All posts tagged: Obsidian

Pairing Obsidian and Claude was the best thing that happened to my note-taking

Pairing Obsidian and Claude was the best thing that happened to my note-taking

Published by skeptic

The problem with notetaking isn’t collecting information. It’s not even organizing it in neat folders. The crux of taking notes and extracting value comes down to making sense of everything jotted down. I have combined Deep Research with Obsidian to dive deeper into my notes. That has now set me on other experiments, like pairing my Obsidian vault with Claude. Obsidian’s openness allows us to plug the Claude chatbot with the notes and see if we can build something coherent from the pile. I don’t want to use Claude as a search engine but as a connective tissue between my existing notes. So far, the experiment has helped me think through projects and understand my own ideas better. Related I paired Claude Code with Obsidian CLI and it finally organized five years of notes An AI tool and Obsidian CLI combine forces to rescue a writer’s overwhelmed vault. Connecting Obsidian and Claude Pick the method that matches your comfort level You can connect Obsidian and Claude in three main ways. The simplest is the no-setup …

I turned my Obsidian vault into an automatic project tracker with one free plugin

I turned my Obsidian vault into an automatic project tracker with one free plugin

Published by skeptic

Building a large library of notes inside Obsidian is easy, but finding specific information across thousands of files makes it genuinely difficult over time. While it is great when you are a beginner, once you start spending twenty minutes looking for a single note, you see the issue. The Dataview community plugin is exactly what you need to turn your local file system into a searchable database. Related 6 Reasons Why Obsidian Is My Go-To App for Deep Research Projects Deep research feels lighter with Obsidian on hand. Manage data in Obsidian vaults Huge vaults hide your notes unless you turn them into a database Jorge Aguilar / MakeUseOf Obsidian runs on local, plaintext Markdown files, which makes it great for fast writing and note-taking. Since writing is easy, no matter how many files you create, you can quickly build up hundreds or even thousands of notes. That’s also where the problem starts if you want a good vault. Finding specific information across a library that large gets genuinely difficult over time, and manual navigation …

I stopped trying to build the perfect Obsidian vault and started using it for one thing instead

I stopped trying to build the perfect Obsidian vault and started using it for one thing instead

Published by skeptic

When I first opened Obsidian, I didn’t write a single useful note for days. I was too busy tweaking the theme, installing plugins I’d seen on YouTube, drawing folder hierarchies on paper, and pretending that any of it was actual work. I’d watch a tutorial, redo my structure, then watch another one and redo it again. The vault looked impressive on the surface, but most of the notes inside were either half-finished templates or filler I’d written just to test a plugin. I was building a system, not using one. The shift came when I realized I’d been doing the opposite of what the app was for. Obsidian is a notebook, not a project. So I deleted my elaborate folder tree, removed nearly every plugin, and started writing ugly notes that solved real problems. No graph view goals, no aesthetics, just text. And slowly, things I wish I knew before creating my Obsidian vault became less about setup tricks and more about one habit I’d been avoiding: actually using it. Keeping my Obsidian vault simple …

I set up free Obsidian sync across all my devices and it took less than 10 minutes

I set up free Obsidian sync across all my devices and it took less than 10 minutes

Published by skeptic

A lot of people, including me, prefer Obsidian because it stores all your notes locally in the form of Markdown files. Now, this is okay if you take and access notes on only one device. However, if you want to sync your notes across devices, you’ll either need to pay for Obsidian Sync or manually set up free syncing using other methods. I opted for the latter, and I was surprised at the number of ways I can set it up, and how easy it was in each case. Related I started using Obsidian as a complete beginner and now I understand why people switch and never go back It can be as simple, or as complex as you want it to be. Paired with my OneDrive folder Since I already use OneDrive and wished to sync my notes across Windows, macOS, and iOS, the most convenient way of syncing my notes was using the Remotely Save plugin. The tool connects to your cloud storage of choice, but free options are limited to OneDrive, Dropbox, …

NotebookLM is most powerful when you pair it with Obsidian and Gemini

NotebookLM is most powerful when you pair it with Obsidian and Gemini

Published by skeptic

NotebookLM is genuinely impressive on its own. Upload a few sources, ask questions, get grounded answers. But what next? How do I make these insights a more permanent part of my knowledge base? Obsidian, on the other hand, is a catch-all long-term knowledge store that’s relatively mute. Gemini bridges both. Together, the three tools form a loop in this experiment. I capture in Obsidian, interrogate in NotebookLM, develop it in Gemini, and route everything back to Obsidian. I find this especially powerful for repurposing stuff from my vault. I upload existing Obsidian notes into NotebookLM, prompt it to identify recurring themes, then use Gemini to transform those insights into other formats like infographics or a briefing doc. Related I connected my Obsidian vault to NotebookLM for real — it’s absurdly powerful This is the first Obsidian and NotebookLM setup that actually feels connected. Export your notes to NotebookLM Keep things focused with one notebook per project Saikat Basu/MakeUseOf NotebookLM’s quality depends directly on the focus of your sources. Give it ten tightly related notes on …

