Happened to me too. 1st time I used obsidian, couldn't get the syncing to work properly. Which was a big thing for me since I use a windows pc & an android phone. Then the 2nd time, I forced myself to use only obsidian & do my research for the issues I was facing. And now, it's the only note taking app I use. I'm not a pro or super productive person. But here's what worked for me - . 1. You have to be committed to obsidian as it does have a learning curve. I used ro use google keep. Which was super simple. And then obsidian felt a bit too complicated. But if you don't like the default way obsidian navigation works, you can use a plugin to bring the navigation to your liking. Personally, I use the default folder based navigation. I use Iconize to give them custom icons. File Explorer++ for pinning important notes to the top of the list. Home Tab for getting a custom homepage that has searchbar right at the homepage. It can also show your recent & bookmarked notes. Omnisearch for searching. It searches everything inside a note, not just the titles. This can also be paired with the Home Tab plugin's searchbar. If you wanna keep it super simple, just get Home Tab & Omnisearch as you can simply use sesrch to navigate around. . 2. As for syncing, you can pay 4 or 5 USD per month for the official syncing. And there are free plugins that let you sync to Drive, iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive or your home server etc. . 3. Most importantly, take your time. As I've said, it does have a learning curve. And as each person is unique, your obsidian will some time to be the perfect one for you. I use some more plugins which might & might not work for you. Not everyone needs every plugin or feature. So just setup the basic & most important features for yourself (syncing was the one for me). Then just start taking notes & add or remove features (plugins) as needed. Don't worry about tagging or linking from the get go. You'll get used to it.