I am really intrigued about the concept of the One Big Text File (OBTF), and planning to give it a whirl in Obsidian [1]. I’d love to hear anyone else’s experience with this in Obsidian as it’s, understandably, not really optimised for this sort of approach. It’s also a bit counter to some of the more trendy approaches.
I am trying to figure out:
Structure options
How to (whether to!) visually break the file into ‘sections’. The -– border just doesn’t seem strong enough.
What inline properties or tags would help: and how to index and query these when in just one file. Query and Dataview don’t seem particularly great for this.
Other more ‘informal’ tags to help with search: e.g. I use @ for names of individuals and : for names of teams.
Top plugins to help for this method. So far Quiet Outline has been absolutely essential to help me jump around and not lose sight of where I am in a file, and Quick Add + Templater to add consistently formatted ‘parts’ to my log.
How to merge all my old ‘atomic’ notes as simply as possible especially adjusting header levels to fit within the structure of the OBTF. Without spending ages .
Why? I am not really sure other than I think it will be fun. But I guess there’s a large part of me that still wants to open a big old and dump thoughts in! But then be able to get something out of it.
I suspect I’ll end up with 5 or so rather than just one. So far: a log, a project note, a personal topic note, and one for my blog ↩︎
First: Why use Obsidian? If you don’t use bidirectional links, note metadata, bases/queries, graph view, etc., it might be the wrong tool. A more native outliner tool like Logseq might be a better fit for the experiment.
Re: structure: I suggest headings so you can get a visual outline/TOC for free and toggle things away when needed.
As for informal tags, I’d probably use text expansion snippets to avoid typos and guarantee the same exact spelling
I think I agree. I’m not familiar with the OBTF thing, but it just seems unwieldy. Could you maybe explain what the benefit is?
I understand approaches like flat hierarchy or few folders because it has less friction in sorting. But in my opinion the great thing about Obsidian is that you have many small chunks that are a lot more manageable compared to one huge docx file.
I do use and love Espanso but it’s so second nature now I hadn’t mentioned it . I’ll check out merge plugins thanks.
I use Obsidian, VSC, Notepad and Notepad++ to access my notes. For now I just like Obsidian and not too interested in learning a new tool: but I’ll still listen and consider! I heard good things about Logsec but I thought I would not get on with the concept of outlining: I much prefer ‘free text’ like Obsidian.
As for the why… in the main because I like it as a concept and would like to try. I’ve used this approach before in Notepad++ for a project: all my notes in one tiny .md file. I’d just never formalised it.
That’s probably not very satisfactory answer but I’m not really here to advocate for it: more after tips . However there’s some more interesting and more eloquent thinking out there, e.g.:
I found that date headers like ## 2026-03-19 work great as section breaks - they show up nicely in Quiet Outline and let you jump by day. For header-level migration, what worked for me was a batch find-and-replace in VS Code across selected files - it’s pretty fast.
I’m in the process of writing up a showcase or knowledge management post on my transition from scattered notes and logs (pre-Obsidian) → daily notes (using overly complicated templates causing me stress to fill them in every day) → weekly notes → monthly notes which I’ve settled on for now.
No complicated templates, skip a day if nothing is happening, write when I want to, etc. Core Templates set up and pinned to easily drop in a date or time on desktop or mobile, reuse of meet with, #verify, etc., if I need to search or come back and check something. Calm and easy.
Haven’t gone to only a big note or two, so longer notes on a specific thing, project, etc., still get their own note (and [[linked]] in the monthly note), but for daily logging of happenings, simple tasks of the day that I keep in Obsidian, etc., a monthly note, days in reverse chronological order, has been working out in this experiment so far.
An example2026-03 note:
# 2026-03
## 2026-03-19 (木)
06:14 warmer this morning which is nice, but the knee is acting up: probably rain later or tomorrow :(
fixed the [[bases--wide cssclass]] that was broken in reading view
14:00 meet with X dept. about next year's schedule
- oof. tuesdays and wednesdays are going to be tight
- [ ] mail HellyR about about next week's trip to Lumon
18:32 grabbed a [[hydrometer]] and night light at X for Y's room on the way home
## 2026-03-18 (水)
05:47 bloody cold with the wind. feels like says -9°
15:04 got a ~30 min run in. cold but feeling good.
16:00 meet with bld. maintenance about hallway [[2026-02-26 1036 drainage issue|drainage issue]]
Agree with gandalf-bro on days as headings. This is the core Outline tab; easy to jump around:
In my expirience too long files can cause some performance issues in Obsidian. I once tried to insert all my novel manuscript in one note, it didn’t work well. So you may consider to break your file down at some point.
Thanks! I’d forgotten about that blog post on the append and review note, it’s an interesting concept.
I have followed a very similar journey as you @ariehen, at the moment I am on weekly notes so you’re one step ahead! Like you, I think I will be splitting out into more than one by then end, e.g. I have projects that go on for 12-18 months so I really don’t want all those notes cluttering my daily personal and BAU stuff.
I’d love to see your showcase when you get round to it.
I’ve been using “one big note” for personal and separate one for work related items (I don’t want to mix them). It keeps my notes cleaner, my head clearer. I don’t need separate notes/projects for each thing. I can find things with cmd/cntrl-F searches, the outline or even just typing [[#…
EDIT: On not letting it get too big: I start a new one every year. Each note is titled with the date then what it is:
# 2026-04-10 Instruction on how to order replacement filters
Blah blah blah blah
# 2026-04-02 Plumber's instructions
He said to drain the thing every 3 months and this-that-and-the-other
I’m not sure what the goal is of this OBTF, but I can tell you from personal experience that if you let your note get TOO big, it will freeze up on you. (It does take quite a bit for a note to get long enough to do that, but if you’re expecting to have everything in one note, that’s a possibility.)
As a bit of an update for what it’s worth: I’ve landed on a pseudo OBTF approach, with a few separated files:
‘OBTF’ for random daily notes, ideas, whatever. I really like the cyclical review method linked above for this.
‘LOG’ for my agenda, month/week reviews and events, note on what I worked on that day. Basically things really tied to a day or place
‘TODO’ my active file of tasks, with an additional section of how I am delegating to my teams and tracking.
‘CAL’ a calendar.txt format as a way to schedule personal reminders and tasks (not in TODO as not ‘active’)
A bunch of ‘STATIC_xxx’ notes that are like a more fixed-in-place collection of notes. Generally on a project or curated topic where otherwise it would overwhelm any OBTF. Good case in point is my current work project which has spanned 18 months.
This strikes a good balance for me in the way I think: keeping things that are more log-like in big files on a theme. I also find the big static/note files much more to my liking than the more popular atomic notes. I know I can go to X file for anything about X topic.
. I’ll check out merge plugins thanks.
. However there’s some more interesting and more eloquent thinking out there, e.g.:
