# school got easier when I stopped using five apps

A lot of the same frustration I wrote about with LinkedIn actually shows up in school too.

Not in any dramatic way. It's just this slow, constant thing that makes everything feel way heavier than it needs to be.

My assignments were scattered across Google Classroom.
Essays lived in Google Docs.
Notes were split between physical notebooks and random digital files.
Deadlines were floating somewhere in my head, maybe written down somewhere, maybe not.

Nothing was technically "wrong," but somehow nothing was actually connected either.

I'd sit down wanting to work, knowing I had things to do, but I couldn't figure out where to start. Or worse - I'd know exactly what I needed to work on but couldn't remember all the context around it. What was the assignment asking for again? What had I already figured out? What was I supposed to tackle next?

School wasn't hard because the material was impossible.
It was hard because my brain was constantly jumping between apps and files, trying to keep track of everything.

# the whole "organization app" scam

Every single productivity tool promises to "organize your school life" and make everything simple.

What they're really selling is:
putting another layer on top of the mess you already have.

You end up with:

a task manager pointing to assignments in Google Classroom
assignments pointing to documents in Google Drive
documents that have zero connection to your class notes
notes that don't even remember what class they belong to anymore

Everything looks organized on the surface, but nothing actually feels connected or grounded.

Plus, most of these productivity systems were clearly built for adults with jobs, meetings, and whole teams to manage. They assume you want dashboards, reminders, integrations, and constant notifications pinging at you.

What I actually wanted was way simpler:

one place where my school life lives
somewhere I could always come back to when I felt lost
a system that doesn't constantly yell at me to do stuff

# the approach that finally worked

Funny enough, what helped wasn't discovering a new app. It was just thinking about school differently.

I stopped organizing everything as tasks and started organizing it as actual structure.

Here's the basic model that clicked for me:

One central place (my "home base")
Classes as the main anchors
Assignments and writing all connected to the right class
Daily notes tracking what I actually worked on

That's it, seriously.

Not some elaborate planner system. Not a complex productivity framework. Just a way to mirror how school actually works in real life.

When everything points back to a class, and every class connects back to one main place, you stop losing track of things. You stop wondering where stuff went. You stop having to re-explain everything to yourself every time you sit down to work.

# how obsidian factored in (kind of accidentally)

I wasn't even looking for a "productivity app." I stumbled across Obsidian basically by accident.

What I loved about it wasn't all the fancy features everyone talks about. It was actually how boring the whole thing was.

Obsidian is just a folder of notes that live on your computer. No accounts to manage. No feeds to scroll through. No algorithm deciding what you should see. No one trying to coach you on how to work better.

The only thing it does especially well is let notes link to each other.

Turns out that was all I needed.

A class note links to a specific assignment.
That assignment links to the essay I'm writing for it.
My daily note links back to both, showing what I actually got done.

When you open the graph view, it literally looks like how school works: one central place with classes branching off, assignments connected to each class, and daily work connecting to the right projects. Nothing flashy, just everything connected in a way that makes sense.

# what this actually looks like when I'm working

Here's a real example from my week last week:

I open my main dashboard to see what's important this week
I click into AP English since I had that paper due
From there, I jump into the specific rhetorical analysis essay
My daily note from yesterday was already connected to both, so I could remember where I left off

I wasn't searching through different apps. I wasn't trying to remember which Google Doc was which. I wasn't reconstructing context I'd already figured out. Everything I needed was already connected to the thing it actually belonged with.

That alone made school feel way less overwhelming.

# why I made this into more than just a personal system

After using this setup for a few months, friends kept asking how I managed to keep everything together. I found myself explaining the same basic structure over and over again, so I realized I was probably onto something.

So I took the exact setup I use and packaged it into a starter Obsidian vault for students who want a calm way to get organized.

It's nothing fancy. No crazy plugins. No over-the-top automation. Just the basic structure I've been using, already connected the way it should be, so you don't have to think about organizing - just start using it.

If you're curious, you can check it out here:
Student Obsidian OS

No pressure to buy it. Even if you never use my system, the basic approach itself is what matters most.

# the bigger picture

This connects to that LinkedIn thing I wrote about in a way I didn't expect.

Both problems came from the same root: systems that drifted away from helping people actually get things done and moved toward optimizing for engagement instead. More features. More noise. More stuff you're supposed to actively manage.

The solutions ended up being surprisingly simple:

use fewer tools
keep everything in fewer places
build clearer structure instead of adding more complexity

I don't think Obsidian itself is magic. I think clarity is what's actually powerful.

And sometimes clarity just looks like one folder, a few logical connections between related things, and not much else.

I didn't expect to get this personal writing about note-taking and organization, but here we are. If you're a student and this resonates with you, just know that you're not bad at school. You're probably just trying to manage it in way too many different places.