My 2023 Obsidian Workflow for Note-Taking and Templated Thinking

Templated thinking in Obsidian is presented as a practical way to turn a “second brain” from a hobby into a daily decision-making system—by lowering the friction of capturing ideas and by using structured prompts to improve how people plan, reflect, and choose. The core message is blunt: productivity setups only matter if they change day-to-day behavior and help reach real goals, not if they consume time through endless tool optimization.

The workflow starts with consistency. Instead of relying on long note sessions at a computer, the system emphasizes quick capture and later refinement. For that, the creator uses an inbox approach: Todoist for quick capture tasks, and iA Writer for fast markdown-style writing that can be synced across devices. Notes live in cloud storage and are mirrored to an iPhone and macOS devices, keeping the same structure across Apple hardware. The key behavioral insight is that the “threshold” to use a second brain is often too high—people don’t have time to organize during the day—so the system intentionally creates small, low-effort actions that keep ideas “alive” until later. Quick capture, reflections, and knowledge mapping are highlighted as the main areas where this friction reduction pays off.

From there, the workflow adds feedback loops that make thinking measurable. Daily notes include a “productivity plan” built around Pomodoro estimates, plus end-of-day metrics like flow and engagement rates. A minor reflection prompt is used to increase self-awareness—tired, stressed, or otherwise—because that awareness supports better self-regulation. An energy log tracks variables such as fasting time, coffee intake, meditation, workouts, and a deep work score, with the creator stressing that strictness isn’t required; “good enough” tracking supports continual improvement. A to-do mechanism is also embedded so tasks can be created inside notes and revisited later.

The most concrete implementation is the daily note template, generated automatically via the templater plugin and tied into Obsidian’s Daily Note plugin settings. Macros like tp date, tp yesterday, and tp date f (week number) populate fields automatically. The daily note also links to a “workbench” note via the Workbench plugin, serving as a running scratchpad for work-in-progress items so unfinished tasks don’t vanish. In practice, the creator links daily notes into weekly reflections and uses local graph views to navigate from weeks to days to meetings.

Several additional templates extend the same idea of structured thinking: - A postmortem template for fast, blame-light reflection after mistakes, designed to preserve lessons and check whether they were applied later. - A decision journal template inspired by Atomic Habits, aimed at big decisions by forcing consideration of current state and consequences. - A mesocycle template (four to five weeks) for training goals like calisthenics progress, including measurement exercises and “focus exercises” when motivation or energy is low. - A meeting template that keeps notes lightweight: agenda, discussion topics, and action points, with notes linked to the day and optionally parked in the workbench for later follow-up.

Overall, templated thinking is framed as a way to build a personal system of prompts—questions tailored to weaknesses—so the second brain becomes an externalized product that improves decision quality through repeated feedback, not a static archive.