How to get started with Obsidian in 2022 - from scratch!

Obsidian is positioned as a practical, low-friction way to start building a personal knowledge base without getting trapped in note-taking theory. The core message is simple: install Obsidian, create a vault, write daily notes as a running log, and then promote recurring topics into standalone pages when they start to matter—letting the system’s linking and backlinks do the organization work.

The walkthrough begins with installation from obsidian.md, then creating a new vault. Vault naming is treated as mostly administrative, but the location matters for backup strategy. If users already rely on Dropbox or Google Drive, creating the vault inside that synced folder enables automated backups; the example also mentions pairing Dropbox with a GitHub repository, though that’s optional. After the vault is created, live preview is recommended so Markdown headings render cleanly while typing.

From there, the interface is mapped quickly: the left sidebar holds the file explorer for all notes, the search bar finds both filenames and note contents, and the right-side panels can reveal linked and unlinked mentions. A first note is created as Markdown (saved as .md), with heading levels controlled by hash symbols. Live preview hides the raw heading markers once the cursor leaves the line, making the writing experience feel less cluttered.

To make the vault immediately useful, the setup focuses on enabling a few plugins. Daily notes are turned on via core plugins, with options to store daily entries in a dedicated folder and to open the daily note automatically on startup. Community plugins are handled with caution: safe mode can be disabled, but only after considering the risk that third-party code can access local files. The transcript offers a practical heuristic—check download counts to gauge community adoption and attention.

A calendar community plugin is then installed and enabled, adding a date-driven view for daily notes. Clicking a date that doesn’t yet exist prompts creation, and the system automatically generates a new daily note inside the configured Daily folder. The recommended starting workflow is to treat daily notes like a dump of what happened and what felt interesting: bullet points, quick observations, and informal reminders are all acceptable.

As the day’s log accumulates, the next step is “promotion” of topics. If a concept keeps resurfacing—like observability—users can create a dedicated note. The transcript shows a fast method: double-click the topic text, convert it into a link, and then command-click to create the new page. Obsidian’s backlinks then reveal both linked mentions and unlinked mentions. Linked mentions appear when the topic is explicitly linked; unlinked mentions still show up even when the user never created a link, because Obsidian tracks back references automatically. That means earlier notes aren’t wasted—if a topic becomes important later, the system surfaces all prior occurrences.

Finally, the guidance pushes back against the idea that notes must be perfectly organized to be worthwhile. Notes can be messy, incomplete, or even wrong, yet still be useful. The payoff comes from consistent capture, periodic review, and letting backlinks and mentions grow the vault into a living knowledge base over time.