Never Lose a YouTube Insight Again: My 5-Step AI + Obsidian Workflow

Have you ever watched a truly insightful YouTube video—only to forget its most important concepts a month later? It happens to all of us. We think we’ll remember that brilliant quote or idea, but it slips away as we move on to other things.

And it also happens to me all the time.

That’s exactly why I created a simple, repeatable system that lets you capture, summarize, and store YouTube insights so you can always find them when you need them most.

Best part? It only takes five steps, thanks to AI and a handy note-taking tool called Obsidian.

And this is exactly what I will be showing you today!

In this newsletter, you’ll learn how to:

1. Quickly grab transcripts from any YouTube video

2. Summarize hours of content in seconds using AI

3. Organize every insight neatly in Obsidian

Ready to transform your passive YouTube watching into active learning?

Let’s dive in.

The Workflow Overview

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, let’s look at the big picture. The goal is to turn your casual YouTube watching into a reliable research pipeline.

Here’s how it works at a glance:

1. Select a High-Value Video – You pick something packed with insights you know you’ll want to revisit.

2. Prepare Your Obsidian Template – You use a simple structure that keeps your notes organized and easy to search.

3. Grab the Transcript Automatically – A free plugin saves you from manual typing.

4. Summarize with AI – Let a language model highlight key themes and quotes.

5. Store & Organize in Obsidian – Everything goes into one place for quick retrieval.

Think of this as your personal YouTube Knowledge Machine. It ensures nothing slips through the cracks and makes referencing past insights a breeze.

Step 1: Pick a High-Value Video

We all watch countless YouTube videos, but not all are worth archiving. Choose something that genuinely adds value to your life or work—maybe a deep-dive interview, a masterclass, or a long-form tutorial.

When you feel you’re learning a lot and want to keep those insights, that’s a sign the video belongs in your vault.

For the purpose of this article, we’ll capture insights from Ali Abdaal’s recent video titled: “My Honest Advice to Anyone Starting YouTube in 2025”

Step 2: Use an Obsidian “Highlight Template”

Obsidian is fantastic because it allows you to create templates tailored to your needs.

We need to set up a template note that includes:

• Title and Link – So you know exactly where to find the original content.

• Key Insights and Quotes – Capture the big ideas, quotes, and “aha!” moments.

• Summary – A place for your AI-generated overview.

Having this template means you never start with a blank page and you’ll consistently capture the most important information.

Here’s the template that I use (feel free to copy or tailor it to your needs):

#youtube_video 
I'm writing a newsletter and I look for inspiration on YouTube.

You will receive the transcript of the video that I want you to analyze.

Please use this information to fill out the template sections: key themes, top highlights, notable quotes and potential applications of the ideas from the transcript to my future content pieces (newsletter that will be also turned into a YouTube script and other pieces of content). When creating the highlights remember about [[Clear Not Clever]] principle:
```
- Principle: Clarity trumps creativity in communication
- Key aspects:
    - Use 3rd-5th grade language
    - Focus on comprehension over impression
    - Simplify complex ideas
- Benefits:
    - Higher conversion rates
    - Broader audience understanding
    - Faster message absorption
```
Remember to use the whole transcript to extract information. Don't focus on any particular part of the transcript. If there's a structure in the video (e.g. list of question, list of points, frameworks discussed) make sure to highlight it.
# Video metadata
- Author: [Author]
- Full Title: [Video Title]

![paste video_url in the round brackets]()

---
## Transcript
In this section, paste the transcript that you want to analyze.
[Transcript]

---
## 🎯 Key Themes
[Identify the overarching themes or takeaways from the video. Summarize in bullet points or short paragraphs.]
- Theme 1: <e.g., Building resilience in tough times.>
- Theme 2: <e.g., The power of daily habits.>
- Theme 3: <e.g., Storytelling as a tool for connection.>

---

## ✨ Top Highlights
List the most impactful or actionable insights that can inspire your content. Summarize ideas in 1–2 sentences.
1. <Highlight 1>
2. <Highlight 2>
3. <Highlight 3>

---

## 🗨️ Notable Quotes
Extract and format the most striking or tweet-worthy quotes from the transcript and give your perspective why they're important. Recall over Precision, I'm okay with going through more quotes and selecting only the ones that I like.
- "Quote 1" - reason
- "Quote 2" - reason
- "Quote 3" - reason
- "Quote 4" - reason
- ...

