What I Wish I Knew Before Starting with Obsidian

When I first discovered Obsidian, I felt like I\'d found the holy grail. The promise of a \'second brain,\' a digital garden that would grow with my thoughts, was incredibly alluring. I dove in headfirst, watching hours of tutorials and reading articles about complex systems like Zettelkasten and PARA. But honestly? My first month was a mess of confusion and frustration. I was building a system, not thinking. Here are the things I truly wish someone had told me right at the start.

The myth of the perfect starting system

My biggest mistake was believing I needed a perfect, comprehensive system from day one. I spent weeks trying to force my notes into predefined buckets—Projects, Areas, Resources, Archives. It was exhausting and unnatural. I was spending more time on organization than on actual work or reflection. The \'aha\' moment came when I deleted everything and started with one simple thing: a daily note. Just a single file for each day where I could dump thoughts, tasks, and meeting notes. It was liberating. The structure should serve your thoughts, not the other way around. It will emerge naturally over time.

Plugin paralysis is a real and dangerous trap

Obsidian\'s community plugins are amazing, but they are also a huge potential distraction. I fell into the trap of \'plugin-stack-procrastination.\' I installed dozens of them: calendars, kanban boards, mind maps, and countless fancy themes. My Obsidian looked incredible, but it was slow, and I was paralyzed by choice. After a while, I uninstalled almost all of them. My advice now is to start with as few plugins as possible. Only install a new one when you have a specific, recurring problem you need to solve.

My core plugin essentials

After all that experimentation, I\'ve found that a minimal set of plugins is all I really need. My setup today is built around the core plugins that come with the app, plus just a couple more for quality-of-life improvements. I rely heavily on Daily Notes, Templates (for consistency), and the Command Palette. This minimal approach keeps the app fast and my focus on the content itself.

It\'s a thinking tool, not just an organizational one

I initially treated Obsidian like a fancy file cabinet. I was obsessed with tagging, folder structures, and metadata. I now realize I was missing the point. The true power of Obsidian lies in its ability to connect ideas. I started focusing less on where a note should \'live\' and more on what it should \'link\' to. When I write a new note, I now ask myself, \'What does this remind me of?\' and create a link. This shift in mindset turned my vault from a static archive into a dynamic, evolving web of my own thoughts.

You don\'t need to link everything

Seeing those beautiful graph views online can create pressure to link everything obsessively. For a while, I tried to link every possible keyword, creating a messy and often meaningless graph. I\'ve since learned that quality trumps quantity. A link should represent a meaningful connection that your brain has made. It\'s a trail of thought. Now, I only create links that feel genuinely significant. My graph is smaller, but each connection tells a story and helps me discover new insights, which was the whole point in the first place.