---
cssclasses: table-wide
Date-Added: 2025-12-14
Period: Dec 7, 2025 - Dec 14, 2025
AI: Google Gemini 2.5 Flash
Source: Reddit
tags:
  - "#N8N"
  - "#Automations"
  - "#Obsidian"
  - "#Reddit"
---

# 🔍 Reddit Analysis: r/ObsidianMD
> **Generated**: 12/14/2025  
> **Period**: Dec 7, 2025 - Dec 14, 2025  
> **AI Model**: Google Gemini 2.5 Flash

## 📊 Quick Stats

| Metric | Value |
|--------|-------|
| **Total Posts Analyzed** | 3 |
| **Average Score** | 26 |
| **Average Comments** | 0 |
| **Analysis Period** | Last 7 days |

## 🔥 Top Posts

### 1. Loving Obsidian for my academic literature workflow!

> **🚀 Productivity Potential:** high | **⭐ Uniqueness:** 9/10

**[View on Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/1pmglpy/loving_obsidian_for_my_academic_literature/)** · ↑52

**Summary:** The user describes an automated academic literature review workflow. It involves daily retrieval of articles from dozens of RSS feeds, an LLM agent (GPT-4o-mini, ~$2/year) that scores abstracts for relevance based on user interests, weekly GitHub Actions to curate a list of top articles into a Markdown file, and local scripts to pull this into Obsidian. In Obsidian, a dedicated workspace helps manage the curated reading list, integrating with Zotero for reading and annotation. This system saves at least an hour a week and provides highly relevant article suggestions.

**Key Insights:**
- Leveraging LLMs (even small, cheap ones like GPT-4o-mini) for intelligent filtering and scoring of information (e.g., academic abstracts) can significantly reduce manual effort.
- Combining cloud automation (GitHub Actions) with local scripts and Obsidian creates a powerful, hands-off system for information curation.
- A dedicated Obsidian workspace with integrated tools (Zotero) and dynamic content (curated reading lists) enhances a specific workflow like academic literature review.
- Openly sharing complex workflows and code (GitHub repo) benefits the wider community and encourages collaboration.
- Automation of initial information sifting can save significant time, even if the final reading and annotation is manual.

---

### 2. Is there a way to add side notes in Obsidian?

> **🚀 Productivity Potential:** high | **⭐ Uniqueness:** 8/10

**[View on Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/1pmlq5s/is_there_a_way_to_add_side_notes_in_obsidian/)** · ↑17

**Summary:** The user is looking for a way to add 'side notes' or 'sticky notes' linked to specific parts of their main text (e.g., chapters) in Obsidian. They want these notes to appear alongside the main text when selected, similar to comments in LibreOffice, staying separate but linked. They haven't found a native option or a plugin that provides this specific functionality for chapter-specific side notes.

**Key Insights:**
- Users desire a visual side-panel annotation system akin to LibreOffice comments, separate from main text but contextually linked.
- Current Obsidian features (block embeds, callouts) and existing plugins do not fully satisfy the need for dynamically displayed, external side notes.
- This feature would greatly benefit long-form writing, research, and collaborative editing workflows in Obsidian.
- There's a gap in Obsidian's annotation tools for non-inline, context-aware comments.

---

### 3. Cannot see the sidebar, please help

> **🚀 Productivity Potential:** medium | **⭐ Uniqueness:** 6/10

**[View on Reddit](https://i.redd.it/go9iteybp77g1.png)** · ↑9

**Summary:** A new Obsidian user is unable to see the left sidebar, which provides access to core features like the Graph View. The problem persists even after disabling custom themes, suggesting a potential UI issue or accidental collapse.

**Key Insights:**
- New users frequently struggle with basic UI navigation and accidental hiding of panels.
- The discoverability of sidebar restoration (e.g., dragging the edge) is not intuitive for all users.
- A 'reset layout' or 'restore default sidebars' option could prevent frustration for new users.
- Important features like Graph View become inaccessible, hindering early adoption and exploration.

![Reddit Preview](https://preview.redd.it/go9iteybp77g1.png?auto=webp&s=8e45cb3fa8545deb3372c288bcdf667bf9eb4855)

---

## 📌 About This Report

This automated analysis identifies the most valuable discussions from r/ObsidianMD each week. Posts are filtered for productivity potential and uniqueness to surface actionable insights for Obsidian users.

**Categories:**
- High Productivity Potential: Major workflow improvements
- Medium Productivity Potential: Useful tips and enhancements

Generated automatically by Paul's Vault intelligence system.