I have converted my notes to markdown and you should too

Published: 2026-04-08

I’ve loved using OneNote. I’ve tried all the others and kept coming back to the organization afforded by OneNote.

Recently a switch flipped in my head and I NEEDED the flexibility of markdown.

• they’re just files, save them wherever you like (make sure they’re backed up) and organize with files
• edit in notepad or vi or nano or ANYTHING because it’s just text
• I personally am using Obsidian, but use whatever you like
• AI. This is my biggest reason. I’ve been dabbling since GPT3 and feel that AI has the potential to amplify the good in humans (of course the bad too, but that’s like any tool; the internet, a hammer, etc. Anything can be used for evil if the user is evil)

With tools like Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Openclaw… all these things live in a folder of .md files.

If you keep all the notes that are important to you (or even just a subset of them) in a place where your AI tool of the day can reach them, you’ve basically got a portable brain for whatever AI tool or model comes out in the future.

I feel like my notes are futureproofed and superpowered now.

Even if OneNote one day supports md files, no way they’d just store them like Obsidian giving you freedom to access them. They’d keep them stuck in some Microsoft format.

Go for it. If you’re on the fence, this is your push. Try out markdown.