I solved my read-it-later bookmarks problem with a reading inbox in Obsidian

I solved my read-it-later bookmarks problem with a reading inbox in Obsidian

Published by skeptic

It’s often said that browser bookmarks are the graveyard of good intentions. We save an article with a mere click, and plan to return to it. We never do. Read-it-later apps and even browser features have gotten better. At least for me, my digital hoarding habits have remained the same. Worse, I am juggling different apps: Instapaper for long reads, browser bookmarks for quick references, and a notes app for things I’d half-processed. Each a stranger in its own silo. There was no “web” of logical relationships even between the related articles. A dedicated reading inbox inside Obsidian, built around the Obsidian Web Clipper extension, finally fixed all three problems at once. Related I use this simple workflow to turn my random web reading into a library I can actually use This simple Obsidian workflow becomes so convenient that I find myself always reading my web clippings. Saving links is easy; thinking is not Browser bookmarks are a procrastinator’s escape Credit: Saikat Basu/MakeUseOf Most read-it-later apps focus on saving, not processing. You tap a button, and …

I finally learned what PARA actually means — and it fixed the chaos in my Obsidian vault overnight

I finally learned what PARA actually means — and it fixed the chaos in my Obsidian vault overnight

Published by skeptic

My Obsidian vault used to feel like a junk drawer. Notes everywhere, folders that made sense when I created them and nowhere near as much sense a week later, and a vague guilt every time I opened the app. I have tried the PARA method (Projects, Areas, Resources, Archives) on Google Drive before. So, as an Obsidian beginner, it felt a good starting point to re-organize my chaotic notes. Practicing this on two different knowledge management apps has helped me actually understand its versatility. More importantly, why the folders exist in that sequence. That one shift fixed the chaos. OS Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, iPadOS Developer Dynalist Inc. Pricing model Free Initial release March 30, 2020 Obsidian is a local-first, Markdown-based note-taking application that stores your notes as plain text files and lets you build interlinked “vaults” of knowledge. It supports plug-ins, graph visualisations, and full control of your data rather than locking you into a proprietary format. PARA isn’t a folder system but a mindset Folders are about action, not categories Saikat Basu/MakeUseOf …

I paired Claude Code with Obsidian CLI and it finally organized five years of notes

I paired Claude Code with Obsidian CLI and it finally organized five years of notes

Published by skeptic

After years of good intentions and a vault full of chaos, one afternoon with Claude Code did what no plugin ever could. If you’ve used Obsidian for note-taking for more than a year, you probably have a secret. Your vault is a mess. Mine wasn’t just messy, it was a graveyard of “Untitled” notes and orphaned tags that felt more like a cognitive tax than a second brain. Not a lovable, quirky disaster. A real one. There were five years of notes dumped across more than 800 files with orphaned attachments, inconsistent naming, tags that I noticed later meant nothing, and folders that contradicted each other. And my graph looked less like a knowledge web and more like a panic attack rendered in dots and lines. I’d tried every approach. Templates. Even some of the best plugins. A complete reorganization I started two years ago that I abandoned after a few hours. A Dataview setup I barely understood. None of it stuck, because the problem wasn’t structure; it was the sheer volume of remediation required …

Stop taking text-only notes — here’s how I use Obsidian with a local AI to visualize everything

Stop taking text-only notes — here’s how I use Obsidian with a local AI to visualize everything

Published by skeptic

I’ve used Obsidian for several years for my note-taking. I love the graph view, bidirectional linking, and its plain-text philosophy. For some time, however, something has been nagging me: its primary source of content is typing words, and a lot of them. Recently, I fixed this by pairing my Obsidian account with a local AI image generator. I’m not talking about dropping in stock photos or copy-pasting content from Midjourney or Leonardo.ai. I mean generating images directly tied to my notes that live locally, privately, and yes, without a subscription. The result is a PKM (personal knowledge management) workflow that finally feels like it lives in both sides of my brain. OS Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, iPadOS Developer Dynalist Inc. Why visuals matter in your Obsidian note-taking system The science behind combining images and text in your notes I am not a purely verbal thinker, despite writing for most of my professional life. When I’m mapping out a complex project, building a character for a story, or trying to internalize an abstract concept, a …

I connected my Obsidian vault to NotebookLM for real — it’s absurdly powerful

I connected my Obsidian vault to NotebookLM for real — it’s absurdly powerful

Published by skeptic

Finally. An actual way to connect Obsidian and NotebookLM for real. I know you’ve probably watched videos and read articles claiming they’ve connected the two, only for the whole thing to end up being a glorified copy-paste workflow where they move notes from Obsidian into NotebookLM by hand. That’s not a connection. I agree with you. The appeal and the why is obvious. Obsidian is an excellent place to store information, and because it uses plain Markdown files (.md), there’s very little fear involved. You’re not worrying about some company disappearing one day and taking your notes with it. The files are there. They stay there. They’re yours. That removes a huge amount of friction, and it’s a big reason why so many people, myself included, end up with vaults containing thousands of notes and millions of words. NotebookLM, on the other hand, is not a good note-taking app. But it is excellent at turning notes into something usable. Summaries, podcasts, guided breakdowns, and other forms of information that are much easier to digest. It’s …