How To Use Obsidian: The ONE THING That Took Me TOO LONG To Figure Out

[@plus1creator]

Come join my creator community: www.plus1creator.com

[@taariqq]

Brilliant ... I will use it exactly you suggested. 💡moment. Still, only going over videos ... have not started using Obsidian yet. I have used Emacs, and was thinking the Org-mode way, but that might end up being too distracting. Thank you

[@plus1creator]

@taariqq yeah, I went down the Emacs rabbit hole around the same time as I found Obsidian. I like my buttons & graphical user interfaces too much to fall in love with Emacs, even though I could see its potential.

[@taariqq]

@@plus1creator Not to mention the fact that "sharing" with others would be difficult. What are you going to tell them, learn to use Emacs! Even the techie kind just give up. It can get overwhelming, even though you can have the buttons and all, and it is endlessly customizable and useful. You can practically design the editor yourselves. I saw your video, and something just clicked! It reminded me of a quote from Jim Rohn .. "Never start your day Until you have it finished". And this could be a great tool for that. You plan your day as well as you write down how 'was' your day. Can get you hooked. Thank you once again.

[@chiyungwong3774]

You’re that brave kid who was brave enough to ask the question that all the other kids wanted to ask but pretended to know the answer when actually they didn’t want to look a fool. 💪🏼

[@plus1creator]

Thanks for calling me brave. 😂 I just like to ask stupid questions so we get smart answers.

[@surronzak8154]

Better look like a fool for 5 minutes than be a fool for the rest of your life

[@ignore2466]

@@plus1creator The only truly stupid question is the one that remains unasked ;)

[@ndxr1309]

Thank you for speaking clearly. I appreciate your professionalism. I'm 82 on the 17th of this month, and desperately trying to start over. The Ph.D candidates who have shared their methods with Obsidian are amazing women. They speak clearly and don't mumble. I'm a kindergartener to their explanations of how they use O. Thanks again.

[@plus1creator]

That means the world to hear from you. I'm glad to know you're finding it useful & that I'm speaking so that you can follow along. 🙏

[@jomoswagos]

i like that it's not just a how to, but also conceptualizing the way we think about time and schedules in general 🙏

[@plus1creator]

Glad that it came through in the video. I felt like too many "how to" focus on the WHAT instead of helping me understand they WHY behind it (which would help me out a lot). Thanks for letting me know that you enjoyed it. 🙏

[@peetung]

Great simple video on Obsidian! I'd also add that Daily Notes are kind of the perfect solution for quick capture. It accommodates both fleeting thoughts, but also more sturdy notes, and all datestamped like you mentioned! I recently learned about this through the term interstitial journaling.

[@plus1creator]

Good point; I use the daily note for my go-to quick grab file. I used to make a new note for everything and it just got goofy. Throwing them all into the daily note is a solid approach.

[@gerry6931]

What is interstitial journaling?

[@patrickkrebs]

Hey Jonathan - This was really helpful - I've only just gotten started and didn't know where to begin. You sent me down the rabbithole and gave me a handhold that really helped me to get started. Thanks for the video - it was ultra helpful for me.

[@plus1creator]

Really appreciate you saying that! If you have any questions about how it works, let me know. I'll point you to the right video about it, or it might prompt a new one.

[@Annibals]

Oh my! You ready my mind! I had this exact same confusion and now everything makes sense. Thank you!!

[@plus1creator]

This makes me SO HAPPY! Isn't it weird how it's so rare to hear anything about it?!

[@AutisticCuriosity]

Thanks for the video - what I don’t understand is why we put daily notes in a separate folder. I can understand this for templates and even photos as these are note things that we are our thoughts that were processing. I get that this makes for less clutter but does it affect links? If in a daily note I remark on a book I have read and open a new note about that book with the note still be in my main vault. How will that affect searches and tags? I VERY much appreciate that you seem to answer everyone’s questions and comments on here. Thank you so much.

[@plus1creator]

Good question. It's that a lot of plugins & approaches treat daily notes as a first class citizen so the program wants them off on their own so you can do all the fancy things you can do with them. That's why I made this video; to help myself understand that daily notes are the primary focus of how to organize information in the mind of the designers.

