My simple note-taking setup | Zettelkasten in Obsidian | Step-by-step guide
Summary
TLDRIn this video, the speaker addresses common questions about the Zettelkasten note-taking method, advocating for simplicity over complex systems. They share their personal setup using Obsidian with minimal plugins and no complicated tagging, focusing on the fundamental principles of note-taking. The speaker guides viewers through setting up a basic Zettelkasten in Obsidian, emphasizing the importance of links over folders for organization. They introduce the concept of 'maps of content' as a natural evolution of note clusters and encourage viewers to adapt the system to their needs, promising that it will evolve with use.
Takeaways
- 📝 The video discusses the simplicity of note-taking systems, emphasizing that complexity often detracts from the core purpose of absorbing and connecting ideas.
- 🔧 The speaker uses Obsidian with a minimal setup of four folders and two main tags for their Zettelkasten system, avoiding over-complication.
- 🗂️ The four core folders in the speaker's Zettelkasten are: 'zettle casted' for ideas, 'reference notes' for sources, 'files' for attachments, and 'templates' for reusable content.
- ⚙️ Customization in note-taking apps can lead to distraction and procrastination, so the speaker advises focusing on the essentials.
- 🔗 The power of linking notes is central to the Zettelkasten method, allowing for the emergence of a natural structure through interconnected ideas.
- 🏷️ The use of 'ghost nodes' or non-existent notes as tags is a strategy to organize ideas without predefined categories.
- 📈 The video introduces the concept of 'maps of content' or 'mocks', which are notes that act as hubs for clusters of related ideas.
- 🛠️ The speaker recommends starting with a simple workflow and adjusting it over time to suit personal needs and as the knowledge base grows.
- 🔍 Obsidian's search functionality is highlighted as a tool for avoiding duplicate notes and for easily linking to existing content.
- 🌱 The video concludes with the idea that a Zettelkasten system should evolve naturally with the user, reflecting their unique thought processes and knowledge acquisition.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the video script?
-The main topic of the video script is about setting up a simple and effective Zettelkasten system using Obsidian, a note-taking and knowledge management tool.
Why does the author suggest not to use the Zettelkasten Prefixer plugin?
-The author suggests not using the Zettelkasten Prefixer plugin because it makes the titles of the notes look ugly and introduces friction in creating new notes.
What are the two core plugins the author recommends for a basic Zettelkasten setup in Obsidian?
-The two core plugins recommended are 'Sliding Panes' for opening multiple notes side by side, and 'Admonition' for inserting sections of text that render as visually appealing blocks.
How does the author handle the creation of new notes to avoid duplicates?
-The author recommends using the 'Command or Control + O' hotkey to create new notes, which opens a window where you can type the title and see if a similar note already exists, thus helping to avoid duplicates.
What is the significance of the 'core settle idea' template mentioned in the script?
-The 'core settle idea' template is the most important template in the author's system, used for creating new atomic idea notes. It includes the current date and time, tags for classification, and a title that automatically creates a heading.
What is the purpose of creating 'ghost nodes' in the Zettelkasten system as described?
-Ghost nodes, or non-existent notes, serve as tags in the Zettelkasten system. They help in organizing and clustering related atomic idea nodes, eventually leading to the creation of 'maps of content' or hubs when a topic recurs frequently.
How does the author define 'maps of content' in the context of the Zettelkasten system?
-In the context of the Zettelkasten system, 'maps of content' or 'mocs' are notes that emerge as hubs when many atomic idea nodes cluster around a particular ghost node, indicating the importance of that topic.
What is the author's advice on customizing Obsidian with plugins?
-The author advises against getting lost in the process of customizing Obsidian with numerous plugins, as it can become a form of procrastination. Instead, the focus should be on writing down ideas and not on the tools themselves.
Why does the author emphasize the importance of starting with a simple Zettelkasten system?
-The author emphasizes starting with a simple system to avoid overcomplication and to allow for natural evolution as the knowledge base grows. This approach ensures that the note-taking process remains efficient and not hindered by complex structures.
