In this tutorial, the presenter demonstrates a practical workflow for managing daily tasks within Obsidian. He shows how to create a new checkbox task using Ctrl+Enter, then indent and break the task into multiple subtasks with the Tab key, adding further nested items as needed. Navigation shortcuts (Alt + arrow keys) allow quick movement between items, and folding lets the user collapse completed sections. The video highlights how this hierarchical approach supports flexible, ADHD‑friendly thinking, letting the user jump between tasks without losing context. A key recommendation is installing the Outliner plugin, which adds list‑reordering capabilities via Ctrl + Shift + Up (or Down) arrows, enabling rapid prioritization of high‑value tasks. The presenter emphasizes focusing on the most important items first, ticking off tasks as they’re completed, and invites viewers to ask questions in the comments.
Chapters
How's it going guys? Here's a quick video on how I manage my tasks in Obsidian. I wanted to make this video specifically because there's a couple of, uh, interesting things I do in my workflow and I feel that it might be able to help some of you. So just to get started, I've got this open note with, uh, today's tasks. So as an example, I'm just gonna say I'll create a new checkmark, uh, checkbox. And if you watch my previous video on how to use the inbuilt Obsidian features, you'll know you can create a checkbox with just Ctrl+Enter. Key, right? So once I've got my checkbox, let's say that I wanted to say, read a specific book. So read this book, right? Then what I'll do is once I've created that task, the next thing is I'll hit the tab key. And I will, inside of that task, try to break down all of my subtasks that complete the main task. For example, in this case, I could say it's review chapter 4 to 6. And then I might actually click on this and then go through here and I'd say, uh, okay, I want to make sure that I understand principle 1, the fear factor. So then I take that, go back. So using again what I showed in the hidden Obsidian tricks, you can go back and forth with Alt and arrow keys. So I would add this then here. I'd say, um, make notes on this principle. And then I might just say like, um, research the author. Let's say those are the tasks I wanted to create for that. Once I've created all of the sub-items that are necessary, and just to give you a final example, I'm— you can also indent as much as you want in Obsidian. So for example, let's say research author, background, ethnicity, other books, and then say Google his most famous book. Okay. So you can see there, for example, I've created a whole bunch of different indents and, uh, this is just kind of like what's possible. Once I've finished creating all the sub-items, the next thing that I'll do is I'll fold that. So I kind of put that away. I've added everything I need to for that specific task. And now what I wanna do is focus on the next task. So you wanna try to get everything out that you need to do for that day. So let's say another task I had would be like study for an exam, right? And then inside of there I say, okay, um, make notes on the following chapters, chapter 3, economics, Chapter 5, you know, psychology, right? So once that's done, again, I'll have like a second one, review your notes on learning. And then I will just actually, I've got that as a thing. So learning, so create that. Now, what you'll start to notice is that over time it adds up. So you've got multiple different tasks that you have to do, and you can really just let your ideas run free. So if you're someone who's like ADHD, like what I am, I'm sometimes like jumping around. Like I might be writing out this task and then I want to jump back to this one and say, okay, cool. Uh, I remember I needed to add something over here. So then I'll quickly just say childhood, right? So then close that again, go back here, click on this task. Okay, cool. I want to get this specific thing, take that. Go back, add it to the notes, right? So the whole point is to just be moving very streamlined in your, in your notes folder, right? Inside of your notes. That's why I made that video on the hidden Obsidian tricks to kind of like show the keyboard shortcuts. But once this is done, uh, the next thing that I just wanted to mention is let's say you've got 3 different tasks. So, um, for example, if I, okay, Sometimes Obsidian just bugs out like that. So let's say you've got these 3 different tasks inside over here, and I'll even add a few more just to drive the point home. So go here, add these tasks, make sure that they're, uh, list items. Okay. Uh, checkboxes, right? So there's a plugin that you really wanna make sure you have. If you don't have this plugin, you should download it. It's called Outliner. So over here at the bottom, you can see this is the name. So Outliner, and what it does is it kind of gives you additional functionality for your list in Obsidian. So what you can do is you can actually, uh, for example, use your Control key, Shift, and then the upward arrow, and you can very quickly reorder your list. So this is really helpful because you know what you want to be doing is prioritizing. You want to prioritize your most important tasks. So after you've written out everything you need to do for a day, then you can quickly just make sure that you're focusing on the highest value tasks first. And, uh, that's really how I like to use it. So focusing on highest value tasks first. And then of course, once you, uh, get started, you just wanna be like ticking everything off. Soon as this one is done, tick that off, and then you go to the next one and you just go through it like that. So that's an example of how I use Obsidian to manage my tasks. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments and I'll see you in the next one. Bye-bye.
