My time management setup in Obsidian (2023)

Time management, in this Obsidian workflow, is treated less like squeezing more hours out of the day and more like managing priorities across a full planning horizon. The system is built around three layers—future, present, and past—so goals can flow into execution, and results can flow back into the next round of planning. That matters because the creator’s real life includes full-time work, content creation, hobbies, travel, reading, and major life changes, making any single “to-do list” approach too fragile to keep up.

The “future” side starts with core principles and then cascades into time-based goals using nested templates. Core principles live in a living document (kept under 10 items) and each principle includes what it looks like when practiced versus when it isn’t. Those principles then get embedded into a yearly review structure, which uses OKRs—objectives and key results—as the planning framework. Yearly OKR pages link back to the core principles, and quarterly and monthly notes inherit those objectives so initiatives and reflections stay aligned with the original direction.

A key mechanism ties the layers together: requirements traceability, borrowed from software testing. In practice, initiatives and tasks at lower levels are linked upward to the higher-level objectives, so work doesn’t drift away from intent. The workflow uses Periodic Notes to generate and roll forward notes at multiple time scales—yearly into quarterly, quarterly into monthly, monthly into weekly, and weekly into daily—so each day inherits the relevant goals and initiatives.

The “present” layer is anchored by a daily note treated as the source of truth. Everything done that day links back to it, including the weekly goal, a current weekly objective, a Log section for freeform bullet entries, and a daily review plus end-of-day checklist. The Log is where the creator captures work in quick phrases, then later categorizes items as either still needing processing or ready to cross off.

To make that processing fast, the daily note relies on Minimal theme visual cues and checkbox states: standard tasks, partially completed items (using a dash), canceled items (dash-through strike-through), and scheduled items marked with arrow-style indicators that reflect calendar placement. Items that aren’t single tasks—like ongoing challenges—become their own notes and are linked back with “moved elsewhere” indicators.

Tasks are then routed into different execution paths. Important items get placed on Google Calendar via Reclaim (which syncs personal and work calendars). Smaller tasks can be batched and handled in one sitting. Less urgent tasks use checklists with tags such as “Next action,” “Waiting,” or “Maybe,” and completed work is recorded either in a habit tracker or an achievements section for later review.

Projects are handled in two modes: simple, linear efforts become project notes; ongoing work like content creation shifts toward a Kanban-style approach. The creator has moved from the Kanban plugin toward Obsidian Projects (with a table and thumbnail gallery view), while still using Kanban for some cases.

Finally, the “past” layer is the same notes used for planning—weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly—now serving as reviews: did it go well, did it not, and what should change next. The overall message is not that this is optimal, but that combining proven methods into a system that matches one’s life can make priorities easier to follow and easier to revise.