What is the author's stance on the evolution of a Zettelkasten system?
-The author believes that a Zettelkasten system should evolve naturally as it absorbs more ideas. The structure should adapt over time, reflecting the user's personal needs and the dynamics of their knowledge base.
Outlines
🤔 Introduction to Zettelkasten and Note-taking Dilemmas
The paragraph introduces the common questions and confusions that arise when people first encounter the concept of Zettelkasten and note-taking systems. It highlights the overwhelming variety of methods and tools available online, which can be contradictory and complex. The speaker shares their own experience and emphasizes the simplicity of their approach using Obsidian with a few plugins and custom scripts. The paragraph also touches on the importance of not letting the complexity of the system distract from the core purpose of note-taking: absorbing ideas and making connections.
🛠️ Setting Up a Simple Zettelkasten in Obsidian
This paragraph delves into the technical setup of a Zettelkasten system in Obsidian. It explains the creation of core folders, the configuration of default locations for notes and attachments, and the customization of the user interface through themes. The speaker also discusses the importance of understanding how Obsidian works as a wrapper for local text files and the concept of a 'vault'. The paragraph guides the audience through initial setup steps, including the installation of essential plugins and the creation of templates for note creation, emphasizing the avoidance of over-complication.
📝 Deep Dive into Note Creation and Linking
The speaker provides a detailed guide on creating notes within the Obsidian Zettelkasten system. They discuss the use of templates to streamline the note-creation process, the importance of linking notes to build a knowledge base, and the practice of using references to track the origin of ideas. The paragraph also introduces the concept of 'ghost nodes' as tags and the dynamic organization of notes into 'maps of content' or 'mocks'. The speaker encourages an organic approach to system development, adapting as the user's needs evolve over time.
🌱 Embracing Personalized Workflow and Continuous Evolution
In the final paragraph, the speaker encourages viewers to adopt a simple workflow and adjust it according to their personal needs. They emphasize the importance of starting with a basic system and allowing it to evolve naturally as more ideas are absorbed. The speaker also acknowledges that their own system is a work in progress and that it's normal for it to change over time. The paragraph concludes with a call to action for viewers to like, share, and subscribe for more content, and a general thank you for engaging with the video.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Zettelkasten
💡Obsidian
💡Plugins
💡Markdown
💡Vault
💡Atomic Idea Nodes
💡Templates
💡Graph View
💡Maps of Content (MoC)
💡Evergreen Notes
Highlights
People often have many questions when starting with zettelkasten and note-taking.
The speaker uses Obsidian with 25 plugins, custom Python scripts, and CSS snippets for their zettelkasten system.
The speaker has 253 different tags organized into a complex system of content mapping.
The benefits of a note-taking system decrease with its complexity, contrary to common belief.
The original zettelkasten system by Nicolas Lumin was built using paper cards.
Digital tools can introduce distractions and pull users away from the fundamental principles of note-taking.
The speaker's simple and elegant solution for zettelkasten in Obsidian consists of just four folders and two main tags.
Obsidian functions as a wrapper on top of local text files, treating each note as a markdown document.
The speaker's zettelkasten system in Obsidian is organized into four core folders: zettelkasten, reference notes, files, and templates.
The speaker advises against using the Zerocast Prefixer plugin due to its impact on note aesthetics and workflow.
Two essential plugins for the speaker's system are Sliding Panes and Admonition, enhancing the note-taking experience.
Templates in Obsidian save time and effort by allowing users to apply pre-made note structures.
The speaker's core template for new notes includes the current date and time, tags, and a title.
Obsidian's fuzzy search helps users find and elaborate on existing notes, preventing duplication.
The speaker emphasizes the importance of linking notes as the fundamental pillar of the zettelkasten system.
Ghost nodes in Obsidian can function as tags, even if they are not actual notes, helping to cluster related ideas.
The speaker introduces the concept of 'maps of content' as a natural evolution of tags in a mature zettelkasten system.
