why I switched to using Obsidian (as a former Notion user) — Transcript

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1. 0:00Yo, welcome back to the channel. The
2. 0:02previous video that I made about city a
3. 0:03lot of you guys asked me about my theme
4. 0:05and config and extensions that I use and
5. 0:07[music] since then it's been about 2
6. 0:09years since I've been using Obsidian. So
7. 0:11I thought I'd make a 2-year update
8. 0:12sharing the things I've learned, my
9. 0:14current setup and some tips if you're
10. 0:16considering using Obsidian or any
11. 0:19note-taking app. Along with my config,
12. 0:21I'll also share with you my favorite
13. 0:22extensions and what I find Obsidian to
14. 0:25be the most useful for. So I'll be
15. 0:26giving you an inside look into [music]
16. 0:28my Obsidian vault. I've made some pretty
17. 0:31cool upgrades to it. For example, it's
18. 0:32now possible to have this
19. 0:34>> [music]
20. 0:34>> really beautiful book view that looks
21. 0:35like this that you can click into any of
22. 0:37your notes and I've set it up so I can
23. 0:39add any book with just one click. So
24. 0:41I'll show you how I do that later in the
25. 0:42video. I'm also completely unaffiliated
26. 0:44and unsponsored with Obsidian. I just
27. 0:46genuinely think it's a super powerful
28. 0:48note-taking app if you're a student
29. 0:49[music]
30. 0:49or if you just have a lot of notes and
31. 0:51documents that you want to organize. But
32. 0:53first let me talk about why I use
33. 0:54Obsidian if maybe you currently use a
34. 0:57different note-taking app. I used to use
35. 0:58Notion and Apple Notes which are really
36. 1:00powerful note-taking software, but the
37. 1:03problem with that is that they have
38. 1:04subscription fees and also locks you
39. 1:06into an ecosystem. For most note-taking
40. 1:08software as you reach certain limits,
41. 1:11you'll have to upgrade and pay a
42. 1:14subscription fee to access and continue
43. 1:15using the software which is kind of a
44. 1:17sneaky thing that they do because you'll
45. 1:19be locked into the note-taking software
46. 1:22to begin with. Like that's happened to
47. 1:23me before. But with Obsidian as long as
48. 1:26you have enough storage space on your
49. 1:27computer, you [music] don't have to pay
50. 1:29anything. And they do have a
51. 1:31subscription service and that [music] is
52. 1:33just if you want them to sync your notes
53. 1:35across your different devices. But they
54. 1:37also make it pretty easy for you to do
55. 1:39yourself. Unlike basically all popular
56. 1:41note-taking software, all of your notes
57. 1:43are just in a folder on your computer
58. 1:45which seems pretty intuitive and seems
59. 1:46pretty basic. But most [music]
60. 1:48note-taking software your notes are
61. 1:49actually stored on their servers which
62. 1:51means that if the internet goes down,
63. 1:52you might not be able to access your
64. 1:53notes and if they get hacked, your notes
65. 1:55might get [music] leaked. Which these
66. 1:57things have happened to these companies
67. 1:58before. I've seen some pretty concerning
68. 2:00things on Reddit where people's Notion
69. 2:02databases got deleted. Or even recently,
70. 2:04there was an outage with AWS and people
71. 2:07weren't able to access their notes
72. 2:08[music]
73. 2:08in that time. So when you use a
74. 2:10note-taking app where you don't actually
75. 2:11own your notes, you always have the risk
76. 2:13of your notes being deleted, being
77. 2:15leaked [music] or not being able to
78. 2:17access them. Also with longevity,
79. 2:19Obsidian is designed to outlast any
80. 2:21note-taking software including itself.
81. 2:22All the notes are based on this file
82. 2:24format called markdown which has been
83. 2:25around pretty much [music] since
84. 2:27personal computers have been around like
85. 2:29at least over 20 years. So it's very
86. 2:31likely that even if you decide to not
87. 2:32use Obsidian one day, it's very easy for
88. 2:34you to import your notes into a
89. 2:36different [music] software. But because
90. 2:37they are markdown, it's also very
91. 2:39unlikely that you'll have to switch
92. 2:40note-taking apps ever again because it's
93. 2:43basically just a glorified text editor.
