Your brain is terrible at storage. It's brilliant at connections, patterns, creativity, ideas in the shower at 2am. But ask it to reliably hold onto that article you read three weeks ago, or that insight from a meeting you definitely meant to write down? Forget it.

For me it's especially acute. I have ADHD, and before and after my diagnosis I knew the only way I'd remember most things is to write them down and review them later. Neurospicy brains are wild. I'll forget something 30 seconds after it happens, but I'll remember a completely useless detail from 1997 in perfect clarity. So I leave nothing to chance. If it matters, it gets written down.

That's the problem this guide is trying to solve. What follows is my personal setup for a second brain, built in Obsidian and structured around Tiago Forte's PARA method. It's not theoretical. It's the actual vault, plugins, templates and configuration I use every day.

---

Why bother, and where this comes from

Most people are drowning in information they can't find when they need it. Bookmarks that go nowhere. Notes scattered across five apps. Screenshots you'll never look at again. The volume of stuff we consume keeps growing, and our ability to retrieve any of it stays roughly the same.

A second brain fixes that. Stop trying to remember things and start building a system that does it for you. Get the right information out of your head and into a trusted, searchable, organised place so your mental energy can go toward actually doing things with it.

The system here is built on two books by Tiago Forte. Building a Second Brain is the big picture: how to capture, organise, and retrieve information without relying on memory. The PARA Method is the practical companion, a simple four-category system that works across any platform with minimal maintenance.

Obsidian is the tool I landed on because it keeps everything local, works in plain Markdown, and syncs beautifully over iCloud. No subscriptions, no vendor lock-in, no data sitting on someone else's server.

This guide is opinionated. It's my setup. Take what works, leave what doesn't.

---

The PARA method

PARA is four categories. Everything you save goes into one of them.

Letter	What it is	How to use it
Projects	Things you're actively working on right now	Only current, actionable work lives here
Areas	Roles and responsibilities you maintain over time	Health, finances, job responsibilities, anything ongoing
Resources	Topics or interests useful in the future	Research, articles, ideas not tied to a specific project
Archives	Finished or inactive items from the other three	Clean it up, move it here, stop letting it clutter your active work

Organised by actionability, not topic. When you need something, you know roughly where it lives. When something's done, it gets archived rather than deleted.

If you want a head start, the PARA Starter Kit for Obsidian is worth exploring. It's a full example vault you can poke around in.

---

The tool: Obsidian

Obsidian stores notes on your device in plain Markdown. No proprietary format, no cloud dependency. You can read every file in any text editor. It works offline. And it syncs across devices via iCloud for free.

Installing Obsidian

1. Download from obsidian.md/download
2. Open Obsidian and create a new vault
3. Give it a name and pick where to save it

Syncing with iCloud

1. On macOS: System Preferences → Apple ID → iCloud → iCloud Drive
2. On iOS: Settings → [Your Name] → iCloud → iCloud Drive
3. Create your vault inside the iCloud Drive folder, or move an existing one there

Everything syncs automatically across Mac, iPhone and iPad.

---

Theme and plugins

The theme

I'm using AnuPpuccin. It's clean, customisable, and looks genuinely good in both light and dark mode.

To install it, go to your themes folder (.obsidian/themes) and run:

git clone https://github.com/AnubisNekhet/AnuPpuccin.git

Then in Obsidian: Settings → Appearance → change the theme to AnuPpuccin.

Style settings

Install the Style Settings plugin, then go to Settings → Style Settings → Import and paste the following config. This is my exact setup, tweak it however you like.

