If you are juggling more than one project on top of a full time job, there is a good chance something is slipping through the cracks right now, an email you meant to reply to, a decision nobody wrote down, a deadline that crept up on you.
In this video I’m going to show you five ways I use Claude and Obsidian together to manage my work projects without dropping the ball.
I used to keep it all in my head, spread across emails, Slack messages, and a notebook I never opened twice, and I was constantly catching things late instead of ahead of time.
But one of these five changed how I handle a busy week completely, and it is the one I now do every single Sunday without fail.
Let’s get started.
Workflow
Here’s the setup behind all of this. Every active project gets one main note in Obsidian, and that note becomes the single place everything about that project lives. Claude is what helps me get information into that note in the first place, and it keeps me honest about what is actually happening week to week.
With that, let’s get started.
Way 1 — Turn Messy Thoughts Into a Clear Project Plan
Every project starts the same way for me, a mess in my head. Tasks, worries, deadlines, dependencies, all mixed up together, and by the time I sit down to plan properly I have forgotten half of it.
Now I open Claude and just brain dump everything, tasks, worries, deadlines, dependencies, in whatever order it comes out, no structure at all. Then I ask Claude to turn that into a proper project plan. Once I am happy with it, I copy the final version into Obsidian and that becomes the hub for that project.
On screen here you can see me typing out a rough brain dump into Claude, then Claude turning it into a structured plan, which I then paste into a new note in my vault.
There are three ways this helps someone with too much running through their head at once.
The first is you get everything out in one go, so nothing gets forgotten just because you did not have time to write it down properly.
The second is Claude gives you the structure, so a messy dump turns into a plan you can actually work from without you doing any formatting yourself.
And the third is the final plan lives in Obsidian, so it becomes the one place you can go back to, instead of being buried in a chat you will never scroll back to find.
Once that plan exists, the next problem is making sure it does not get scattered the moment the work actually starts.
Way 2 — Create One Project Control Centre in Obsidian
Before I did this, project information was everywhere, an email here, a Slack message there, a document somewhere else, and half of it just sitting in my memory.
Now every project gets one main note in Obsidian, what I call the project control centre. It holds the goal, the current status, the key deadlines, the next actions, the decisions made, the risks and blockers, and links out to any meeting notes for that project.
On screen here you can see one of my project control centre notes open, with every one of those sections filled in and ready to check at a glance.
There are three ways this helps someone with information scattered across too many places.
The first is you stop digging through four different apps just to answer where things stand.
The second is anyone, including future you, can open the note and get up to speed in a minute.
And the third is decisions and blockers get written down as they happen, instead of being kept in your head to explain to someone later.
Once each project has its own control centre, the next question is how you keep it updated, especially after meetings.
Way 3 — Use Claude to Summarise Meetings Into Actions
After a meeting I used to have rough notes, half typed, and by the next day I had forgotten who was meant to do what.
Now straight after a meeting I paste those rough notes into Claude and ask for the decisions made, the actions by owner, the open questions, the risks, and the follow ups. Then that goes straight into the project’s control centre note.
On screen here you can see me pasting a page of messy meeting notes into Claude, and it coming back with decisions, actions, and follow ups clearly laid out, which I then drop into the meeting notes section of my control centre.
There are three ways this helps someone who leaves meetings with good intentions and messy notes.
The first is nothing gets lost in translation between what was said in the meeting and what actually happens after it.
The second is actions get assigned to a person, not left vague, so following up is straightforward.
And the third is it takes minutes, so you actually do it after every meeting, not just the ones where something already went wrong.
Once your projects are updating themselves after every meeting, the next step is keeping an eye on all of them at once.
Way 4 — Build a Weekly Review System
With more than one project running, it is easy to lose track of what actually needs your attention this week and what can wait, and you can end the week not fully sure what got done and what quietly slipped.
Now I use Obsidian to keep a list of every active project, and once a week I paste that list into Claude and ask it to review these projects and tell me what needs attention, what looks blocked, what I may be forgetting, and what I should prioritise this week.
On screen here you can see me pasting my project list into Claude and it coming back with a clear read on what needs my attention first.
There are three ways this helps someone juggling several things at once.
The first is you get a second opinion on your week, not just your own read of it.
The second is things that would have quietly slipped get flagged before they become a real problem.
And the third is you start the week already knowing what matters most, instead of guessing on Monday morning.
The last piece is making sure every project you start gets treated the same way, instead of you rebuilding your system from scratch each time.
Way 5 — Use Templates So Every Project Is Managed the Same Way
Without a template, every new project becomes its own thing, a new structure to invent from scratch, and it is easy to end up managing five projects five different ways.
Now I use one Obsidian project template for everything. It covers the outcome, the current status as green, amber or red, the key dates, the next actions, what I am waiting on, the risks and issues, the decisions, the meeting notes, and links. I ask Claude to help me improve that template over time as I notice what is missing.
On screen here you can see me creating a brand new project note straight from that template, ready to fill in within a minute.
There are three ways this helps someone starting yet another new piece of work.
The first is every project starts from the same point, so you are never staring at a blank page working out what to include.
The second is the green, amber, red status means you can tell how a project is doing at a glance, without reading the whole note.
And the third is because Claude helps you improve the template, it keeps getting better instead of staying fixed the way you first wrote it.
This gives you a second brain plus a second pair of eyes. The real benefit is consistency, you stop reinventing your project management system every time a new piece of work lands on your desk.
Closing Wrap
So those are five ways Claude and Obsidian help me manage work projects without dropping the ball. Turning messy thoughts into a clear plan. One project control centre per project. Meetings summarised into actions. A weekly review that tells me what needs attention. And templates so every project runs the same way.
Every one of them comes back to the same idea: Claude helps you think, Obsidian helps you keep it.