I stopped using Notion for writing after realizing Obsidian doesn't make me think about structure first

A personal account of switching from Notion to Obsidian for writing-heavy workflows. The core argument is that Notion forces structural decisions before writing begins, while Obsidian's plain markdown files, bidirectional linking, and minimal-by-default design reduce friction and keep writers in flow. Key advantages covered include local file ownership, frictionless note capture, inline bidirectional links, and an opt-in plugin ecosystem. Notion is acknowledged as still superior for real-time collaboration and database-driven workflows.