{
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-header-color-toggle": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-header-margin-toggle": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-header-divider-color-toggle": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-decoration-toggle": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-autohide-titlebar": false,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-hide-status-bar": false,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-tooltip-toggle": false,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-color-transition-toggle": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-button-metadata-toggle": false,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-kanban-lanes": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anuppuccin-theme-light": "ctp-latte",
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anuppuccin-theme-dark": "ctp-macchiato",
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anuppuccin-theme-accents": "ctp-accent-sapphire",
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-active-line": "anp-current-line",
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-custom-checkboxes": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-speech-bubble": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-callout-color-toggle": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-codeblock-numbers": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-codeblock-wrap-edit": "anp-codeblock-edit-nowrap",
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-codeblock-wrap-preview": "anp-codeblock-preview-nowrap",
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-codeblock-wrap-hl-preview": "anp-codeblock-preview-hl-nowrap",
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-list-toggle": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-table-toggle": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-table-width": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-canvas-dark-bg": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-colorful-frame": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-colorful-frame-icon-toggle-light": false,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-colorful-frame-icon-toggle-dark": false,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-custom-vault-toggle": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-file-icons": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-floating-header": false,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-collapse-folders": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-file-label-align": "0",
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-alt-rainbow-style": "anp-full-rainbow-color-toggle",
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-rainbow-file-toggle": false,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-full-rainbow-text-color-toggle-light": false,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-full-rainbow-text-color-toggle-dark": false,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-rainbow-folder-bg-opacity": 0.5,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-simple-rainbow-title-toggle": false,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-layout-select": "anp-card-layout",
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-bg-fix": false,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-hide-borders": false,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-card-shadows": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-card-layout-actions": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-card-layout-filebrowser": true,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-callout-select": "anp-callout-block",
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@callout-title-padding": "6px",
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@callout-radius": 12,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@callout-title-opacity": 0.25,
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-h1-color-custom": "anp-h1-pink",
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-bold-custom": "anp-bold-sapphire",
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-italic-custom": "anp-italic-yellow",
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-highlight-custom": "anp-highlight-green",
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-h2-color-custom": "anp-h2-mauve",
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-h3-color-custom": "anp-h3-lavender",
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-h4-color-custom": "anp-h4-blue",
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-h5-color-custom": "anp-h5-sky",
  "anuppuccin-theme-settings@@anp-h6-color-custom": "anp-h6-green"
}

Plugins

Obsidian's plugin ecosystem is massive. These are the ones that made the cut for my workflow.

Must have

• Templater — create and use dynamic templates with logic, prompts, and variables
• Periodic Notes — create and manage daily, weekly, and monthly notes
• Style Settings — adjust theme, plugin, and snippet CSS variables
• Dataview — query your vault like a database; essential once your notes have metadata

Good for my workflow

• URL Into Selection — paste a URL over selected text to create a link, Notion-style
• Smart Typography — auto-converts quotes, fractions, and arrows into proper typographic characters
• Reveal Active File — automatically highlights the current file in the sidebar
• Obsidian Web Clipper — save web pages directly into your vault with one click; handy for capturing articles and references you'd otherwise bookmark and forget

Nice extras

• Excalidraw — sketch diagrams and visual notes directly in your vault
• File Hider — hide files and folders from the sidebar clutter
• Homepage — open a specific note or dashboard on startup
• Badges — add inline visual callouts and status indicators to notes

If you want to get fancy

• Copilot for Obsidian — AI assistant inside your vault; works with local LLMs so your notes stay private

---

Templates

Templates are where the system really starts to pay off. Rather than starting from a blank note every time, you get a consistent structure that's also fast to fill in.

Person

This one is deceptively useful. Every person I interact with regularly gets a note. The real power is the Dataview query at the bottom — it automatically lists every note that links back to this person. So when I tag someone as an attendee in a meeting note, or mention them in a project doc, it all shows up here. Over time you build up a full history: every meeting you had with them, every note you tagged them in, without any manual effort.

# Name of person
- I put notes about the person here
## Linked
```​dataview
list from [[]]
```​

Book notes

A simple template that prompts you for the details when you create the note. Handy for tracking what you've read and surfacing books later by rating or tag.

<%*
let bookTitle = tp.file.title;
let bookAuthor = await tp.system.prompt("Author");
let bookDateRead = tp.date.now("YYYY-MM-DD");
let bookRating = await tp.system.prompt("Rating (out of 5)");
%>---
title: "<%* tR += bookTitle %>"
author: "<%* tR += bookAuthor %>"
date_read: "<%* tR += bookDateRead %>"
rating: "<%* tR += bookRating %>"
tags: book
---

# <%* tR += bookTitle %>

- **Author**: <%* tR += bookAuthor %>
- **Date Read**: <%* tR += bookDateRead %>
- **Rating**: <%* tR += bookRating %>/5

## Summary

Write a brief summary or notes about the book here.