[@AutisticCuriosity]

@@plus1creatorthank you for your prompt clear reply

[@curiousmentalist]

@@AutisticCuriosity 🙏

[@sfo3113]

Exactly what I needed for my ADHD! :) thank you!

[@plus1creator]

Ha! Happy to hear it. I appreciate you giving it a watch.

[@romandas1]

Which calendar and/or reminder plugins were you referring to in the video?

[@plus1creator]

thanks for asking: "Calendar" by Liam Cain & "Reminder" by uphy. Both are available in the Community Plugins area.

[@pioshelby7611]

If you never restart your PC how do you update it for security etc....?

[@plus1creator]

(there's a chance you're taking that a little too literally)😂

[@aurelius5080]

@plus1creator Thank u for sharing this. However I have an issue. I want set a daily reminder in my template for winding down: - [ ] Go to bed in 30 minutes (@{{date}} 22:00). This works, it shows up in my Daily Note correctly. However, I also get a notification from the Template note. How do I avoid this?

[@plus1creator]

Probably depends on the plugin you're using for the reminder more than your daily note. It might have an option for "exclude folder" and then make sure your template folder is selected there.

[@aurelius5080]

@@plus1creator I've solved it now. If in template you use the formula - [ ] Go to bed in 30 minutes (@{{date}} 22:00) , and switch on 'strict date format' in reminder, you will not get the reminder from the template. Only just from Daily Note

[@plus1creator]

Solid

[@Stormbrise]

Thanks for the basics video, it is something that I learned when getting certification for tutoring. Sometimes, something that is easy for the person to do, is harder to explain so they gloss over it. To strip it back, and go through the steps, is something that is valued for those struggling. You just also explained atomic notes in your log section of your Daily Notes.

[@plus1creator]

Atomic notes! That's another one I should do (and I didn't know I was doing that here; thanks for the heads up). 🙏

[@gerry6931]

I could not keep up - what ctrl button did you "hit" and what is "whala"?

[@plus1creator]

Can you give me a timestamp so I know what you're referencing? And "volia" is from my performing experience and it means "there it is."

[@Flowrounder]

Actually, it's the french term "(Et) voilà".

[@GalaxyGeassS2]

I just downloaded Obsidian after seeing some people use it briefly, yours is the first video I watched on things to do with it, and I must say, an excellent first introduction, if you meant it that way or not. Thanks =)

[@plus1creator]

So happy to hear that! I try to make videos for folks who might not be coders or super familiar with computer systems. My goal is to show how much we can do without being a genius about it. 🫡

[@lpanades]

Nice tips, really you method let us tied with the real date in which the things have passed or when they were really programed. Do you preserved the integrity of the data with consistency.

[@plus1creator]

I'm not quite sure I understand the question?

[@danyukhin]

thx for the video! I use the Full Calendar plugin as a google calendar replacement

[@plus1creator]

That looks pretty cool; I'll have to check it out. One challenge of a Google calendar alternative is automated scheduling I have set up for podcasts, client calls, etc.

[@colbyboucher6391]

The thing about Obsidian is that people think it's too complex, when in reality it's almost *too simple.* It's just some very simple building blocks and it lets you do whatever the hell you want with them. That's what makes it the be-all end-all but also what throws people for a loop if they're used to over-restricted apps rather than the days of people physically writing stuff wherever and just making up their own systems.

[@plus1creator]

Exactly! Start as stupid simple as you can, and take it from there.

[@AmeeliaK]

Wow you are right! Your comment made me realize why it was so easy for me to set up a system in obsidian. I've been setting up systems on paper for different purposes since I was a child. I need understood people finding obsidian "for devs only" or to complicated. Now I understand that they don't have the systems building foundations I had.

[@daedalusjones4228]

@@colbyboucher6391 True. It’s like building Adobe Robohelp yourself, piece by piece, using simple building blocks.

[@smalltimer4370]

Sorry if I missed it, but did you cite the calendar plugin used in your demonstration also?

[@plus1creator]

Calendar by Liam Cain

[@junekong6971]

Would the reminder plugin clash with the Natural language dates plugin?

