Obsidian for beginners: getting started as a freelancer

Install Obsidian and create a vault

Download ObsidianObsidianA free note-taking app for Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone and Android. Your notes stay as Markdown files on your own computer. Brievora is a vault, a folder of notes and views that you open in Obsidian.obsidian.md from obsidian.md/download. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, iPhone and Android. You don’t need an account to use it: accounts are only for paid services such as sync.

A vault is an ordinary folder on your disk. Obsidian stores your notes in it as .md files and keeps its own settings in a hidden subfolder called .obsidian.

1. On first launch, click Create next to Create new vault. Later you’ll find the same option in the vault menu at the bottom left, under Manage vaults….
2. Type a name under Vault name, for example Client work.
3. Click Browse to pick where the folder goes. Choose a place your backup already covers, then click Create.

One vaultvaultIn Obsidian, a vault is a folder on your computer that Obsidian opens: your notes, their attachments and your settings. Brievora is a ready-made vault.help.obsidian.md is enough for all your client work. If each client gets a separate vault, no single page can show every deadline you have this week.

Ten settings for day one

Open Settings with the gear icon at the bottom of the sidebar. The names below match the English interface. Setting everything takes about ten minutes.

Notes, folders and links

Every note is a plain text file in MarkdownMarkdownA plain-text format: a # makes a heading, asterisks make text bold. Any text editor opens these files, with or without Obsidian.markdownguide.org, so any text editor can open it. A note’s title is its file name.

A handful of folders is enough. Here is a starting structure for a freelancer:

Inbox/
Clients/
Projects/
    Martin Bakery website redesign/
Meetings/
Templates/
Attachments/

Links connect notes whatever folder they sit in. Type [[ in a note followed by the start of a name, and Obsidian suggests matching notes. In the notes from the October 14 meeting, [[Martin Bakery]] points to the client’s note.

A link can point to a note that doesn’t exist yet: clicking it creates the note. On the client’s note, the Backlinks pane then lists every note that mentions it, including meetings, quotes and feedback.

The guide to managing client projects in Obsidian covers a full folder tree and the properties for each kind of note. To start from a structure that’s already built, Brievora Lite is free and comes with clients, projects and tasks already linked.

Properties, then bases

A property is a piece of data stored at the top of a note: a client, a status, a deadline, an amount. To add one, type --- on the very first line of the note, or run the Add file property command (Ctrl + ;, or Cmd + ; on a Mac). These are the properties of a project note:

---
type: project
client: "[[Martin Bakery]]"
status: in progress
due: 2026-11-20
budget: 4800
---

Obsidian has seven property types: Text, List, Number, Checkbox, Date, Date & time and Tags. A type applies across the whole vault. If budget is a number in one note, it is a number in all of them.

BasesBasesThe database feature built into Obsidian: tables, cards and Kanban boards made from the properties of your notes. No plugin to install.help.obsidian.md put those properties to work. A base is a .base file that shows a selection of notes as a table, cards, a list or a Kanban board, with filters and sorting. With the note above, an “Active projects” base lists each project with its client and deadline, and you never copy anything by hand. The Obsidian Bases tutorial shows how to build it.

Plugins: which ones, and when to skip them

Obsidian has two kinds of plugins. Core plugins ship with the app: Bases, Templates, Canvas, Daily notes, File recovery. Community plugins are written by other developers and installed from Community plugins in Settings.

For client work, the core plugins cover most of what you need: linked notes, properties, templates, table and Kanban views. Wait until you have a specific need you can name before adding a community plugin.

According to the plugin security page of the official help, a community plugin can access files on your computer, connect to the internet and install other programs. Your client notes are among those files. While Restricted mode is on, no community plugin runs.

Before you install a community plugin

• It covers a need that Bases, Templates or Canvas don’t.
• Its latest release is recent: an abandoned plugin can stop working after an Obsidian update.
• Its page in the plugin directory shows a good security scan result.

For years the Kanban plugin was how people got boards in Obsidian. It hasn’t had a new release since May 2024, and Bases has shown Kanban boards without any plugin since Obsidian 1.14. If you’re starting fresh, start with Bases. If you have old boards, the free Kanban to Bases plugin converts them, and the guide to migrating from the Kanban plugin to Bases explains the method.

Sync between computer and phone

Until you set up sync, the vault lives on one device. The official help lists the options on its page about syncing notes across devices.

Whatever the method, sync each vault with a single service. The same vault in iCloud and in Obsidian Sync ends up with conflicts.

Sync copies your mistakes too: a note deleted on your phone disappears from your computer. To undo that, keep a one-way backup from your main device, with your system’s backup tool or an external drive. The official help page on backing up your files lists the options.

Five common beginner mistakes

1. Creating forty folders before you have ten notes. Start with the structure above and add a folder when the same need comes up a third time.
2. Renaming or moving notes in Windows Explorer or Finder. Do it inside Obsidian, which then updates the links.
3. Installing ten plugins in the first week. Each one adds third-party code and can break with the next update. Core plugins are enough to start.
4. Writing the client or the deadline in the body of the note. A base only reads properties. “Delivery planned for late November” in a paragraph shows up in no view, while due: 2026-11-30 as a property shows up everywhere.
5. Syncing the same vault with two services. Keep one, and add a real backup next to it.

The Obsidian terms used in this guide (backlink, property, base, view) are defined in the Obsidian glossary.