I'm creating an Obsidian Template (like Notion's one), love to hear what you'll like to see!

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Hey Obsidian community!

I’ve been a long-time user of Obsidian and I’ve fallen in love with its flexibility and power.

As I’ve been exploring ways to optimize my own productivity and organization, I’ve been thinking about creating an Obsidian template - something like any templates we’ve seen emerge for tools like Notion.

The goal would be to provide a comprehensive, all-in-one solution that helps users streamline their workflows, manage tasks and projects, track goals, and generally get more out of Obsidian.

I’m really excited about the potential, but I want to hear directly from all of you!

- What kind of functionality would you find most valuable in an Obsidian template?

  • Are there specific pain points you’re looking to solve, or areas of your productivity that you’d like to see better integrated?

I’m also curious to hear your general thoughts on the idea of an Obsidian template.
- Do you think it could be a useful addition to the community, or are there potential downsides I should be aware of?

Please share your ideas, suggestions, and feedback.
I’m really looking forward to hearing your thoughts and using them to shape this project.

Together, I believe we can create something truly special for the Obsidian ecosystem.

Currently building Obsibrain: https://www.obsibrain.com

Thanks in advance for your input!

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Templates are so use-case that you can’t create 1 template to cover all of the use-cases.

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I like to share this idea this way because nearly everyone has shared fundamentals such as:

  • Having a to-do list
  • Handling events
  • Setting goals for their life
  • Capturing notes and managing organization

I understand what you mean and it is why I am a fervent defender of Obsidian thanks to its capability of adaptation (Plugins, themes, etc)

One template cannot cover all use-cases but my main objective is to cover most of the fundamentals and let each user customize the rest the way they want :slight_smile:

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I still don’t get it.

Why should I, a random user of obsidian or any markdown editor, use this gigantic template with properties/YAML, and headings that I would never use and take several minutes just to remove those properties/YAML and headings I won’t ever use? Rather than make my own template which will save me time.

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I do get your point of view, AngelsOfDarkness, really.

I’m a builder like you, and I like to customize my things the way I really want, but I also know a handful of users who don’t have the time nor the expertise to build such things on their own.

My only mission here is to give users the possibility to experience a fully-ready template without the struggle to build their own. I’ve spent hundreds of hours building it with custom code and features, backed by over 6 years of experience in productivity and time management.

It’s like any service, I’m only providing my time and expertise right there.

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I mean obsibrain looks like you have already invested quite some time into it, but wouldn’t this make more sense as a plugin. I’m also not to sure how open people are about buying a template. Usually people just ask for a donation, because obsidian and most of the help, plugins, themes, etc. are based around the concept of open source.

I don’t get the template idea for the same reasons as @AngelsOfDarkness but if you want to do something like this, a plugin seems way more appropriate. You could market it as an overhaul? Obsidian for beginners?

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This is not the goal of Obsidian, the main purpose is actually to deliver a fully-ready template to start with Obsidian and to migrate over a new fresh vault with good practices and methodologies (periodic reviews, PARA structure, goal planning, etc.)

Doing all this inside a plugin is not possible, I’m offering here a complete setup, not just an extension to any regular Obsidian vault.

But I get it, Obsidian is really based around open source and this approach can scare some of the Obsidian’s users, but it’s still a great opportunity to onboard new people who find Obsidian scary, grow the Obsidian community, and help everyone for the same reasons people buy Notion template: in the end, you save hundreds of hours not customizing your template, reinventing the wheel.

For many people who aren’t tech nerds, it’s a game changer.

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I’m not scared to be confronted with something I have to pay for. What I tried to say is that you might have problems finding people who want to pay instead of donate. I’m not saying your approach is false or bad, just that it might be harder.

How does your template work? Is it a bunch of templates you can select by using the command pallet? So a template for a project, one for personal planning, etc.?

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Same boat as you.

From what I see from the website, it looks like by “template” they mean “starter vault” so it comes with plugins, their plugin settings, and starter files and such.

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I think you touched one of the toughest points of this project.
Obsidian, for most of the most veteran Obsidian users, might not be a really great fit, as we discussed with AngelsOfDarkness. Some of those “veteran” users, as I call them, are more into the “I want to customize everything on my own,” “I already know about PKM and time management,” and could not pay for a fully-ready template.

My target audience revolves around beginner/intermediate Obsidian users.
(Still veterans and experts can obviously join)

How does your template work?

