Object Oriented Management in Obsidian (O3PM)

Intro

Obsidian is widely known as a powerful tool for personal knowledge management. Its core strength lies in turning plain text into a rich, interlinked knowledge graph. But that’s only the beginning. Beneath its note-taking surface lies a flexible engine—one that can support surprisingly structured workflows.

Why Use Obsidian for Project Management?

I tried a load of different tools for project management. Some were too limiting and clearly designed for the DAU (dumbest assumable user). Many PM tools—like Jira, Monday.com, or ClickUp—come with extensive feature sets, but also with rigidity, cost, and the habit of trying to force me into less than sub-optimal workflows.

Obsidian, in contrast, checked many of my boxes from the start—and with some tinkering and plugins, it offers:

Total flexibility in workflow design
Markdown-based simplicity and version control
A plugin ecosystem that adds powerful capabilities (e.g. Gantt charts, task tracking, budget and team monitoring, dashboards)
Offline-first reliability, with sync options

Check out this Intro to Obsidian to get a more detailed look at its features and strengths.

It’s no wonder, then, that over the past few years, I’ve been using Obsidian not just as a knowledge tool, but as the foundation for a full-fledged, object-oriented project management system I call O3PM or Object Oriented Management in Obsidian. Instead of organizing projects as static lists or folders, I manage them as networks of interrelated objects—each representing tasks, files, people, or goals, and each carrying their own relationships and states.

This article serves as the hub of that approach. Below, you’ll find links to all related articles—each one diving into a core aspect of O3PM.

Conceptual Foundation

Intro to Object oriented Project Management (OOPM)

Object-Oriented Project Management (OOPM) is a methodology that reimagines projects not as a sequence of tasks, but as interconnected systems of goal-driven objects. Inspired by principles from software engineering, OOPM offers a powerful approach for navigating complexity, enabling better reuse of knowledge, clearer delegation, and more flexible execution. This article explores the philosophy, practical implementation, benefits, and limitations of OOPM—making a case for when and why this model may be the key to building smarter, more resilient projects.

Setting up Obsidian for O3PM

The Building Blocks of Project Management in Obsidian

The components below reflect the essential functions of a project management system. Each links to a deeper article explaining strategies, plugins, templates, and best practices to implement that function in Obsidian.

Project Planning
Requirements Management
Time Management
Task Management
Knowledge & Documentation
Team & Resource Management
Risk & Issue Management
Budget & Cost Tracking
Process & Workflow Structuring
Communication & Team Interfacing

Planning

Before any execution begins, a project needs structure, goals, and direction. In O3PM, project planning starts by creating a central project note that defines the “why” and outlines the “what.” From there, goals are formulated, linked, and recursively connected to the building blocks required to achieve them. These articles explore how to turn your Obsidian vault into a planning machine.

Gantt Charts in Obsidian

A day without Gantt Charts is a lost day.

Gantt-charts in Obsidian through Mermaid

As a project manager, keeping track of timelines is essential. With Obsidian and the Mermaid diagram syntax, you can manually create Gantt charts right inside your notes — no external tools required. This hands-on approach gives you full control over how your project timeline is visualized and keeps your planning embedded in your documentation.

Automating Gantt Charts in Obsidian with Mermaid and Dataview

Updating Gantt charts manually is time-consuming and error-prone — especially when stakeholders demand different versions. This article shows how to automate Gantt chart generation in Obsidian using DataviewJS and Mermaid. With dynamic metadata-driven timelines, project planning becomes easier, faster, and far more maintainable.

More articles are on the way. This hub will grow as we continue to expand the O3PM method—so stay tuned and check back soon. 🙂
Have a specific O3PM workflow or challenge you’d like us to cover? Drop a comment and let us know!