How to use Obsidian, past the graph view.
Most Obsidian guides show you the pretty graph and stop. The part that makes it stick is the daily habit: open one note, write what shows up, link it to the rest, and keep your to-dos as checkboxes in the same folder of plain text.
Get Free - iOS & Mac 
Get Free - Android A blank vault does not tell you what to do with it
Obsidian opens to an empty pane and a graph view with nothing in it. That freedom is the appeal and the problem at once. There is no inbox, no daily structure, no opinion about where things go, so plenty of people install it, poke at the settings, and drift back to their old notes app within a week.
Getting past that does not take a complicated system. It takes three small habits and one decision about your tasks. The rest of this page is those four things.
The three habits that make Obsidian stick
None of these need a plugin. They are just how you use the plain markdown files you already have.
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Open a daily note first
One file per day, named by date. It is the inbox for whatever shows up: a meeting, a call, a thing to remember. You do not sort it yet, you just write the line. Turn on the core Daily Notes plugin and bind a hotkey to open today's note.
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Link instead of filing
Folders make you pick one home for a note. Links do not. Type [[Q3 planning]] and Obsidian connects the two notes. Mention a project or a person and it joins the web around that topic on its own. The graph view is just a picture of those links.
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Keep to-dos as checkboxes
A task is any line that starts with - [ ]. Write it inside whatever note you are in. Add a 📅 due date, a ⏫ priority, or a 🔁 repeat and it stays one readable line of text instead of a row in some database.
Where plain files stop being enough
Checkboxes are easy to write and easy to lose. Spread across a hundred notes, they pile up out of sight. Obsidian on its own will not tell you the dentist task is due today, it will not collect every open task into one place, and it will not put that list on your phone's home screen. On desktop you can paper over this with the Obsidian Tasks plugin and a Dataview query. On a phone those views get clumsy, and nothing fires a reminder. That is the wall most task setups hit.
Point a task app at the same vault
TaskForge is a separate app you install from the App Store or Google Play, not a plugin. You point it at your vault and it finds every checkbox across every note, then shows them as a list you can sort, a calendar you can scan, and a board you can drag.
It reads two formats: the Obsidian Tasks emoji syntax and the TaskNotes format. Check a task in the app and it flips the checkbox in the markdown file. Nothing is copied into a separate database, so the file and the app never disagree.
Your notes stay exactly as you write them. TaskForge only touches the task lines, in place, in your own files.
One line, read by both you and the app
- [ ] book the dentist 🔁 every 6 months 📅 2026-07-15 ⏰ 09:00
What the app does that a file cannot
None of this changes your notes. It reads the lines you already wrote and adds the things a markdown checkbox cannot do by itself.
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Every task in one list
Open checkboxes from across the vault, gathered into lists you filter and sort, instead of buried in separate notes. Today, Upcoming, and your own saved filters.
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A calendar and a board
Tasks with a 📅 date land on a day, week, or month calendar. Any list can flip to a kanban board you drag between columns, which updates the status in your markdown.
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Reminders that fire
A task with a ⏰ time sends a real notification on your phone or Mac, even when Obsidian is closed. A plain vault cannot wake the device to remind you.
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Widgets, on every device
Check off today's tasks from a home screen widget on iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Android. The same vault, synced by whatever method you already use, shows the same list everywhere.
Who this workflow fits
A good fit if
- You already keep notes, or want to, and you like the idea of plain files you own.
- Your to-dos live among your notes, not in a separate app you have to keep in sync.
- You want those tasks on your phone with real reminders, not only on a desktop.
- You would rather own a folder of markdown than rent space in someone's cloud.
Look elsewhere if
- You want a pure to-do app and have no interest in notes. A standalone task app fits better.
- Your team needs shared assignees and comments. Obsidian vaults are single-user by design.
- You are on Windows only. TaskForge runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Android, not Windows.
What it costs
Obsidian is free for personal use. TaskForge is free to download on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Android, with the core task list included. A one-time purchase of $39.99, or $1.99 a month, turns on the premium pieces like the kanban board, widgets, and notifications, and every install starts with a one-week trial.
Questions people ask
How do I start using Obsidian day to day?
Open a daily note first thing, write whatever shows up into it, and link mentions of projects or people with double brackets like [[project name]]. Keep to-dos as checkboxes in the same notes. That habit is most of it, and you can add structure later without moving a single file.
Where should I keep my tasks in Obsidian?
Wherever you are already writing. A task is just a line that starts with - [ ], so it can sit inside a daily note, a project note, or a dedicated list. An app like TaskForge gathers them from anywhere in the vault, so they do not all have to live in one file.
Do I need plugins to manage tasks in Obsidian?
No. The checkbox format is part of plain markdown. The Obsidian Tasks and Dataview plugins add in-note queries on desktop. For reminders, widgets, and a phone-friendly list, a native app that reads the vault covers those without configuring plugins.
Can I see my Obsidian tasks on my phone?
The Obsidian mobile app shows your notes, but its task views and notifications are limited. TaskForge is a native iPhone, iPad, and Android app that reads the same vault and shows every task in a list, a calendar, and home screen widgets, with reminders that fire.
Will an app like this change my notes?
TaskForge edits the same task lines you wrote, in place. Check a task and the checkbox flips in the file. Nothing is copied into a separate database, so you keep full ownership of the plain text.
What does it cost to use Obsidian this way?
Obsidian is free for personal use, and TaskForge is free to download with the core task list. The kanban board, widgets, and notifications are part of a one-time $39.99 purchase or a $1.99 monthly plan, with a one-week trial on first install.
Use Obsidian for the notes. Use TaskForge for the tasks inside them.
Keep writing in your vault the way you already do. TaskForge gives the checkboxes a real list, calendar, board, and reminders, and writes every change back to your markdown. Free to download on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Android.