugins, Obsidian is a great markdown editor and has a folder view and search integrated. I like it for that. My alternative is Apple notes, but long notes are hard to read there, so having markdown view is a positive experience.
- phito 8mo agoI feel like the only reason I use Obsidian is because of the "real time" markdown editor. If I could have this in Zed (not split view between source and render) I would probably not used Obsidian anymore.
- stanpinte 8mo agoThe integration of notes and tasks - that’s unbeatable. While I journal stuff during the day adding tasks is one macro away, and these task can then be searched easily. Your journaling becomes a database of stuff to do.
- kmacleod 8mo agoIf your editor has a wiki mode (like Emacs' org mode) then maybe nothing. If not, then Obsidian is your browser and your editor is your editor. For example, git syncing between Android and desktop isn't working well for me, so I edit directly in github UI and browse in Obsidian. The fact that Obsidian works exactly like that is one of the biggest benefits of Obsidian.
- Insanity 8mo agoI tried Obsidian to build a “second brain”. But eventually just reverted back to notes on my iPad (handwritten) and Vim (markdown) for typed notes. I actually think Obsidian is a great tool, but I just need something as low friction as possible to quickly jolt something down. Vim and Goodnotes does the trick for me.
- ehnto 8mo agoSame, all projects get a .notes folder where plain text goes. Home directory gets a .notes folder also. It helps to have good command over text based search tools. There was an exception though, where text just didn't cut it, which was a brief period where I was importing vehicles from Japan and needed lots of images, documents and comparisons up on a big digital whiteboard. I used LogSeq for that.
- timothyduong 8mo agoObsidian is amazing on my desktop environments but I shared the same sentiment with you, on mobile I use Apple Notes and transpose to Obsidian if its worth doing so...
- ravenstine 8mo agoI like the desktop app, but the android app is such ass. It's bad enough that I wonder why they even bother.
- Brajeshwar 8mo agoSimilar to mine. I use Apple Notes for quick, ephemeral notes and for Shared Family Notes. If they are the ones that are more important, they go into the plain-text notes in the Obsidian folder. The Notes folder(s) is sync with a Cloud Service. So, I use iA Writer[1] (a brilliant Notes App) to have a pleasant writing experience on other mobile devices. They are just Markdown, so I can open them in any Notes App that supports Markdown. I paid for iA Writer once, like 10+ years ago. 1. https://ia.net/writer https://ia.net/writer
- Peacefulz 8mo agoThis is a project that's always on my mind that I never take the time to flesh out. I can't put my finger on the scope. I don't know if I want a full, Johnny Decimaled PKM platform for my entire life, or topical, dense information about things that interest me.
- Jonovono 8mo agoI really want to like obsidian but it’s just unusable (for me) So I built my own thats a bit more lightweight. Think nvalt meets markdown. thats native, iOS and Mac with I cloud sync, and open source. Check it out if it sounds interesting! iOS app is still in review ;( https://hashy.ink/ https://hashy.ink/
- FireBeyond 8mo ago> a bit more lightweight I don't want to be overly negative, but no plugins are mandatory, there's no "47 step setup guide" unless you want to heavily customize. And as far as I can tell you mostly replaced some of the weight with AI? AI "Search Notes", "Organize Notes", "List and filter, tags", "Clean up notes" I guess I just see this as weight in a different area? You've pushed a lot of the weight and plugins to cloud-based AI? I am, on principle, very much a fan of "native app, not another Electron view".
- Jonovono 8mo agoIt’s a BYOK so the ai is optional. (And if you really don’t want it it’s a package in the open source app that can easily be pulled out) Since it’s markdown and on filesystem you can just edit your notes with Claude code if you want similar to obsidian. By lightweight I mean it’s not a super heavy and bloated electron app on desktop and a slow and janky capacitor app on mobile that takes 10 seconds to launch and that the project can be greppable in a day to build on
- FireBeyond 8mo agoI appreciate the feedback - being a bit more modularized like this makes more sense! And yeah, if you're referring to the whole Electron stuff there, I entirely agree!
- xnx 8mo agoI Use Workflowy. The features it adds over plain text/markdown are worth the slight added complexity. I wish it was cheaper and supported tables, but I'll never go back to non-outlined notes.
- hodanli 8mo agoThis was me until I discovered Logseq. I still use Workflowy to collaborate with others, but combining notes and todos with a powerful query system is what makes Logseq my goto note and todo management tool.
