@JohnPhilpin I never really got into Obsidian so have to still wrap my head around how to use it. So do you send each Drafts note to Obsidian?
@pratik A lot of people think of Drafts as a tool for capturing text and then routing it to other destinations. I use Drafts as a destination in itself, due to how extensible it is (I’ve built a number of actions that suit the way I work), and how well integrated it is with i(Pad)OS (my primary working platform. Also possibly due in part to the way I came to Drafts in the first place (Folding Text / Notational Velocity on macOS –» Editorial on iPad –» Drafts).
I use Drafts for two main activities: daily logging (daily notes, workouts, contact notes, other random operational notes that crop up as I go— most of which are automatically referenced in the day’s daily note), and drafting things (creative writing, blog posts, Mastodon posts, newsletters etc). There’s a layer of “note-making” and knowledge wrangling I can manage to an extent in Drafts but benefits from the tools available in Obsidian (easier back-linking, graph visualisation, canvas etc).
It’s really easy to send ntoes to Obsidian (again, that’s the kind of activity Drafts was originally designed for). And I can easily link to Obsidian items in a draft if I need/want to. Some people are probably doing everything I do in Obsidian alone, but I’d miss the deep OS integration (Widgets! Scriptable access to calendars and reminders! etc) and the workflows I’ve already built— not planning to learn how to build an Obsidian plugin any time soon…
Also, I think the separation of modes serves well— Drafts remains open constantly; Obsidian is opened for refining ideas (beyond my own writing) and cultivating connections between ideas. In the past, I’ve done some of this connective work through concept maps, where my concept maps would reference notes or searches in Drafts. Obsidian’s more robust for this.
Last thought: the pairing provides a kind of self-sustaining loop. Drafts facilitates my day-to-day momentum; Obsidian is a home for continually refined learning/knowledge; that learning/knowledge feeds back into things I write in Drafts.
I’m enjoying the pairing thus far. Again, while I’ve spent a lot of time in Drafts, I’m still picking up on Obsidian usage, so we’ll see how things evolve…
@jsamlarose @pratik I have boiled it down to Drafts as an info collection and distribution hub with Obsidian as a collector into daily journal of most of what goes to Drafts. Ulysses figures in there for long form and photo posts with its direct connection to M.b making photo posts especially easy.
@pratik Hm. It’s easy to send notes to Obsidian, yes. Obvs, being discerning helps avoid cruft. Some of my Obsidian notes start from MarginNote or Omnivore highlights; some emerge from working around the map/graph. I’m trying to cultivate distinct usage; more so than Drafts as a “pass-through”…
@mbkriegh @pratik Sounds like a solid usage pattern. From what I’ve heard, this is a way of working between Drafts and Obsidian that serves a number of people really well. Haven’t personally needed to post (m)any images in my M.b posts thus far, though I’m sure that time will come soon enough. Workflow review soon come… :)
@jsamlarose Thanks for that extensive answer.
> A lot of people think of Drafts as a tool for capturing text and then routing it to other destinations. I use Drafts as a destination in itself, due to how extensible it is.
Same here hence my Q about what does Obsidian add to that apart from having .md files outside of Drafts proprietary silo. I guess I want to understand using Obsidian but I don’t want to give up Drafts for the reasons you highlight.
@pratik I don’t … but you could. My use is mainly around notes in drafts that grow but aren’t ending up anywhere .. so are moved out to Obsidian along with the rest of my unpublished notes.
@pratik I use Drafts extensively for capturing and short-term storage of links, notes, ideas for many reasons already given: quick capture, as an automation point, etc. Many of these things eventually end up in Obsidian in somee way (or discarded after posting or sharing somewhere) for reasons of organization, linking, and to have them integrated with all the other things I do/keep[ in Obsidian—more finished work, imported notes and highlights from Readwise Reader and sources through Readwise, annotations from Zotero, etc. I also do a lot of editing on certain kinds of notes and prefer the Obsidian editor or, more often, an external editor of choice.