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Most Obsidian users I talk to don't really know what to do with properties (the YAML metadata at the top of their notes).

Which is a shame, because properties are one of the most powerful features in Obsidian for driving a PKM system that actually works.

Simply put, properties are structured metadata attached to your notes. They let you organize, sort, filter, and query your information like a traditional database. With properties, you can do things like show everything assigned to a specific person, due on a specific day, or at a specific stage in your workflow. And when you use properties in Obsidian, it all sits on top of plain text files, so your notes stay portable no matter what.

There are six property types available in Obsidian, and I dive deep into each of them in this week's blog post. But here's a quick rundown of each one:

Text — A single line of text. This is the default, and it's incredibly flexible. I use text properties for tracking the status of my creative projects (backlog → inprogress → published) and for assigning star ratings to my book notes. Obsidian will even auto-suggest values you've used before, so I can just pick ⭐ through ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ from a dropdown.

List — Like text, but allows multiple values. Simply hit Enter after each value to add another. Great for anything where a note needs more than one entry for a given property.

Number — Only accepts literal numbers (integers and decimals, no expressions). I use these for my Daily Questions scores that I log as part of my journaling routine. The beauty here is that if you accidentally hit a letter key, it doesn't register (which keeps your data clean).

Checkbox — Toggles between true and false. I use these for tracking habits in my Daily Notes files. The property boxes I check each day feed into my Habit Tracking Dashboard, which gives me a visual overview of how consistent I've been.

Date — Shows a date value and automatically links to that day's Daily Note. I use this for due dates on all my creative projects, which lets me visualize publish dates on my content calendar Bases view.

Date & Time — Same as date, but adds a timestamp. Handy when you need to know exactly when something happened. I'm experimenting with this for a project review system where clicking a button logs the precise moment I reviewed a project.

Beyond those six, every Obsidian note also has three default properties baked in: tags, aliases, and cssClasses. Just make sure you use the plural versions of these tags! The singular forms (tag, alias, cssclass) have been deprecated and won't work anymore.

There are also three rules I follow when using properties in Obsidian to keep them useful:

1. Be consistent. Use a property the same way every time, or your searches won't show you everything you're looking for.
2. Be specific. If you have different workflows, break properties out accordingly. I use separate properties like newsletter_status and video_status so the autocomplete only shows me relevant options.
3. Use sparingly. Not every note needs a property. But every note that has a property should help your workflows in a specific way.

And the single best tip I can give you? Add your properties to your template files. That way, every new note gets the right properties, formatted correctly, every single time. No typos, no duplicates.

I go deeper on all of this in the full post, including how to set everything up, what it looks like in Source Mode, and some additional best practices that will keep your properties from becoming a mess.

👉 Read the full post here​

Bottom line: most people treat their notes like a pile. Properties are how you turn that pile into a system. They are the bridge between "I wrote it down somewhere" and "I can find exactly what I need, when I need it."

Also, keep in mind that you don't need to use all six types right away. Pick the ones that support the workflows you already have, and let your system grow from there.

— Mike