The speaker advises starting simple with note-taking systems and adjusting them as personal needs evolve.
The speaker's workflow is presented as a work in progress, suggesting that systems naturally evolve over time.
Transcripts
when people first hear about zettle cast
and note taking they often have a heap
of unresolved questions like what do i
write down which app do i use when about
tagging and how should i structure it or
at least i felt that way i already
talked about choosing the right
application in this video right here so
you might want to check this out but if
you go on the internet to find the
answers you'll be met with an
overwhelming variety of different setups
many of which contradict one another and
seem like rocket science well it's
really simple guys really simple i just
use obsidian and 25 plugins on top of it
along with a folder of custom written
python scripts and css snippets i have
253 different tags each with four
subtitles corresponding to four
different levels of my maps of content
while maps of content are organized into
dashboards all of my notes are also
evergreen with 12 different flavors of
greenness and sorted into 39 different
folders with special simple preferences
encoding status field products subtopic
lunar phrase and the blood type of the
author
but what i came to learn the hard way is
the benefits of the system don't
increase with its complexity in fact
most often quite the opposite tinkering
with tags and thinking how to best
structure your notes can distract you
from what actually matters absorbing
ideas writing them down and finding the
connections remember the original zelda
casting system pioneered by nicolas
lumen was built using paper cards yes
computers can make the workflow more
convenient and more efficient but they
also have an inherent danger of pulling
you away from the fundamental principles
and distracting you with shiny colorful
lights and i think this is what's
happening right now today i'll tell you
about my quite simple and elegant
solution without any over complications
that i built over a year ago and it
still does an amazing job for me on a
daily basis if you're interested buckle
up
[Music]
my name is artem i'm a computational
neuroscience student and researcher here
we explore mental and digital tools to
help us study and learn more effectively
if you're interested consider
subscribing to the channel not to miss
anything
what i'm about to show you is my very
simple but yet quite powerful
implementation of xenocast in obsidian
which consists of just four folders and
two main tags i will walk you through
step by step on how to set it up from
scratch but before we begin a little
technical detail about how epsilon works
under the hood i think it's important to
know what you're dealing with when
you're creating files and folders inside
of obsidian as you may know it functions
as a wrapper on top of your local text
files obsidian basically gives
superpowers to a folder of text that
means that each node is actually just a
single markdown document on your hard
drive which can be opened and edited in
any software the most upper level
structure of obsidian is the vault i
think it's a really great term because
it reflects the meaning a vault is where
all of your nodes live inside the vault
they can be structured in nested folders
everything can be linked with everything
else really but obsidian has no access
to what's outside the boat
this is like a boundary of your own tiny
universe but on the hard drive the vault
is actually just an ordinary folder
where files can be copied deleted
organized into subfolders just like
anywhere else on your computer one
little detail though obsidian creates a
hidden subfolder called dot obsidian
where it stores all its system
information like the theme and the
plugins
but you don't need to access it directly
so forget it's even there let's step
inside the vault and see how the folders
are organized as you may remember the
key idea behind zettlecast is that you
don't impose an artificial structure on
the system you don't create folders to
separate the topics instead you put
everything into one place and let this
structure emerge by itself through
interconnections i have a video
dedicated specifically for the
philosophy of xerocustom and the link to
it would be somewhere in the top right
corner this is how lumen originally went
about his slip box and similarly i have
one single folder in the root of the
vault titled zeddle casted where all of
the atomic idea nodes are stored on
absolutely every topic now you might ask
a question didn't you say it had only
four folders what the is this
monstrosity then the thing is
the zettocastion itself consists of
those four folders and nothing else
however since i use obsidian more
generally as a notebook i have other
folders as well such as lab notes where
i store everything related to my
research youtube video scripts as well
as some personal stuff these are
completely separate from this edel
casten system so we won't talk about
these but pretend they don't exist so
what are those four folders first of all
the main one with all the ideas
reference notes are something that i
jolt down on books papers lectures etc
many of them don't contain any actual
information but serve as a fast way to
insert a reference to know where a
