This is kind of fascinating in a way. I've gone down the pipeline of Evernote >> Notion and now Obsidian. I got into PKIM via Tiago Forte, then took August Bradley's course. I use Notion for a general purpose wiki, task/project and as a content management system plus it helps in all manner of IT and information handling scenarios. Ultimately, now I'm at Obsidian and thinking I really don't want to end up in some other online platform that controls my data and lacks privacy.
I’m an engineer, do marketing/consulting on the side, am creating a Bible app at the moment, and have 7 kids. Physical sticky notes are overwhelming, checklists pads and graph paper are fine for simple rough notes, and excel just doesn’t cut it. After doing some research for a “second brain” system, notion is everywhere but it didn’t click for me. I finally installed Obsidian and fell in love with it. Great review! I enjoyed the details and real world use cases which are very similar to mine.
Great video Paul, youve made it clear that obsidian is best for memory retention, recall and better visualization of information. This video was extremely detailed and superb, thanks!
Thank you @corvi, if I could go back and change anything it would be to improve the audio quality. Other than that it was really enjoyable sharing my journey with this one.
@@PaulDickson7 Audio is fine, great video. Im still deciding if i want to keep both notion and obsidian or commit fully to obsidian. I want to shift to efficiency>aesthetics
First of all, wonderful vid. Succinct and doesn't overstay its welcome. Now, from starting out as an evernote user to then maining notion, I'm now at a point where I need better data interconnectedness particularly just random bits of strings of texts spread across multiple pages that all relate to one another or share the similar concept, and I believe obsidian might be best for that specific use case, that and the visualization of information feature sounds really enticing as a visual learner. However I really would like to main just one app for everything, I love the intuitive nature and out-of-the box structure of notion, yet the interconnectivity of obsidian + local storage hosting sound really good. Hope I can figure this one out pretty soon, the faster I settle the more time saved. Is the looking for code snippet type of scenario really that bad in obsidian? I figure that's how much of my use case would be and if so maybe obsidian would not be for me.
Notion is visually pleasing and provides a pretty good table/list view out of the box. You’ll miss certain Notion features when making the switch to Obsidian. I’m in the process of making a video about changing from a Table View in Notion to a Dataview in Obsidian. Stay tuned for that one that might spark some inspiration. You will spend a bit more time setting up your system in Obsidian. Think about using a hybrid approach if you’re unsure. Sometimes I still use OneNote for work stuff cause I don’t want all the noise in Obsidian.
Thank you very much, this is very informative and helpful! I'm in the process of leaving Evernote, so I'm currently testing different software, including Notion and Obsidian.
This looks super useful, but as someone who is neurodivergent with ADHD, just thinking about trying to do all of this daily gives me anxiety. I can't imagine documenting this level of detail and then actually sticking to it day after day. I'm very jealous of people capable of doing this kind of digital organization, but my brain actively works against me. My Notion is just a random jumble of sporadic notes. Usually a result of whenever I get some temporary burst of interest in trying to write things down, but it fades pretty quickly.
Brother...there is no need for this kind of organisation... Just two things... 1. What are the stuffs you need to remember/ find later? ... Write those Down..or record those, or take a picture.. 2. What are the things/ keyword you will need whole looking for those info? Use them as Titles or keywords... And Boom! You have a second brain..It's just that simple.
