Connecting and structuring notes is more important than just writing them : Obsidian

[Rohit Kuna]

Hello there, 

From past few weeks I have been intensely researching about a good note taking app, that I can use to organize my thoughts. Creating links between several parent topics and sibling topics. 

 

My top criteria are:

1. Security

2. Mind-mapping feature (Easy to organize) as mentioned above.

3. Offline accessibility

4. Free (As I'm a student)

 

 

I found that the software which best satisfies these criteria is "Obsidian". It's indeed a gem;) 

(In Obsidian notes should be written in markdown format which is similar to plain text with a bit of syntax. This website would help https://www.markdownguide.org/)

The most awesome feature is it allows to organize and structure notes so dynamically. We can create links to internal notes and VISUALIZE it in form of CONNECTED-GRAPH.

 

I tried experimenting with it in order to derive a good structure or system of linking notes. Because without a specific system linking notes randomly would be a mess. 

So I came up with a good general structure that would work with any topic or purpose:

 

Steps while structuring a note: 

After writing a note, at the top section of note write the following ...

 

1. Major_domain tag (eg. #emotional_mastery, etc) 

2. Parent_subdomain tag (eg. #sedona_method, etc)

3. Siblings notes links (eg. letting_go_guide, defining_emotions, etc)

4. Other related hash tags. (#letting_go, #emotional_release, etc)

5. Source tag (#sedona_book or #self)

 

I've attached screenshots from my obsidian graph :-

Red_nodes indicates Major_domains.

Yellow_nodes indicates Sources.

Blue_nodes indicates Parent_subdomains.

Grey_nodes are for topics.

(I've actually used page nodes as tags i.e. I've created HEALTH page it is empty and linked this page with the topic page. I can explain this more clearly if anyone is interested.)

 

 

 

So whenever you come up with a new note. Look if it belongs to any of the previously defined major_domain , parent_subdomain, and add it to it. Link it with other existing related sibling notes. 

If it doesn't belong to any parent_subdomain create new parent_subdomain and go on.

 

This makes navigating the graph so easy. If you hover on any topic_node it highlights all the related info(major_domain, parent_subdomain, siblings notes, other_related_hashtags and source_tag). We can give colors to different hashtags. It also becomes so easy to see connections with other topics. Graph view is amazingly useful in seeing the big picture and at the same time also gives freedom to look into the details. 

 

I suggest everyone trying this application. 

 

I always felt :

"If knowledge is not well structured  and organised then what's the point of even taking it and never really applying it !!"

"Just taking notes isn't enough making sensible connections is important"

 

Also I've heard @Leo in some video saying "Getting insights is not the hardest part, but organizing and structuring them is a hard time for me." 

So I hope this helps

 

Talking about the "connected-graph-visualization" it would be so cool if this forum too had this kind of feature, it would be so easy to navigate through so many different topics and easily find related topics. Also a huge amount of database space can be saved by reducing the redundancy of repeating topics. 

As of now I too miss so many good topics because I never bother scrolling down so much. The existing search feature is workable but it gives so vague scattered results, missing to see connections.

So I wish this could be implemented.

Of course this would be hard to implement as it demands a change in format of writing a post (Starting off with hashtags). And previous posts also need to be edited (which is quite difficult). So guys if interested we can start a poll on this, we could do this together & can 100x our growth curve !! 

If not able to implement the graph feature atleast writing the post with relevant hashtags would make this forum more structured.

So, accordingly this post's format of linking would be :-

1. MAJOR_DOMAIN : #self_actualization

2. PARENT_SUBDOMAIN : #productivity

3. SIBLINGS : commonplace_notebook, organising_notes, obsidian (if such post headings exist)

4. OTHER_TAGS : #organising #onenotealternative #commonplacebook #obsidian #connecting_graph

(While naming hashtags or subdomains follow convention of all_lowercase and underscores)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 1, 2021 by Rohit Kuna

[EddieEddie1995]

Nice!

[Epikur]

Looks very interesting

 

[Epikur]