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Obsidian

I started this blog about a month ago. Fed up with other soulless, pretentious blogs I had made in the past, I found myself not wanting to post, and consequently, having nothing to write.

Cause & Effect, they are ever tightly intertwined.

This new blog will be different I thought, from the get-go I designed the interface to emulate that of a terminal - pure “words on paper”, but I found the same roadblock: the friction of actually posting something meant that there were fewer and fewer opportunities to quickly jot something down.

Here’s my old process for context:

  • have an idea
  • decide to post
  • open pc & log in
  • open github, navigate to blog repo
  • find the posts folder, go in and add new file
  • name the file <yyyy-mm-dd>-<title>
  • manually copy and paste header into .md file (contains some properties for Jekyll to generate the page - like category, slug etc)
  • edit header with relevant properties
  • actually start writing (by now I’m bored and uninspired, so I go read Hacker News)
  • once (if) finished, confirm changes and commit

That’s a lot of steps for something that should be quick, effortless, and designed to capture fleeting thoughts and ideas, not the silent frustration after I’ve forgotten what i wanted to write.

Alas, Obsidian - what an incredible application! I am still getting to know my new blogging interface but so far I am thoroughly impressed. Everything is in the right place, it has all the features you need and it doesn’t insist upon itself. It is only as there as you need it to be, when in flow state it’s like communicating directly to paper. It’s perfect.

Now my process is:

  • have an idea
  • decide to post
  • open obsidian & click insert template
  • write

If I’m on the PC already and have a lightbulb moment, it is actually faster than opening the notes app on my phone.

To streamline even further I might write a batch file that sits on the desktop and once clicked will automatically open Obsidian on the new post template so all I have to do is write. If I do find the millisecond optimisation pressing (I will, I’m a nitpicker minutiae enthusiast) I will also write about it and share the code but as it is it’s already a night and day difference.

So there it is, Obsidian is fantastic. I suppose the real test will be to see if my blog output increases over the next month?

TODO

  • Write batch file to open a new template post in Obsidian, ready for writing
  • Write a script to automatically git push new posts to remote origin on save