94. 2:46Searching for notes is also super fast
95. 2:48and instant. Obsidian does not require
96. 2:50an account to start using. You can just
97. 2:52download it
98. 2:52>> [music]
99. 2:53>> and create a note instantly and there's
100. 2:55no pop-ups, there's no major overhauls
101. 2:57which completely change or break your
102. 2:58notes.
103. 2:59And I think that's actually a good thing
104. 3:02because especially now you see a lot of
105. 3:04companies add AI onto their existing
106. 3:06products and there's no way for you to
107. 3:07opt out of them. But [music] with
108. 3:09Obsidian, even the core features you can
109. 3:10just turn off in the settings pretty
110. 3:12easily. But overall I'd say that the
111. 3:14number one thing that makes Obsidian
112. 3:16stand out over other note-taking apps is
113. 3:18this unique feature called backlinks. So
114. 3:21backlinks are a way for you to connect a
115. 3:23note to another note and that's how you
116. 3:25end up with a graph that looks [music]
117. 3:26like this.
118. 3:27The beauty with this is that over time
119. 3:29you can see how all your notes connect
120. 3:30with each other. So helps you understand
121. 3:32and remember your notes better, but also
122. 3:34makes it so no matter how many notes you
123. 3:35have in your vault, you can still see
124. 3:37all your notes connected to each other.
125. 3:39So they don't just [music] get lost or
126. 3:41buried somewhere. Later when I get into
127. 3:43my notes, I'll show you more of how this
128. 3:45actually works. But personally I really
129. 3:47wish that I'd discovered this and
130. 3:48started using this
131. 3:49>> [music]
132. 3:49>> when I was a student because it would be
133. 3:51amazing to see how all the different
134. 3:53topics in my [music] classes connected
135. 3:54to each other. And also it would still
136. 3:56be really useful today being out of
137. 3:58college for [music] over 5 years now
138. 4:00that I can go back and look at the notes
139. 4:03that are still relevant to my life
140. 4:05today. I think the only thing missing
141. 4:06with Obsidian is an easy way for you to
142. 4:09review and remember the things that
143. 4:10you've taken notes on. So for that, I
144. 4:12use another app called Thea Study who's
145. 4:14kindly sponsoring this video. So Thea
146. 4:16Study is a new innovative study app
147. 4:18[music]
148. 4:18powered with AI. If you're in school and
149. 4:20you're studying for something, you can
150. 4:21basically upload your textbook, notes or
151. 4:23slides and it will create a study guide
152. 4:25for you that optimizes your retention
153. 4:28and reduces your study time. Even if
154. 4:30you're just learning stuff from YouTube,
155. 4:31you can paste in a YouTube link and
156. 4:32it'll create a study guide to quiz you
157. 4:34to make sure that you understand the
158. 4:36concepts in the video pretty
159. 4:38effectively. So one workflow that works
160. 4:40really well with this is that you can
161. 4:41upload your Obsidian note into Thea
162. 4:44[music] Study and you can generate
163. 4:45quizzes or study guides. I've been using
164. 4:47in my free time to study some technical
165. 4:49topics that I'm interested in like with
166. 4:51investing and it's been super efficient.
167. 4:52I just take a PDF or my notes, drag it
168. 4:54in [music] and I can study straight from
169. 4:56that. I also have my intern Matt who
170. 4:58helps me out with some of the videos on
171. 4:59this channel try [music] it out and he
172. 5:01also said that this app is super useful
173. 5:04for studying for his finals. Unlike most
174. 5:06AI-powered study tools, this isn't a
175. 5:08cheating tool at all. It actually helps
176. 5:09you learn the material rather than just
177. 5:11giving you all the answers. You can
178. 5:13choose from flashcards, study guides,
179. 5:15multiple choice quizzes and more. I got
180. 5:17on a call with one of the team members
181. 5:18of Thea [music] and they have a pretty
182. 5:20amazing story. The app was created by
183. 5:22this kid in high school and they
184. 5:24recently crossed over 2 million users.
185. 5:26But what really stood out to me about
186. 5:28this app and why I wanted to share this
187. 5:30app in this video is that
188. 5:32>> [music]
189. 5:32>> it's completely free to use. So there's
190. 5:34literally only upside if you decide to
191. 5:36try it out. You can use the link in the
192. 5:38description or the link right here so
193. 5:40that they know that I sent you. I think
194. 5:42if I had Obsidian and Thea Study when I
195. 5:44was in college, this would have been
196. 5:45insane. Especially since I did a double
197. 5:47major in computer science and business,
198. 5:49definitely would have been able to save
199. 5:51hundreds of hours. But yeah, check out
200. 5:52Thea Study, let me know what you think
201. 5:54of it in the comments below and let's
202. 5:55get back into the video. Now let's get
203. 5:57into my Obsidian [music] vault. This is
204. 5:59what Obsidian looks like when I open it.
