I switched from Notion to Obsidian

One of the funniest and most annoying (yes) thing is possible to do nowadays is to try many different tools with the exact same purpose. Need to write a document? Google Docs, Notion, Word, Libreoffice, Coda, Apple notes and so on.

Usually even if the purpose is the same what obviously change are the features provided by any of them and one of the biggest mistake anyone can make is to seek the perfect tool.

Spoiler: the perfect tool does not exist. And I can hear you saying: "What an obvious thing you're stating! But if I choose a tool with a lot of features, surely I can find what I need and ignore the rest."

And that would be the real mistake.

Work in the present

Trying many tools is funny, but as mentioned it can also become quite annoying and frustrating. You spend time in something that you might later abandon, all while continuously chasing after perfection.

My perfection had a name: Notion.

Notion is a versatile workspace that offers a set of features for both solo work and team collaboration. It includes blank pages, databases, interconnected data and a wide array of ready-to-use templates.

Honestly I think it's an amazing tool. Amazing, really. Once you learn how to use it it's pretty easy and straightforward because every page is basically a markdown file (except for databases) so you must not deal with complicated logic behind the scene.

But in my case there was a problem: too much noise.

I worked with Notion throughout 2023 and the beginning of 2024 using some stuff always saying: "it's powerful, I'm not using many features but I could in the future" and I don't know if that future will ever come.

I was basically using it as a cauldron for ideas or notes, something that could be done with a paper notebook. That was (and is) my present.

Control, not power

Power was useless for my personal use case.

I use Notion in team, but the problem lies with my use case and data. All that power was wasted, and meanwhile I was overcomplicating my life for a hypothetical future.

The solution was already installed on both my computer and my phone: Obsidian.

For those who don't know it, Obsidian is ssentially a straightforward writing app (similar to the ones I mentioned earlier) that utilizes markdown as its file format.

Obsidian is not the focus of this article; rather, it’s the thought process that led me to it, but I need to cover a few topics to explain what Obsidian does:

• Markdown is an open and widely spread format. No more "docx to pdf" conversion or formatting mess while copying content away.

• Markdown is a markup language. Any file is human readable, there's no binary content. This makes its management really easy (you can use git for versioning for example).

• Obsidian workspace let you connect documents. While your workspace grows you create a map of your files.

• Obsidian features can be extended using plugins. If you don't need them you can use the "vanilla version".

• Obsidian workspace is just a folder with files and subfolders. Nothing more. You can browse it with your file manager, edit them with your preferred editor, reopen Obsidian and you will see the changes.

My two requirements were the following:

• Independence (and consequently simplicity)

• Connections among notes

Notion is strong on the second point, but not on the first one. It's bloated by default and you don't have direct access to the files; hence, you're strongly connected to it.

Obsidian, on the other hand, provides the same type of connection but complete independence. Folder and files are stored directly on the filesystem, allowing synchronization with cloud storage services and compatibility with any text editor.

With this goal in mind, I needed to figure out how to efficiently transfer a substantial amount of content from Notion to Obsidian. Fortunately, both platforms offer dedicated options for export and import: https://help.obsidian.md/import/notion

As mentioned, Notion’s features are more complex than Obsidian’s, so some notes may appear differently. To replicate certain functionality, you’ll need to find a suitable plugin.

Sync

The big drawback, if we can call it that, is that Obsidian is not cloud by default, because we have seen that it's just a tool able to open a directory of markdown files.

However it is still possible to sync our workspaces in order to enter our vaults from many devices:

1. Obsidian Sync: This is the paid plan and it offers a set of fancy features.

2. Homemade sync: Simply synchronize the workspace folder with your cloud storage.

In my opinion what's more interesting about the paid plan is the "Shared vaults" feature which let you collaborate with your team in real-time, but as I already said this is for my personal workspace so I decided to build my homemade sync solution.

The workspace is stored on Google Drive which is mounted on my computers allowing me to open it as if it were on my hard drive.

Finally I also periodically backup it on git (Obsidian has a plugin for that too) so I keep the total control of my data.

In conclusion, I don’t miss Notion because I haven’t lost any features I was using before. However, this assessment is based on my specific needs. My advice: don’t be afraid to experiment and embrace tools that meet your current requirements—even if other options offer more functionalities that you might use later.

Focus on what you need, the perfect tool does not exist, but the perfect tool for the current you does.