Obsidian: The King of Learning Tools (FULL GUIDE + SETUP)

Obsidian has been the centerpiece of my self-education for 10 months now, proving itself as the perfect outlet for my reading, writing and thinking.

By combining mini-essays with the Zettelkasten system, I've created a workflow which fits my learning like a glove, and I hope it'll work the same for you.

Here, notes go beyond mere online post-it notes.

They're opportunities to learn, to practice writing, to store big ideas and to serve your future projects in any creative endeavor you love.

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Download Obsidian:

Atomic vs Literature Notes Video:

Mini-Essays Video:

For more Obsidian (some of the resources that helped me set up my own):

00:00-00:16 Intro
00:16-2:23 Avoiding Toxic Perfectionism
2:23-2:53 My Testimony
2:53-4:22 The Zettelkasten
4:22-5:12 The Value of Being Slow
5:12-6:25 Instant Feedback
6:25-9:14 Perfect Idea Storage
9:14-10:22 The Power to Remix Ideas
10:22-14:00 Your Personal Writing Assistant
14:00-20:34 Folder Setup + How to Tag
20:34-22:30 Important Settings
22:30-24:03 Note Template
24:03-24:58 Creating a New Note
24:58-35:38 Writing a Note (Start-to-Finish)
35:38-36:26 Ask Me Anything

[odysseas__]

Quick note:

To get relevant links to show up at the bottom of each page:

1. Make sure the 'backlink' core plugin is turned on, as well as the 'backlinks in document' toggle within it.
2. Exit the settings and press Ctrl + P
3. Search for and select 'Backlinks: Toggle Backlinks in Document'

[Shwetakhari]

now this video is like a genuine helping hand in the swarm of deceiving ones ...
-No bs
-No exaggeration
-No irritating aestheticism
just pure minimalism and pragmatism. Also i really appreciate how you pulled off such a technical task with such simplicity. I am not a native english speaker but i can understand each and every bit of it ...keep it up dude.

[Esch-a-ton]

the potential for this is really mind-blowing. research papers and other papers could be completed in hours rather than days with a highly sourced vault

[autodidact-d]

I had never heard of Zettlekast or Obsidian until this morning. Every so often, YT's algorithm nails it. I'm excited to get into all of this. Thanks for being concise and sharing what you've learned. 🙏🏾

[Timy_tim]

Quick tips for creating concept notes from books. To avoid doing it “manually” I use the Note Refactor plugin. In a large Obsidian “name of book” note, I write down all the insights I had while reading. At the very end, I go over it again and give a title (e.g. H3) to each “concept” in the book. So that they become independent notes I launch Note Refactor which will automatically separate my concepts into different notes. The advantage is that each note is automatically linked to my large book note.

[SeanThomasCross]

I've been using obsidian for 2 years on and off. I say "on and off" because of these common hangups I continued to get annoyed by. I go through phases of switching between MS word, notion and obsidian over and over never feeling fully comfortable in any them.
After watching this it's time to go again into Obsidian, but fresh.

This is by far the best Obsidian video I've seen because it is simple and exactly how to use it PRACTICALLY. You are quickly becoming one of my favorite channels on all of youtube and just joined the newsletter.

THANK YOU.

[jolenepham]

Honestly when I started obsidian in the middle of my semester to take notes, i got so overwhelmed by the videos (the 1 video i watched), that I started just winging it. I honestly just love the little mind map thing and seeing how everything connects. Now I want to try to do my own research thats not school based, for my own learning! im so excited

[GabrielCarusetta]

One of the YouTube videos you just HAVE to watch all the way through, trust me.

Incredible job with this video. THIS is what I go on YouTube for.

You sir, are a gentleman, and a scholar

[devongiguere]

I literally got this yesterday after watching your video on mini-essays, so this is actually perfect for me. I'm an anthropology and philosophy undergrad with a personal research project on archiving my local city's working class culture and history. I've been archiving, taking photos of places, and reaching out to my community to make it a collaborative process.

[mynickisnick]

I started out by placing this video as a source material and wrote about Obsidian and the things I gathered about it
Pretty good starting exercise

[kenkamonn]

Sir Odysseas, I am just starting to be an adult, and I have a rough history. thank you so much for this intuitive work flow! I really relate to the "boggled down by too many features and plugins and that it completed an inefficient work system.
This was an absolute delight, as I try to have more fun in the world learning, and starting college. I'm so glad I clicked on this video, because this was the first fun no bs demonstration I've seen done so beautifully. Thank you

[carlosbrown]

This has been almost exactly my experience with Obsidian. The low barrier to entry, the ability to expand tools within the ecosystem, and most of all, a structured way for your knowledge to accrete and combine is so powerful.

