The Visual Thinking Framework with Obsidian and Excalidraw: Making Visual Connections between Notes

A practical workflow for building “visual thinking” links inside Obsidian: embed key visual frameworks from one set of notes into another, then reuse and reinsert selected parts of drawings so ideas stay connected across contexts. The core move is simple—turn a snippet of text or an image fragment into a standalone Excalidraw drawing (or insert it as an image) and keep the resulting artifact linked back to the original sources. That way, a quote captured during one talk can immediately become a visual map inside notes from a different talk, without losing traceability.

The walkthrough starts with a keynote note and a cross-reference to a well-known personal knowledge management framework. Notes taken during Nick Milos’s keynote mention the ACE framework (capture, organize, distill, express). In the same Obsidian workspace, the creator has an embedded image from Thiago Forte’s “Building a Second Brain” summary page for “How to Take Smart Notes,” which contains the CODE framework. By embedding that image, the system creates a navigable link between the keynote notes and the book summary. In Excalidraw, the ACE framework appears in the center, and clicking the linked CODE framework image jumps to the page where the CODE diagram lives—complete with a child link back to the “Building a Second Brain” summary. The result is an immediate visual bridge: keynote ideas connect to prior reading through clickable, embedded references.

The second example focuses on reusing a visual idea across different meeting notes. During a presentation by Vicky Zhao about holding opposing ideas and building a visual “MOC” (map of content), a quote attributed to Albert Rothenberg—“the construction of oppositions is the most reliable way of generating new ideas”—is added to the notes. Instead of leaving the quote as plain text, the workflow turns it into a reusable visual component. Using an Excalidraw/Obsidian script called “deconstruct selected elements into a new drawing,” the creator selects the quote text inside an existing drawing, runs the script, and names the new drawing “construction of oppositions.” The selected elements are then carved out into a separate drawing while the original drawing remains intact.

Next, the new drawing is inserted into Vicky Zhao’s visual MOC note using Excalidraw’s “insert image or Excalidraw drawing from your Vault” command. After placing the inserted drawing, the original text can be removed, leaving a clean visual reference that now appears in both places. The payoff is visible when returning to the main vault: the same “construction of oppositions” visual artifact is referenced in multiple notes, including the “How to Take Smart Notes” summary and the Vicky Zhao meeting notes. The workflow emphasizes repetition with purpose—carve out reusable visual fragments, then link them back into new contexts so the Obsidian knowledge base becomes more connected, navigable, and engaging.

The closing section shifts from tooling to community: registrations are open for a Visual Thinking Workshop cohort running from the end of May into early July, focused on “deconstructing greatness” by Ron Friedman, with six weeks of reading and processing into visual summaries and permanent notes, plus additional tools and techniques from the framework.