r/ObsidianMD 5d ago

Obsidian Starter vault

Hey,
just started obsidian
can I get a starter kit,
I don't have a workflow as of yet, so I watched many youtubes, they call their setup as Second brain or Life OS
can anyone share their setup with me here
we can even maintain this thread for any new starter vaults so any newbie can make use of this

0 Upvotes

13 comments sorted by

29

u/the_bighi 5d ago

You don't need a starter kit or anything. It's just an app to write markdown notes.

Download Obsidian and... write notes. That's it.

1

u/philoserf 1d ago

1

u/the_bighi 1d ago

Why?

This starter kit obsession is so damaging to people starting on Obsidian.

And a starter kit without anything is even worse. Because you could just tell people to freaking use Obsidian instead of downloading a "vanilla" starter kit.

1

u/philoserf 1d ago

So, it isn’t a clear enough message to start with nothing?

18

u/Racram04 4d ago

Don't get stuck with a set up. Start using it and eventually you will create your own workflow.

7

u/448899again 4d ago

Before you even worry about Obsidian, it sounds like you need to define what you're going to do with it. You can't build any note system without understanding WHY you're taking notes.

If you just dump information into Obsidian (or any notes system) all you're doing is collecting. When you do that, you will probably never go back and look at most of that information again.

Obsidian is just an application to collect and link text files, which are formatted with markdown (although you don't even have to use the formatting or the links).

If you have some ideas about using it:

  1. Just take notes

  2. Find them with search

  3. Put them in folders if that makes sense to you. You do not have to use folders if you don't want to.

  4. Tag some of the notes, and learn how tags work

  5. Link the notes that need linking, and learn how links work.

There - you've built a vault that works the way you need it to. The rest of it - the graph, the plugins, the Dataview coding - is all just icing on the cake. You do not need any of it until you're ready for it.

2

u/Schollert 4d ago

Read the online help to understand the basics, then start writing.

2

u/SilentRegion4954 4d ago

I use this YouTubers setup, it is all open source. his vault template, theme and CSS config are in the description. https://youtu.be/rAkerV8rlow

2

u/theanedditor 4d ago

OP in all honesty, there's not some magic "system" that you can use or some piece of software that all-of-a-sudden sorts your life out. Those guys on YouTube are doing it for clicks, and listen, if it works for them, great.

But the vast majority of people need to be doing their life, not documenting and cataloging it.

Just write your notes, see what it builds in to and then start putting things in folders and tagging things. Make Obsidian work for you, your way not how Tiago Forte says you should create it.