CPD Vault Template (Obsidian)

A structured Obsidian vault template for planning and tracking personal development over multiple years using:

6 core life areas (plus Life Ops & Community as an optional 7th area)
Quarterly priorities
Weekly / quarterly / yearly reviews
Projects with a consistent folder + note layout
Kanban boards for execution
Dashboards powered by Dataview + Tasks

Built to be consistent across every area so you don’t waste brainpower deciding where things go.

Paths are shown relative to the vault root. If your vault folder is named “CPD”, that may appear in your file system but not in Obsidian settings. The root of the vault is the name of your vault. In this case its: CPD/

Prerequisites

Required

Obsidian
A copy of this vault folder structure

Required community plugins (for this template as shipped)

Install/enable these Obsidian community plugins:

Templater by SilentVoid — create notes from templates (auto-dates, prompts, etc.)
Kanban by Mgmeyers — boards inside Obsidian (per-area + global)
Tasks by Clare Macrae & Llyas Landikov — query tasks across the vault (dashboards)
Dataview by Michael Brenan — dashboard tables/lists (Timeline + indexes)
Mind Map by James Lynch — mind map support (required if you want the included mind map features/pages to work)

Optional plugins (nice-to-have)

Not required, but helpful:

Excalidraw by Zsolt Viczian — diagrams / sketches
Calendar by Liam Cain — daily/weekly navigation
Git by Vinzent — commit/push from inside Obsidian
Mermaid Tools by Dartungar — nicer authoring for Mermaid diagrams
Anything else you like (Advanced Tables, Callout Manager, Dictionary, etc.)

Quick plugin setup

Templater

Obsidian → Settings → Community plugins → install/enable Templater
In Templater settings:
- Template folder location: 90 - System/00 - Templates

If you use Templater user scripts:

Put scripts under: 90 - System/20 - Scripts/Templater
Set User scripts folder to: 90 - System/20 - Scripts/Templater

If Templater “doesn’t detect” the folder: double-check the path, ensure the folder exists, then reload Obsidian.

Dataview, Tasks and Mind Map

Install and enable all. No special config required to start.
The dashboards and maps will auto-populate as you add goals/priorities/reviews/tasks.

Vault structure (top level)

00 - Dashboard/
Control room: MindMap, global CPD Kanban, Timeline, and an Inbox note for quick dumps.
10 - Fun/
20 - Health/
30 - Home/
40 - Money/
50 - Relationships/
60 - Work/
70 - Life Ops & Community/ (included; optional to keep)
Admin/appointments/renewals/events/community contributions. You can also repurpose/rename this to another category if you want.
80 - Sandbox/
Safe place for experiments/drafts. You can also repurpose/rename this to another category if you want.
90 - System/
Templates, scripts, attachments, and vault “plumbing”. The templates folder has many useful templates.

Inside each main section (same everywhere)

Each area uses the same internal layout:

00 - Hub.md
Home page for that area. Recommended contents:
- fixed links: Goals / Priorities / Kanban / Projects / Logs / Rules
- “Top 3” focus for the area
- active project links (3–7)
- quick inbox dump area
Use the Hub template in 90 - System/00 - Templates to keep hubs consistent.
10 - Plans & Goals/
- Rules & non-negotiables
- Year goals
- Quarterly priorities
20 - Kanban/
The action board for that area. Create/populate it by inserting the Kanban template (Templater) or copy the default Kanban layout provided in templates.
30 - Projects/
One folder per project (anything that takes more than one session). Each project folder typically includes:
- 00 - Overview.md
- 10 - Checklist.md
- 20 - Notes.md
- 30 - Retro.md
40 - Logs/
Weekly / quarterly / yearly reviews.
50 - Reference/
Notes, resources, links, manuals (stuff that doesn’t “move”).
90 - Archive/
Completed/old material that you don’t want in your face.

Recommended workflow (simple + sustainable)

1) Use the Dashboard

Open:

00 - Dashboard/00 - MindMap.md
00 - Dashboard/10 - CPD Kanban.md
00 - Dashboard/20 - Timeline.md
00 - Dashboard/30 - Inbox.md (recommended quick dump note)

2) Quarterly: set priorities (per area)

In each area, update: 10 - Plans & Goals/20 - Priorities/Qx - YYYY.md

Keep it small:

1 focus sentence
Top 3 priorities
1–3 projects max

3) Weekly: review + pick next actions

Fill in the weekly review note for the current week (per area, or just one global review if you prefer).
Move tasks into:

Area Kanban boards
Or the global CPD Kanban (links only; keep details in project notes)

4) Projects: keep context in one place

Projects hold the context (notes, plan, decisions).
Kanban holds the flow (what’s next).

Creating new projects (fast)

Option A: Copy the project template folder

In any area: 30 - Projects/90 - Template/

Copy the template files into a new folder: 30 - Projects/XX - Your Project Name/

Option B: PowerShell project generator (included)

This template includes a PowerShell script that creates a new project folder and copies in template files automatically. Run PowerShell from the vault root. Please be mindful of PowerShell execution policy. If PowerShell blocks scripts, you can allow it for the current session:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process Bypass -Force

ALWAYS read scripts and understand what they are doing before you run them!

Script location (this repo’s structure):

90 - System/20 - Scripts/New-CpdProject.ps1

One-time per PowerShell session: load the function

. ".\90 - System\20 - Scripts\New-CpdProject.ps1"

Create a project

New-CpdProject -Area Fun -Name "Fallout 1 - Main Story" -AddToKanban

Choose the Kanban column

New-CpdProject -Area Work -Name "Course - eJPT" -AddToKanban -KanbanColumn "Someday / Backlog"

Force a specific number (optional)

New-CpdProject -Area Money -Name "Emergency Fund" -Number 10 -AddToKanban

Git + publishing notes

This repo is intended to be shareable as a template vault.
Avoid committing personal state files. Don’t commit .obsidian/plugins/ unless you want to ship your exact plugin setup.

Recommended .gitignore entries:

# =========================
# OS / editor junk
# =========================
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db
ehthumbs.db
desktop.ini
*.swp
*.swo
*.tmp
*.bak
*.log
*~

/.idea/
/.vscode/

# =========================
# Obsidian: local-only state
# =========================
/.obsidian/cache/
/.obsidian/workspace*.json
/.trash/
/.obsidian/plugins/

# =========================
# Optional: keep public repo clean
# (ignore attachments if you don't want them in the template)
# =========================
/90 - System/10 - Attachments/

License (MIT)

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE in the repo root.