certain idea came from files is where
all of the attachments are stored mostly
images
and templates is where all the template
nodes are stored but we'll get to the
templates later in this video
[Music]
the first thing to do is to create four
aforementioned core folders
zeddle casting reference notes files and
templates next up go to settings and
then files and links
change the default location for nodes to
in the folder specified below and select
the title casting folder we created
similarly change the default location
for attachments to the files folder
you can change the theme that is how
your obsidian looks for something more
pleasant in the appearance section of
the settings for example i really like
the dark version of the atom theme so
i'll select that note that when you
install a particular theme it's just a
dot css file in the hidden.obsidian
folder with just a little bit of css
knowledge you can take obsidian
customization to a whole new level next
go to settings hotkeys one hotkey that
we'll use very often is the templates
insert template go ahead and assign your
desired key combination to it i have it
as a command t
in settings go to core plugins this is
just additional functionality that's
pre-built in obsidian but disabled by
default i really like the following
plugins tag pane to see all your
existing tags on a nice panel
and templates
this one is essential i have no idea why
they left it off by default oh and when
you see the zerocast prefixer plugin
leave it off despite the temptation this
will make the titles of your notes look
ugly plus it introduces friction in
creating a new note in a moment we'll do
something more elegant next up community
plugins and oh boy once you turn off the
safe mode there is a lot to choose from
but be careful not to get lost in this
rabbit hole i know that feeling we
searched for plugins installing insane
amounts of them customizing different
options and all of this feels productive
like you're actually doing something but
in fact it's just another form of
procrastination just like the exact
software you choose for digital casting
hardly matters
plugins better even less
so don't let this tweaking get in the
way of you actually writing down ideas
however i will mention two plugins that
i use every time i open up sitting
there's also a third one but it's only
irrelevant when you're working with
bibliographies and citation managers if
at some point i make a video about
zotero and how i use it with obsidian i
will mention it then but for now to
build a very simple and elegant yet
quite powerful xero casting system just
two plugins are enough the first one is
sliding panes it allows you to open
multiple nodes side by side and easily
slide through them as if they are paper
cards lying on your desk the second
plugin is called admonition and this
this is the plugin i've just fallen
absolutely in love with basically it
allows you in to insert sections of text
in your node which then get rendered as
really great looking blocks there is
quite a few types of those admonitions
available you can find the full list on
plugins github page
templates is an amazing function that
lets you save time and effort when
creating a new node so let's configure
our templates folder go to settings
plugin options templates and select the
templates folder which we created
earlier now just press command t or
whatever hotkey you happen to have set
up and select the template
now since we don't have anything in the
templates folder this menu would be
empty let's fix that so what is a
template basically any node can act as
one and when you apply it the contents
of this node will be pasted to where
your cursor is currently located but
this wouldn't be so useful if you
couldn't tell obsidian that in this
template this piece of information
should be unique for each time you apply
it for example you can insert the
current date time title of the active
note and other useful things and with
special plugins you can take it to a
whole new level but again this is the
territory where it's easy to get lost in
a variety of features and get distracted
from what really matters putting ideas
into notes
that's why i use it in a very simple
fashion which is good enough to get the
job done but doesn't get in the way the
most important template in my system is
the one that which i use 99 of the time
is titled core settle idea that scary
line at the top will paste the current
date and time at which you created the
note kind of like the zettocast graphics
or plugin status indicates that this
note is one atomic idea tags is where i
classify notes in one way or another but
we'll get to tegan in a bit title will
automatically make the heading
with that notes title now the folders
are set up plugins are turned on the
template is created so let's dive deeper
into creating the notes before we begin
a quick tip you can create nodes with a
usual hotkey command or control n and
this will immediately create a new node
but i strongly encourage you to use
command or control o instead
what it does is that it opens a window
where you can start typing the title of
the note you want to create and it will
show you whether you already have
something like this so that you can
elaborate on the existing note instead
of creating a duplicate this becomes