- Brajeshwar 8mo agoI ~like~ love Obsidian. I also like Steph Ango and his philosophies. In fact, a lot of his ideas shaped and improved mine. His approach is opinionated. So pick the good ones you like and make your own. For instance, I’m pretty well-organized, and I like it that way. This leads me to native organizations using folders and some patterns that I learnt aloong the way. Nothing more complicated. One day, if I have to walk off Obsidian, I can, and I will still know where things are. Right now, my organization is a loose combo of PARA[1] and Johnny Decimal.[2] Obsidian is another tool; it just happens to be one hell of a good tool. 1. https://fortelabs.com/blog/para/ https://fortelabs.com/blog/para/ 2. https://johnnydecimal.com https://johnnydecimal.com
- Simboo 8mo agoDon’t over complicate this everyone. This is the best file-explorer GUI ever made hands down. All your files map 1-to-1 with the OS filesystem. No double clicking files over and over again. No getting lost in endless unsorted directories. Launch any file extension type straight from the same explorer GUI. I use this app less as a second brain and more as a personal document vault. (Markdown is ugly sorry about it) I get lots of pdf’s and such so it’s all in one place. Cool, end of speech. Peace out
- KPGv2 8mo ago> This is the best file-explorer GUI ever made hands down. besides norton commander and its clones
- KPGv2 8mo agoI use Calibre to maintain my PDFs. I've even got my taxes in there, but have been thinking recently that they don't belong in a library and probably should just be printed and stored with other important things like passports and birth certificates. But every PDF I download, ebook, academic article, it goes in Calibre and out of my Downloads path.
- jrm4 8mo agoI didn't know that Obsidian worked that cleanly; I occasionally flirt with it but have been using https://zim-wiki.org https://zim-wiki.org for about a decade longer, so my muscle memory is there. I keep looking for reasons to switch but so far nothing yet has done that?
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- PurpleRamen 8mo agoAny good filemanager is better. Out of the box, it's also very lacking in necessary abilities. There are also some errors around the edges, like hiding vault-internal links, which makes it a bit questionable for good filehandling. But sure, when all you have are supported filetypes, then it can be useful.
- alkz 8mo ago[flagged]
- afcool83 8mo agoJust for context, Steph Ango is the CEO of Obsidian. His approach to notetaking in his own app made the rounds in the PKM (personal knowledge management) community for how _counterintuitive_ it was. He eschews a lot of the common wisdom pushed by influencers in this space who tout "the one true way™" to stay organized. File splattered in the root? Sure. Unresolved links to notes that don't exist and probably never will? Why not! Blank daily notes that aren't carefully manicured journal tomes? Heck yeah. His point is "perfect is the enemy of good." You could carefully curate and perfect your pkm...or you could have a life.
- MrDarcy 8mo agoHalf of my tasks are in my people folder and half my people are in my tasks folder and it all works out fine in Obsidian.
- ozlikethewizard 8mo agoI think this is my favourite thing about obsidian, it feels so unproscriptive. I have a pretty well thought out folder structure because this is how ive always managed my documents, but every new note goes in a junkyard folder to get sorted if I ever come back to it again. I sometimes use backlinks, but this is generally localised within project folders. I enjoy seeing everyone elses equally chaotic way of using it.
- kelvinjps10 8mo agoI feel like organization it's not as important now with search in computers. Like you can search anything also there is tags.
- PurpleRamen 8mo agoSearch becomes useless if you drown in results. A good organization should assist in shortening paths, but if you start the path manually or through a search doesn't matter much.
- 8mo ago
- kepano 8mo agoHow I use Obsidian
- afcool83 8mo agoIt’s a truly remarkable app you and team have built. I’m going to use the term _simple_ but please understand that that’s high praise. To me, obsidian is a thought-taking app, not a notetaking app. Thoughts are amorphous and incomplete no matter how much you embellish them. They don’t belong in only one place with only one label or pinned to only one date. They reach out to each other. Merge and split. They sit inside each other sometimes. Obsidian gets that. It offers _just enough_ structure and automation and operating system (of a kind) to force the binary file system on some silicon to work like our brains do...and not the other way around.
