Mac & automation · Mar 2026–ongoing · with Ongoing B+

Moving from Apple Notes to Obsidian

Keep what worked, change one thing at a time, and never migrate a note you haven't read.

Why move at all

Apple Notes was working. I had a clean structure, a project/area/resource/archive layout, and I had even built an AppleScript agenda generator on top of it. What it couldn't do was connect ideas: notes sat in folders and stayed there. I wanted a vault where notes link to each other, where I can query them, and where scripts and AI tools can read plain files instead of fighting a proprietary format.

The plan

1. Keep the structure that already worked. I already worked in the PARA layout (Projects, Areas, Resources, Archive). Throwing that away would have cost more than any new tool could repay.
2. Write atomic notes, Zettelkasten style. One idea per note, titled specifically, linked to related notes. A note is short enough to reuse.
3. Connect through maps of content. A map of content (MOC) is a hand-curated index note for a topic, so structure comes from links, not from the folder a file sits in.
4. Add structure gradually: templates for notes I create often, and Dataview queries over frontmatter so lists build themselves.
5. Migrate gradually, not all at once. New notes start in Obsidian. Old ones move when I touch them. Everything else stays put until it is needed or archived.

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created: 2026-03-20
tags: [home-network]
area: Resources
---
# Short, specific title

One idea per note. Link to related notes with [[wikilinks]] so the
structure comes from connections, not folders.

Why gradual wins

A bulk export produces thousands of notes with broken links and no sense of which ones matter. Moving a note only when I need it means every migrated note has been read, tidied and connected once. The cost is running two systems for a while, which is fine if the old one is read-only and the new one is the default for everything new.

How the vault evolved

The layout moved on from the original plan. I dropped the separate Areas folder and put ongoing work under Projects, since the distinction wasn't earning its keep, and added folders for things that arrive automatically:

PVault/
  1 - Projects/      active work and reference guides
  2 - Scheduled/     recurring briefings and checks
  3 - Artifacts/     finished research written for me
  4 - Calendar/      one note per day
  5 - Clippings/     saved web pages
  6 - Voice Memos/   transcripts and audio, filed automatically
  7 - Archive/       done or dormant

That last bit is where the vault became more than a note app. Voice memos from my phone and watch now land in it as transcripts (how that works), daily notes and scheduled briefings are written into it, and because it is plain Markdown, scripts and AI tools can read and write it directly. The Obsidian command-line tool makes that even easier for automation.

Where it stands

Obsidian is now my main home. I'd call the migration ongoing: I move older material across when it earns its place. The thing I'd repeat is the order: keep what worked, change one thing at a time, and never migrate anything you haven't read.

This is entry 02 of AI Lab Work.