For years, I’ve been chasing efficiency as the end-goal of my writing, note-taking, and journaling. Every note-taking app I’ve tried out has promised to shave seconds off the process of getting started.

Apps that seemingly promise automatic tagging or categorization that never really work. And then there are apps that strip things back too much, to the point that there’s practically no categorization.

Somewhere between the endless optimization and auto-linking suggestions, writing stopped feeling like a creative process. I was producing content, but not reflecting on it.

That’s until I discovered Obsidian, and it helped me slow down in the best possible way.

It’s easy to dismiss Obsidian as yet another markdown editor for people who like to tinker or try out an assortment of writing tools.

There are no fancy templates here, nor are there wizards, reminders, or, for that matter, a super-friendly interface. You need to learn how to use Obsidian.

However, it is precisely this friction that forces you to type links manually, format notes in Markdown, and decide where each new idea needs to go, which made me pay attention again.

Instead of speeding through write-ups and ideas, I’ve started slowing down and really thinking them through.

Obsidian didn’t just transform how I write. It’s made me rethink how I think about the process of writing.

Friction as a feature

Intentional writing in a world focused on speed

The first thing you notice about Obsidian is how little hand-holding it does.

While the app is infinitely extendible with plugins, out of the box, there is no AI trying to guess your next big idea.

There are no automatic suggestions for interlinking thoughts and ideas. If you want to link two ideas, you need to type them yourself.

To organize documents, you create the structure manually. This process is slower than automatic suggestions, but that’s the point. The idea is to be more intentional, and each action is a step towards that.

A little bit of reflection goes a long way towards adding an element of personal thought to organization.

When I add a link between notes, I have to stop and think about whether the connection makes any sense. Does the action add more content, more clarity toward what I’m trying to say, or is it being forced to just look pretty in the graph view.

That little bit of reflection goes a long way towards adding an element of personal thought to organization.

At a time when AI is being infused into every product and service, this approach might seem antiquated. After all, every productivity tool wants to eliminate friction, but friction isn’t always a bad thing. All too often, it is what helps add meaning to work. It’s all part of the process.

Writing in Obsidian feels similar. The lack of fancy automation features is a quiet invitation to engage with your content.

The app won’t think for you; it leaves it on you from start to finish — ideation, execution, and organization. It makes you write slower, yes, but also think deeper.

Making a case for deliberate writing

The value of connecting ideas manually

Let’s be real. There are faster ways to get started with the writing process. Something as simple as Google Docs or Notion will get you the results you need.

But with those apps, I was basically rushing through drafts and adding essential tags at most. The results were good, and the tags would present an easy list of all the articles tagged as such. But in hindsight, a tag can only go that far.

Manually linking one note to another helps transform my passive reading and writing into active understanding.

Obsidian helped me make sense of those notes. Manual linking is the reason for that. Each note was connected to multiple individual notes, all of which were correlated.

Using the graph view allowed me to see how each thought was linked to another. Yes, it slows down the process, but it also makes you connect ideas with purpose.

When I link one note to another, I’m forced to explain to myself the relationship between ideas. That step doesn’t just help me come back to my ideas after days or months, but it also transforms my passive reading and writing into active understanding.

It’s easy to forget that writing isn’t just putting words on paper, or digital paper. It’s also about critical thinking, and Obsidian turns its relative slowness into an advantage. It makes the process deliberate.

Finding stillness in the process

I’ll be honest here. I still use faster tools when I need to put down a quick draft, or for fleeting bits and pieces. But these pieces of writing don’t tend to have a meaningful connection with long-tailed thoughts anyway.

Still, when it comes to thinking and writing pieces that need deep research, or journaling, or pieces of content that are interconnected, I go back to Obsidian. It’s where I think slowly.

Generally speaking, Obsidian has brought back my creativity by being less of a writing tool and more of a mindless exercise. It asks me to be deliberate, be more aware of what I’m writing and why I’m writing it. And, by and large, that’s because of how slow it is.

Obsidian

Obsidian is a markdown-based note-taking software that lets you build a graph by interconnecting notes and ideas.