One Year Later...
after having changed all my Obsidian templates to Excalidraw hybrid notes
Abstract
After a year of turning all my Obsidian templates into Excalidraw hybrid notes, here’s what stuck. Using the “back of the sheet” idea—text on one side, sketch on the other—I’ll share how pairing searchable writing with quick visuals affected clarity, recall, and sharing across projects. Has it helped? Am I still using them? Why? Why not?
- Set up a lightweight hybrid workflow in Obsidian + Excalidraw.
- When to write, when to sketch, and how to link both.
- Convert existing templates without breaking your system.
Speaker Bio
Nicole van der Hoeven
Nicole is a Senior Developer Advocate at Grafana Labs and a former performance engineer. She’s also a YouTuber who writes, films, and speaks about PKM and tooling, learning in public along the way. She applies PKM to both engineering and everyday life, from performance work to language learning, therapy, and dream-logging in Obsidian.