Here's why I set up my Obsidian vault to organize itself; I haven't touched my folder structure in weeks

I respect people who know how to take notes efficiently, but I'm tired of watching note-taking gurus build unnecessarily complicated systems that sound fascinating only on paper and do more harm than good.

No one needs them, and I've finally realized it. So, I recently ditched those complicated setups and have decided to stick to a simpler system. However, I haven't let go of everything from my previous complex system.

I have kept the ones that make me more efficient at organizing my Obsidian vault. I keep recommending some of the handy community plugins for anyone who wants to be a pro at it. I have used them before, and I still have them enabled in my Obsidian setup.

After I enable them, they organize my Obsidian vault without any intervention on my part. My Obsidian vault organizes itself, so I don't need to worry about where my notes go or maintain my folder structure.

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Posts 2
By  Parth Shah

Keeping it simple isn't always worth it in Obsidian

Manual organization is frustrating for daily note-takers like me

I didn't watch any YouTube tutorials or read guides on other websites on how to get started with Obsidian. It was fun, but I also made a lot of mistakes and used Obsidian the wrong way for a long time.

Some of the mistakes I made were manually creating new files, naming them, and then deciding which folder to put them in. I have to repeat the same process every time, and it's not fun if you take notes daily, like me.

If repeating the same steps isn't bad enough, more notes mean a higher chance of duplicates. With a simple Obsidian setup, you can't avoid this, since there is no built-in mechanism to prevent duplication.

Long story short, a simple setup isn't worth it if you want to keep the Obsidian vault clean and consistent.

The plugins I use to let my Obsidian vault organize itself

I use Auto Note Mover and QuickAdd

The Auto Note Mover is one of my favorite community plugins in Obsidian. It is easy to set up and does exactly what its name suggests. When enabled, it moves your notes to the destination folder if you set the right automation rule.

You must set the destination folder and set the tag that matches the note you want to move. That's all it takes for auto-organization to work as it should.

The Auto Note Mover also offers great flexibility. You can add an exception to your rule in the Auto Note Mover plugin. If you don't want to move to the specified folder, use the AutoNoteMover:disable frontmatter property.

Tags are case-sensitive, so #YouTube and #youtube aren't the same.

However, organization isn't only about moving files. Even if you don't mess up where your notes should go, your vault can become a mess if your notes don't follow a proper structure.

This is where the QuickAdd plugin comes in handy. One of QuickAdd's standout features is letting users select templates to create new notes.

If you attend meetings daily, you can create a Markdown file called "Meeting Notes" and use QuickAdd to point to that as Template Choice. Now every new note you create copies the same structure in the Markdown file you selected as Template Path.

When I set it up, I only went this far and ignored an important setting called File name format. As a result, I was still struggling with titles.

The File name format toggle has a unique way to fix it. I use two simple format syntaxes, {{DATE}} and {{VALUE}}, in the File name format, and it names the files with today's date, followed by the title I choose.

I can use the same boring titles in all my notes while still giving a unique name. I use this trick to jot down the important takeaways in my daily meetings. It keeps my vault organized.

I'll never go back to using Obsidian the old way

For Obsidian beginners, there are many other things to learn about the software before you start using plugins or even think about organizing notes. I tell this to everyone who's new to Obsidian.

However, after you learn the basics and start taking more notes daily, the default Obsidian setup is never enough because of the difficulties you face in organizing your vault.

Anyone who has been taking daily notes for a long time can relate to the pain point. But I no longer face those challenges after installing and enabling QuickAdd and Auto Note Mover.

These two plugins let my Obsidian vault auto-organize itself, and I'll never go back to using Obsidian without them.