Absolutely, you really only need to start with a tag, a link, a topic, heading and the note text and you’re good to go. Worry about the organising later
Hi Rilock, Obsidian can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. Check out Bryan Jenks on youtube, he is an advocate for ADHD and his channel has some great content. I’m going to make an upcoming video talking about some of his stuff so stay tuned for that
Please don't be discouraged. I am AuDHD asf & years ago when Obsidian first appealed to me, all I could do was watch other ppl organize their vaults bc I couldn't wrap my head around how to efficiently use Obsidian in a way that would not overwhelm me daily. Bc who has time for that? Lol. I continued to kick it w Notion. But now I've grown into the type of person who could benefit from the concept of a second brain. I love learning but I can hardly arrange my day to day thoughts bc I am thinking at the speed of light or I can't remember simple words. I have grown so tired of my social media addiction & I am learning about the concepts of field notes & such. I also have art & hobbies I would like to learn & teach myself so I'm sure I could benefit from organizing my notes like ppl do in Obsidian. Notion was/is my girl for taking math notes & quick coding notes but I'm able to apply what I've learned from Notion to Obsidian. TLDR; All that to say, omg 😵💫 that maybe Notion is what benefits you most right now, but you could certainly apply what you've learned from Notion to Obsidian later bc they are two sides of the same coin. Just do what benefits you the most. :D
Thank you for a great video. I am thinking to stay on both for the moment and see which one will become daily tool for my second brain. I am using as well Xmind to mindmap ideas. As I've seen from your video there are templates in Obsidian helping to build tree map. Will try that. Thanks again
I've recently given up trying to do everything in one program. I was using notion exclusivly for years and I still love it, but I need obsidian for notes and journal stuff.
I think that’s a good way to be. Notion definitely shines with relational databases, project and task management. Obsidian is great for notes and learning
As a 3+ yrs (Maybe 4?) notion user, I like the DB connections but there's tons of content in so many pages that just collect dust and aren't really connected to much. It can be REALLY slow compared to anytype, coda and capacities, especially for mile-long DBs, even when filtered. Every obsidian user really likes the organic way of connecting things. I'll dig into it.
i too have been using the ppv system for a couple of years now and have faced similar issues like what you mentioned - lack of local storage, slow/laggy at times. another thing i realised was that although i have been loving how my knowledge vault has been growing and updating over time, i still feel it does not fully link ideas or i may miss out ideas given the fact that over time the knowledge vault grows too big. have also started looking at obsidian for pkm as it allows for linking of ideas abit more intuitively(?), mainly for notes as i will still have videos/articles/podcast etc stored in my media vault but at the same time the thought of having to juggle two applications doesn't really entice me... was wondering how you have your obsidian set up in terms of folder structure or is there a particular system that you follow? do you still collect your media and notes vault into obsidian so that when you’re writing your notes you can easily reference the respective notes? or do you just use obsidian for note taking while notion remains an area for collecting and storing information? i’ve seen on reddit that there are templates in obsidian where people have built out ppv entirely, but then again notion is still superior at task/project management, so kinda lost hahaha
Hi @ryeones, I like the way Notion is styled out of the box. The relative database structure makes it easy to look up knowledge base wikis, reflect on cycles and reviews as well as plan your tasks and projects. If you enjoy reflecting on what you have achieved over time then a Notion PPV System works well. I found it easier to track my progress with Notion and searching an area such as “Powershell Scripts” is easier in Notion. I still use my System Engineer Wiki in Notion more than Obsidian. Obsidian doesn’t handle database layouts very well (yet) and I really miss this feature. It does link ideas and concepts better and taking notes on videos/articles/books etc gives you a lot more freedom to distill and create. My folder structure for Obsidian has been, OO Notelab, 01 MOCs, 02 Cards, 03 Spaces, 04 Vaults, 05 Journal, 06 Toolkit. If you just want notes in quickly throw them in your Notelab. For more organisation you can sort them into Cards, Spaces later. Vaults is for everything Literature that you have captured. This system is working well for me atm. As long as you use tags and link with topics you don’t need to stress to much about where everything should go. You have hit it on the head. Obsidian is primarily for collecting media notes and then expanding those easily through links. Note taking and making is always done in Obsidian. Notions feels like an area to collect and store information like code snippets or things I need quick access to get something done. August Bradley PPV Notion system served me well for over a year but Obsidian has given me so much more motivation to create and learn. It’s getting harder to choose now because Notion performance and features are improving. For me Obsidian is my daily driver. It lacks in cycles and reviews for Journalling, tasks and project management is a bit clunky and list style database lookups are not really possible. I love having two second brains. Notion is my System Engineer Wiki lookup these days. I don’t like to do lists or planning my calendar so tasks and projects I feel like a task on it’s own. Journalling is easier to review in Notion but I’m working on improving this in Obsidian so I can have the same benefits of Notion PPV.
