Organizing with Obsidian | DivNectar

Summary: This guide explores how Obsidian, a flexible markdown note-taking tool with database-like features, revolutionizes personal organization. It highlights the author's workflow for tracking projects, tasks, bills, and even income, emphasizing Obsidian's power to transform fragmented ideas into a structured "second brain." Key points include the use of properties, queries, and plugins to automate organization and retrieval.

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1. Why Obsidian?

If you're like the author, you've likely struggled with fleeting ideas disappearing before they're written down. 🫥 Obsidian solves this by acting as a digital repository for thoughts, projects, and tasks. Unlike rigid note-taking apps, Obsidian is a markdown editor with database superpowers—it's as simple or complex as you need it to be.

"Obsidian has become a nearly indispensable app in my life…without it my very limited free time would be spent thinking of what I want to do on any day."

The app's flexibility shines through its plugins (extensions that add features like calendars or task managers) and its ability to turn notes into interconnected knowledge. For example, the author uses properties—metadata tags like "project type" or "date"—to categorize notes. This turns raw text into searchable, filterable data.

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2. My Workflow: Turning Chaos into Structure

The author's Obsidian setup is a central hub for work, life, and creativity. Here's how it works:

🏠 The Homepage: Daily Compass

The homepage displays:

• Current projects (linked to detailed notes)
• Work orders tracked via properties like "amount" or "deadline"
• Tasks organized by priority or category

"It's kind of just my go-to app for everything now."

🔍 Queries: The Secret to Organization

Obsidian's query system automates sorting. For instance:

• A weekly notes query pulls all daily entries from the same week.
• A work orders query aggregates tasks by value (using the "flag" property for paycheck calculations).

"The true power of Obsidian…is that you can organize your brain with it."

📊 Data-Driven Insights

By tagging notes with properties (e.g., "$500" for a work order), the author uses math blocks to sum totals. This lets them forecast income before taxes and track progress across projects.

📅 Calendar + Journal Hybrid

Daily notes double as journals and task lists. Each entry is linked to broader projects, creating a non-linear knowledge base. Shower ideas? Add them as markdown bullets. Brainstorming? Link related notes with [[]] syntax.

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Conclusion

Obsidian transforms scattered thoughts into a structured, searchable system. By combining markdown's simplicity with database-like queries and plugins, it becomes a second brain for creativity, productivity, and clarity. Whether you're tracking work orders, personal goals, or fleeting ideas, Obsidian turns chaos into order—one note at a time. 🌟