[n.j.]

Man. This is so helpful. I know you are worried about being another voice in a virtual sea of voices, but the reality is that this video--your video--might just be the one that will help certain people, where nothing else has worked. I am a grad student, teacher, author, and I run a history and literature society. I have been so overwhelmed--to the point of having to go to therapy, where I discovered something about myself: I thrive off of structure. I know I have to get things out of my brain and onto a page--but I always avoided that because it was messy. I have since started bullet journaling, but that is mainly for calendar and habit tracking. What do I do about all these books I'm reading, these books I'm writing, the things I'm teaching, the things I'm studying? Well, I can't say for sure, but hopefully this is it. Cheers - and thank you.

[paulovitch-]

I just finished reading "How to Take Smart Notes" and I'm returning to your video a few weeks after seeing it first to set up Obsidian. Thank you tremendously for sharing your setup. Eager to see my notes turn into a beautiful neural network!

[benbryan]

I’ve been looking forward to this like a new episode of of my fave TV show.

[abdullah__ausaf]

this is single handedly the greatest obsidian note taking video ever. had it been 10 minutes longer, it would have been the greatest note taking video ever.

[brileecart]

I’ve used obsidian for years to organize my coding projects and ideas. Your tagging process is brilliant

[techreader]

Thank you for this. You know how to keep a video interesting, it's packed full of information, and the information is explained in a clear practical manner. I'm in my 60's, and aside from the normal aging and memory loss, caught Covid a couple of years ago. Been losing important memories at a frightening pace. Thinking clearly is a struggle, and I had to relearn how to read. I've been desperately keeping daily journals to remember who my friends and family are, remind myself of important events, and improve reading and writing. It's not been as successful as I'd hoped, but could have been much worse.
Recently switched from Joplin to Obsidian, discovered Zettelkasten, found your video, and am incredibly excited. This may be the link between a daily journal and an organic extension to memory. Your explanation of Tags didn't click at first, but suddenly tonight, I got what you were saying! Your tags are like "Tags on Steroids!!"
Sorry for the long explanation, but I wanted you to understand, when I tell you how much your video and your method, mean to me. It feels like a reprieve from execution. I'm hopeful and excited for the first time in a long time.

[KingOfTheDeepSea]

I have completely set this up, on June 22nd, I will come back to this comment and give my overall review of what worked and what did not.

EDIT: June 22nd Review

I honestly can't thank you enough for this set-up. I had been using obsidian for 8 months now and I had not encountered a set-up this revolutionary. So here's the review, it is the least I can do as a thank you.

1. Tags

I am unbelievably impressed. The fact that you came with the revolutionary idea to use notes as Tags was really unbelievable.

I used them, and they worked.

They helped me keep my notes really organized.

I don't what happens, but I really like the feeling when you add a reference in a note.

10/10

2. Indexes

Tags helps us organize notes, but how to organize the tags? I had that question for quite a while until I was exposed to "Indexes".

I never thought about organizing Tags like this, and I can see it helping me avoid countless hours of organizing in the future.

10/10

3. Templates

Even though I was using obsidian for 8 months, I had never knew about templates.

And the Template you gave was a great one.

Especially when you showed us how you write using that template.

10/10

4. Flexibility

I really liked the overall set-up and that I could use it for other purposes with different vaults other than just writing about books, podcasts, articles etc.

10/10

5. Main Notes

The idea to store all main notes inside a single folder and then organize them with tags was just fascinating.

I used to keep my notes in folders and then subfolders. Which made it really annoying to find them again.

10/10

6. Overall Review

Arguably the best obsidian set-up ever.

- zero bs
- zero exaggerations
- detailed explanations
- visually appealing
- Unbelievably simple yet unbelievably effective
- unbelievably GREAT.

I hope you all will be open to new updates if I feel as though it will be necessary in future.

Love this set-up.

By the way, I didn't expect to receive so many replies in the comment. I'm not complaining in any way and I was also happy to see so many people waiting for this.

11/10

[anbuithien]

I have been trying to use Obsidian for a very long time. But I keep dropping it after a day or two despite knowing that Obsidian is probably the best studying tool out there. But this video is straight to the point, no bs whatsoever, and most importantly it finally gets me to start using Obsidian on a daily basis and actually be able to use it efficiently.