Why I use Obsidian every day, and why you probably should too.

I use Obsidian for everything. I have tried many different platforms across my time as a professional and a student, but none have served me as consistently and reliably as Obsidian has. If you’re not familiar, Obsidian is a markdown-based note-taking software that stores all files locally on your machine. In doing so, it allows you to have significant control over your interactions with your notes. The Obsidian plugin community is giant, dedicated, and they created some of the most practical tools that I regularly interact with.

Below is a short list of everything that I do with Obsidian

• Task tracking
• Daily planning
• Journaling
• Taking notes
• Dungeons and Dragons
• Making my cybersecurity mind map
• Visualizing information
• Sharing information between my machines
• Habit tracking
• Keeping track of my Star Wars full universe marathon
• Much, MUCH more

The plugins that allow me to do all of that are listed below

Core Plugins

• Backlinks
  • Allow me to create relationships between notes for visualization using the graph view, also great for creating a two-way relationship for notes in my mindmap to ensure I can differentiate between similarly-named concepts
• Bookmarks
  • Keep track of pages that I use most often. I use this often when running Dungeons and Dragons games, but also in my mind map if I need to refer back to something multiple times
• Canvas
  • Allows for making consistent, visual representations of relationships between notes. Used for note-taking in my classes, in Dungeons and Dragons to associate characters and plot points with specific locations, and for my mind map to see longer chains of relationships
• Daily notes
  • Used for daily planning, task tracking, journaling, and habit tracking. Having a note that is unique to a day that I can look back on to see progress has been essential in not cluttering up my workspaces
• Graph view
  • Fantastic tool for seeing notes in a hub-and-spoke style view. I don’t use this too often in my workflow, but it is fantastic for when I am looking for a note that I can’t quite remember the name of and need to trace the relationships to what I am looking for. I often refer to the view that this tool creates as my “second mind” because it resembles neurons and their connections
• Sync
  • I pay for Obsidian sync, which is pretty cheap, lightning fast, consistent, and allows you to view the sync status within the app. Many people who sync their Obsidian files will do so through free means like Google Drive, OneDrive, or any other cloud syncing platform, but I prefer the in-house alternative
• Templates
  • Great tool for setting up a framework for a specific type of note you make often (meeting minutes, DnD session notes, daily habit tracking and journaling prompts, etc.), and can be as dynamic or static as you would like

Community Plugins

• Advanced Slides
  • Great for making training presentations for my cybersecurity club meetings and for work. There is a ton of functionality that I do not even use, and it is way more customizable than you might think
• Calendar
  • Allows you to visualize daily notes and has an efficient user interface, as calendars go. It is a relatively small addition in my workflow, but nice nonetheless
• Dataview
  • One of the most powerful Obsidian plugins out there. This one allows you to query any data across your entire Obsidian vault and is the primary tool I use for making my common notes dynamic
• Dice roller
  • This is the plugin that allows anything random inside of Obsidian. I use it for DnD in some notes where I have monsters’ stat blocks or loot tables for dungeons, but I also use this plugin to make a random quote appear on my homepage whenever I open Obsidian
• Highlightr
  • Good for when I am taking notes or to make specific information in my mind map “pop” when I go to that note. I don’t use this very often, but it is nice in specific circumstances
• Tasks
  • Tracking tasks is 100% the functionality I use most in Obsidian. This plugin allows you to set deadlines, start dates, scheduled dates, priorities, tags, and requirements in reference to other tasks, and much more
• Widgets
  • A relatively small plugin, but one that allows for making some notes more visually appealing and adds some extra dynamic functionality to often-visited notes
• Homepage
  • This is the plugin that allows you to have Obsidian go to a specific note whenever you open the app. I use this in every Obsidian vault I have because it is so useful. I have the homepage for my main vault set to show upcoming tasks, a clock widget, and a random quote. My home page in my mind map vault is simpler and has my most common starting commands and the start of my logical process when approaching a penetration test

If you are interested in using Obsidian, see the links below

• Obsidian.md
• YouTube video by “No Boilerplate” that was a big influence on me when I initially found Obsidian

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