After years of scattered notes across different apps, I finally found a knowledge management system that works: Obsidian as a personal knowledge operating system.

Here’s how I’ve structured it to support my product management work.

The Core Philosophy

My Obsidian setup is built around three key principles:

  1. Capture everything in a consistent format
  2. Connect ideas through bidirectional links
  3. Surface insights through regular review and reflection

My Folder Structure

📁 00 - Inbox (Daily captures)
📁 10 - Projects (Active work)
📁 20 - Areas (Ongoing responsibilities)
📁 30 - Resources (Reference materials)
📁 40 - Archive (Completed items)

This follows the PARA method but simplified for personal use.

Daily Workflow

Morning Capture (5 minutes)

I start each day with a new daily note that includes:

  • Three priorities for the day
  • Meeting agenda items
  • Random thoughts and ideas
  • Quick task captures

Throughout the Day

  • All meeting notes go into the daily note first
  • Ideas get tagged with #idea for later processing
  • Action items get linked to relevant project notes

Evening Processing (10 minutes)

  • Move important insights to permanent notes
  • Create links between related concepts
  • Update project notes with progress
  • Tag items that need follow-up

Key Templates

Meeting Notes Template

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# Meeting: [[Project Name]] - YYYY-MM-DD

**Attendees:** 
**Agenda:**
**Decisions:**
**Action Items:**
- [ ] Item 1 @person
- [ ] Item 2 @person

**Notes:**

**Follow-up:**

Project Overview Template

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# Project Name

**Status:** In Progress
**Owner:** Jay
**Timeline:** Q1 2024
**Goal:** Brief description

## Context
Why are we doing this?

## Success Metrics
How will we know we succeeded?

## Key Decisions
[[Link to decision log]]

## Resources
- [[Meeting Notes]]
- [[Research]]
- [[Stakeholder Feedback]]

The Power of Linking

The real magic happens when you start connecting ideas across different notes:

  • [[Product Strategy]] connects to multiple project notes
  • [[User Research]] findings link to feature decisions
  • [[Team Retrospectives]] inform process improvements

Over time, these connections reveal patterns and insights you might otherwise miss.

Plugins That Make It Work

Essential Plugins

  • Daily Notes - Automatic daily note creation
  • Templates - Consistent note structures
  • Calendar - Visual timeline of notes
  • Graph Analysis - Visualize note connections

Power User Plugins

  • Dataview - Query and display note data
  • Kanban - Project management boards
  • Advanced Tables - Better table editing
  • Excalidraw - Embedded diagrams

Weekly Review Process

Every Friday, I spend 30 minutes reviewing the week:

  1. Process the inbox - File daily notes and loose items
  2. Update project notes - Capture progress and blockers
  3. Identify patterns - What themes are emerging?
  4. Plan next week - What knowledge gaps need filling?

Making It Sustainable

The key to any knowledge management system is consistency. Here’s what keeps me using Obsidian:

  • Low friction capture - Daily notes make it easy to dump thoughts
  • Flexible structure - No rigid rules about categorization
  • Visual feedback - The graph view shows knowledge growth
  • Portable format - Markdown files aren’t locked to one tool

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

  • Over-organizing upfront - Let structure emerge naturally
  • Perfect note syndrome - Capture first, refine later
  • Link everything - Only link what’s genuinely related
  • Neglecting review - The system only works if you revisit notes

Your knowledge management system should adapt to how you think, not force you into someone else’s framework. Start simple, be consistent, and let it evolve with your needs.

Published: January 5, 2024