You may remember me ditching Obsidian and making a full return to Notion. I finally figured out what I was missing with Obsidian. It’s not Notion, it’s not a replacement and it never was. That’s where I was making the biggest mistake. I was suffering using Notion for just basic notes and wiki style stuff so, I tried using Obsidian for what it was actually good for. Notes.
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Keeping it Simple
Where I made my stupidest mistake was thinking that I should only be using one or the other when it comes to Notion or Obsidian when in reality, although at one point they may have been two similarly targeted tools, now, not so much. Obsidian is a wiki. It can be forced to be other things, do large data queries with dataview or use it as a calendar and probably a million other things but what it really nails, is being a personal wiki. Basic markdown is really where it shines and so that’s all I use it for.
Notion on the other hand, although it can be used to create a wiki, even having dedicated features to create a basic wiki template for you, it’s really a project management platform and is now heavily aimed towards the enterprise space. So, much like Obsidian, it’s good at what it was built for.
What Are They Good For?
So, what goes where? Basically, anything that has a specific time, Notion. Anything that’s just information, Obsidian. This simple approach has really nailed down what the use cases are for each one for me.
There’s just something about Notion’s task management and kanban boards that keeps me coming back but the wiki, they just don’t do it for me, I think it’s actually potentially too structured? That’s an odd thing for me to hate as I do like having my notes in some sort of hierarchy but that way it works in Notion just feels clunky.
Obsidian, although totally useless as a task manager (unless you invest hundreds of hours into modifying it) is perfect for managing information. I actually only started using it for that for my job. Notion was slow, and was starting to really annoy me whereas Obsidian was just so quick and easy. It’s not even got that huge an amount of information in it but the information that is there, I reference fairly regularly. It even allows me to import my Readwise highlights.
Shortcomings
Neither tool is perfect. There’s a reason I’m spit between the two and it’s because they both have their weak spots. Notion is chronically online with no offline mode (although it’s in alpha apparently, not like it’s been everyone’s most wanted feature for years :/ ) and no native Linux app. Using the browser isn’t really an issue but no offline mode…. come on? It’s also getting just a bit too gimmicky for me. AI is plastered all over the UI when I literally have never used it and the mobile app is just a bit…. meh.
Obsidian kind of dodges some of these pitfalls just by being a bit more of a definitive wiki tool. It’s not trying to tick every box and I think that’s probably why it doesn’t suck at a load of other stuff. It has a Linux appimage available, has a very fast and hugely customisable UI, does allow for various plugins if you want to beef it up with crazy Notion like features but the base package is just really good at being a store of knowledge. I don’t even use the Obsidian Sync feature that allows me to use it on mobile and desktop (although I do use Git for Obsidian to keep a history of my vault on my GitHub account in case of a disaster). I very rarely need to store information that I put into obsidian on the go, and if I do it’s usually a note of a link that I would put into Readwise or something anyways which eventually goes to Obsidian. I’m not writing the next Harry Potter on my phone, I’m taking long notes on a laptop, like a normal person.
Making Them Work for You
Neither tool is perfect out the box. They give you sensible defaults and you can fiddle with them as you please. Notion was designed to have you build things from scratch so it kind of walks you through it, nice and easy. Obsidian, not so much. You could totally use Obsidian with the defaults and be totally fine but it does help to slightly invest into looking at some plugins. I’m not plugin wizard, I don’t plan on becoming one of those “productivity” YouTubers that spend more time building their setup than actually using it.
For Obsidian I have 6 plugins (search these here):
Folder Notes – allows me to have a folder not only be a top level group for other notes but also itself contain a markdown file (sort of like Notion pages work)
Git – just a backup of my vault basically, with the added magic of having a history through the magic of version control
Not refactor – a quality of life feature that I don’t really use that often but when I do it’s very handy, just allows pulling section out of a page and turning it into it’s own note. Good for dividing up larger chunks.
Paste URL into selection – just lets you paste any copied URL directly on top of whatever text you’ve highlighted, not sure why that’s not the default tbh.
Readwise Official – does what it says on the tin, it’s the official Readwise plugin, syncs all your Readwise notes in easy peasy, and even has some customisation options so you can fiddle with the formatting.
Waypoint – Something I didn’t realise I liked for a while, but basically a table of contents for your folders. Works very nicely alongside folder notes to create a nice walking path through your notes.
And after alllll that, you get a nice little graph like this. Not particularly useful but it does look pretty nice.
I only have the free Notion plan although I think with a few more bells and whistles since I’ve been using it a while, since before they changed their payment structure. No AI add-on and no charts. Although charts are quite tempting. I’ve written about my Notion setup before but I just use a few databases, Tasks, Post Planner, Projects and Content Storage (pulled from Readwise, don’t really use it any more). My actual work work, the stuff I get paid for is now in Asana, which means that even the Tasks section of Notion is almost totally redundant, leaving mostly just Post Planner, which I’ve got a funny feeling I could probably get working in Obsidian…. It shall stay where it is for now though, because I do like Notion.
Use the Right Tool for the Job
I used to try and do it all with Notion. It’s possible, but it’s not enjoyable. After committing to using Obsidian for it’s intended use case I feel my note taking has been much easier and more frictionless. Having notes in Notion, was potentially just allowing me to overcomplicate things, by having loads of relations and links etc… having it all just piled into Obsidian removed that. Now information is just information and not somehow linked to a time a place, a project and 3 deadlines. Which is why I think Obsidian just is the correct tool for notes. Not too clever and just the right amount of stupid to not send you down a Notion style rabbit hole.
There’s a reason you see so many tutorials for Notion, you spend just as much time building it as you do using it, which when it comes to just finding some information, isn’t really ideal, so Obsidian, although I may have ditched it before has really had me come crawling back…. (But it’s not a Notion killer, made for a good title though eh)
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