Obsidian Second Brain Template: Free Folder Map + Daily Note Template

A second-brain vault in Obsidian is six numbered folders and a handful of notes that link to each other. This page shows the whole structure, gives you a complete daily note template to copy, and an 8-item weekly review checklist. Everything here is plain markdown, no plugins. The full vault behind it ships for one price, but this page alone is enough to build your own. If you would rather keep the same system in a database instead of files, the lite Notion dashboard blueprint puts six views on one page. For the days you would rather not open a screen at all, the paper daily planner prints the same one-thing-first day on a single sheet.

The Folder Map

Second-brain structure is usually some flavor of PARA (Projects, Areas, Resources, Archive). Numbering the folders pins their sort order, so the sidebar always reads top to bottom in priority order: what you are doing, what you maintain, what you saved, what is dead. Templates get the highest number so they sit at the bottom, out of the way.

This is the exact folder map from the vault this page describes, not an idealized diagram.

What Lives in Each Folder

How the Notes Link Together

The dashboard note in 00-Home links to everything: the Inbox for raw capture, the Projects Index, the three Area notes, the worked examples, and both review templates. You start every session there, click through to what you are working on, and come back. New notes always get created through a template, so every project note carries the same structure and the index stays honest. That is the entire trick: one map, consistent templates, and a weekly pass that keeps both true.

Free Sample: the Complete Daily Note Template

Copy this into a note called Daily Note inside a 90-Templates folder, then enable Obsidian's core Templates plugin (Settings > Core plugins > Templates, set the folder to 90-Templates). The {{date}} token fills in today's date when you insert the template.

---
title: Daily Note
type: template
tags:
 - daily
---

# {{date}}

## One thing

The single item that makes today count:

-

## Plan

- [ ] morning block:
- [ ] afternoon block:
- [ ] evening block:

## Log

Honest minutes, not a diary. Times optional.

-

## Capture

Raw thoughts, pastes, links. Sort into [[Inbox]] or straight to their homes in the [[Weekly Review]].

-

## Close (2 minutes, end of day)

- [ ] One thing: done, or moved with a reason
- [ ] Tomorrow's one thing written down
- [ ] Inbox: anything urgent filed, rest waits for the weekly pass

Copied word for word from the vault's 90-Templates/Daily Note.md. Wikilinks like [[Inbox]] resolve once you create those notes; until then they render as plain text and break nothing. The three blocks that make it work: "One thing" forces a daily priority before the noise, Capture gives raw thoughts a designated parking spot so they stop interrupting, and Close is a two-minute end-of-day sweep that turns one day of notes into tomorrow's starting point.

Free Sample: the Weekly Review Checklist

The weekly review is the habit that keeps a second brain alive. Twenty minutes, once a week, Sunday evening works for most people. Four passes, eight checkboxes:

1. ☐Pass 1, Inbox to zero (5 min): open the Inbox note. Every line gets promoted to a project, an area, a resource note, or deleted. Count at the end: 0.
2. ☐Pass 2, Projects (7 min): check the Projects Index. Every row still true? Fix outcomes that drifted.
3. ☐Dead projects get their status line updated, the note moves to 40-Archive, the row comes out.
4. ☐Each active project gets its next physical action written in. New project idea? Create it from the template now or drop it.
5. ☐Pass 3, Areas (5 min): one log line each for Health, Finance, and Learning. A moving-days count or a buffer number is enough.
6. ☐Pass 4, Set the week (3 min): pick the week's one big thing.
7. ☐Book a calendar block for it now, not later.
8. ☐Nudge anything waiting on other people that is worth a nudge.

Done means: inbox 0, project rows true, three area log lines, one booked block. A rough review that happens beats a perfect one that waits.

What the Full Vault Adds

Everything above is free on this page, and building your own vault from it is a perfectly good weekend. The paid pack exists because assembling the 22 notes so they cross-link correctly, writing the conventions so they hold up after week three, and testing the setup took longer than of time. Specifically, the full vault adds:

• 22 connected notes - dashboard, conventions, FAQ, projects, areas, resources, and a worked example project ("Publish a Short Story Collection") you can read to see the structure filled in before you commit your own work to it.
• 5 review templates - Daily Note (above), Weekly Review, Monthly Review, Project Kickoff, and Meeting Note, all in the same voice and same checkbox style, so the habit transfers between them.
• Wikilink-verified - every [[wikilink]] in the vault was checked against the actual file list, so no dead links on day one. The dashboard's every-link-points-at-a-real-note claim was tested, not assumed.
• Setup in 30 minutes - unzip, "Open folder as vault" in Obsidian, turn on the Templates core plugin with 90-Templates as the location. No community plugins, so it works on mobile and syncs through any file-sync service.
• Plain markdown you own - every file is .md. If you quit Obsidian tomorrow, the vault opens unchanged in any markdown editor.

one-time · 22 markdown notes · no plugins · personal use · instant download