For a long time I used Bear app for my notes. I wrote draft posts there, logged my days, stored info about work tasks. It’s a good app, with really cool design and good sync. But it’s not local files and in age of AI agents it’s a real red flag for an app. I can’t simply point agent to some file for context.

I already moved to Obsidian multiple times for some period of time, but there was always something to frustrate me. It’s not so good in UX as Bear. Yeah, infinite tinkering, multiple plugins and local files – good, but…

And I did it again. Bought Sync for a month to try and support devs, exported all notes from Bear and started to use Obsidian. But this time it’s different.

Earlier I used standard flow for most PKM-like editors – daily notes, links between notes, etc. Now I was inspired by OBTF method, but as a whole concept it was clunky for me. But one thing I reconsidered is to use one file not only as inbox, but as a working paper.

I remembered how I usually used paper notebooks. It was chaotic bunch of notes. There are work task notes on one page, thoughts about puzzle on another and some reflection/journaling with childish images on the third. There is no structure, one page could be divided on 2, 4 or more parts. Sometimes I used all available space, sometimes left pages almost empty.

Most important thing it was easy to use. If some page has space and I needed to write something related, I continued to write on that page. If not – move to the next one. And if some record was needed for a long time, I just printed it in a digital note.

So I disabled daily notes, bound a freed hotkey for “Abyss” note (for some reason I like that word) and started to write anything into it. Too much important information I was actively working on (like epic from the work) – I created separate note and add link to it at the top of Abyss note. That’s it. Most of the times I use one note, even right now, when I’m writing this blog post. And it’s ok. I can prepend or append new info, divide it with lines or other things, copypaste some info, delete anything.

Other notes I use frequently – either at the top of Abyss, or opened by note name. I also installed plug-in for Recent Files, and it’s enough for me, I can see all notes I need on regular basis without bookmarks.

All PKM systems start with some structure, daily notes should be with some template – screw it. Write it, dump your thoughts, then maybe (maybe!) think about structure. Most of the times after work is done you can just delete information. Or if you’re a character who wants to save all information for whatever reason, do it. Just copy the note, give it another name and clear current note. Or store all of it in one note like in OBTF.

That’s it, that’s the whole trick, but it changed the game for me entirely.