It’s been a long run with Notion. Amongst my friends I am the Notion expert, and I’ve made databases my bitch. I made a project dashboard that worked for a little while but it naturally became a public notes app that houses many thoughts, inspiration, and resources. Notion was getting too slow and heavy to run on my computer that at some point I just didn’t find any joy having the app running in the background in case I need to write out some notes.
I did, in fact, start using Apple Notes because it was as fast as grabbing paper and a pen. But my pride snapped me out of it. Besides, the building/writing in public bit is still a key factor in my app of choice.
The increase in price was the nail in the coffin for me to opt for a new app. Obsidian was always the next app to try, since I know many digital garden enthusiasts swear by it.
Here I am, it’s been a few weeks since I’ve ported all my Notion files to Obsidian — but it felt like a hot mess. My particular organization tendencies has gotten me hyperfixated on going through hundreds of files to adjust properties and double check image links (I messed up — I removed images and moved them to the point where I’ve had to manually relink many of the images, idk). I spent my entire long weekend talking to Claude AI about optimizing Obsidian, considering new systems like the Johnny Decimal system (Dewey Decimal but choose your own chaotic adventure). I’ve also found the Zettelkasten Organization Method — which is practically a non-hierarchical structure and a special organized chaos of hell. What I do like about Zettelkasten is that it focuses on the organic growth of ideas and how things are interconnected. It’s a treat to see how some of my ideas intersect.
I’m still trying to get used to how Obsidian handles properties, and differentiating between tags. In theory I can just tag in-body, (example: this is related todigital-garden), and it connects to whatever else has that tag. That’s horrifyingly non-hierarchical. I still somehow have a bunch of folders in my garden anyway, there’s no way I can’t, and I think that’s ok.
What I’m really appreciating is how helpful the Obsidian/Digital Garden Community is. I love that people spend time building and sharing, without having to put anything behind paywalls. It’s free, and people just share. It’s reminiscent of a time when the internet wasn’t so monetized. They even have options to publish Obsidian sites for free (even though Obsidian does offer a paid, albeit seamless plan). I’ll be documenting that separately in Publishing My Obsidian. Oh, small web.
It’ll take some time to rejig my garden. What I’m mostly looking forward to is having an app that’s performant and something that I can easily use on my phone. I’m also looking to build a google chrome extension that works with how I save inspiration, which I’m looking forward to sharing. I’ve been using Claude to figure it out and I’m excited to see ifAI can actually help me.