Pretty impressed by this app via this episode. Anyone using it?
I love Obsidian, but the lure of markdown files for tasks, timeblocks, AND notes is very alluring.
Sure. All day. Everyday.
The beautiful Markdown editor and text display, local file storage, good syncing with my iPhone, the ability to store images with my text, the calendar integration, the configurability (I use just the features I like), the search capability, the native Mac app design, and the reliability of the app, are just a few of the things I like about NotePlan. You’ll know if it is a good fit for you once you give it a try. I’ve been using it since April of 2022.
To possibly give you some idea of its feature set: although I prefer NotePlan, if someone were to force me to give up NotePlan, I think I could feel right at home in the Obsidian app.
Obsidian is a lot cheaper. I like Noteplan, but can’t justify the price when Obsidian exists.
I really liked the app. I’ve found that I need tabs so things don’t get too cluttered. I settled on obsidian. If Notes, NotePlan, or Bear adds tabs, I would probably switch.
A question that was danced around in the episode but I don’t hear a clear answer to… does NotePlan offer a quick capture panel? Of a similar style to OmniFocus, Drafts, or even MarsEdit’s quick blog? Where a window pops up and allows you to capture something to today’s note without the app being in focus.
I don’t think there is anything built-in, but they have recently added better Shortcuts support, so you can build a Shortcut to make your own custom quick entry - NotePlan - Tasks, Notes, and Calendar
I’ve been using NotePlan on a daily basis for over a year and love it. It’s the one app that has stopped me jumping around between to-do apps. I’m not a fan of how it handles repeating tasks (although there are plugin options to improve this), but the ability to create templates for notes with your own custom themes is really helpful.
It’s expensive, but I use it via SetApp, so it makes that better value for me.
Switched last year from Evernote to Apple Notes, but have been eyeing NotePlan for a few weeks, so timely episode! Apple Notes is great, but a bit limited, and Obsidian is more than I want to deal with. This app seems to offer a lot of functionality…
A couple questions for those who have been using it awhile:
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I use Omnifocus and it works great for my workflow. Do others use OF (or other task manager) with NotePlan, or went all in and moved to integrate tasks into Noteplan?
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Looks like moving from Apple Notes to NotePlan is mostly a manual process. I know there’s an “Exporter” app, but it is very limited. Perhaps would just start NotePlan from scratch and only bring over selected materials. I know on the episode David said he still uses Apple Notes for reference material- could continue to do that, though I prefer not using multiple apps when possible…
Any thoughts appreciated!.. Perhaps @MacSparky should consider a NotePlan Field Guide 
When I used Noteplan I only put specific tasks in it. Tasks that don’t have a due date but were project related went into a Table of contents with links to relevant notes. Kept everything in one place, I could write down notes of what I did and how it went if needed. Also checklists that repeated every semester would usually go into NotePlan.
My advice is to start slow.
(If you’ve got a bunch of dated Daily Note files, by all means bring them into NotePlan because you’ll be able to search them from NotePlan’s Command Bar: hotkey is CMD+J.)
Otherwise, just open today’s Daily Note and start typing. Watch videos and browse the Help Center. Look up topics in the knowledge base. You can’t make a mistake. Whatever you type will always be there even if your format, layout, or the specific tools that you use change. Every Daily Note can be a new start until you settle into habits that are a fit for you!
EDIT TO ADD: @pdadoc, you said “though I prefer not using multiple apps when possible.” I still think there is a role for a separate document repository app (aka “everything bucket” app) with whatever note taking app one chooses. However, if you want a single app that will handle Daily Notes and all your other writing, as well as give you a place to dump all your external documents, you are probably looking at the DevonThink app. I personally use the EagleFiler app to store things like receipts and web clippings so I can keep NotePlan only for things that I have written.
Thanks for the sage advice- I agree! I went in too fast when trying Obsidian, and ultimately decided it was too much for me. Will take your suggestion and keep Apple Notes for now and basically start fresh with NotePlan and see how it goes.
I would of definitely consider the app. But I already use Omnifocus 4 & Obsidian for tasks and projects.
I’m a huge NotePlan fan. It finally put a stop to my endless quest to find a new task manager.
For me (different people need different things!), I couldn’t find a task manager that worked well, and I tried a lot of them (Reminders, Todoist, Omnifocus, Amazing Marvin, probably a couple others I’ve now forgotten). I just couldn’t work out what the problem was, so I didn’t know what I was looking for. It was only when I started a trial of NotePlan, thinking that trying new task apps might just be my hobby for the rest of my life, that I realised what the problem was. I like to keep notes next to my tasks, and most task managers simply don’t allow for that. NotePlan does, and suddenly I saw how simple it is when you have a task manager that suits you!
My to-do lists are rarely itemised lists. They do have tasks on them, but they often also have notes. All I actually needed in a task manager was a date-based system that gave me a blank page and let me write whatever I want. (I realise that I basically went on a multi-year digital quest to determine that I needed a digital version of a blank piece of paper 
)
I have considered recreating NotePlan in Obsidian, but for me I realised this was a bit daft. Why spend hours trying to set up a system to mimic an app that already does what I like? It wasn’t worth the overhead for me.
I keep NotePlan fairly streamlined. For example, I don’t keep old months in NotePlan - the text files are moved to a DevonThink database. This means they’re searchable if I need them, but NotePlan only ever has current work in it (this makes search easier in NotePlan and means I know where “Mission Control” information is).
I keep my timelogs in NotePlan too, and random notes to myself during the day. I use it basically exactly how I used a paper planner, except with less doodles.
This is one of those episodes that might end up costing me money.
Obsidian’s a bit too fiddly for me to keep all my notes there. Agenda’s a bit too opinionated for my needs.
NotePlan seems like a good balance between the two.
One thing I couldn’t do in Agenda was keep my reading notes (highlights and annotations from Readwise) together with my class planning notes.
But because NotePlan uses plain Markdown files, and because Obsidian allows opening any folder of Markdown files as a vault, I can set up Obsidian”s Readwise integration in one of my NotePlan folders. Mmm…
On the Mac, you can set a systemwide keyboard shortcut to access NotePlan’s command bar. I use Command-Control-J. There you can type or copy your task, and it will give you an option to add to today’s note. The only caveat is that NotePlan needs To be running. There is also an iOS share sheet action, and shortcuts work great.
Great advice. This is pretty much how I did it. I didn’t try to import anything, though — just started using it and it clicked.
And even recreating Noteplan capabilities in Obsidian would leave you without the sweet Noteplan UI. I dislike Obsidian’s look and feel, but the deal breaker for me with Noteplan is the lack of support for anything other than notes.
This support page you linked mentions that the 3.2 update allows for syncing any kind of file. Isn’t that the case?
Now for my two cents on the Noteplan app. There are a few things that Obsidian does better (linking and tables come to mind first) and a few others Noteplan shines over Obsidian (General interface, startup speed, Command bar on Mac and task filtering).
Currently I’m still on Obsidian (from launch) and Things (ever since v1) for those purposes, but Noteplan has been casting a shadow ever since @ryanjamurphy taught is how to use Noteplan as a “client” for Obsidian before the arrival of its mobile app. From time to time I hear the siren call, sometimes it comes as a post on this forum, sometimes as full podcast episode, sometimes as both! 