[@plus1creator]

Good question. I have both & have not seen any interference. I use the (@ trigger for the reminder and the @ by itself as the natural language date plugin. They play together quite nicely.

[@Maricideva]

Greetings, i am a beginner of OB, with a few tests in OB, i think this is a perfect software to orgnize my thoughts.

[@plus1creator]

It has been great. My best advice? Start simple with daily notes, and work out from there. If you have other questions, feel free to send them my way. I'd love to answer them if I can.

[@Khoukharev]

I would add that it might be a good idea to create a subheading for work, paste your tasks in there and below you could have a data view query for all tasks that are due and aren’t complete. It gives you some context for the day and makes it easier to go back and invoice your services since you can track what you did and when.

[@plus1creator]

Good idea. I figured DataView, frontmatter, etc is a big enough topic on its own which is why I left it out of this video. I'm currently working on a ~30 minute video right now covering the new properties plug-in as I use it and I include stumbling through DataView & some of the frustrations I have so that people who avoid it might see that you can still make it work for you even if you hate working with code.

[@bare-metal]

Thank you for this, right now I have ignored this for the same reasons LOL Now Ill jump into it as you suggested!

[@plus1creator]

It's wild right? It's in so many approaches & plug-ins but nobody talks about it. Glad this helps you figure out what in the world is going on. 🙏

[@crestfallenwarrior6996]

Thx. I have two account. One for work and only work. I’m an engi and have to keep up with a mountain of projects , and tasks (kanban is awesome) and my other account is personal for everything. Research, general notes , finances , etc etc.

[@plus1creator]

Sounds great!

[@Randompointofview177]

How did you do that voice at the beginning of the video?

[@plus1creator]

It's one of the stock AI voices from the program I use to cut all my videos: Descript. It completely changed my life. If you edit podcasts, audio, and/or mostly-talking videos then you might appreciate it too. Here's my link for it: www.descript.com/?lmref=50y2Ew

[@scottdejong]

As a relative newby I love your video, both in execution and content. I know you're not the creator of these plug-ins, but for me the calendar is only working occasionally. I have created a hot key on my Mac cmd@ but I've also tested it with (@). Most of the time the calendar just doesn't create the date. If I type in a date it doesn't recognize it in the calendar or reminder. I would really like to use this actively. Any advice? Thank you!

[@plus1creator]

Thanks Scott! Sounds like you'll want "Natural Dates" plugin to play nicely. And if you want the natural language date drop-in trigger to work, I'd suggest only going with the @ symbol trigger. If you want to include the modifier key (like cmd) then you might be interfering with other hotkey commands. Check your hotkeys and see if cmd@ (which is really cmd+shift+@) is taken by something.

[@scottdejong]

Thank you for the very quick response. I will give that a try. If unsuccessful I will contact the developer. @@plus1creator

[@ChrisBrogan]

Very helpful. I didn't know how to use that well, PLUS, I found a little syntax thing that I wanted to try based on something you had here, so that's helpful as well. :)

[@plus1creator]

Glad it helped!

[@mintchip7178]

Your pace and clarity is refreshing and I could see you tracing your buildout from the daily notes roots. Thanks!

[@plus1creator]

Really appreciate you saying that @mintchip7178; makes it worth it!

[@omarbromar]

So it's a reminder/ note taking app?

[@plus1creator]

It can be a lot of things. It's commonly called a "personal knowledge management system." You can keep notes, track projects, make libraries, create databases of information, and link it all together. I like to recommend that people start simple and then build out what you need. If you're a student you can keep class notes. If you like to cook you can build a recipe library. Etc etc.

[@oakld]

I had Obsidian for some time and struggled to even use it. It was just yet another note taking app with benefit of markdown. When I learned about LogSeq, I took off like a rocket from day one and it became among the most used and useful application I've ever used. Journaling as described here is default to LogSeq and I can imagine those features like backlinks were in Obsidian already, just "hidden" to me. I now understand differences between Obsidian and LogSeq and am happy about my choice, but in many ways they're similar.

[@plus1creator]

Sounds like you're well positioned to make a whole channel! I say go for it!

