I’ve tried a lot of note-taking apps with the goal of becoming more organized, and none of them really ticked all the boxes. I liked Google Keep for its broad compatibility, Obsidian for its backlinks, Capacities for its attractive interface, and Notion for its customization. Still, none of them felt like the app I genuinely wanted to open every morning.

I turned to Reddit for an answer, and the r/opensource community highly recommended Trilium Notes. This free, open-source app flew under my radar, but after spending a weekend building my own knowledge system inside it, I was convinced that I’d found “the one.”

The biggest change is in my approach

Trilium doesn’t just organize files; it also organizes knowledge

Most note-taking apps encourage you to think in folders, but Trilium Notes encouraged me to think more structurally. Every note can contain other notes, and this hierarchy fosters better organization and feels more like a personal wiki than a digital filing cabinet.

I started by creating a simple four-part knowledge OS:

• Projects
• Learning
• Library
• Life

Simplicity is the keyword here, as I am encouraged to compartmentalize everything I do into these categories. Projects holds active work, Learning contains skills I’m developing, Library stores evergreen ideas, and Life keeps practical stuff like shopping, finances, travel, meal planning, and so on.

My next step was to create a homepage called Knowledge OS, my command center. It includes quick links to my four workspaces, an Inbox for quickly capturing ideas, and a Daily Focus section where I jot down three daily priorities.

The feature that won me over

Project templates changed the way I work

Trilium Notes allows me to create templates that form the basis of my workflow. For example, each of my projects starts with the same blueprint:

• Project Dashboard
• Research
• Tasks
• Meetings
• Assets
• Archive

Whenever I start something new, instead of staring at a blank page, I duplicate this template and get to work straightaway. The Project Dashboard includes the project’s overall vision, its status, the week’s objectives, milestones, its end goal, and a Next Action space where I add the single most important next step. This gets me off to a good start and helps me keep things rolling.

I’ve become more focused in my studies

The Learning section acts as my personal university

The whole point of building a new app was to ultimately become more organized in project planning, and, in particular, my studies. My days in formal education may be decades behind me, but I always have new skills I want to acquire and old skills I need to improve. Trilium Notes has already made me more focused and energized in my approach to learning.

I started by creating a space for projects that currently interest me, namely AI, Docker, and guitar, without creating hundreds of disconnected notes. Each subject now has a cloned dashboard with:

• Learning goal
• Weekly focus
• Key concepts
• Resources
• Practice
• Insights
• Review

Each topic grows organically as I work, and I can easily refer back to what I have covered, remind myself of what I learned, or brush up on that specific skill. I like how this hierarchy works, especially keeping Practice separate from Notes, since one stores knowledge and the other stores experience.

Even my personal life is better organized

The Life dashboard was a surprisingly important addition

Using Trilium Notes for everyday life wasn’t high on my agenda, but it has quickly become one of my most useful sections. My Life workspace menu looks like this:

• Today
• Weekly Review
• Shopping
• Food
• Finances
• Travel

Building a dashboard where I can quickly access financial planning, shopping lists, and travel information helps me keep upcoming events, purchases, and transactions within easy reach. It also includes a daily command center for priorities and focus, and a weekly review where I can reflect on the past week and prepare for the week ahead. Because each page follows the same structure, each is easy to navigate without becoming overwhelming.

Trilium’s default appearance is admittedly plain

No note-taking app is perfect, but there are ways to improve aesthetics

Trilium Notes doesn’t beat Notion on one important factor: its appearance. Right off the bat, it looks decidedly plain and uninspiring, but that gave me a blank canvas to work with and build something truly unique.

With a few carefully chosen minimalist banners, custom icons, and consistent fonts, it became a workspace I genuinely enjoy using. I gave each major section its own visual identity, with a blue mountain landscape for Projects, a warm amber tone for Learning, a natural green for Library, and a pastel purple for Life.

Eventually, I’ll try using custom CSS to give Trilium a complete makeover, with rounded menu cards, improved typography, and more stylized features. I also plan to host it in Docker, along with my other self-hosted apps, so one central Trilium server will sync my Mac, iPad, and any future devices.

Sometimes, the simple solutions work the best

Trilium Notes turned out to be exactly what I was after. I didn’t need collaboration features, AI pop-ups, or endless database options; I just wanted to think more clearly and be better organized.

Because it’s open source, my data stays on my computer. It works offline, loads instantly, and doesn’t require a subscription. If I ever want synchronization later, I can self-host it, but I’m perfectly happy using the desktop app alone for now.

After trying nearly every Notion alternative people recommend, I didn’t expect the winner to be a free app that barely advertises itself. Yet Trilium Notes is the one that will help me most with improving productivity, thinking about projects, focusing on learning, and actioning my ideas.