How I boosted my productiveness with Obsidian and two easy docs

Like everybody else, I’m continually in search of methods to enhance my productiveness.

Over time, I’ve run by means of my fair proportion of options: I attempted Google Maintain for fast notes, Slack for real-time activity reminders, Any.do for easy to-do lists, Pomodoro Chrome extensions to timebox my focus, Asana for project-level oversight, OKRs for aligning big-picture targets and aims, and over-engineered Airtables for larger tasks with many sub-tasks.

Eventually (usually embarrassingly sooner), each system I attempted grew to become unmanageable, uncared for, and deserted. When all else failed, I’d return to pen and paper or just asking my spouse to remind me a few notably necessary factor.

Lately, I’m holding it easy — and it really works. When you’re concerned with a productiveness instrument that genuinely adapts to you, Obsidian may simply be the reply you’ve been looking for.

A information employee drowning in information

First, a couple of particulars about myself. I’m your typical information employee, however with a twist — my (distant) job is far and wide. As a supervisor, I juggle every little thing from main a workforce to dealing with organizational stuff. I would like to modify contexts continually and preserve monitor of manner an excessive amount of data. And infrequently, I even get to take a seat down and really write stuff.

Whereas I’m grateful for the way attention-grabbing and difficult my job is, I’m usually struggling to remain afloat in an ocean of duties, reminders, messages, notes, and plans.

As a result of I’m desk-bound most days, I normally work solely from my Home windows laptop computer. I’m not large on cross-device sync and even cellular use, however I completely get why any trendy productiveness answer must nail these points, too.

Enter Obsidian

At its core, Obsidian is a note-taking app, but it surely’s way more than simply that. It may possibly aid you set up huge chunks of your information and make it simply accessible, which is why lots of Obsidian loyalists name it a “digital mind.” I feel that’s an apt metaphor for what you are able to do with Obsidian, though I’m holding my digital mind a lot easier.

Obsidian notes are constructed on Markdown, the favored markup language that makes use of easy syntax to format textual content. Typing **this** turns it into this — you may not be acquainted with the title, however you’ve most likely used Markdown or Markdown-inspired syntax on Slack, Discord, or different standard apps. As a result of I used to be already acquainted with the formatting conventions, creating notes in Obsidian got here simple to me.

The place brains have neural pathways, Obsidian has linking between notes. This deceptively primary function enables you to outline and visualize relationships between concepts, ideas, or anything you possibly can put in a word. By continually constructing out this community, you make your digital mind extra advanced and highly effective every single day.

With options like day by day notes, templates, and a wealthy library of plug-ins, Obsidian can adapt to just about any workflow. That’s the fantastic thing about the app: it may be as advanced or as primary as you want it to be.

Whereas there’s potential to show it right into a extremely organized information administration system, I’ve discovered that holding it easy has made it a lot simpler to stay with.

The docs that really work (for me)

After I began utilizing Obsidian, I went all in, constructing out a library of notes. I arrange separate folders for assembly minutes, targets, and brainstorming classes. I dutifully recorded day by day notes. I experimented with linking notes and even created a “Grasp view” visible canvas that was speculated to be my vaunted hub of every little thing.

In concept, it was the proper setup for managing my information. However in follow, it was full overkill. All that construction simply sat there, gathering mud.

Ultimately, I discovered myself coming again to only two important paperwork: a weekly to-do checklist known as “Focus” and an enormous, messy catch-all doc I labeled “Drafting.” These two paperwork do the heavy lifting for me day in and day trip, with out the necessity for intricate folders or hyper-organized word programs.

The Focus doc is my weekly to-do checklist. I jot down every little thing I must sort out within the fast future. It may be as small as replying to a message or making ready for a gathering , or as necessary as developing with an entire new technique for our website. Even this text began as a to-do merchandise in Focus.

Firstly of each week, I copy final week’s activity checklist to the highest of the web page, regulate it for the present week, and begin over. Nothing slips by means of the cracks until I select to delete it. As a result of I continually see duties from earlier weeks, I’ve a possibility to catch points that should be reopened or ongoing duties that should be carried over into the brand new week.

Tip: whereas Obsidian doesn’t make it apparent, it helps inserting checkboxes in your notes (the shortcut is Ctrl/Cmd-L). Checking them off feels extraordinarily satisfying.

The Drafting doc, alternatively, is my unstructured, everything-goes-here area. Must ship out an necessary e mail? It goes in Drafting. Must troubleshoot an Airtable components or jot down concepts for an article? Similar. It’s the place I dump analysis notes, hyperlinks, photos, and random mini-to-do lists — all with out worrying about format or order.

Right here’s the half which may appear weird to you: I hardly ever delete something from Drafting. I simply preserve including extra to the underside. As a result of it’s so quick to scroll by means of, it’s simple to search out one thing from weeks again if I would like it. This “brute power” method may not be probably the most polished, but it surely saves me from dropping notes or concepts scattered throughout Google Docs, Slack, emails, to-do apps, or worse, my very fallible reminiscence.

Between Focus and Drafting, I’ve discovered a option to monitor about 90% of what I would like with out paying the “productiveness tax” of regularly sustaining and organizing notes. There’s no day by day repairs, no elaborate folder constructions — simply two easy docs that match naturally into my workflow.

It’s not a cultured, all-encompassing system, but it surely works for me, and actually, I feel it may work for lots of people. Nevertheless, if and once I resolve my system must be extra advanced, I’ll simply ramp it up because of Obsidian’s flexibility.

Wait, can’t you do that with different apps?

Sure, you completely can use Google Docs or another textual content editor to maintain a weekly to-do checklist and a operating word dump. I advised you it’s two easy docs, in any case.

However Obsidian provides one thing these different instruments don’t. It’s each quick and lean once I need it to be unobtrusive (more often than not) and immensely highly effective once I must innovate with how I do my work.

That’s one of many largest attracts of Obsidian — the flexibility to develop and customise it endlessly. I’ve already added themes to make it look the best way I would like, discovered a number of plugins that make my day-to-day simpler, and tweaked the UI to suit my work type. It feels private, like a workspace I’ve constructed for myself.

And right here’s the kicker: I’ve barely scratched the floor. There’s nonetheless a lot to discover — plugins that might utterly change how I exploit it, CSS tweaks for styling, and sync choices for once I wish to work throughout gadgets. It’s uncommon for me to discover a instrument that’s this customizable and has a lot untapped potential, and I’m genuinely excited to dive deeper into what Obsidian can do. And whereas my setup is primary right this moment, I do know I’ll proceed to depend on Obsidian if I ever must make it advanced once more.

Whereas I agree Obsidian has a steeper studying curve than many client apps, you shouldn’t really feel discouraged from making an attempt it out. It’s undoubtedly not the sort of note-taking app you possibly can fireplace as much as shortly jot down a procuring checklist — however for another use case, the training curve is certainly value tackling.

Whereas it’s not an enormous issue for me, Obsidian additionally does one thing that’s fairly uncommon today — it really works totally offline and your knowledge is saved in your machine, not within the cloud. There’s a $4/month service known as Obsidian Sync that can sync your notes throughout gadgets, but it surely’s utterly non-compulsory. Oh, and the app doesn’t power any AI options on you (however you possibly can simply combine ChatGPT by way of a plug-in do you have to need it). Talking of AI, Google’s AI-first NotebookLM is certainly value trying out.

Some sources to get you began with Obsidian

Obsidian is usually a little intimidating, so listed here are some sources I like to recommend to Obsidian newbies.

And with that, I’ll return to chipping away at my Focus checklist.