---

## 🔮 Potential Applications
Brainstorm how you might use these insights in your own content.
- Blog post idea: <e.g., "How Small Habits Build Big Results."
- Tweet thread: <e.g., "5 Lessons on Resilience from [Video Title/Creator Name].">
- Content hook: <e.g., "Did you know that [quote or idea]? Let's explore how this can transform your mindset.">

---
## 🏗️ Video Structure

If the video follows any specific structure, e.g. 
- list of points 
- description of a framework 
- question answering 

Make sure to reflect this structure in this section

---

**Tips for Usage**:
- **Tag videos with relevant themes** (e.g., #mindset, #productivity, #storytelling) for easier searchability.
- Use the “Potential Applications” section to turn inspiration into actionable content ideas.
- Remember to use the whole transcript to extract information. Don't focus on any particular part of the transcript. If there's a structure in the video (e.g. list of question, list of points, frameworks discussed) make sure to highlight it.

To use it in your Obsidian Vault, make sure to configure your Templates folder location in the settings:

After you’ve got the template folder configured, just create a new note in it, and paste the template I shared with you!

Okay, after we’ve got the configuration out of the way, it’s time to insert the template into a new note and fill in the video metadata:

• Create a new empty note

• enter command+P (or ctrl+P if you’re a Windows user) and type in “Insert Template”. Here are the templates I use, but for the purpose of this video, we select “YouTube Highlights” (this is the name of the note with the template, it can be different in your case):

  

• Fill in the video metadata:

  • Title (“My Honest Advice to Anyone Starting YouTube in 2025”)

  • Author (“Ali Abdaal”)

  • Video URL (in the video embed prepared in the template)

This is how the note should look like right now:

Now it’s time to transcribe the video (right inside Obsidian)!

Step 3: Grab the Transcript with YTranscript

To run the AI-powered highlights, we need a video transcript. That’s why I rely on a free Obsidian plugin called YTranscript.

1. Install it from the Community Plugins section in the Settings and enable it.

   

   After installing the plugin, set the Timestamp interval to a high value as it will make it easier to drag and drop the video transcript into Obsidian note. I set it to 10000.

   

   YTranscript settings. Set the Timestamp interval to 10000.

2. Highlight the video’s URL (in the note) and open the command palette (Command+P or Control+P).

3. Let YTranscript fetch the text. It will appear in the right panel in the Obsidian UI.

   

   After selecting the URL, select the YTranscript command

   

   This is how the fetched transcript will look in the right panel

4. Drag and drop the transcript from the right panel into your Obsidian note.

   

You have every word from the video at your fingertips, ready to be processed or highlighted.

Now it’s time for AI magic!

Step 4: Summarize with AI

This is where the magic happens.

Copy and paste the whole template (containing the transcript and the structure of the summary) into a large language model (like ChatGPT or Claude).

I’m using Claude for that (in my opinion works better than GPT-4o and I don’t want to waste my precious o1 call for summarization), but you can test what works best for you:

The AI Assistant analyzes the transcript and fills out the template attached at the end of the prompt.

In the final answer, we'll receive:

• Key Themes

• Top Highlights

• Notable Quotes

• Potential Applications (If you'd like to use the video as inspiration for your own content)

• Video Structure (The AI will look for any frameworks described in the video)

In seconds, you get an organized summary. It's like having your own research assistant!

Step 5: Store & Organize in Obsidian

Finally, drop that AI summary into your Obsidian note. Link it to other relevant notes or topics, and you’re done.

Here’s how I do it.

Store reference to videos and quotes in the author’s note

I create a centralized note for each author (e.g. YouTube channel). I link all of the highlighted content in there.

This is what it looks like for Ali Abdaal

Note that this was the first Ali Abdaal video analyzed like this. That’s why there’s only one entry in Quotes.

If you have more videos, just keep adding them to the author’s note. This is what it looks like for Alex Hormozi:

This is how I create an inspiration swipe file for the creators I like watching.

Create a general swipe file notes

The other way to approach it is to create a swipe file per topic.

I keep a few swipe files from the topics I’m most into:

Each file stores the quotes and references to the videos I previously analyzed:

By storing everything in one place, you’ll never have to dig through your YouTube history again. A quick search in Obsidian is all it takes to find those golden insights.

Congrats on reaching the end of this week’s newsletter issue!

If you used the template I shared, feel free to answer this email and let me know if it worked for you or if you’d like to improve something!

This is definitely not the last version of this template so I’m really open to your feedback!

Stay inspired!

Luke