Most often used Obsidian Shortcuts

The core takeaway is a practical set of Obsidian shortcuts that Pamela Wang relies on to keep her note-taking flow fast—especially around daily logging, weekly note creation, and rapid navigation. Instead of memorizing every hotkey, the workflow leans on Obsidian’s built-in command access (Command Palette and Settings) plus a handful of targeted plugins to turn common actions—exporting, pinning, templating, searching, and formatting—into near-instant keystrokes.

At the foundation are two universal commands: Command + , for Settings (including theme and plugin configuration) and Command + P for the Command Palette, which surfaces any command even when a hotkey isn’t set or isn’t remembered. From there, the “top five” shortcuts center on the actions that keep her system from breaking. Open weekly note is used to ensure the weekly note is created in a way that loads the template instead of landing on a blank page. Export PDF is used to share notes, with the Penndot plugin sometimes enabling exports in other formats so others can edit the text. Pin a page keeps link clicks from navigating away from the current context, and it can also support team switching so the note’s look updates as she moves between team views. For styling and readability, she uses the My Snippets plugin to swap CSS snippets—controlling things like whether colored bullet lines appear, how indentation affects bullets, and how headings render.

Her daily workflow is built around dumping content into a daily page. The most-used shortcut is Go to daily page (Command + T), which brings up tasks and a daily checklist; when she’s elsewhere, Quick Add inserts entries into the daily log with timestamps for interstitial journaling. Inside the daily note, she uses Ctrl + A to cycle bullet states, remapping the usual checkbox behavior into a cycle that moves through bullet → empty checkbox → done. Command + Enter is used to quickly convert lines into bullet lists and then into tasks, and back again, making it easy to reshape rough thoughts into structured items.

For templating and organization, she uses the Templater insert template module (Control + P) to drop in snippets and add metadata or note structure on a blank page. Templater can also automatically route page types into the correct folders. Navigation is handled through frequent sidebar use: Ctrl + R and Ctrl + S open left/right sidebars for outlines and recent files, and Ctrl + G uses a quick searcher to jump to her most recent weekly task rollup. When she only has a vague idea, the Omnisearch plugin (Ctrl + F) searches within file text. She splits pages vertically with Control + N for a wide-screen workflow and closes panes with Command + W.

Beyond Obsidian, she recommends a quick switcher app plus a window manager like Rectangle to tile windows for reading or watching while taking notes. For capturing highlights, she uses a Chrome highlight extension, but she frames her approach as more flexible and reliable than heavier browser-based capture tools like Hypothesis or YouTube clippers. She also notes Alfred is free without the Power Pack and that Rectangle is free, tying the whole setup to her “Potato Vault” system hosted on GitHub, including templates for an automated weekly review.