Last week I posted a video on how to do Task Management in Obsidian, and today I'm arguing why you shouldn't use them. I think there is something inherently broken about how we do task management. There's a few high performance, superpowered, motivated beings who manage to keep an organised list of tasks and work through it every day. Same people who hit inbox zero daily. Most of us aren't like that. Most of us are messy, procrastination loving sloths with bursts of productivity few and far between. I'm one of the sloths. I've started and stopped task management systems way too often. The list keeps growing, I stop looking at it because it hurts to see what's still open, and when I finally do look, most of it is already done. Through my work sessions. So here's the question I've been chewing on since I published the task management video: if so many people fail at keeping a clean task list, is the clean task list actually the best way? Or is it just the "passable" way, and there's a more natural shape we haven't settled on yet? Cars are a good example. They're all starting to look the same, not because every car maker developed the same taste, but because the wind tunnel keeps giving the same answer. Once you know the most aerodynamic shape, every car drifts toward it. I think knowledge management is drifting toward its own shape, and I don't think it has a task list in it. The way I see it, a task in Obsidian can live in three forms: 1. A one-line task, pulled onto the project page 2. A task note, with status, priority, subtasks 3. A work session, where the AI reads the previous sessions on the project and tells you where you left off The first two are explicit and satisfying to tick off. The third one is what I actually use. The tasks and their status get carried from session to session, so there's no list to maintain, no weekly clean-up, no thinking about what's next. Just a trail of work sessions until the project is done. Task list as drag. Work session as the shape with the least resistance.

Yeah so, I just logged in my daily note that bought a new hard drive to back stuff up. I am going to claim this as an expense in my FY2027 tax returns which will need to be done end of June 2027 I was about to create a Project - 2027 Tax Returns and just link that from the log but then I'm wondering is this too simplistic? As the year rolls on I will have car services, petrol, parking expenses.. Domain name registration expenses. Many that I want to claim.. I'm looking for a way to keep track of my expenses, but also distinguish which expense I am going to claim on tax. I'd like to do this via my Telegram Claude bot as I make the purchase or pay the bill. Any suggestions perhaps? Keen to hear how you all do this (if you do) @Dee Construct I see you already have a Youtube finance tracker tutorial which I could try. Do you think that this would do the trick? I would need to get claude to integrate it to the vault.

I'm writing this from Palma, Spain. My entire trip lives in one Obsidian project, and my Telegram bot just told me what's on my to-do list today. Obsidian has been my travel companion for quite some time. Claude code made it a lot more useful during my trips. Here's the Travel Utility Belt, in two main pouches I think Bruce Wayne would be proud of. BEFORE THE TRIP (laptop at home) - Everything gets wrapped in a project. All research, bookings and plans live in one place, so I can easily find anything related to the trip. (see the second picture) - About 3 work sessions on planning. Extremely messy notes where I gather large amounts of information: I give Claude my travel conditions and let it find options for me in a nice comparison table. (See picture 3 and 4) - Once I choose a place and book flights and accommodation, those become child notes under the project. - One more work session on day planning: which activities on which day. The ones that make the cut get populated on my daily notes. DURING THE TRIP (phone only) - I live through my Telegram bot. It's connected to my Mac mini sitting at home, which has my Obsidian vault open with a Claude Code chat on top of it. Always online. (See picture 5) - I pop a message asking what's on my list today. It reads the project, the work sessions and today's daily note, and comes back with everything I need: itinerary, Google Maps links, tips, advice. - When I want to save a restaurant, cafe or attraction, I just mention the name. The bot creates the note, grabs the Maps link and makes it pop up in the project note. - End of the day: day review and pictures, uploaded through Telegram too. I found it extremely useful to have my holiday wrapped in a Project (yes, yes, Dee talking about Projects again, BORING...). But having all that information in a project means Claude knows EXACTLY what you are asking from it. If you try one thing: next trip, make a single project note and point everything at it.

Welcome to The Construct. This is a small group of people who look at Obsidian the same way: not as a note app, but as the place your whole life runs from. Work, studies, health, admin, a business, all of it in one system that makes things simpler instead of adding another thing to manage. If that's how you think, you're among your people. Most of the world doesn't get it. Everyone here does. I built this place because a vault is the starting point, not the finish line. The real system gets built over months, adjusted to your actual life, and that goes faster when other people are building next to you. One note about communities like this: the value isn't in the content, it's in the people. Everyone who's ever got something out of a group like this posted. Nobody who only read did. Reading gets you nothing here. So the first thing to do is say hello. Copy this, fill it in, post it as a comment: Hi, I'm [name] from [city]. I do [what you do]. I've been in Obsidian for [how long]. I want my system to run [work / studies / a business / everything]. The thing that frustrates me right now is [one thing]. When you do, three things happen: I reply to you personally, I unlock the free Obsidian + Claude Basics course for you, and the next person who joins reads yours and posts too. How this place works: - Stuck on anything? Post it in Help. No question is too basic. - Built something? Post it in Showcase. Screenshots looks prettier than descriptions. - Own the Evergreen Vault? You're a Builder: the Builder Kit and the live call every two weeks are yours. Your turn.

How do you use tasks in Obsidian? And how do you stop it becoming one uncontrollably long list? Every task system I have ever used worked for about a week. Then the list hits 100, it starts looking like my email inbox, and I stop opening it because it makes me feel bad. I just finished the video on how I do it now, and it comes down to two rules. RULE 1: EVERY TASK BELONGS TO A PROJECT No project, no task. If it has nowhere to go, it does not get created. The list shrinks on its own, because half of it never had a home. RULE 2: EVERY FINISHED TASK GETS A MOMENT OF REFLECTION Before you move on, ask: did I learn anything here I will need again? A process, a set of steps, a link, a way of doing it. If yes, that becomes a knowledge note that outlasts the task. Most tasks earn nothing. The ones that do are what make the next project easier. The picture shows it. Today's tasks point up to their project. Some of them leave reusable knowledge behind. Next time the same kind of project comes around, the knowledge is already there and the tasks start from it instead of from zero. POLL: How do you handle tasks right now? One question for the comments: What do you do with a task once it is done? Does anything survive it?