Pitfall Apps

Why I’m Finally Moving Back To Obsidian For My Productivity Needs (And, What Even Is Obsidian?)

After using Capacities, RemNote, Scrintal, and Tana.

Before anything else, what are all these apps?

Productivity apps, or PKM (Personal Knowledge Management) apps, are amazing. They provide an alternative way of working to MS Word, or Google Docs, or any other piece word processing software.

There is so much PKM apps can do for you in levelling up not only your productivity but the way you think. By way of an introduction, here are three things PKM apps can do for you.

1. PKM apps provide a more minimal approach.

With normal word processing apps, I find there is so much clutter around the screen. Formatting options, rulers, menu items, the page itself — I don’t want to see any of this stuff, and let’s be honest, we don’t actually use probably a tenth of what’s available. With PKM apps, everything you need is there, and everything you don’t need isn’t.

2. PKM apps provide a way to link your files together.

It’s called backlinking. They do it in different ways, but the point is that you can find all your files easily, and they can all link together somehow. Say I’m writing some notes on a meeting I had, and I need to mention someone. If I put their name in square brackets (if I’m using Obsidian), it will create a link on their name. If I then click that link later on, a new file will be made entitled Their Name, and I can type what I want in their. You can create countless interlinked files in this way. So useful.

3. PKM apps provide you with potential for greater organisation.

As well as folders, or not, you can tag your files, or put them in different objects, or assign fields — it depends on which app you’re using as to what you can do. But they all give a far greater level of organisation than your usual word processing software.

Back to the point — I’m moving towards using Obsidian.

What is Obsidian?

Obsidian is a highly customisable app which reads Markdown files. It creates a “vault”, in which you create your files. (You can read more about Markdown here if you want, it’s a basic but powerful and easy method of formatting text. I love it.)

In Obsidian you create your own system of organisation. Files, folders or no folders, tags or no tags, whatever you want. It also has a huge range of plugins to install, which give many more dimensions to your vault. As well as that, you can customise the appearance to be exactly as you want it. For all these reasons, I have been wary of using Obsidian, as it is all too easy to have your time sucked away setting everything up. But — it is a lot of fun.

As my subheading suggests, it’s fair to say I’ve been round the PKM app houses recently. I could use any of the above apps effectively, and get everything done that I need to. I could also write reams on each app, and tell you the pros and cons of each one — from my perspective anyway.

But I won’t do that. I’m here to write about Obsidian. I want an app which just feels right. And for me, if any app causes me any friction whatsoever, it makes me start looking elsewhere.

After using so many apps for so long, I’ve bitten the bullet and come back to the app which gives me the least amount of friction of all.

What I like about Obsidian.

It’s super fast. I’ve experienced no lag with Obsidian whatsoever. It’s snappy, responsive and never breaks.

The main reason for that, in my understanding, is it doesn’t require an internet connection. Many of the apps I’ve listed above do need the internet to work. But Obsidian doesn’t. It just sits on your hard drive and reads your files. So even if my daughter is watching Netflix, the wife’s on Disney Plus, the kids are on YouTube, and the neighbours have guessed our password and are downloading pirated movies — no problemo — Obsidian’s performance remains unaffected.

All my writing is on my computer. This is another advantage of Obsidian being “local first”. My stuff isn’t stored in the cloud. This means my work is always accessible, all of the time, as long as I have my computer with me.

It also means I’m not dependent on someone else’s computer running, or not. Reports of data loss scare me, and down-time for server upgrades or whatever else are incredibly annoying, even if they only rarely happen.

And on the topic of friction — there is no greater annoyance than when you can’t access your notes because you don’t have an internet connection.

So, what if I don’t have my computer with me? Well, I can and do pay for Obsidian sync, which means my writing is also available on my phone, should I need it. Obsidian Sync is effective, fast, and reliable.

Plugins I won’t bore you with all the plugins I’m using (perhaps I will another time), but these are two of the most useful:

• Daily Notes. I’ve set up a short-cut (ALT-D) which creates a newer daily note, And I’ve created a daily note template to include writing prompts. I work from this daily note page, and link to other things I’m working on.
• ProZen. A quick ALT-F gets rid of everything else on my screen, and gives me just my text. This allows me to focus on what I’m doing with no other distractions. I like to keep things as simple and as minimal as possible.

Split screen (Panes) I can create as many panes as I want in Obsidian. Think of panes like windows. For example, you can have one document you’re working on at the left, one in the middle, and one on the right. Currently, I have my file-system to the left (I can hide it if I want), this article is in the middle, and my today’s Daily Note is in the right pane.

There’s so, so much more you can do with Obsidian. It can all become quite overwhelming really, but like I said, I’ve decided to keep things simple and only use it for exactly what I need. You don’t need to use any plugins. But it’s useful to think what you want to do, and set it up to work for you.

Areas of compromise with Obsidian.

There is no such thing as a perfect PKM app. The whole thing is quite subjective anyway. Everyone has their own preferences and ways of working. But I’ve realised that for me, Obsidian comes remarkably close to being everything I need.

However, there are some compromises:

• You have to create your own system. I love the supertags of Tana. I love the objects of Capacities. And in Obsidian, I have none of that. I only have text files, folders, and tags. I like having a pre-set system in place, so this is a big compromise. But it’s one I’m willing to work with.
• You have to set it up the way you want it to look and function. I once used this as an argument to not use Obsidian, but this article by 🌿Annette Raffan 🌼 has made me see the light. Tweaking is not a bad thing. I enjoy it. It’s good to enjoy things, right? I just need to make sure I have set times for tweaking.

Those are the only two compromises I can think of. But right now, they don’t count as compromises in my eyes, because I have set things up already, so it’s plain sailing. Let’s just get some stuff done.

Obsidian is the way forward for me.

I don’t actually think there’s anything I dislike about Obsidian.

Instead, my problem is that I’m attracted by the new and shiny. Other PKM apps are amazing as well. Tana. Capacities. Both incredible in their own unique and ingenious ways. But I have to stick with one. I have to. It’s getting ridiculous.

And for me, local-first and offline is the most important, along with the flexibility of doing what I want with my files. Obsidian gives me this, and also lets me have some fun geeking out with plugins and appearance.

There are so many shiny, beautiful, exciting productivity apps. It’s true to say I love playing with them all.

But for my own sanity, and my own productivity, I have to stay with one. And I’ve chosen Obsidian.

Tagging Michael Rhodes, Marcus, and Katie Michaelson as they all showed interest in this article.

Other articles I’ve written on PKM apps, of varying quality, and in no particular order, are here: