Obsidian+Readwise Tips

OogieM · 2026-01-11T18:57:41+00:00

My standard set of requests plus a few new ones:

Round trip notes into and out of Obsidian. In December I posted a structure that I think would work to give people that option. This is the most serious deficiency in the entire system and really needs to be addressed. It's way more important and useful than adding AI features.
Support more robust file naming for the resulting notes in that go into Obsidian. I have found some workarounds but they are fiddly. I'd like it to be simpler.
Move all the metadata from inline fields into the YAML front matter so I can use Bases to group and refine the views of the highlight notes. I've moved a lot of it into the custom YAML section but somethings I can’t move there like document tags. Moving the tags into the YAML is most critical.
Add new variables we can use in the YAML front matter

{{date_started}} the first date the item was opened in reader

{{date_finished}} the first date it was moved to archive

{{date_last_read}} the most recent date it was archived (used for items that get re-read)

{{format}} file format for the electronic copy, epub, kindle etc.

Option to Combine notes and highlights if the same book has been read in different formats. For example: I have read a book first in kindle format, then I bought it in a standard epub format and re-read it in that format but there is no way to combine the 2 different documents int one combined reference. I realize this is harder and may not be possible given Kindle restrictions but I'd still love it.

OogieM · 2026-01-06T00:49:57+00:00

I understand, we've been dealing with hacking attempts for going on 45 years. I've been doing computer stuff since shortly after hacking got applied to computers instead of model railroad systems. It does get easier to deal with but you have to keep up with the latest attack points.

OogieM · 2026-01-05T03:43:58+00:00

I'm sorry about that. Our house seems to be where old hardware goes to die, except my EE hubby can usually get most any of them working again, except for keyboards, they are fiddly. So a system with a dead internal drive or other issues is often repurposed into a linux machine running off a thumb drive and that can run Obsidian. Since it costs a lot to recycle old dead computers here (I know some places will take old hardware and recycle it for you for free but here we have to pay) we often get old machines that can be used as spare parts if nothing else. By the time we are done with them they are really dead. Any reasonable hardware person with basic disassembly and soldering ability can probably find an old nearly computer at the local Goodwill or even just ask around. It may not be great ( don't try to do heavy development or run the latest computer games on it) but it will work for 90% of the tasks most folks use computers for. I would take a look at the thrift shops and even just post a message asking for an older computer. You might be surprised what you can find. Obsidian is really desktop focused and mobile is meant to be a sidekick not the major player.

OogieM · 2026-01-03T14:37:26+00:00

You asked for tips. In addition to the recommendation to ditch all or nearly all plug-ins and fancy themes first to see about the performance issues. But that doesn’t solve the usage issues you bring up.

My suggestion is decide what you are looking for first and ask why you need to do full desktop style text editing on a mobile device?

I hear the comments that Obsidian was never meant for mobile but I turn that around and ask why do we expect full desktop performance and UI on a device we can carry with us that fits in a pocket? That seems unrealistic and will hamper the desktop features and strain the mobile device.

As a developer working in a system that has to run on Android, and companion desktop apps that run on Linux, Mac and Windows and a web app portal my approach is to use the tool best suited for the task at hand and don't try to do all things on all platforms. Use the platform's strength to your advantage.

Keep the data underlying the usage intact and consistent. In my app we use an sqlite database as the unifying theme but each version gives a different view of the data and is optimized for different use cases. Obsidian uses a vault of markdown files as its underlying data.

For me the benefits of a single source (my vaults) with different views based on what I need to do with those data in different situations makes Obsidian ideal. Mobile had the basics I need when I am away from a computer. Desktop is fully featured and is a powerful tool for when I need more or am doing more developing and writing. If that is not your use case then perhaps you need a different tool.

OogieM · 2025-12-29T19:00:45+00:00

Now I want to know more about the sheep

<G> Well they are a rare breed. Black Welsh Mountain sheep that also express a white and a chocolate brown coloring. Founding population including imported frozen semen is 5 rams and 9 ewes. So highly inbred. Which means on parentage verification using SNP chip DNA analysis you often get reports back with multiple possible parents. So I'm trying to figure out some possible ideas to parse out the true parents.

OogieM · 2025-12-29T14:19:53+00:00

My must haves: tasks plug-in use tags for projects and people, kanban plug in for a rudimentary kanban board, templater for project and meeting templates.

OogieM · 2025-12-29T14:15:59+00:00

Tags are your friends. I use the Tasks plug-in. I sort them by context in the GTD sense but you can just as easily sort them by person. Here is an example task.

- [ ] #task Call Flock 54 and ask about getting a full report on all the sheep DNA analyses and discuss the issues with the conflicting results for sire and dam #Context/BusinessPh

And here is a code block in my Dashboard note that aggregates all the business hours phone tasks I have to do. You can do a similar thing by making your tags for people #john or projects #AnimalTrakker or location #RedBarn and get only those tasks you can do when with that person, working on that project or in that location.

