I Tried Every Note-Taking App. Here's Why I Chose the Messy One
I've been on the quest for the perfect note-taking system for years—sticky notes, notebooks, text files, Microsoft OneNote, Evernote, Notion—you name it, I've tried it. I work in a Microsoft environment where OneNote seems like the obvious choice. It's integrated, supported, and what everyone else uses.
But here's my confession: I can't focus in OneNote. There are too many features, tools, sections, and tabs. My pages always end up looking messy, and I spend more time organizing than actually thinking.
That's why I switched to Obsidian for capturing those random connections that fire when I least expect them—while showering, walking the dog, or mid-conversation. Some of these sudden inspirations aren't worth keeping, but that golden 10%? I don't want to lose them.
My biggest annoyances with OneNote are all the editing tools and the boxes you can end up with on a note page.
Why Obsidian Works For Me
Obsidian keeps the focus where it belongs: on the words. It's spiritually closer to Notepad—and I've always had a soft spot for Notepad. The interface gets out of my way and lets me think.
A blank page in Obsidian, where I did hide all the controls. Key thing is: I don't worry about where to 'save' the page.
A core benefit of Obsidian is that I'm not locked into an ecosystem. Everything is saved as markdown files, which are basically text files. If Obsidian crashes and burns tomorrow, I still have my files and can open them in any text editor. I love that I'm not dependent on an app to get into my notes!
My Obsidian Notebook folder in Windows Explorer which is a list of simple text (Markdown) files. Worst case I can open these with text editors, or import somewhere else.
In 20 years when technology is completely different, I'm still confident we'll be able to open text files. I'm not as confident that I'll be able to OneNote, Notion or Evernote in 20 years.
But Here's Where Most People Go Wrong With Obsidian
What turns many people off to Obsidian is how complicated it can become. There's an entire ecosystem of YouTubers showing off complex systems, plugin configurations, and custom templates. It's overwhelming and frankly unnecessary.
I learned this the hard way. I got invested in one particular "system" that an influencer recommended, but abandoned it after 3 months because it felt like too much work to maintain. I was constantly trying to remember which template to use when, where to link things, and how to tag properly.
If your note-taking system feels like work, you won't use it.
I ended up starting over with the base configuration—a "clean" setup—and suddenly felt joy again in note-making.
Both Obsidian and OneNote can become procrastination traps. With Obsidian, you can spend hours tweaking plugins, settings and tags. With OneNote, you might waste time categorizing notebooks, sections, and pages, organizing everything into perfect buckets.
The most powerful part of Obsidian is actually quite simple: linking. But it runs counter to the folder mental model most of us are used to. If you love organizing things into nested folders, OneNote might be more your style.
Getting Started With Obsidian (The Sane Way)
If you want to give Obsidian a try, here's my advice:
Forget all the plugins, to start
Start with the base template and options. Skip the plugins (at least initially). Your future self will thank you.
Create pages for a week and see what happens
I started with notes on books I was actively reading. I created a page for each book and added thoughts as I read. Some notes grew longer and spawned their own pages, creating an organic network of ideas.
One of my favourite things is the Graph animation of pages in Obsidian. This is mine after about a month of creating pages.
While you're going through this first week, add links between your notes! It's easy, just use the double bracket, like this: [[Link Example]]
Create a new page for every substantial idea—think of them like digital sticky notes. Don't worry about the length of a page. Pages can be really short. The connection between ideas matters more than their individual size.
After a week, create a simple "map of content" (MOC)
Mine was just called "My Brain" with simple links organized under Work, Learning, and Life headings. Every few weeks I update and revise this map, along with a couple other MOCs. Surprisingly, I find this process enjoyable rather than tedious—unlike reorganizing sections and pages in OneNote.
This is one of the MOCs I use: “My Brain". On the right you can see the outline of the page with major sections for Work, Learning, Life. The mini-graph view shows the main connected nodes. There are multiple ways to get into my notes depending on what I’m looking for.
Start with zero folders
I eventually added just added a few: "Templates" a couple of "Work" related ones to separate different businesses, and Assets for images/PDFs. All the other pages are messy in one folder—that's how my brain works anyway!
The beauty of Obsidian isn't in perfect organization, but in capturing your thoughts and discovering connections between them. Sometimes the messiest systems are the ones that best mirror how we actually think.
Why This Actually Matters
Maybe you're thinking "But my current system works fine." That's great!
Mine wasn't working because it felt like a slog and and like I was fighting with OneNote. What I discovered is if I'm not regularly surprised by connections between my old notes and new ideas, my system isn't working as hard as it could be.
Obsidian helps me remember those random gems and connect them to other ideas. The linking, searching, and tagging features are simple but incredibly powerful. When I'm writing now, I spend less time starting from scratch and more time building on thoughts I've already captured.
It doesn't matter what tool you use—it's the output that counts. But Obsidian helps me get to that output faster and with higher quality.
What note-taking system works for your brain?