I provide an entire vault with:

  • All pre-configured folders and scripts with templates (e.g., for PARA, periodic reviews, todo management).
  • Pre-configured custom commands (add todo, add PARA, edit todo), most of which were custom-coded by myself.
  • A plugin (yes, there is one) that is closed-source and controls everything from the scripts, custom commands to custom templates. If changes are made to that plugin, such as adding new features or fixing bugs, users would only have to update that single plugin.
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Ok, but there must be a focus one something. Is it a lightweight daily personal management system, a student note taking vault, a hardcore project management system or a general database system. I find it hard to believe that it can do all of that. But I have no problem to wait and see what your project will lead to.

A couple questions:

  • How is your task management better / different to the todo plugin
  • How do you intend to handle dataview tables with all the diverse and case specific needs one might have? (I assume the intended experience is plug and play)
  • what does the plugin actually do? Is it like a specialized quickadd that runs templates?
  • Are the templates and their functionality based on the themplater plugin, using the same commands?
  • how much will it cost?

Things I’d add or do:

  • I would enable full width view
  • make sure that using images is as easy as possible and outline the limitations, especially for new users.

Can you share the plugins you use for this project? I’m kind of curious, because I use a ton already to make my project management work the way I need it to.

All the best

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Really good question, this product was first imagined to suit my needs, which aren’t specific enough to be qualified as “hardcore project management” or “student note taking”.

I’ll answer that Obsibrain was made to fit everyone’s common and fundamental needs in terms of task management, goal settings/life tracking, and folder organizations.

If you’re a student who takes heavy notes, you’ll find your way through Obsibrain, as you may not use all of its features, or you may extend it with other plugins to fit your exact needs. This starter template could be a great place to start organizing your notes in categories and PARA structure that fits your studies.

If you’re a heavy, hardcore project manager, you’ll find your way as well and extend it with kanbans or any other plugins, etc.

It was important to me that I don’t get into a really niche group of people. I know it can be beneficial in terms of marketing, but that was not my goal, as the Obsidian templates aren’t really a thing (yet), it could have been more dangerous for me to go all-in on one niche.

How is your task management better / different to the todo plugin
Please have a look at the website: obsibrain.com, you already have some video examples of all the upcoming features (I know the video may be hard to follow, long demos videos with explanations are coming)

How do you intend to handle dataview tables with all the diverse and case specific needs one might have? (I assume the intended experience is plug and play)
I’ll open a public roadmap and will extensively seek feedback, the aim is to create something that fits universally anyone. (Yes, small use cases per individual won’t obviously be able to be addressed) You can also have a look at the website, I’ve already worked with custom views.

what does the plugin actually do? Is it like a specialized quickadd that runs templates?
Exactly, I first used quickadd and then fell back to create my own quickadd using script and code. If you run the command “Open Daily Review,” you’ll create a new file DATE.md file inside the daily folder (a sequence of actions done with scripting).

Are the templates and their functionality based on the themplater plugin, using the same commands?

Here are the all plugins I currently use (Templater, Dataview, and Tasks plugins are the most used):

Advanced URI
Better Word Count
BRAT
Charts
Clear Unused Images
Commander
Dataview
Global Hotkeys
Hider
Iconize
Image in Editor
Image Toolkit
Linter
Omnisearch
Plugin Update Tracker
Quick Switcher++
QuickAdd
Smart Typography
Style Settings
Tasks
Templater
Various Complements

how much will it cost?
Price will range from $50-$100 max. I don’t have an exact price idea in mind right now.

I would enable full width view
I extended the view in the custom code of this template, and I know that can also be done with themes.

make sure that using images is as easy as possible and outline the limitations, especially for new users.
Yes!

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Thanks for the thorough reply. I’ll look forward to updates and will watch this thread!

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  • Most users coming into this space now have no idea what “use case” means. They’ve heard about Obsidian (or any other pkm app) as a way of solving their information overload.
  • The price of entry into PKM should have nothing to do with plugins, dom, css, yaml, code blocks, or js. Putting a UI face over these things will ease transition to these tools. If nothing else, this vault template at least gives them something to start with; I wish I had something like your template when I started and I am well versed in the tech.
  • If a tool is not useable, out of the box, the tool doesn’t work for most humans; only us tech savvy obsessors; in which case, pkm fails the masses.
  • I applaud your effort and signed up for early access and will assist.
  • Cheers!
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Very well said!
and thank you for the kind words, @writtenfool!

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