extremely useful several months into
note-taking when you start to forget
what you have created and when and the
fuzzy search is just amazing in case you
don't have anything related from this
menu you can create a new note with that
title so suppose you're reading a book
and you discover an interesting idea
create a new note apply the template and
explain that idea in your own words for
example
i really think that this concept of
habits compounding over time is really
valuable under references i usually
write down where this idea came from
because it can be useful later on and
the exact format of the references
doesn't really matter as long as you can
find the source if you need to for
example when i'm watching a lecture on
youtube i can just insert a link with a
timestamp if i'm working with a source
that could potentially contain a whole
collection of ideas that i'm likely to
turn into zeddles like a book or a huge
online course
i will create a separate note dedicated
for this source and put it inside the
references folder this is primarily to
save time since i can easily insert a
link to that preference note instead of
writing down the title and author every
time which by the way takes us to link
this is the most powerful feature of
obsidian and the fundamental pillar of
zellcaston system itself to insert a
link from onenote to the other just type
double square brackets and it will bring
the menu where you can start typing the
title of the note you want to link to as
your knowledge base grows you start to
have a lot of linking material
but now what about the tags field at the
top of the template the thing is you can
create a link to a note even if the note
itself does not exist you can write down
pretty much anything here and because
there is no such note the link would be
of a darker color now importantly
once you put a link to a non-existent
note obsidian remembers that and the
next time you type double square
brackets it would be on the list
that way single nodes can function as
tags and these non-existent ghost nodes
will be displayed on the graph view
pressing ctrl command g will show you
the graph of the entire vault where the
nodes are the nodes and the edges are
links between them as you add more and
more nodes
and tag them eventually in the graph
view you will see the emerging structure
that is the main zedl idea chord notes
will be clustered around some ghost
notes which initially played the role of
tags if you see these hubs emerging that
means that this particular topic is
recurring over and over again in your
second brain so it must be important and
this is the next level of organization
kind of like folders would be in a
conventional note-taking system but
unlike folders which come before you
create the notes this structure emerged
from the content itself i have adopted
the terminology that's quite popular in
the obsidian community nowadays we're
going to call these hubs maps of content
or mocks for sure when you see that a
lot of atomic idea nodes cluster around
something you can then create an actual
file for this instead of it just being a
ghost and here is where the second
template comes in a template for a map
of content it's practically the same as
the core ideas idle template is just the
status is changed to hashtag mock and
references are removed once the note is
created it can
serve purely organizational purposes and
remain empty or you can actually write
something down or insert diagrams you
can see how the system is dynamic new
marks appear some get split some merge
don't be afraid to change the
architecture on the go if it feels
necessary
[Music]
if you have a system that's already
working for you and which is totally
different from what i just showed you
also everyone is different and every
second brain is different as well if
some points resonate with you great use
them as the inspiration to slightly
tweak and adjust your system if you feel
like you want to but don't go and spend
a week completely restructuring your
bolt just because someone on the
internet has a different layout if on
the other hand you feel lost frustrated
and don't know where to start
i totally feel your pain give this
simple workflow a go for a few months
see how it works out the point is to
start simple go with the flow and then
adjust your system one step at a time
depending on your personal needs as your
second brain matures it will kind of
tell you the most natural structure it
will be apparent if for example you are
a mathematician and you find yourself
writing a lot of theorems as entries it
could make sense to introduce a hashtag
theorem note status but don't over
complicate things from the beginning
instead take the notes connect them and
see where it takes you
also note that this is a work in
progress if you ask me in the year
probably my setup and my workflow will
change but that's the natural process as
your personal knowledge system absorbs
more and more ideas it evolves and the
structure evolves along with it that's
all i have for you today if you like the
video press like button share it and
subscribe to the channel if you haven't
already stay tuned for more interesting
stuff coming up goodbye and thanks for
the interesting knowledge
[Music]
you
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