| creation date | modification date |
|---|---|
2022-10-04 09:04 |
Tuesday 4th October 2022 09:04:48 |
#note #obsidian #tools Iteratively update this note with Obsidian-related workflows and use-cases. Why write this? I use Obsidian in like 7 different ways, and I'd like to spell it out for myself, and others who ask. I might also use this doc as a spec for an eventual thinking refactor.
- no thesaurus plugin?
Outlining in broad strokes how I want to use Obsidian for personal and share-able reference. I don't want to go into detail on stuff like Vim mode or key-remapping, but I might outline any particularly complicated processes in the future, or I might keep them in their own notes, like:
- [[n-Obsidian-templater-docs]]
- [[n-obsidian-quickadd-plugin-notes]]
- [[a-Obsidian-extension-notes]]
A programmatically extendable markdown text application for journaling, note taking, concept graphing, self-organization, and more, stored on my local filesystem with Vim-like keybindings and an excellent extension ecosystem. The premium features are also pretty good, though very easily avoidable if I wanted to set up self-hosting.
- I could try very hard to set up Obsidian as a project management tool, complete with todos, projects, etc. Obsidian isn't geared to manage todos. Use Linear for todo management. Obsidian works great for project documents though.
- For tabling with formulas, markdown tables aren't that good. Use a spreadsheet, or even a program.
- storing links: I think a well organized bookmark system has proved mostly easier to manage here, but I might move links out into a links repository if the bookmarks folder grows large enough, or could benefit from context.
- I'd like if Obsidian extensions were programmable in a language I liked better than JS.
- A terminal-integration would be nice for some things.
- More text-interface configuration options. The clicky interface works, but I would rather edit a text file.
- A more complete system of vim-like text manipulations; only some are possible.
Is currently my most-used feature here. My journaling template and jump to journal hotkeys get a lot of mileage. Journal file currently includes
- what I'm focusing on this week
- a reminder of projects
- what I'm reading
- a section for recurring tasks from the
Tasksplugin - An area for my timestamped journal entries
- A misc nonsense area for idea organization at the bottom.
is something I do every week to organize and reflect. The Periodic Notes plugin gives me a great template for setting up weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly review notes, which live in review.
book, paper and posts-n-shit are for taking notes on books, papers, blog posts and web content. If it feels worthwhile, I might refactor source material notes out into their own concepts. This is nice for fleshing out my mental concept graph.
Most of my directories are for taking notes on concepts or thoughts I'm having, with note being the general catch-all, occasionally splitting notes out into other directories like cryptography, tools, company, and people. Notes should be short, and only cover as much as they need to, preferably with a decent internally linked structure to other notes.
I usually start writing essays in journal, then move them to draft and work on them more (leaving a link in journal), and move them to essay (if not-to-be-published) or blog when finished.
Besides writing and reviewing, I also want a system for organizing recurring thoughts I'm having, and managing my values and goals. I put self-reflection and value system type notes in thor. I keep tracking notes for personal lists and system management, eg. important note dashboard(s), misc task lists, book reading lists, travel packing lists, etc. in system.
Recurring thoughts and ideas (eg. questions I have, short concepts I've learned, conspiracies) in ideas. In a similar vein, I keep retrospective advice to myself in advice.
Finally, I organize notes on projects I'm working on in projects.
I also use obsidian as a dump for memes, documents, quotes, and highlighted kindle passages. Pretty straight forward.
At the top of each file, include a set of tags filled by default by templater on what kind of note this is, what it's broad-level topics are, when it was created, and when last modified.
Obsidian does best IMO with a shallow but well organized filesystem. I hate the recommendation of keeping all my notes in a top-level directory, very messy. Instead, I would prefer to use a thorough top-level organization, with few if any subfolders. My filing system. I may also add directories for particular topics (eg cryptography, company, people) if they out-grow notes. I may eventually have to opt for a topics folder which subsumes those directories, if the topic subdirectories grow too numerous.
For each directory, create a template in templates and link that template as the template to use when creating notes inside that subdirectory.
If you just read the section prior, this is just a re-iteration. misc:
- archive - move old directories here
- tmp: quick, make a note
- template: templates for creating new notes with templater self-organization:
- advice: retrospective advice for myself
- thor: items for self-management and introspection
- project: docs on personal project organization
- idea: dumps for certain types of ideas storing information
- docs: documents and numbers etc
- kindle: kindle highlights from books
- media: where images get stored
- meme: might be better in photo gallery, but sure why not here
- quotes writing:
- blog: published essays
- essay: unpublished, but finished essays review and journaling:
- journal: where all my journals go
- review: life reviews note-taking:
- book
- paper: notes on research
- posts-n-shit - notes on posts from the web concept organizing and topics:
- note: catch-all for concepts and notes
- company: notes on companies
- people: notes on my friends and others
- tools: notes on tools I used, am using, or might use
Why bother with file-prefixes: quickly differentiate types of notes within a folder, or while searching for files. May add more eventually. Name files <letter-prefix>-filename
- no prefix: used in templates, people, essays
- a - important
- d - draft, a pre-publishable essay
- e - essay
- n - note
- j - journal
- (w|m|q|y)r - reviews