I’m a big fan of Obsidian, and to the surprise of people in my mastermind group, I no longer as it as my writing app. Instead, I’m back to using Ulysses.
My notes are still in Obsidian. And it does make sense to also writing in Obsidian. It’s a perfectly fine writing app, especially with a few added plugins and tweaks. Having your notes and writing in the same place can make things easier. Especially when it comes to linking ideas to content, and using tags the data view to organise everything.
Yet despite the benefits, I still want to keep my writing separate in Ulysses.
Despite the benefits of reducing the number of apps we use, and consolidating into fewer places, I still like having dedicate apps, each with their purpose. Obsidian is a great notes app, and a passable writing app. Ulysses is designed to be a writing app. The writing experience in Ulysses can’t be beat (for me at least). When I write in Ulysses, the words just seem to flow out of me and onto the screen in a way that they never do with Obsidian.
There’s the fact that Ulysses is a native Mac app and Obsidian is not. Obsidian is a great cross-platform app, but it’s never going to be as good as a native app. I’ll still use it for notes because I like its linking abilities. But for a writing app, the native experience really matters. It reduces the friction between me and the words on the screen.
There’s also the fact that Ulysses has features built for writers, such as built in goal tracking, outline, revision suggestions etc. These things are possible in Obsidian, but for most of them you have to add plugins, and the experience isn’t quite the same.
And these reasons aren’t even the main reason why I’m using Ulysses for writing and Obsidian for notes. The main reason is that it gives me a dedicated app to write. When I open Ulysses, my brain knows it’s time to write. It’s not time to take notes, plan my day, sketch ideas. No, it’s time to get down to writing and only writing. This focus and distraction-free writing environment is the single best thing I’ve done for getting my writing habit back on track.
Update: I’m in the process of moving from Obsidian to Reflect for my note taking needs.