Brief Summary
This video provides a comprehensive guide to using Obsidian for note-taking, emphasizing its benefits for capturing, connecting, and improving ideas. It covers essential features, settings, and organizational strategies to maximize productivity and avoid common pitfalls. The guide also touches on integrating AI while maintaining data privacy and suggests resources for further learning and customization.
- Obsidian is a vault, a folder of notes on your computer.
- You can create and connect notes at the same time.
- Structure must be earned.
When to Use Obsidian
Obsidian is ideal if you prioritize capturing ideas with minimal friction, connecting those ideas through links and back links, and enhancing your thinking, learning, and writing. It operates offline with a local-first format, ensuring your notes are accessible anywhere and not confined to a specific app or format. Obsidian functions as a vault, which is essentially a folder of notes stored on your computer in Markdown format, ensuring future-proof accessibility.
BASICS: Creating a Vault & Linked Notes
To start using Obsidian, create a new vault, which is a folder containing your notes. The left sidebar lists all notes within the vault, allowing you to create new notes and folders for organization. You can sort files by name or modified time and use the auto-reveal feature to locate the current note in the sidebar. The search function enables you to search across all notes, and bookmarks allow you to save important files for quick access. Notes can be opened in new tabs by command-clicking (or control-clicking on Windows) and arranged into different panels for multitasking. Obsidian supports various plugins, themes, folders, and metadata to enhance your notes. You can create and connect notes simultaneously by using double brackets to create links to existing or new notes.
QUICK TIPS (do these ASAP)
Several crucial settings can prevent future issues. In settings, under "Files and Links," enable "Automatically update internal links" to ensure that renaming a note automatically updates all links pointing to it. Additionally, change the default folder for attachments to a dedicated "Attachments" folder to avoid clutter in the sidebar. The video recommends changing your theme to Anapuchin, acting as a base for the soft paper theme.
Most Common Mistakes (avoid these)
Avoid importing all your old notes from other apps into Obsidian, as this can lead to clutter and difficulty in finding information. Start fresh and focus on linking your current thoughts. Keep plugin usage simple initially, avoiding advanced features like advanced tables, canban boards, and data view dashboards. Refrain from over-organizing ideas with excessive folders; instead, allow structure to emerge naturally. Finally, prioritize learning hotkeys to improve efficiency and enjoyment while using Obsidian.
How to Make Notes Faster
To accelerate note-making, learn essential hotkeys. Use Command/Control + B for bold, Command/Control + I for italics, and add pound symbols for headings. Employ tildas for strikethrough, equal signs for highlighting, and greater-than signs for quote blocks. Dashes create bullet lists, numbers create numbered lists, and three lines create a divider. Use backticks for inline code and triple ticks for code blocks. Link notes with double brackets or external sites with linked text in brackets and the URL in parentheses. Command/Control + Option/Alt + left/right navigate back/forward. Command/Control + F finds text, Command/Control + T opens a new tab, and Command/Control + W closes it. Add an exclamation point before a link to embed a note or display an image. Command/Control + P opens the command palette for more shortcuts.
How to Organize Obsidian (ACE)
Efficiently organize notes in Obsidian using the quick switcher (Command/Control + O) to find and open notes rapidly. Organize notes using folders in the left sidebar, but avoid creating random topic folders that can make notes difficult to locate. Instead, build a folder structure as needed, using broad categories. The ACE system suggests using "Atlas" for timeless ideas, "Calendar" for time-based notes, and "Efforts" for projects and tasks. Additional organization methods include bookmarking, tagging (though maps of content are recommended), and creating daily note structures for capturing thoughts on the fly.
Every Note Format in Obsidian
Obsidian supports various note formats beyond standard text-based markdown files. You can embed images by dragging and dropping them into notes and attach PDFs, audio recordings, and other documents. The audio recorder core plugin allows for quick voice memos, and you can embed YouTube videos and tweets. Tables can be easily created using the insert table command, and templates can be used for reusable note formats. Properties like created date, checkboxes, links, and text can be added to notes to enhance organization and filtering without cluttering the content. Canvas, a virtual whiteboard, allows you to drag in notes, images, and new cards for brainstorming.
AI & Obsidian's Future
Obsidian does not have built-in AI, allowing users to choose how and to what extent they integrate AI tools. The choice depends on the user's data privacy needs and willingness to maintain that privacy. Tools like Claude can be used to ask questions, research notes, and populate properties in Obsidian. It's recommended to back up notes before using AI and to separate original thinking from AI-generated notes to maintain the integrity of your note-making process.
