BeautyTasks and Plainva
Started by MadaboutDana
on 7/31/2026
Obsidian is the shared platform for both of the following:
(a) BeautyTasks
For those using Obsidian as a main PKM, you might want to take a look at the BeautyTasks plugin by Avni Bilgin. An attempt to recreate Todoist in pure "Obsidian", as it were (i.e. using nothing more than YAML and notes), it's one of the most elegant task management apps out there – and Avni is super enthusiastic, so keeps enhancing it further.
It's very stable, and because of the simple underlying structure, is easy to sync to multiple platforms (I cancelled my Obsidian Sync subscription recently in favour of using an embedded Obsidian solution – another plugin called WebDAV Sync – to keep my various vaults synchronised; there are many other solutions using e.g. OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. etc.)
Of course the best-known task management system for Obsidian is Tasks, which has been around for years and caused an entire Tasks-oriented ecosystem to evolve. But Tasks can take some setting up, which is why I've never been super-enthusiastic. BeautyTasks... just works. But at the same time, you can use all the usual Obsidian functions (file management, search, property editing) to interact with the underlying notes. Or create separate bases using the BeautyTasks YAML properties, of course.
The GitHub page for BeautyTasks – https://github.com/avnibilgin/BeautyTasks – is interesting, but nothing beats actually trying it. You have multiple display options: the standard Todoist-a-like List option, or Boards (kanban) or Calendar (which can be synced with Google Calendar, too – in fact you can two-way sync tasks to your Google Calendar(s) if you so wish. I generally avoid Google, but I confess I've found this trick useful for transferring stuff from Mac to Android).
(b) Plainva
For those interested in an all-in-one, open-source solution for accessing Obsidian vaults, there's an interesting new player in the game: Plainva – https://plainva.com – which focuses on doing all the most useful PKM things Obsidian does, but without the plugins. I keep an eye on it, but don't currently use it in anger (the Android Beta is okay, but underdeveloped compared to the desktop version). Plainva makes a virtue of being more or less totally compatible with Obsidian, and can create/open Obsidian (data)bases. It's also very elegant. Oh, and it does its own syncing, again using WebDAV (it creates or uses a local vault, then automatically keeps it synchronised with your preferred online storage provider).
Just a couple of tips for those still CRIMPing in/around Obsidian!
Cheers,
Bill
(a) BeautyTasks
For those using Obsidian as a main PKM, you might want to take a look at the BeautyTasks plugin by Avni Bilgin. An attempt to recreate Todoist in pure "Obsidian", as it were (i.e. using nothing more than YAML and notes), it's one of the most elegant task management apps out there – and Avni is super enthusiastic, so keeps enhancing it further.
It's very stable, and because of the simple underlying structure, is easy to sync to multiple platforms (I cancelled my Obsidian Sync subscription recently in favour of using an embedded Obsidian solution – another plugin called WebDAV Sync – to keep my various vaults synchronised; there are many other solutions using e.g. OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. etc.)
Of course the best-known task management system for Obsidian is Tasks, which has been around for years and caused an entire Tasks-oriented ecosystem to evolve. But Tasks can take some setting up, which is why I've never been super-enthusiastic. BeautyTasks... just works. But at the same time, you can use all the usual Obsidian functions (file management, search, property editing) to interact with the underlying notes. Or create separate bases using the BeautyTasks YAML properties, of course.
The GitHub page for BeautyTasks – https://github.com/avnibilgin/BeautyTasks – is interesting, but nothing beats actually trying it. You have multiple display options: the standard Todoist-a-like List option, or Boards (kanban) or Calendar (which can be synced with Google Calendar, too – in fact you can two-way sync tasks to your Google Calendar(s) if you so wish. I generally avoid Google, but I confess I've found this trick useful for transferring stuff from Mac to Android).
(b) Plainva
For those interested in an all-in-one, open-source solution for accessing Obsidian vaults, there's an interesting new player in the game: Plainva – https://plainva.com – which focuses on doing all the most useful PKM things Obsidian does, but without the plugins. I keep an eye on it, but don't currently use it in anger (the Android Beta is okay, but underdeveloped compared to the desktop version). Plainva makes a virtue of being more or less totally compatible with Obsidian, and can create/open Obsidian (data)bases. It's also very elegant. Oh, and it does its own syncing, again using WebDAV (it creates or uses a local vault, then automatically keeps it synchronised with your preferred online storage provider).
Just a couple of tips for those still CRIMPing in/around Obsidian!
Cheers,
Bill