@@PaulDickson7 thankyou for such a thought out reply, haven’t dabbled much into obsidian yet besides occasional youtube videos and the many reddit threads! i’m just hoping notion continues to innovate and hopefully be able to come closer to obsidian in terms of interconnected notes, like you said notion already has improved over the years especially with charts dropping yesterday… making it an even tougher choice if i were to still stick to a single only second brain. i’ll see what flow works best for me in the mean time, my only concern if i were to use obsidian as well for note taking, whenever i come across articles/media, it’ll be a headache to decide which app to place them in, the adhd in me would not be able to survive those situations for too long 🤣😭 nonetheless, dropped a subscribed, happy to follow your journey whether it is on notion, obsidian or just general systems for pkm (:
Hey Neb, the project plugin is relatively new in Notion and wasn’t available when I was using Notion as my daily driver. My next upcoming video will talk about migrating from a Notion Table to an Obsidian Dataview. Stay tuned for the next video.
@@PaulDickson7 Thanks for taking time to reply. That makes sense. Only just stumbled onto your channel today. Instant sub. Im form Australia so great hearing what sounds like an ozzie voice.
Thank you, that was my biggest learning point making this video. Audio Compression. I have recently upgraded my Microphone and also learnt how to compress audio. Any future videos will have better audio ;)
This is kind of fascinating in a way. I've gone down the pipeline of Evernote >> Notion and now Obsidian. I got into PKIM via Tiago Forte, then took August Bradley's course. I use Notion for a general purpose wiki, task/project and as a content management system plus it helps in all manner of IT and information handling scenarios. Ultimately, now I'm at Obsidian and thinking I really don't want to end up in some other online platform that controls my data and lacks privacy.
I’m an engineer, do marketing/consulting on the side, am creating a Bible app at the moment, and have 7 kids. Physical sticky notes are overwhelming, checklists pads and graph paper are fine for simple rough notes, and excel just doesn’t cut it.
After doing some research for a “second brain” system, notion is everywhere but it didn’t click for me. I finally installed Obsidian and fell in love with it.
Great review! I enjoyed the details and real world use cases which are very similar to mine.
Great in-depth analysis. Thanks Paul for this video. Helped me a lot
You're welcome yashkanwar308
Great insight. I'm using Obsidian most of the time as well.
Great video Paul, youve made it clear that obsidian is best for memory retention, recall and better visualization of information. This video was extremely detailed and superb, thanks!
Thank you @corvi, if I could go back and change anything it would be to improve the audio quality. Other than that it was really enjoyable sharing my journey with this one.
@@PaulDickson7 Audio is fine, great video. Im still deciding if i want to keep both notion and obsidian or commit fully to obsidian. I want to shift to efficiency>aesthetics
First of all, wonderful vid. Succinct and doesn't overstay its welcome.
Now, from starting out as an evernote user to then maining notion, I'm now at a point where I need better data interconnectedness particularly just random bits of strings of texts spread across multiple pages that all relate to one another or share the similar concept, and I believe obsidian might be best for that specific use case, that and the visualization of information feature sounds really enticing as a visual learner.
However I really would like to main just one app for everything, I love the intuitive nature and out-of-the box structure of notion, yet the interconnectivity of obsidian + local storage hosting sound really good. Hope I can figure this one out pretty soon, the faster I settle the more time saved.
Is the looking for code snippet type of scenario really that bad in obsidian? I figure that's how much of my use case would be and if so maybe obsidian would not be for me.
Notion is visually pleasing and provides a pretty good table/list view out of the box. You’ll miss certain Notion features when making the switch to Obsidian. I’m in the process of making a video about changing from a Table View in Notion to a Dataview in Obsidian. Stay tuned for that one that might spark some inspiration.