[@oakld]

@@plus1creator 😃 I'll certainly leave that onto better qualified and set people like you!

[@plus1creator]

@@oakld Only qualifications I had was a camera and a light. X^D I figured it out in public. That's the magical part of KZbin; you can have fun even if you don't know what you're talking about. Ha!

[@GustavoMontanha]

good flow and vibe. useful. thanks.

[@plus1creator]

Thanks Gustavo, I appreciate it!

[@JonathanCampDesigner]

There are lots of calendar plugins - which one are you using?

[@plus1creator]

Hi Jonathan (great name by the way), I'm using "Calendar" by Liam Cain.

[@JonathanCampDesigner]

@@plus1creator Cheers mate. Yes the name is a classic 👍

[@bjw6877]

The cool thing about Obsidian is, you don't even necessarily need to use the Reminder plugin to set reminders for yourself. You can just put whatever you want to be reminded of next to a link to the daily note for the day you want to be reminded of that thing, and it will show up in the linked mentions the day of.

[@plus1creator]

You're right; there are many ways to accomplish the same thing! That's what makes it powerful (but also frustrating because people want THE answer instead of multiple approaches).

[@bjw6877]

@@plus1creator couldn't agree more. Obsidian vs other apps like OneNote sort of reminds me of Android phones vs iPhones. The latter is great if you don't know what you want, but the former can't be beat if you do.

[@brian_hermelijn]

I also never used Daily Notes. Trying to restructure my whole Obsidian, as I have too many unorganized thoughts and notes hahaha. So this give some new insights on how to utilize the DN.

[@plus1creator]

They really are one of those important things that hide in plain sight. You might also get something out of this other video I made about how I approach organizing stuff without having to get a college degree in some special system: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f5K2nWVnmpZsmc0

[@plus1creator]

Oh, and there's a new way to keep track of metadata for notes, and that can be a powerful way to sort through a bunch of tangled notes. It's verging on 'too close to computer programming for someone who likes to keep things simple' but it's cool enough that I think I'll make a video about it.

[@SteveJohnSteele]

Great video. I like your style and pace.

[@plus1creator]

Thanks Steve; I appreciate you saying that!

[@socv7136]

THIS IS GOLD! Thanks man!

[@plus1creator]

I appreciate you saying that! Thanks!

[@shivkr205]

the (@) doesnt trigger calender event for me, can you help

[@plus1creator]

It's "Natural Language Dates" plug-in with the trigger set to "@"

[@nailya_shh]

Very helpful. And also cool) Thanx!

[@plus1creator]

thanks for checking it out; I appreciate it!

[@fkxfkx]

I'm working on building and using an AI Agent to automatically locate and enter content into the vault. Microsoft AutoGen Studio.

[@plus1creator]

OH that's cool. Are you documenting it with a video series or anything?

[@fkxfkx]

@@plus1creator yes, eventually. it will take some time to get it going.

[@plus1creator]

What else would you like to know about Obsidian? I'm always looking to share cool stuff I find.

[@geor664]

Great article on Obsidian. I'm interested in the AI aspect of Obsidian, that is being able to scan, condense, and make e an integrated sense of the information collected within Obsidean. I'm looking from the perspective that the AI is locally based on my pc. To avoid inadvertent leaking of information back through an AI cloud service. Talk about integrating and using Excalbrain to make a visual graphic sense of the information in your Obsidian database. An eternal problem is how to integrate notes from a calander versus a loose leaf journal perspective. Is it possible to seamlessly or interchangeably flip between these two modes within Obsidean. I have been using The Journal now for maybe a decade. And considering Obsidean given its ability to use AI and provide The Brain like visual note maps. The Journal (RM David software) had been bullet proof in not corrupting or losing data out had an SQL lite back end. Perhaps discuss the robustness of the Obsidean database for notes pictures and diagrams. Lastly, talk about the search result strength of Obsidean. One of the weaknesses of The Journal is that it can't learn or apply importance weighting to repeated same search.

[@plus1creator]

Those are great topics; thanks for the note!