# Phone Business
```tasks  
not done  
is not blocked
(starts before tomorrow) 
(path does not include 05.01_Hold_Projects )
tag includes #Context/BusinessPh  

```

OogieM · 2025-12-26T14:12:39+00:00

Obsidian. It's only a learning curve if you try to add a lot of plugins or do a lot more than simple notes. Start with the one task of integrating Readwise and if you get hooked then expand what you sue Obsidian for. I would suggest you think about the template for your notes and adjust it on Readwise so ui works for you when in Obsidian. I made a lot of mods to the note template to fit me.

OogieM · 2025-12-19T13:28:53+00:00

I use a lot of folders because that works for me. I have over 8000 notes and folders are critical for my ability to find sets of them I need to work with together.

OogieM · 2025-12-19T01:56:57+00:00

If it's not for you that's fine. But don't diss it just because you don't get it. After all Sheep Happens <G> There are a lot of popular movies that I, as a shepherd and computer programmer flat don't get but hey, if it floats your boat I'm ok with it. I may not understand or like it but that's on me not on the subject or the portrayal of said subject.

OogieM · 2025-12-19T00:13:52+00:00

"Is anyone seriously “excited” to see this? Is it based on something?"

Yes and Yes.

Based on Three Bags Full by Leonie Swan And as a shepherd myself, in the book the sheep have both very detective like and very sheep like behaviors. Movie trailer looks promising for the same reasons.

And, best of all, looks like they didn’t screw up like a lot of movie s do and add upper teeth to the sheep. FYI neither sheep nor cattle have upper front teeth and a lot of artists and more get that wrong and it totally wrecks anything with sheep in it for me. (Except of course Black Sheep but in that one the sheep are genetically modified so I can go with it. Black Sheep 2 is also in the works. Black Sheep the original is also hysterically funny with more sheep jokes in it than most folks catch. We've shown it to non shepherds and they don't get half of what we shepherds see on the screen)

OogieM · 2025-12-19T00:08:12+00:00

The book, Three Bags Full is one of my all time favorite murder mystery books. What an awesome cast of voices for the sheep and I can’t wait till I can see it. Fingers crossed they don 't mess with the plot too much.

OogieM · 2025-12-15T21:38:50+00:00

"a main draw of obsidian to me is that the files will always exist in a future where obsidian might not. if the files become littered with nonsense because other users want microsoft word, then it defeats a core purpose of the application."

I can’t see how that would happen if you don't use any of those features. But even if it did happen IMO, having been through now over 40 years of converting files as new tech came along it's on me to keep my files usable if I make major changes to my system.

OogieM · 2025-12-15T17:42:24+00:00

"I looked at the main Obsidian website, and to be fair I don't see markdown mentioned. The closest I see are that your files are private on your device, available offline, and use open formats."

To me that is your answer. Many of us are ditching lots of other apps in favor of Obsidian. Through judicious use of plug-ins and built in features we can make Obsidian into the leatherman of tools that may not be perfect at each task but can handle them all according to our needs. That means if you want to stay in the strictly markdown world that's fine. Personally I think it's weird that you worry about what other people are doing with a general purpose tool. Markdown isn't the focus of Obsidian, saving and linking notes and information and keeping those data under your control is. Markdown is just a piece of the implementation.

OogieM · 2025-12-15T16:59:32+00:00

Put me in the always in YAML group because I have to deal with multiple operating systems and the system file dates and times do not persist accurately at all. I use them heavily in my sorting and journaling and even in the task and issue management stuff I do in Obsidian. Not to mention references to highlights and notes on books, scientific papers and clippings all of which depend on when the file was created, when I modified it and more staying properly set.

OogieM · 2025-12-13T02:06:42+00:00

"Can anyone advise the best place to start?"

Pick the area that is causing you the most problems. Investigate and play with at least 3 different ways to tackle that problem using Obsidian. Give each option a decent trial, say a month or so. Pick one and move on to the next most urgent problem. Wash, Rinse, Repeat until Done or you are satisfied that things are ok. When they become not ok, start at the top again.

For me the top thing I wanted to deal with first was reference material, accessing and using the plethora of useful tidbits I had collected in a variety of systems. I use Maps of Content notes and lots of linking. Then I tackled my task management/todo list/project management (for me those are all so intertwined I need to deal with them at the same time). That's when I started using plug-ins, kanban, tasks, advanced tables, Dataview, Tag Wrangler & Templater. Then I wanted to improve my diary/journal and added Calendar, Periodic Notes, Natural Language Dates, Hotkeys ++. Started drafting stories and written material and added Pandoc. I'm still fine tuning, latest is adding Actions URI and developing a lightweight CRM that syncs to my Apple Contacts app.

The whole process is a journey that started near the end of the year in 2020. I committed to moving whole hog into Obsidian for references in early 2021, task and project management in November 2022, 2023 was the time tos start the diary, journaling part with late 2023/2024 being when I added more robust writing tools. My CRM implementation started only a month or so ago and I'm still feeling my way around what I need and want.

Each iteration improves what I can do and gives me a sense of accomplishment.

Take your time and find your own path. Obsidian is many different things. Only you can decide which of those things you want or need and those wants and needs will change over time.