You will spend a bit more time setting up your system in Obsidian. Think about using a hybrid approach if you’re unsure. Sometimes I still use OneNote for work stuff cause I don’t want all the noise in Obsidian.
Thank you very much, this is very informative and helpful! I'm in the process of leaving Evernote, so I'm currently testing different software, including Notion and Obsidian.
This looks super useful, but as someone who is neurodivergent with ADHD, just thinking about trying to do all of this daily gives me anxiety. I can't imagine documenting this level of detail and then actually sticking to it day after day. I'm very jealous of people capable of doing this kind of digital organization, but my brain actively works against me. My Notion is just a random jumble of sporadic notes. Usually a result of whenever I get some temporary burst of interest in trying to write things down, but it fades pretty quickly.
Brother...there is no need for this kind of organisation...
Just two things...
1. What are the stuffs you need to remember/ find later? ... Write those Down..or record those, or take a picture..
2. What are the things/ keyword you will need whole looking for those info? Use them as Titles or keywords...
And Boom! You have a second brain..It's just that simple.
Absolutely, you really only need to start with a tag, a link, a topic, heading and the note text and you’re good to go. Worry about the organising later
Hi Rilock, Obsidian can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. Check out Bryan Jenks on youtube, he is an advocate for ADHD and his channel has some great content. I’m going to make an upcoming video talking about some of his stuff so stay tuned for that
@@PaulDickson7 That's really kind of you to do that for him / her
Please don't be discouraged. I am AuDHD asf & years ago when Obsidian first appealed to me, all I could do was watch other ppl organize their vaults bc I couldn't wrap my head around how to efficiently use Obsidian in a way that would not overwhelm me daily. Bc who has time for that? Lol. I continued to kick it w Notion. But now I've grown into the type of person who could benefit from the concept of a second brain. I love learning but I can hardly arrange my day to day thoughts bc I am thinking at the speed of light or I can't remember simple words. I have grown so tired of my social media addiction & I am learning about the concepts of field notes & such. I also have art & hobbies I would like to learn & teach myself so I'm sure I could benefit from organizing my notes like ppl do in Obsidian. Notion was/is my girl for taking math notes & quick coding notes but I'm able to apply what I've learned from Notion to Obsidian.
TLDR; All that to say, omg 😵💫 that maybe Notion is what benefits you most right now, but you could certainly apply what you've learned from Notion to Obsidian later bc they are two sides of the same coin. Just do what benefits you the most. :D
This was so well done. Thank you for sharing your system!
Thank you Raven, you're welcome
Thank you for a great video. I am thinking to stay on both for the moment and see which one will become daily tool for my second brain. I am using as well Xmind to mindmap ideas. As I've seen from your video there are templates in Obsidian helping to build tree map. Will try that. Thanks again
I've recently given up trying to do everything in one program. I was using notion exclusivly for years and I still love it, but I need obsidian for notes and journal stuff.
I think that’s a good way to be. Notion definitely shines with relational databases, project and task management. Obsidian is great for notes and learning
As a 3+ yrs (Maybe 4?) notion user, I like the DB connections but there's tons of content in so many pages that just collect dust and aren't really connected to much. It can be REALLY slow compared to anytype, coda and capacities, especially for mile-long DBs, even when filtered. Every obsidian user really likes the organic way of connecting things. I'll dig into it.
Great video!
Although tiny correction at 12:58, Obsidian is not actually open source, even though the plugins are.
Thanks DJ
i too have been using the ppv system for a couple of years now and have faced similar
issues like what you mentioned - lack of local storage, slow/laggy at times.
another thing i realised was that although i have been loving how my knowledge vault has been growing and updating over time, i still feel it does not fully link ideas or i may miss out ideas given the fact that over time the knowledge vault grows too big.
have also started looking at obsidian for pkm as it allows for linking of ideas abit more intuitively(?), mainly for notes as i will still have videos/articles/podcast etc stored in my media vault but at the same time the thought of having to juggle two applications doesn't really entice me...