Meeting notes

The workhorse template. Drop in the attendees as links (e.g. [[John Smith]]) and they automatically show up on each person's note via the Dataview backlink query. Action items, decisions, and follow-ups all in one place so nothing falls through the cracks.

---
title: Meeting - {{title}}
date: {{date:YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm}}
attendees:
tags: meeting
---

# Meeting: {{title}}

## Attendees
-
-

## Agenda
1.
2.

## Discussion Points
### 1. [Topic]
-

## Action Items
- [ ] Task 1 - Assigned to: @
- [ ] Task 2 - Assigned to: @

## Decisions Made
-

## Next Steps
-

## Follow-up
- Next meeting date:

---
Created: {{date:YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm}}

Daily note

This is the one I open every morning. It auto-generates breadcrumb navigation between days, weeks, and months, pulls in a random quote, and has sections for standup updates, focus items, and tasks. The Dataview task queries at the bottom surface overdue items and home tasks so nothing gets forgotten.

---
title: {{date:YYYY-MM-DD}}
date: {{date:YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss}}
lastmod: {{date:YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss}}
tags: daily-notes
---
# {{date:dddd, MMMM Do YYYY}}

[[{{date:YYYY}}]] > [[{{date:YYYY}}-Q{{date:Q}}|Q{{date:Q}}]] > [[{{date:YYYY-MM}}|{{date:MMMM}}]] > [[{{date:YYYY}}-W{{date:ww}}|Week {{date:ww}}]]
[[{{date-1d:YYYY-MM-DD}}|{{date-1d:dddd Do}}]] < **Today** > [[Notes/Daily/{{date+1d:YYYY-MM-DD}}|{{date+1d:dddd Do}}]]

<% tp.web.daily_quote() %>

> [!info]+
> ### Handy links

---

## Daily Focus 🎯
-

---

## Standup update
- **Yesterday**
  -
- **Today**
  -
- **Blocked**
  -

---

## Notes 📝
-

---

## Tasks from today 📅

- [x] #task

> [!DANGER]+ Overdue 📆
> ```tasks
> not done
> is not recurring
> description does not include ]]
> group by happens
> short
> ```

> [!info]+ Home Tasks 🏡
> ```tasks
> not done
> tags includes home
> short
> ```

---

If you are really adventurous, start creating or editing your own plugins

The two plugins I've had to patch so far have been straightforward. Obsidian plugins are just three files: main.js, manifest.json and style.css. Edit what you need, drop them into your vault's .obsidian/plugins/plugin-name folder, and you're done.

Simple-Columns The Simple Columns plugin for Obsidian lets you create easily resizable and customizable columns in your notes. Whether you're organizing tasks, breaking down content, or visualizing ideas, this plugin provides a simple markdown syntax to quickly adjust and structure your layouts.

I had to fix some issues when showing more than 3 columns, and had to do some pretty aggressive styling changes to have it work with the theme I use and show the speech bubbles in columns with correct styling.

obsidian-dbml-render Render DBML diagrams in your Obsidian notes using the open-source dbml-render library.

I love DBML for displaying and reasoning about databases. I was quite frustrated with the initial view and the zooming of this plugin, what a better way to make it better than to do it myself.

---

One thing I haven't figured out yet: Databases

Obsidian has a native databases feature that I'm genuinely excited about but haven't had time to go deep on. The promise is basically Notion-style structured data, tables with properties, filtering, sorting, all living locally in plain files rather than on someone else's server.

I've poked at it. It works. But getting it to do what I actually want takes more than a quick session and I haven't carved out the time yet. It's high on the list.

If you're coming from Notion and miss the database views, this is worth looking into. Dataview fills a lot of that gap already with queries, but native databases could make it significantly more approachable without writing any query syntax. I'll write a proper follow-up once I've actually used it for something real.

---

Wrapping up

This isn't a system you set up once and forget. It grows with you. The templates get refined, the plugins change, the folder structure shifts as your life and work do. That's fine. PARA is deliberately forgiving, and Obsidian is flexible enough to bend however you need it to.

The goal was never to build the perfect second brain. It was to build one that actually gets used. Start simple, capture consistently, and trust that the structure will earn its keep over time.

If even one part of this setup saves you from that feeling of "I know I saved that somewhere", it's done its job.