- FergusArgyll 8mo agoHacker news strips 'how' from the beginning of submission titles. It can be readded (and seems like it was)
- KPGv2 8mo agoever since I first heard about Obsidian, the vibe I get is that it's a solution in search of a problem. Every use case I get pitched, there's a better solution, or it's a "problem" that doesn't need to be solved. If you aren't a researcher in a field, why do you need personal knowledge management? Even when I learn a subject, I find just...taking a flat note file to be way better than all these Zettelkasten stuffs. It all feels very pomodoro to me. It is useful for some people, but influencers have hyped it up into the Grand Unified Solution. Same with mind mapping. I don't see the benefit. Maybe being AuDHD has something to do with it? Like...if it's an area I want more expertise, I'm already hyperfocused on it and remember everything. If I don't want expertise, I don't need PKM. I keep trying to use them, but it feels superfluous. Like I never have to refer back to it.
- rjh29 8mo agoIt's literally just a folder of markdown notes with a handy search and file list if that's what you want it to be. That's all I use it for. I think the hyper-organisation stuff is more of a hobby. It's not about productivity it's enjoyable for its own ends.
- tonyarkles 8mo ago> Maybe being AuDHD has something to do with it I used to live my entire life in emacs org-mode. My memory is shit, if I don’t have a reminder of a task I need to do it probably won’t get done. If someone asks me “hey, do you remember that thing we talked about in that meeting last week?” the answer will be “no, not at all”. If I go “damn, what was that recipe for those pork chops I made last month that were really good?” I will draw a complete blank about what even made them special, but I’ll be disappointed because they were good. I miss org-mode but as my life became more mobile-phone-centric, it stopped working for me. I ultimately ended up replacing it with two things: Todoist for task management and Obsidian for notetaking. Maybe the difference is that I use Obsidian for basically two things: keeping track of things that have happened (meeting notes, design decisions, debug sessions) and for things that are a work in progress (software projects at work and for fun, home renovation plans, things that temporally are going to evaporate from my brain before they’re done). It’s a tool that lets me remember what I was talking to people about last week, and a tool for picking up the project I was working on last month. And it syncs great to my phone and iPad Pro for when I’m out of the house. I haven’t ever gotten to appreciate Obsidian’s task management stuff but Todoist tickles my brain just right for that.
- brcmthrowaway 8mo agoHow does it compare to notion
- shminge 8mo agooffline first, so much faster, no terrible pricing model. Hugely better in my opinion
- jdejean 8mo agoNo databases, views, nested pages, automations, or collaboration. It’s a flat list of files with folders. You can supplement these features with plugins but it’s not the same. Notion is objectively more powerful but if you care about data ownership or minimalism you might prefer Obsidian
- kepano 8mo agoViews were added in Obsidian 1.9 (Aug 2025) https://help.obsidian.md/bases https://help.obsidian.md/bases Collaboration was added in Obsidian 0.14 (May 2022) https://help.obsidian.md/sync/collaborate https://help.obsidian.md/sync/collaborate
- rickcarlino 8mo agoSince it is just markdown files and a tiny bit of JSON meta data, it’s trivial to use Obsidian as the GUI for a static site generator. I have some thin ruby scripts that compile my notebook to HTML and upload to my blog via SSH. I removed my previous static site generator library and just use simple markdown rendering libs now. https://rickcarlino.com/notes/ https://rickcarlino.com/notes/
- gbraad 8mo agoI use Obsidian, but would never use someone else's Vault template; as these are script files, you neverknow what can be in there without reviewing this. Just a friendly reminder to be cautious
- DauntingPear7 8mo agoThis guy is the CEO of obsidian so I would trust him imo
- gbraad 8mo agoWhile I know this, that was not the point. Kepano Everyone makes mistakes... And this argument even normalizes the behavior to run install scripts as root when a CEO says it?
- laurieg 8mo agoPeople who do lots of work and ship lots of projects tend to have a certain level of mess in their workshops. Creation is repeated cycles of trial, play, reflection and tidying. For anyone thinking about trying out Obsidian, here are some problems I have solved with it: - Remembering where I met someone, what we talked about and then connecting up with them at a later date. My ability to remember names is easily 10x because of obsidian. - Seeing who in my family's birthday is coming up soon and their address so I can send them a card. - Graphing how far I've run for each day/week and any quick training notes. - Showing me friend's restaurant suggestions on a map when I've got a free evening and I want to try something new. And all of this stored locally and synced onto many devices. If you're curious I highly recommend starting simple. Don't worry about plugins, just write a quick daily note every day about the information that is important to you. When you feel like you're outgrowing that, adopt a structure that fits you and solves your problems.