was wondering how you have your obsidian set up in terms of folder structure or is there a particular system that you follow? do you still collect your media and notes vault into obsidian so that when you’re writing your notes you can easily reference the respective notes? or do you just use obsidian for note taking while notion remains an area for collecting and storing information?
i’ve seen on reddit that there are templates in obsidian where people have built out ppv entirely, but then again notion is still superior at task/project management, so kinda lost hahaha
Hi @ryeones, I like the way Notion is styled out of the box. The relative database structure makes it easy to look up knowledge base wikis, reflect on cycles and reviews as well as plan your tasks and projects. If you enjoy reflecting on what you have achieved over time then a Notion PPV System works well. I found it easier to track my progress with Notion and searching an area such as “Powershell Scripts” is easier in Notion. I still use my System Engineer Wiki in Notion more than Obsidian.
Obsidian doesn’t handle database layouts very well (yet) and I really miss this feature. It does link ideas and concepts better and taking notes on videos/articles/books etc gives you a lot more freedom to distill and create.
My folder structure for Obsidian has been, OO Notelab, 01 MOCs, 02 Cards, 03 Spaces, 04 Vaults, 05 Journal, 06 Toolkit. If you just want notes in quickly throw them in your Notelab. For more organisation you can sort them into Cards, Spaces later. Vaults is for everything Literature that you have captured. This system is working well for me atm. As long as you use tags and link with topics you don’t need to stress to much about where everything should go.
You have hit it on the head. Obsidian is primarily for collecting media notes and then expanding those easily through links. Note taking and making is always done in Obsidian. Notions feels like an area to collect and store information like code snippets or things I need quick access to get something done.
August Bradley PPV Notion system served me well for over a year but Obsidian has given me so much more motivation to create and learn. It’s getting harder to choose now because Notion performance and features are improving. For me Obsidian is my daily driver. It lacks in cycles and reviews for Journalling, tasks and project management is a bit clunky and list style database lookups are not really possible.
I love having two second brains. Notion is my System Engineer Wiki lookup these days. I don’t like to do lists or planning my calendar so tasks and projects I feel like a task on it’s own. Journalling is easier to review in Notion but I’m working on improving this in Obsidian so I can have the same benefits of Notion PPV.
@@PaulDickson7 thankyou for such a thought out reply, haven’t dabbled much into obsidian yet besides occasional youtube videos and the many reddit threads!
i’m just hoping notion continues to innovate and hopefully be able to come closer to obsidian in terms of interconnected notes, like you said notion already has improved over the years especially with charts dropping yesterday… making it an even tougher choice if i were to still stick to a single only second brain.
i’ll see what flow works best for me in the mean time, my only concern if i were to use obsidian as well for note taking, whenever i come across articles/media, it’ll be a headache to decide which app to place them in, the adhd in me would not be able to survive those situations for too long 🤣😭
nonetheless, dropped a subscribed, happy to follow your journey whether it is on notion, obsidian or just general systems for pkm (:
Hi Paul! What resources did you use to get functional quickly in obsidian and what are the most useful plugins for you?
Hi Slim, will be releasing a video soon covering what resources I used. Have released a “20 must have plugins” on the channel, check that one out.
very good video but if u can increase ur voice
Audio will be better on the next one I promise ;)
thanks very insightful subbed
Im new to Obsidian so correct me if im wrong but shouldnt you be comparing the table view of Notion to Obsidian Project Plugin vs Dataview plugin?
Hey Neb, the project plugin is relatively new in Notion and wasn’t available when I was using Notion as my daily driver. My next upcoming video will talk about migrating from a Notion Table to an Obsidian Dataview. Stay tuned for the next video.
@@PaulDickson7 Thanks for taking time to reply. That makes sense. Only just stumbled onto your channel today. Instant sub. Im form Australia so great hearing what sounds like an ozzie voice.
take a look at audio compression
Thank you, that was my biggest learning point making this video. Audio Compression. I have recently upgraded my Microphone and also learnt how to compress audio. Any future videos will have better audio ;)