My Digital Note-Taking Journey to Simplicity

2025-10-17

I love simplifying things, often at the expense of convenience. For years, I searched for my dream note-taking app – and settled on Obsidian for the next few years. However, I still felt that something was missing, so I switched to a simpler alternative in the form of the SilverBullet app. But it wasn't perfect, and the overload of features discouraged me too much. But finally I think I've found what I was looking for.

The search for something better

It's in my nature to constantly search for something. In life, this is a road to nowhere, but at work, this skill allows me to get ahead: to test many things at once or check settings in an application that others would never even think of. So, for many years, I searched for the perfect application for managing digital notes. Thanks to the concepts contained in the book Getting Things Done, I was able to organize my daily life and completely eliminate scattered paper notes. I adopted a device called reMarkable 2 into my daily routine, and in terms of digital solutions, I tried many applications and finally decided on one called Obsidian. Although it was foreign to my open-source dreams, it did the job, at least for a while.

Using Obsidian

It was fine – although I didn't use the main features, such as graphs, I had my own space with organized notes. Or at least I tried to keep them organized. But I still felt like something was missing. Too many features, too many options – too complicated for my minimalist needs. Everything distracted me from what mattered most to me: writing. Sure, it had an amazing set of extensions and was a product that could be realistically customized to people's needs, but my need for simplicity prevented me from ending my search. That's why I decided to use an application called SilverBullet, which is open source and relatively simple.

Using SilverBullet

The simplicity of the app captivated me from the very beginning, but it took months before I decided to use it. As with the Obsidian app, I didn't use most of its features. All I cared about was being able to write comfortably in Markdown format. That was the general idea, although once I accidentally deleted an entire important note, which I was unable to undo. That was the last straw, and fear and disbelief washed over me. At least in theory.

Neovim with add-ons

I thought about it for a long time – I really liked the concept, but somehow I couldn't make the switch. Graphic applications are convenient and writing in them is simply enjoyable. Or at least it should be. On the other hand, I associate Neovim with something rough and imperfect, but as I write all this in Neovim, I discover a part of myself that likes it. So maybe it’s time to give it a chance.