- Dr_Birdbrain 8mo agoHow do you use it to remember names?
- timwis 8mo agoNot the OP, but I've got a "Names to remember" evergreen note in my Reference folder. Within it, I have a few headings (e.g. neighbours, or locations), and a bullet point for each person, with context that will trigger the memory. That might sound like there's a lot of structure, but it's really the act of writing it down in the first place that helps me remember.
- acidburnNSA 8mo agoIt'd be cool to write a little script that dumps them out into an Anki deck for spaced repetition.
- dns_snek 8mo agoThere's plugins for that: https://obsidian.md/plugins?search=anki https://obsidian.md/plugins?search=anki
- codazoda 8mo agoLove it. I try to follow an absolutely minimal process. Even more minimal than this. I even built my own “second brain” tool to make my own writing absolutely frictionless. A dump of all files in one folder is the only thing that keeps me sane. I do not want to sort.
- fred_tandemai 8mo agoCurious how people here are using obsidian when taking notes during meetings in the context of AI note taker. I find myself incapable of using features like links as I'm interacting with say a client. I've found AI note takers to be really powerful to help free my mind during meetings though.
- Brajeshwar 8mo agoEither someone or I, of course, turn on a Note Taker that can transcribe the meeting notes. That file can go into Obsidian. Unfortunately, most people don’t refer back to it and would wait for someone to do it as part of the spec or project tasks assigned by the Project Manager. However, I love taking notes in meetings using graphs, arrows, boxes with text, etc. Sometimes, I use an iPad with the Pencil, but I prefer a pen on Paper. This one is usually the one that gets shared, and people seem to like it for understanding the context or for referring back to what they heard during meetings in a simpler, yet faster/easier way. My methods are inspired by Dan Roam’s Books. I browse/re-read the books pretty often. https://www.danroam.comhe https://www.danroam.comhe
- Reflecticon 8mo agoThank you for that reference, that's really cool. I started watching his napkin academy series right now. So plenty of thanks!
- Brajeshwar 8mo agoI just realized the website referenced has a spelling error. For the record/archive, it should be https://www.danroam.com https://www.danroam.com
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- for_i_in_range 8mo agoI use yellow legal pads and 4x6" notecards... and probably ship more substantive writing than 96% of people on the planet.
- backscratches 8mo agoThe 4% that are more substantive writers than you dont waste their time with complex industrial technology like note pads and flashcards. The weakness stemming from your addiction to modern tools shows even in your short comment.
- borh375 8mo agoBack when I was looking for a new PKM system, I remember a "competitor" (now irrelevant) of obsidian making fun via Quote tweet of the Files over app manifesto, saying something like "nobody cares about the way the notes are stored". Ironically, that mean-spirited tweet made me discover Obsidian, and I've adopted it since then as I strongly agree with the philosophy of sovereignty over the content by them being plain files. I do care about how files are stored, felt trapped with OneNote proprietary format, and seeing what happens to Evernote, now care even more. More recently, Andrej Karparthy succinctly captured what's great about Obsidian: https://x.com/karpathy/status/1761467904737067456 https://x.com/karpathy/status/1761467904737067456 And with the new LLM powered, I find having tight control over files to be extremely powerful Thank you kepano!
- kcaseg 8mo agoI tried Obsidian a couple of years ago when all those „Hack your brain with Obsidian“ videos were flooding YouTube, I even had a subscription. Turns out my brain is beyond saving, while the program was pretty neat, having to have an extra window open was just beyond my attention span. Now I use a notebook, it is chaotic and has coffee strains but I actually use it.
- pmarreck 8mo agoFYI, firing up Claude Code or Codex inside your Obsidian repo location is a game-changer
- swah 8mo agoCan you expand on your usage this way? Still haven't picked on that.
- pmarreck 8mo agoWell, it has helped me reorganize my notes and add appropriate links based on context (which AI is good at, of course) since I tend to still use it like a glorified notepad (which it's also good at, but really doesn't take much advantage of it) You can also use it to ask questions like "which of my business ideas might have legs?"
