Why I Still Use Obsidian for Thinking
Why I Still Use Obsidian for Thinking
I don't take notes because I forget things.
I take notes because I'm surrounded by people who will.
If you've ever worked with me, you know I can keep a lot of context in my head. I switch between systems, teams, and priorities all day. It's chaotic—but it works. Mostly.
What doesn't work is expecting other people to live inside my brain.
That's where Obsidian comes in.
What Obsidian Is Not For (at Least for Me)
I don't use it for:
- Zettelkasten workflows.
- Daily journaling.
- Task management.
- "Second brain" stuff.
I'm not chasing perfect structure or building a knowledge graph. I don't want friction. I want speed and clarity.
What Do I Use It For
1. Thinking in Public (But Privately First)
Before I explain something to a team, a client, or a reader, I sketch it in Obsidian. If I can make it make sense in markdown, I can probably make it make sense in a diagram. Or a blog post. Or a strategy doc.
It's the halfway point between messy thoughts and something useful.
2. Capturing Shared Reality
When a project gets chaotic (read: all of them), I use Obsidian to write down what's true:
- What we decided and why.
- How things connect.
- What the actual flow looks like when you zoom out.
If I hand someone an Obsidian note, they don't need to read Slack scrollback or reverse-engineer my thought process. It's right there.
3. Templates for Sanity
I keep templates for:
- Blog posts.
- Architecture reviews.
- Meeting prep.
- Use case alignment.
Not because I need them, but because they make it easier to hand off clarity to others.
Wrapping It Up
Obsidian isn't my second brain. It's my external translator.
It helps me go from abstract to actionable, from intuition to alignment. And that's not just valuable for me—it's critical for anyone working with me.
Thinking isn't the hard part. Making that thinking useful to others is.
At Methodical Cloud, we don't worship tools. We use them to make systems suck less. Obsidian earns its keep.
Related Links & Resources
Now let's update the "How to Context Switch Without Losing Your Sanity" post: