Andrew's Digital Garden

How I use Obsidian

Keep things generic, i.e. no ties to a specific workplace. I may publish these in the future, and it's better to err on private over public

Obsidian (this vault) is used for Software Engineering. Notion is used for project-management or things tied to my day-to-day.

Topic pages:

  • Use [[tags]] over #tags
  • Create topic pages rather than tags
  • Use tags for status, rather than topics. This helps the local graph function and allows you to create better 'topic pages'.
    • #todo, #breakdown, #new, #topic-page
  • Don't have to create pages for topics until they start to house a fair bit of content (shown in graph)
  • Can then create a separate hierarchy of topic pages, e.g. interests -> programming -> javascript
  • Topic pages can be fleshed out or just empty, they'll still be links on the graph even if a page doesn't exist

https://theknowledgeworker.substack.com/p/how-to-take-smart-notes-in-obsidian

Use daily notes and later action them into proper notes

Use literature notes for podcasts, videos, articles, etc. and then later action them into proper notes. Add the title, author, and url to help categorise them. When done, move them to a separate 'archive' folder

Don't create a structure top-down, create the content and then create the structure for your content (bottom up). Figure out what works for me.

Consistently re-review topics, links, etc. Linking things as you go is the best way of connecting knowledge for the future.

Remember that note taking is a tool to help learn. Don't have to make a note on everything. Nor do the notes have to be perfect.

How I use Obsidian