- elcapitan 8mo agoObsidian is very flexible, and what a lot of these "how I use Obsidian" tutorials miss is to give a reason why the person is actually using it the way they are using it. Seems like this guy is using it mostly to store meeting notes or journaling. Of the many influencery Obsidian tutorials on Youtube, 99% of them seem to be using it to keep notes for creating Obsidian tutorials. Would be interesting to have differing perspectives from people with different problems and how they use it for those cases.
- ozlikethewizard 8mo agoI manage project documentation for work + personal projects using it. So I tend to have one folder per project with very little linking across folders. Then I have a personal folder that contains all non work stuff with varying degrees of structure, then a junkyard folder on the root where new notes that dont currently have an obvious category go, and if i come back to them they get sorted.
- Dumblydorr 8mo agoIt’s great for sheet music and for DnD DMing. I also use it store all things I write. I don’t use links though, I’m a barbarian who uses folders and canvases
- mold_aid 8mo agoYou don't think those exist? Obsidian forum has a lot of individual use-cases and more than a couple academics. erazlogo's public vault was as influential to me on how I use it as K. Healy's exposition of his use of R in emacs.
- schainks 8mo agoHaving tried different systems since the days of Evernote, the _only_ thing that is consistently useful like obsidian is... emailing myself whatever info I have to look up later. I even used to do this for reminders. Google search in Gmail continues to just work. But also I want something better than email, so I've been a happy obsidian user for a while now.
- krypttt 8mo agoI tried Notion, Obsidian, and various other note taking tools before I came to accept that I am simply not a note taking person. I just don't see the value in it I suppose.
- swah 8mo agoMore like a remembering things person? I envy that!
- roflchoppa 8mo agoI ended up copying Steph's layouts, I added some Github actions that pipe out files that have specific tags in them and create blog posts in another repo. It works very well for me.
- kkfx 8mo agoI use Emacs/org-mode to do the same and much more, without tying myself to specific third parties, but the point remains valid and largely ignored by most until recently: the heart of our information is plain text with potential binary attachments, and managing it as freely as possible, with search&narrow access and the ability to turn it into hypertext, to compute inside text etc is essential to "unlocking" or truly harnessing the power of the desktop computing. This model of personal computing has been denied for ages due to commercial interests in selling countless walled gardens that do only one thing, "UNIX-style", but without the IPC of the Unix CLI.
- jpfromlondon 8mo agoThe PKM pipeline is : Discovering PM solutions upon entering the workforce and deciding to use them for your personal life. Shortcomings drive you to discover PKM software like Notion and Obsidian. Picking either one or the other. Switching from Notion to Obsidian or vice versa. Starting to write your own PKM. There is no class of software more entropic because everyone's requirements are so specific to the individual.
- conception 8mo agoOnly todo/task apps have the same churn.
- jpfromlondon 8mo agoGood point, I overlooked this because the overlap is huge.
- keybored 8mo agoMy PKM is writing in Org Mode and never using any Org Mode features to look things up.
- Dumblydorr 8mo agoI use the app for two things mainly: DnD DMing and sheet music. I think it’s deep but I mostly just make canvases and copy paste in images and then move those around to a useful shape. I put in tables, text, images, and all on canvases. I don’t use links really, I probably should but I use the known Folder structure to get to whichever canvas I’m working on.
- seivan 8mo ago[dead]
- olav 8mo ago> I avoid folders because many of my entries belong to more than one area of thought This is the reason why I find Trilium Notes so liberating, where one note can have many parents.
- risingsubmarine 8mo agoMany thanks to Obsidian for reinforcing the strength of file-over-apps in daily computer use. Consider this as a baseline for your entire setup, and you will spend much less energy fussing over finding the optimal programs, operating systems, or ecosystems. Just manage your files, and everything else can come and go.
- gverrilla 8mo agoWhen obsidian can allow for a dynalist-style configuration, please tell me.
- gverrilla 8mo agoWhy the downvotes? Dynalist is from the same creators as Obsidian. If they didn't open source it, I expect them to integrate into Obsidian eventually. Until then obsidian will continue to be my 30tons markdown editor [0]. 0: https://github.com/ronikbhaskar/obsidian-editor https://github.com/ronikbhaskar/obsidian-editor
- evo_9 8mo agoI've been using Cursor / Claude Code to open my Vault folder, or a sub-folder in the vault; since Obsidian is stored in .MD files you can chat with your LLM about whatever info is in there. I used this to review and prepare for interviews, and it was extremely effective in helping me land my new job.