I’ve been using Obsidian for over two years now — that’s around half the time the app has existed.

But before this, I used to be notoriously bad at switching between note-taking apps, thinking that the perfect option for me was out there.

This was a mistake and I will explain why and how I fixed this train of thought in this article. We’ll cover why the problem is not the app but rather the system you use, how to develop a solution for your work and how to pick an app and stick with it.

Let’s get started…

Since I started using Obsidian, I’ve not changed note-taking app. I’ve had short trial periods with some others occasionally, especially when I transferred from a Windows laptop to a MacBook, but I’ve always come back to Obsidian in the end.

I think this was helped by an understanding of knowledge management and app usage, formed by reading Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte at the time of switching to the app.

Reading BASB brought the realisation that you can use the same system for work anywhere, and the criteria on which you pick an app to work in should be based on the app’s principles and background rather than its shiny defining features.

The app’s not the problem that you’re having with personal knowledge management, the problem is the system you’re trying to use or the way you’re going about building and using it.

Let me explain…

Since developing my own system for work, a rough outline of PARAZETTEL that I teach today, back in late 2022, I’ve not had to switch from app to app.

This is because I invested in the system that I was using for work, rather than the app, and realised that this could be ported to any app that I wanted to use.

The criteria for switching an app then became where I thought the company was headed in terms of development, whether the software was well-built and durable and whether the practices that they were engaging in were to my liking.

The time spent learning to use an app also becomes a more important factor when deciding on software. Once I developed PARAZETTEL, I became confident that I could use any note-taking app in the world and get along with it. All the main options end up very similar when you look past the unique shiny wrapper.

It made sense then to me, and it should to you, to stick with the one that you’ve been using for the longest time and have built up the most skill and experience in using.

You don’t want to have to go through the learning process of navigating another app when you trust your system and the app you already use works anyway.

That’s why it’s so important to pick a durable app that you think will last you into the future.

All the time you spend using a single app compounds more than you think. The more I use the PARAZETTEL system inside Obsidian, the more I’m locked in through experience and muscle memory, making sure that shiny object syndrome doesn’t affect anything when it strikes.

So the more you can develop a robust system for working with your knowledge and be secure in the fact that it’s this that will really make the difference in how you’re creating and working, you’re never really going to be convinced to change to another app, because they all have similar features at the top level.

Obsidian, Notion, Tana, Logseq — you name it, so long as your system’s solid, you’ll be working in all of these apps similarly. You’ll tend to stick to the one you’re most used to using because of the sunk cost of learning the best practices more efficiently than in other programs.

So this leads to the more important question — how does one develop a strong and functional system for managing knowledge so you can experience the above and lock into a single app, confident that you’re working in the best way possible?

It all comes down to actually doing the work you’re meant to be doing — I know it sounds cliché but people actually make quite an important mistake here, even if they don’t realise it…

They think that building the system beforehand to shape their work is the right way to go.

Unfortunately, the opposite is true. The better way to go is building from the ground up, starting with a very simple system and developing it the more it’s used for work.

You see, the more you use your system for your projects and creation, the more you notice small tweaks and changes that are truly conducive to more efficient and higher-quality output and creation.

Make these changes to your system. Over time, you develop a highly specialised and unique working environment for the type of projects that you complete. You’re now in an entirely customised space that has been tweaked and iterated from the ground up to be as helpful as possible in what you’re doing.

It’s the work reps that are so important in shaping this.

Your brain is probably craving to produce something of value anyway, rather than tinkering with different apps, but you don’t have a base to create upon. So start with a very simple system, get it out of your head that the note-taking app that you’re currently not satisfied with is the problem, and begin creating.

When you put in these hours creating, and working inside of your system to create, something magical happens. You tweak the system slowly but surely and eventually you end up with something unique and customised to you, helping you in many more ways than the vastly similar features you’d get in switching from note-taking app to note-taking app ever would.

Now this is why I promote PARAZETTEL, for use in the app Obsidian. I do a lot of different work in my system from content creation to managing highlights and snippets from books and writing essays as a student.

I’ve removed all the unique tweaks that help me work in the vault as an individual too, so it’s a perfect example of this simple blank slate to begin work upon yourself.

Over time and as you do more work, as I experienced, you end up with a beautiful personal knowledge management system that helps you with your work, regardless of the app you end up taking it to.

You’ll likely lock into a single solution where you’ve built up most experience from using the interface and navigating around in anyway.

That’s my two cents from completely overcoming shiny object syndrome around note-taking apps myself.

I hope that you’ve learned something from this piece and that you can take away and implement yourself because I know how frustrating it can be when things just don’t click.

Pare things back to something simple, like PARAZETTEL, and simply do hundreds of reps of work, letting the system evolve into what you need it to be slowly but surely.

Thanks for reading!