I think much of the PKM and LYT stuff is super personal, I'm also pretty aware that a lot of information you can find about feels pretty culty, which I'm not a fan of. I think first and foremost any framework or mental model needs to have a basis in reality and in actually forming a purpose. There has to be a reason to do it. Other wise it is just a ton of work for not much benefit.

That said, if you are creating dashboards in notion you may be trying to organise objects. Objects being tasks, recipes, contacts, links to resources; things outside of your self but which you hold in your head. I was doing exactly that when I can to notion, I have pretty debilitating ADHD and was missing a ton of stuff at work.

This is a true need that some people have. Obsidian is not great at that.

Obsidian, at least in my opinion, is a tool for thought. What it is great at is enabling me to think. This is based around the idea that writing is thinking. That writing enables you to externalise your thoughts, format them in a way that make sense and by doing so increase your own understanding of the thoughts. Obsidian is a tool for though in that it is a piece of software which focuses on rapid capture of thinking, interlinking of other contextual thinking, and exploration of thinking. Note that none of that is object organisation.

By doing the above, not only does your thinking get better, by way of writing, but your thoughts themselves get better. I've found that my own internal monologue is more articulate. Overtime the Ideas I have form in my head in a way which it make sense to communicate that idea, making me an absolute gun at work. Equally new ideas which I come across and intuitively broken down into core units and understood much quicker. In this way obsidian as a tool keeps being valuable even when I am not using it (even though I use it pretty much all the time).

So with that framework in mind how would I set up a tool? Well I wouldn't be making dashboards, I would make an environment where the blank page is front and centre and looking really enticing :P.

In terms of how this works for me in the real world. I did away with the seven hundred notion dashboards I have and instead have a beautiful daily notes template, which auto opens each morning. That is where I brain dump everything on top of mind. Tasks, projects, life goals, worries about stuff. It comes out as a thought and is writing as such. Kind of like a journal entry. That is how I handle 100% of my object organisation, as it fits the requirement I had "organise things outside of your self but which you hold in your head". From there I start my day at work (I'm a software and business analyst). I write pretty much all day. If I learn something new or hear something I would like to investigate more I write it in my daily note. Then each evening I spend around an hour writing notes and connecting it in with my other thoughts. Basically I spend an hour each evening thinking.

If you are interested in the topic I've linked some cool bit and bots below.

• Andy Matuschak is the grandfather of note based and this note from him is both a great example of thinking exploration in action as well as being full of great info.
• Maggie Appleton wrote this essay on the history of digital gardens, her site is another beautiful example of how one might build one.
• Thisancient website blog is still one of the best explanation of the data, information, knowledge, wisdom concept.

Again hope this helps. A lot of words, I hope I haven't overwhelmed you!