[@dmccmmu]

I am doing my PhD. PhD students go through several stages before graduating. The reading strategy changes with each step. Would you like to make a series that goes through these stages and recommend AI and non-AI tools to facilitate reading in each phase? I can work with you on the research, content generation, etc. I don't want credit for the work. Just want some content for PhD students to guide them.

[@plus1creator]

@@dmccmmu As I don't have a PhD (snuck by with my bachelor's in fine art) I'm not sure I'd be able to speak with authority to that journey, specifically but I DO have a lot of experience with study & keeping track of massive amounts of information. Feel free to email me more thoughts at [e-mail]

[@D4RKFiB3R]

I'm totally new to Obsidian, so it's all a bit much to take in right now, but watching this video raised a couple of questions for me. I noticed that when you selected the daily note from the calendar plugin, the check box was gone/replaced with square brackets. How would you check it off in that situation? Also, the new daily note created from the template is not created in the daily notes folder, so I suppse you'd have to move it there manually. Can that behavior be changed? Something I currently do regularly, is to share links via the share menu on my phone (Android) to myself via Telegram. I like that Telegram parses the links and displays the headline and an image to go with it. Is that something Obsidian can do? It would also be great if it could automatically catagorise links based on the URL and perhaps even keywords, and then add them to the relevent file or folder. Thanks.

[@PhilippGrafendorfer]

very nice!! thank you for that

[@plus1creator]

@philippGrafendorfer I appreciate you giving it a watch!

[@freddodentro]

simple but usefull - many thanks

[@plus1creator]

Happy you found it worth your time! ::high five::

[@YousephTanha]

Who narraited the intro on this?

[@plus1creator]

Thanks for the question. I use a program called "Descript" to edit all my videos. They have a selection of AI voices. You write the script, pick the voice, and it creates the audio track for it. Lots of fun. Check it out here>> www.descript.com/?lmref=50y2Ew

[@ostrava_]

@@plus1creator Did they just steal people voices or are they licensed? The voice is from 'Honest Trailers' on youtube.

[@plus1creator]

@@ostrava_ thanks for the question, and the concern. The company is doing things the right way; the voices are all fully licensed and above-board. As I understand it, Honest Trailers is using the Descript voice rather than Descript using the Honest Trailers voice. 🙏

[@visi7891]

LOL the intro. yeah, timestamps would make this a superpower

[@plus1creator]

I'll get to chapters eventually. Learning as I go and trying to make each one a little better than the one before. Thanks for the comment. 🙏

[@rickboyerdev]

Loved your intro, thanks!

[@plus1creator]

Thanks for saying so; I appreciate it!

[@SoyPorteroYT]

+1 hahaahahahah

[@pcartisan2721]

Good job! Thank you!

[@plus1creator]

My pleasure; thanks for the comment.

[@user-qb3uy5cg1u]

What's lacking in creating daily notes is that there is no timestamps for the changes. Anyways, great video. Thanks!

[@plus1creator]

That's a much bigger topic that involves a lot of other pieces than I wanted to cover in this video. That being said, there are multiple ways to approach that function if you wanted to add it. You could use a text expander to add the date, you could use the natural date language plugin so you could type something like @time and it would then plop in the right time, you could use templater to add the time you open the file, etc etc. Those are just the ones off the top of my head; I'm sure there are others.

[@dd.oliver]

THİS İS A GAME CHANGER!

[@plus1creator]

It's wild, right?

[@om6418]

Daily notes First!

[@plus1creator]

After a year of using it. . . X^D

[@inspiredearthnz]

Thanks for this helpful video. I was about to ask which calendar plugin you're using, but then realised other folk likely asked the same thing. I see they did. I think it would be helpful to include that info in your video description. It's the first place I looked for it. Keep up the great work and the helpful videos. Jonathan (yes, another one)

[@plus1creator]

Great name, and thanks for the description update suggestion. Will do!

[@plus1creator]

Made the change. Thanks again!

[@ecoconatus8089]

Took me 2 years to realize daily notes exist!

[@plus1creator]

RIGHT?!

[@ToddBryantsr]

This is 🔥

[@plus1creator]

Hi Todd, I appreciate you saying that. Glad you think so!

[@topunixfan5501]

I'm guessing that even though it's called Daily Notes, nothing forces us to write something every day...