205. 6:01It just opens the daily page which if
206. 6:03you're not familiar with, every time you
207. 6:05open Obsidian it makes [music] a page
208. 6:06with today's date. So you can add
209. 6:08anything you want. So the theme that I
210. 6:09use is called Minimal and the font that
211. 6:11I use is called SF Mono or Source Code
212. 6:14Pro. I just kind of like this sort of um
213. 6:17IDE [music] type look to my Obsidian,
214. 6:19but you can also make it enter if you
215. 6:21want something more similar to Notion or
216. 6:23Apple Notes, you can make it look pretty
217. 6:25similar. On the left [music] sidebar,
218. 6:28there's this extension I use that
219. 6:30emulates what Apple Notes looks like. So
220. 6:32Notebook Navigator is the extension that
221. 6:34makes it have this Apple Notes look to
222. 6:37it. I think Apple Notes has one of the
223. 6:38more intuitive [music]
224. 6:40note-taking UIs and this really brings
225. 6:42that same UI to Obsidian and I find it
226. 6:45to be a lot easier to find notes rather
227. 6:48than having them sorted in different
228. 6:49folders. So now I don't really use any
229. 6:52folders. I just have all my notes on
230. 6:53left sidebar that is
231. 6:55>> [music]
232. 6:55>> in chronological order and I open up
233. 6:57notes directly just by searching for
234. 6:59them. The second game-changing extension
235. 7:01that I've started to use is this one
236. 7:03called Obsidian Web Clipper. It's just a
237. 7:05browser extension that I install and
238. 7:07when you come across an article or video
239. 7:08you want to save or take notes on, you
240. 7:10just click on it or use the keyboard
241. 7:13shortcut and it'll be added to your
242. 7:15Obsidian vault. And this is actually
243. 7:17super powerful because you can create a
244. 7:19custom template. So for example with
245. 7:22YouTube videos, because I take a lot of
246. 7:24notes with YouTube videos, I've set it
247. 7:26up so that when I click on it, it'll
248. 7:27create a new note with the video's title
249. 7:28and the creator and I can [music] just
250. 7:30take notes on it right below it. I use
251. 7:32an extension called Thumbnails for the
252. 7:33YouTube thumbnail and there's also a way
253. 7:35for you to add an LLM API if you want a
254. 7:38summary of the video. In mine when I
255. 7:40click it, it writes a 250 character
256. 7:42summary of what the video is about so
257. 7:43that in the future when I look at the
258. 7:45note, I can quickly understand a brief
259. 7:48overview. [music]
260. 7:49So I'll share my config and template for
261. 7:51this in the description if you want to
262. 7:53do the same thing. But with Obsidian Web
263. 7:55Clipper, I also use this for taking book
264. 7:57notes. So if I come across a book that
265. 8:00I'm reading or a book on the internet, I
266. 8:02can quickly just search in Goodreads and
267. 8:04then use a shortcut to add it to my
268. 8:05Obsidian and then later I can just add
269. 8:07notes to it [music] directly. Obsidian
270. 8:09recently added a pretty useful feature
271. 8:10which are Obsidian databases. So you can
272. 8:13organize and see all your book notes in
273. 8:14one place. I've customized it to look
274. 8:16like this which is actually a style
275. 8:17created by the CEO of Obsidian. So I'll
276. 8:20also link this in my website if you want
277. 8:21to use this. Another one that is really
278. 8:23helpful is called Double Shift. Double
279. 8:25Shift just makes it so when you hit
280. 8:27double shift, you can look for or find
281. 8:29any note and so it makes it really easy
282. 8:30to search for notes. The next extension
283. 8:32is called Auto Template Trigger. So what
284. 8:35this extension does is that when you
285. 8:36make a new note, you can select from a
286. 8:38few templates that you created
287. 8:39>> [music]
288. 8:39>> and it will fill all those things out
289. 8:40for you. I use this extension pretty
290. 8:43much anytime I'm making a new note. So I
291. 8:45can take notes about the meeting here, I
292. 8:46can write down who I talked to and for
293. 8:48how long and with Obsidian Basics, it
294. 8:50makes it easy for me to see all my
295. 8:51meetings in one [music] place. So
296. 8:53because I take meeting notes, another
297. 8:55natural thing to have are person notes.