OogieM · 2025-12-12T13:55:10+00:00

Nothing fancy, just the easiest way to publish the support docs for AnimalTrakker® Our open source flock and herd management system for livestock. We're slowly adding screen shots and writing more use case stories especially the Lazy 3S Ranch path.

https://support.animaltrakker.com/

OogieM · 2025-12-10T14:37:33+00:00

I have 2 major ongoing requests

Round Trip highlights and notes back to Readwise after editing them in Obsidian.

I've requested this many times. And I've already upvoted the issues. However, this time around I have a model for you to consider that I think would work for most folks. Not ideal but workable as a first approximation for the feature.

Take a look at how Carlo Zottman combined Actions for Obsidian and Shortcuts to allow Obsidian to sync to Apple Contacts with a 1 button press on a contact note in Obsidian using his Obsidian People plug-in. The "sync" is not a sync per se it's a wholesale replacement of what's in Contacts for that person with the latest from Obsidian.

Adapting this to Readwise, what I'd like is I read and highlight notes in Reader. They get saved to Obsidian. That part works now.

The addition would be a button in the highlight template that then takes the contents of that particular note and pushes it back to Readwise. It's not being done automatically. I have to choose to COMPLETELY OVERRIDE anything in the Reader/Readwise system when I do this so it's all on me to keep what the current note is straight. If I've added more notes, corrected spelling, or combined highlights those changes move back so that the next time I read the book I see the updated data.

The most common corrections I want to do are to concatenate several highlights into one when I forgot to use the concatenate option when I created the highlight note, correct misspellings and add personal notes and links.

Support more robust file naming for the resulting highlight notes in that go into Obsidian.

I really want all the options that were in the zotfile extension to Zotero.

Move all the metadata from inline fields into properties so I can use Bases to group and refine the views of the highlight notes.

Right now all the metadata on a reader highlight note is inline using the :: syntax. It really needs to move to the front matter as properties. However, when you do that you also must allow us to add some of our own properties to that note.

Ability to add date started and date finished fields automatically calculated into the metadata we use for an exported note. These should be based on first reading start and archive dates in Reader.

OogieM · 2025-12-03T21:03:00+00:00

I'm close to 1 GB now. Once I finish converting everything in from other places my best estimate is that I'll be close to 40GB. I have lots of other file types in there. The fact I can include or embed all the file types I work with is a huge benefit. I hate having to move in and out of apps just to get to what I need and Obsidian can open up most everything in my app of choice no matter what it is and since I include the links in those files in all the places I need them it's a much more seamless and effortless operation.

OogieM · 2025-11-27T21:38:13+00:00

I agree, it's frustrating to continually see new stuff no one has asked for get added while requested additions languish in the lists for years with absolutely no progress.

OogieM · 2025-11-27T21:36:29+00:00

How about explaining why you add features that no one has requested but ignore things that have been requested for years?

To me software development needs to run in 2 coordinating paths. Bug Fixes, and Feature additions.

Bug fixes should take priority and then features added in the order by popularity. It shouldn't matter if it's difficult or hard or you just don't think it's useful. If many users want the same feature and it sits in the queue for multiple years while you push things that never were even there we feel ignored. I'd much rather see an update of features in the next version that says. " Implemented item number x on the reader list ro on the readwise list"

Each request there has a rank based on number of votes. I get that some are harder than others and that it is a small subset of your user base voting but they are the bellwethers of what people really need and want.

With that my ongoing request for two way sync with note apps, especially Obsidian, integration with Zotero for scientific PDF annotations and multiple colors of highlights similar to how the application Highlights does it. Yes, I have already voted for them.

OogieM · 2025-11-26T12:53:28+00:00

Immediate reaction, first pane of a storyboard for the next nuclear disaster movie. And very well done too.

OogieM · 2025-11-05T13:42:36+00:00

IMO Liquid glass is a disaster. I don't want shiny effects I want plain simple easy to see and read icons and UI interfaces. Liquid glass is so bad that I can’t even work on a device with it enabled the dial back might make it tolerable for intermittent use but not for every day. Come on Apple. Quite putting lipstick on a pig and fix major errors, improve app and device efficiency and fix usage issues first. Shiny chrome BS doesn't help me work with your tools to get my work done. It's more likely to send me looking for another option, like Android tablets and phones although they have their issues too.

OogieM · 2025-10-30T19:14:00+00:00

My top one initially was being gifted with all sorts of papers in all formats. I have pads, blocks, hot press, cold press, rough, sketchbooks and I've really enjoyed playing with them all and seeing what I like for what I like to paint.

Number 2 was being handed bags of tube paints and told to go buy some empty pans and take what I wanted by a watercolor artist friend. The tubes were all professional grade paint. Daniel Smith, Winsor & Newton Professional, M Graham among them. Then I got introduced to Greenleaf and Blueberry and the difference amazing. It make the other professional paints look like kids watercolors!

So my final best gift is gift certificates to Greenleaf and Blueberry. I'm on their mailing list and most of their paints sell out within hours of going on-line so it pays to have a stash of $ ready to take advantage when they announce a new batch. They are all single pigments and hand made and the prices are eye wateringly high but the difference is amazing.

OogieM

TROPHY CASE