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💡 The Big Idea: The 8 Obsidian Plugins I Couldn't Live Without.

It’s easy to get excited about new Obsidian plugins and the features they enable.

But if all you do is add plugins, eventually your Obsidian vault will get pretty bloated. So periodically, I go through and remove plugins that no longer serve my workflow needs.

I did this recently, and I realized that the plugins I rely on most heavily have been largely the same for years. Which got me thinking:

Which plugins are absolutely essential for the way I work in Obsidian?

I went through the list of all the installed plugins in my vault, and I realized there were a couple of tiers I could break these into:

1. Essential plugins - the ones I rely on every day
2. Productive plugins - the ones that make things easier, but I could figure things out if they went away
3. Nice-to-have plugins - the ones that don’t remove friction but make Obsidian just a little bit nicer to use

Currently, I have 39 plugins (plus a few beta plugins) enabled. But there are eight that are absolutely crucial for how I work in Obsidian.

Here are the 8 I can't live without:

1. ​Actions URI - This may seem like a weird one to put at the top of the list, but my Obsidian journaling workflows are completely dependent on the Shortcuts actions added on iOS via the incredible Actions for Obsidian app, and this plugin is what allows those actions to hook into my Obsidian vault.
2. ​Obsidian Tasks - This plugin is absolutely incredible, and gives you just about anything you could possibly want from a dedicated task manager. It even has an API that lets you add tasks from anywhere, and it integrates directly with Morgen (my favorite calendaring app) for time blocking the things you need to do.
3. ​QuickAdd - It may not look like much at first, but once you start figuring out how to tie things together, this plugin quickly becomes essential for those who want to control Obsidian from their keyboard. You can even use this to prompt for certain values when creating files from templates.
4. ​Templater - Think of this community plugin as Templates++. In addition to extra template variables, this plugin also lets you do some pretty cool things, like control the placement of the mouse cursor when creating files and applying templates based on folder locations.
5. ​Periodic Notes - This plugin lets you configure settings for other time periods just like you can for the built-in Daily Notes plugin, including the folder you want to store these notes in, the formatting for the file name when created, and the template file you want to use.
6. ​Calendar - In addition to the calendar view in the sidebar, this plugin provides a killer feature that I use all the time: the ability to click on a date and create that day’s daily note. As a bonus, the Calendar plugin also lets you show week numbers and jump straight to weekly notes as configured by the Periodic Notes plugin.
7. ​Dataview - I don't rely on this nearly as much as I used to (thanks to the new Bases core plugin), but I do still rely on the inline DataviewJS that powers my Memento Mori code snippet in my Daily Note. As long as this plugin enables inline JavaScript queries, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully remove my reliance on this one.
8. ​Keep the Rhythm - A recent addition that has had an incredible impact on the amount that I actually write. I know that writing is at the heart of everything I do creatively, but I can still find myself getting to the end of the day and thinking “I need to get some writing done so I don’t ruin my stats” 😂

If you want to see examples of how I use these, check out the full blog post, which includes lots more links and YouTube workflow example videos.

😎 Something Cool: Rocket

I noticed a new plugin was added recently that makes it easy to add emojis in Obsidian, which reminded me of a handy little Mac app that I’ve been using for years called Rocket.

Rocket is a simple app by a single developer that lets you quickly add emojis by typing a custom text string and then searching for the emoji you want. If you’ve ever added an emoji in Slack by using the : character, that’s basically what Rocket does anywhere on your system.

You can configure the hotkey in the settings, and if you have other apps (like Slack) where you want to avoid conflicts, you can set custom rules for apps you want Rocket to ignore. But if you rely on emojis for text-based communication (like I do), Rocket is a handy little app.

📚 Book Notes: Serve to Sell by John Meese

I actually got to meet John Meese at Craft + Commerce this year, an entire year after he gifted Serve to Sell to everyone at the conference. It took me a while, but I finally finished this little gem.

The whole premise is about how to deliver effective fee coaching calls that John labels “Serve Calls.” I’ve actually been on the receiving end of a Serve Call with John, and even though you know it’s ultimately a sales call, the format works so well that you really do feel like you have a connection with the person on the other end by the time you’re done.

If you’ve ever rankled at the thought of making sales calls, you should check this book out. John's approach has the potential to make those calls enjoyable for both the sender and recipient.

If you want to download my mind map book notes for Serve to Sell, click here.

— Mike Schmitz

P.S. I've got a crazy idea for a new PKM creator business accelerator program! The program would cover everything from getting attention on a social platform of your choosing to growing an email list so you can reach your audience and then building a digital product that meets the needs of your ideal customer. The goal would be to help you build systems to publish daily and make your first $1000 selling a digital product within 90 days. I'll likely pilot this with a small group first this fall. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, click here, and I'll let you know when I have more to share 🙂