298. 8:57So I also use Obsidian like a Rolodex.
299. 8:59So I have a person template where I can
300. 9:01create a person note where I can see
301. 9:03meetings I've had with this person or
302. 9:05maybe it's an author or entrepreneur I'm
303. 9:06learning from and I can see notes I've
304. 9:09taken from their books or their videos
305. 9:11and it's [music] just easy for me to
306. 9:12reference in one place. The next plugin
307. 9:14that I have found to be really helpful
308. 9:17is called Various Compliments. All it
309. 9:19does is
310. 9:20>> [music]
311. 9:20>> when you're typing, it automatically
312. 9:22will suggest different notes that you
313. 9:23can link it to. So for example if I'm in
314. 9:24this daily note and I type to reread
315. 9:26this book
316. 9:27>> [music]
317. 9:27>> Build, it automatically suggests a note
318. 9:30that I have with that name and I can
319. 9:33just click enter to link it. So that
320. 9:35just makes it helpful to have backlinks
321. 9:36in all of your notes on Obsidian. The
322. 9:39last extension I'll share in this video
323. 9:41is a pretty unique one called Map View.
324. 9:42So I started using this for restaurants
325. 9:44where I would write down the things that
326. 9:46I ordered and what I thought of the
327. 9:47restaurant and give it a sort of a
328. 9:49rating and it kind of became super
329. 9:51helpful because
330. 9:52there were restaurants that I
331. 9:54>> [music]
332. 9:54>> would have a super long gap between
333. 9:56going there and I could go back and see
334. 9:58the things I ordered and avoid ordering
335. 10:00the things that I didn't like or reorder
336. 10:02the stuff that I liked. And also, when
337. 10:03I'm traveling somewhere like when I went
338. 10:05to New York or Japan, I can also capture
339. 10:08the places and restaurants that I went
340. 10:09to and take notes on those locations.
341. 10:11One more thing that I find to be really
342. 10:13useful with Obsidian, which is not
343. 10:15really an extension, is I use it to keep
344. 10:18track of different documents. It makes
345. 10:20it really easy to just search for them
346. 10:22using that double shift. For example, if
347. 10:24I needed to find my driver's license,
348. 10:26>> [music]
349. 10:26>> I can just type driver's license and I
350. 10:28can see it right there. And so, other
351. 10:29things that I keep track of are like
352. 10:31invoices, stuff related to lease
353. 10:33documents or housing or
354. 10:35uh records of payments and it makes it
355. 10:38really easy to search [music] stuff up.
356. 10:40Before I use Obsidian, I would just have
357. 10:42this somewhere in my photos or somewhere
358. 10:43in my Apple Notes and it would be kind
359. 10:46of hard to pull stuff up really quickly.
360. 10:48But if you're just starting out using
361. 10:49Obsidian or any note-taking app, one tip
362. 10:51I would have is that just try to keep it
363. 10:53simple and to reduce complexity. The
364. 10:55setup that I have is not something that
365. 10:57I started out and spent a lot of time to
366. 10:59figure out the best system. It [music]
367. 11:01was kind of just trial and error and I
368. 11:03just added stuff as I needed to make it
369. 11:05more organized. I never sat down and
370. 11:07watched like an hour-long video or
371. 11:08course on how to use Obsidian and I
372. 11:10don't think you should either. So, just
373. 11:12take this as some sort of [music] food
374. 11:15for thought or inspiration if this could
375. 11:18be useful for you. If you have any
376. 11:19questions, definitely let me know in the
377. 11:20comments below. I'll try to respond to
378. 11:22every single comment and if you enjoyed
379. 11:24this or you found this interesting, then
380. 11:26uh consider subscribing for [music] more
381. 11:29videos. I'm trying to post at least
382. 11:31once every 2 weeks until the end of the
383. 11:33year because I am moving and so it is a
384. 11:36little bit hard to keep to a weekly
385. 11:38upload schedule. But yeah, that's it for
386. 11:40this one. I'll see you in the next
387. 11:41video. Let's get it.
388. 11:44>> [music]