Changing My Workflow
September 14, 2026
The last time I wrote about my workflow, I praised Obsidian and all of its capabilities. While I still use Obsidian, it's not nearly as integrated into my day job as it used to be, and instead I have transitioned to using it for file management while my daily planner has gone analog.
First, I need to note how I used to use Obsidian, and why I stopped using it that way. I used Obsidian's daily note function to create a daily schedule and notepad to keep track of meetings and corresponding notes. I used tagging to mark who I had meetings with and things like topics to help me find similar meetings at a later date to reference. This worked great for year and a half until my home NAS died.
I used a ZimaBlade 7700 as my home NAS and media server. Granted, I should not have been using it for both of those things. Needless to say, it finally gave out earlier this year. When it did, I was forced to stop using Obsidian daily, at least for a little while. Thankfully, I was able to restore all my Obsidian notes after server died, but not until a few weeks after it did so. In the meantime, I went to writing on a scratch pad again—my to-do list and any important meeting notes.
Writing by hand felt faster and I was able to actively recall what happened in meetings rather than focusing on the quantity of the notes.
What I use now
My server is still not up. I was able to find an HP EliteDesk 800, but it only has 8GB of RAM. It's expandable, but with the current cost of RAM, I haven't been in a huge rush to get it back up and running. I still have all my media in physical formats, so when I want to watch a show or movie, I more often than not grab something from my DVD shelf.
Now, for Obsidian. I mentioned that I use it for file management, which is true. I have a lot of writing—long form novels, short form articles, papers, blogs, journals, letters, short stories—and all of this has to live somewhere. I used to store all my writing in the cloud, but I like the ability to work offline and locally. Obsidian has made it much easier to organize my writing and view it at a glance. I can refer to previous drafts in separate tabs and keep extra notes like research nearby.
My daily planner is a B5 Academic Planner from Sterling Ink (not sponsored). I started using this planner at the start of June and have really been enjoying it. It allows me to view things at a glance on a calendar, but what really stands out are the daily pages. I can view my week and keep track of things I need to do. As for meeting notes, the back of the planner has blank pages. I will mark an asterisk or other footnote after a meeting in my schedule which tells me where to look in the back. I don't use this often, and I might get the slim version of this planner next year, simply to save space. The whole thing is wrapped in a leather cover I was gifted years ago and wanted to repurpose from the journal I was keeping in it.
My workflow changes as the needs of my job or the circumstances of my environment changes. I am finding a nice balance but will continue to play around with what works for me.