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How-To

How to start Obsidian without building a second brain

Sam RiveraNotes & knowledge work

What you’ll get

A working Obsidian vault you can open today: notes go in, notes come back out, nothing fancy breaks. 45–60 minutes if you stop when this guide stops. No graph obsession, no plugin shopping spree.

Before you start

  • Obsidian installed (obsidian.md)—free for personal use
  • A folder you control: Documents/Notes or similar—not inside a sync app’s temp directory
  • Optional: sync plan (iCloud, Syncthing, Obsidian Sync)—pick one later; local-first is fine for week one

Obsidian is Markdown files in a folder. The app is a viewer and editor. That’s the whole trick.

Steps

1. Create the vault in a plain folder

  1. Open Obsidian → Create new vault.
  2. Name it something boring: Notes or Vault.
  3. Location: a path you back up (Time Machine, Syncthing, git—your call later).

Don’t nest the vault inside Notion exports, Dropbox “online only” folders, or Google Drive’s conflict-prone zones until you understand sync quirks.

2. Use three folders—only three

In the vault root, create:

inbox/
notes/
archive/
  • inbox/ — everything new lands here first
  • notes/ — stuff you’ve named and kept
  • archive/ — done, but you might search later

That’s it. No Areas/Resources/Projects/ PARA tribute band on day one.

3. Write one note the dumb way

inbox/2026-07-22-test.md:

# Why I'm trying Obsidian

- Plain files
- Search works
- I can leave anytime

Links to try later: [[notes/placeholder]]

Save. Confirm you see the file in Finder/Explorer. If the file exists on disk, you win.

4. Turn on useful core settings (not plugins)

Settings → Editor:

  • Readable line length — on, if you like
  • Strict line breaks — off unless you care

Settings → Files & Links:

  • Default location for new notes → inbox
  • New link format → shortest path when possible
  • Use [[Wikilinks]] — on

Settings → Hotkeys:

  • Set Quick switcher and Command palette to keys you’ll remember

Skip the Community Plugins tab. Seriously. Close it.

5. Naming rule you’ll actually follow

When something leaves inbox:

notes/topic-short-title.md

Examples: notes/vaultwarden-backup.md, notes/meeting-acme-2026-07.md

No 2026-07-22-143022-final-v2.md unless you like pain. Date prefixes are optional—consistency beats cleverness.

6. One weekly ritual (10 minutes)

Every Friday—or whenever:

  1. Open inbox/
  2. For each file: move to notes/ with a real title, merge into an existing note, or delete
  3. Anything dead goes to archive/ or the trash

No daily note template required. No habit tracker. Just inbox zero-ish.

7. Sync when you need phone access—not before

Method Tradeoff
Obsidian Sync Easiest, paid, handles conflicts
Syncthing Free, you own it, read conflict docs
iCloud / OneDrive Works until it doesn’t—watch for conflict copies
Git Great for text nerds; bad for phone-first

Pick one after a week of desktop-only use. Migrating an empty vault is free; migrating a mess costs a weekend.

Common mistakes

  • Installing Dataview, Templater, and Calendar before writing ten notes
  • Building a folder tree for a life you don’t live yet
  • Treating the graph view as productivity instead of a party trick
  • Syncing through two services at once (Dropbox + iCloud = duplicate files)

Tooling that helps

  • Obsidian mobile—only after sync works on desktop
  • Default markdown editor on OS if you want to edit outside Obsidian sometimes
  • Our Obsidian vs Logseq comparison if you’re choosing between notes stacks

Wrap-up

You have a vault, three folders, and a weekly sort. Add plugins when a specific job hurts—never “because everyone on Reddit uses Templater.”

Who should skip this: if you need real-time co-editing with non-nerds, Notion or Google Docs still wins. Obsidian shines when the files are yours.

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