[@plus1creator]

Correct, but the assumption that you will want to interact with these specific notes within a daily / time-oriented way is baked in at the lowest levels of the whole thing.

[@fuzzy-02]

Thank you for risking your life and family to share this with us. With this daily notes knowledge, our people have revolted and removed them imperial sc*m from our snowy lands.

[@plus1creator]

worth the risk. o7

[@shakesbear8516]

The reminder plug in does not work on windows. After inputting (@ and click on the date, the date does not register. Does anybody else has this problem ?

[@plus1creator]

Wish I had an answer for you. Hopefully someone will see it & have the cure.

[@SmileytheSmile]

You never restart your computer? I'm pretty sure that's harmful to the hardware.

[@plus1creator]

That sounds like a problem for hardware to figure out! Ha!

[@SmileytheSmile]

@@plus1creator Sir, it's a you problem, because your electronics won't last as long. Why would you do this?

[@TestingMcTester]

Here you go! "it fools the algorithm to show more people"

[@plus1creator]

thanks for the help testing the algorithm!

[@Inter-.]

Good video

[@plus1creator]

Thank you!

[@martingallauner]

oh wow, I had no idea that Obsidian could send me reminders. I have to think about that

[@plus1creator]

It's pretty gnarly; I use it for everything I need to remember.

[@caleocay6897]

Thank you, it also took me 6 months to know this lol.

[@plus1creator]

Isn't it crazy?! That's why I had to make this video.

[@giannisozo7928]

@9:52 I feel so seen

[@plus1creator]

🙏

[@NyteShade76]

I'm sure you're a great Christopher Walken imitator. If haven't tried it yet, you should. Thank me later! Oh your video is cool too :D

[@plus1creator]

I'll get. . . . right on THAT. Thank YOU. 🙏

[@NyteShade76]

@@plus1creator You might be wondering why I said that. It's your cadence, your delivery! You have pauses and so does Walken. :D

[@plus1creator]

@@NyteShade76 All good; I figured that's what it was.

[@breysonj]

goated

[@plus1creator]

[@joemoss5138]

Damn...you didnt know about Daily Notes?!

[@plus1creator]

I knew about daily notes; lots of people talk about it. But nobody explained that it's a core approach to many of the plug-ins & concepts behind how they approach building out an entire vault. That's the tiny detail that makes a huge difference.

[@geor664]

You get lost in the detail before you explain your overview and goals. Flip it around. Explain your goals and present a mud map first. The details (command control D etc , what ever) then make a lot more sense. Otherwise it's like your examing a brick and its detail before you explain its the building your really interested in.

[@plus1creator]

Thanks for the comment!

[@IGI_Media]

Heads-up @Jonathan Pritchard - not all of the people arriving at this video know what Obsidian is. KZbin populates our feeds with stuff realted to what we've been search/viewing. If you want to retain more subs, try this method: A short teaser intro that fits everyone. (that last word is important) A quick break (you can thanks sponsors, beg for followers etc) Then the meat of yoiur topic. If your teaser was done properly, then you can dive right in with meaningful ldiscourse and educate your viewers as needed. Note: Lots of folks start the meaty section with a problem this video solves Then sign off with your cool ending etc.

[@plus1creator]

I appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback & advice. 🙏

[@manhervillemel1233]

AI narration at the start.

[@plus1creator]

Ok

[@tristen_grant]

@@plus1creator It sounds like it's an AI. Overall, it wasn't needed and took up time.

[@plus1creator]

@@tristen_grant thank you for your input.

[@lucianosilva1639]

Hmmmm, no no and no. Too much work, too many menus and too many clicks. In this aspect, quite honestly, I don't think Obsidian is the right tool. Logseq does a much more fluid job, just write the paragraph and that's it, it will appear in the link note, in a dedicated section, end of story.

[@plus1creator]

That's what I love about being alive now; we can usually find the tool that fits us just right. Glad you found that with Logseq.

[@sarlarjogwyn4165]

Why? Why are you watching this video?

[@perfectdarkmode]

Logseq is garbage lmao. Wtf are you talking about?

[@plus1creator]

@@perfectdarkmode 🎯