Get Started with Obsidian

Obsidian’s biggest early hurdle isn’t missing features—it’s the lack of a built-in “starting point.” The setup here turns a blank vault into a working system by pairing a productivity workflow (daily planning, time blocking, task queues) with a knowledge workflow (source notes, permanent notes, and a structured “slip box”). The payoff is practical: daily work gets scheduled and tracked without hunting for notes, while learning accumulates in a way that’s meant to stay searchable and reusable.

The process starts from scratch: create a new vault named “get started,” then immediately impose folder structure instead of leaving everything flat. Four top-level folders anchor the system: a Planner folder for daily notes, a Projects folder for work that knowledge and productivity feed into, a Reference folder for source material, and a Slip box for permanent notes. The Planner is where daily notes live, including a “future log” style component. The Projects folder acts like a hinge between productivity and knowledge—here it’s oriented around writing, so project notes evolve toward book/manuscript work. The Reference folder stores literature and source notes, split into subfolders for People (authors, meeting contacts, video creators, etc.) and Attachments (screenshots and PDFs saved directly into Obsidian). The Slip box stays flat and is organized by prefixes, aligning with a “smart notes” approach.

After the folders, the setup shifts to plugins. Core plugins used include Tags pane and Daily note. Community plugins are kept minimal, with safe mode turned off and a small set enabled: Calendar, Calendar/Day Planner, and Emoji Bar for visual emphasis inside notes. The Daily note template is configured with a date-based naming format (year-month-day) and placed into the Planner folder. A separate “date planner” folder created by the plugin is removed to avoid duplicate structure, and the planner is switched to command mode so the current day is explicitly linked to the timeline view.

The daily template itself is built around time blocking inspired by Cal Newport’s method. It includes daily metrics—tracking deep work hours—plus sections for tasks and ideas, each marked with simple headings and emojis (for example, a checklist for tasks and a light bulb for ideas). A schedule block uses military time so the day can be pre-populated (e.g., 08:00 and 09:00) and structured around deep work in the morning and lighter or conditional blocks later.

Navigation is handled through the Calendar plugin’s month/week/day views, while the Day Planner provides a daily timeline view meant to reduce reliance on external tools like Outlook. The workflow also includes a “Next” and “Someday” system capped at 10 items each to prevent an endless backlog. Each day’s shutdown ritual pulls tasks from Next and Someday into the daily note, with the same reshuffling repeated weekly.

Finally, the knowledge side is kept disciplined: literature/source notes go into Reference, and permanent notes go into the Slip box. The system is presented as a template for starting—useful as a foundation, but requiring ongoing daily effort to maintain.