How I structure my Obsidian vault (Obsidian tour 2023)

Summary

The speaker shares their unique approach to organizing their Obsidian vault, emphasizing a philosophy that avoids binary structures, builds with scalability, adds context, and avoids duplication. They discuss their limited use of tags and folders, favoring instead a hyperconnected note structure with links, dataview queries, and bookmarks to reflect their thought process and worldview, promoting serendipity and adaptability in note-taking.

Takeaways

• 📂 Avoid binary organization structures that limit notes to one place, embracing a more interconnected approach instead.
• 🌱 Build note structures with scalability in mind to accommodate growth, like handling thousands of notes.
• 🔍 Favor structures that add context to notes, allowing for a deeper understanding of why and how notes are connected.
• 📈 Do not duplicate content; aim for modular and reusable notes that can serve as building blocks for future ideas.
• 🏷️ Use tags sparingly and strategically, focusing on those that truly add value and are aligned with personal workflow.
• 📁 Utilize folders for establishing namespaces and restricting scope, but avoid over-reliance on them for core organization.
• 🔗 Emphasize the use of links to create a 'map of content' that provides context and nuance beyond what folders can offer.
• 📊 Leverage dataview queries to compile and organize information from databases into structured, actionable overviews.
• 🔖 Rely on bookmarks to keep core principles, goals, and important notes readily accessible and at the forefront of mind.
• 🎨 Organize notes in a way that reflects personal thought processes and worldview, rather than strictly adhering to conventional methods.
• 🎥 Share personal organizational methods as a reference, but encourage others to develop systems that are tailored to their unique思维方式和需求。

Q & A

What is the speaker's general philosophy on organizing notes in Obsidian?

The speaker's general philosophy on organizing notes involves avoiding binary organization structures, building with scalability in mind, favoring structures that add context, and not duplicating content. They prefer a hyperconnected note structure that reflects their thought process and the interconnected nature of ideas.

How does the speaker feel about using tags in Obsidian?

The speaker is not a fan of using tags as their primary organizational tool. They find it against their philosophy of avoiding binary structures and believe that tags do not add as much context as other methods they use.

What is the purpose of the 'TVZ' tag mentioned in the script?

The 'TVZ' tag is used by the speaker to mark notes that are not yet processed or organized. It serves as a way to identify content that still needs attention.

How does the speaker use folders in their Obsidian vault?

The speaker uses folders for establishing namespaces and restricting scope, rather than for primary organization. They contain most of their notes and assets but avoid creating subfolders to maintain a more flexible structure.

What is the significance of the 'k6' and 'nvdh' tags in the speaker's workflow?

The 'k6' and 'nvdh' tags are used to track feedback and updates related to specific open source projects the speaker works on. These tags help them organize and prioritize project-related content.

How does the speaker use dataview queries to organize their notes?

The speaker uses dataview queries to create dynamic tables and lists that bring together notes from different parts of their vault. This method allows them to track and display information in a structured way without manually creating maps of content.

What is the role of bookmarks in the speaker's note organization?

Bookmarks are used by the speaker to quickly access their core principles, future plans, and important notes. They update these bookmarks as they progress through their goals and projects, ensuring that their most important content is always easily accessible.

How does the speaker feel about hierarchical thinking and tools that encourage it?

The speaker finds hierarchical thinking limiting and not reflective of their thought process. They had an unsatisfactory experience with Notion, a tool that encourages hierarchical organization, and prefer a more interconnected note structure.

What does the speaker mean by 'structuring notes with a little bit of organization and a lot of what others might see as chaos'?

The speaker prefers a note organization style that appears chaotic to others but is actually full of opportunities for serendipity and thought challenges. This structure allows for a more natural flow of ideas and encourages innovative thinking.

How does the speaker's note organization reflect their view of the world?

The speaker's note organization reflects their belief that the world and ideas do not fit neatly into segregated boxes. They prefer a hyperconnected structure that mirrors the interconnectedness and complexity of real-world concepts and relationships.

What advice does the speaker give regarding note organization in Obsidian?

The speaker advises that one's organizational structure in Obsidian should reflect their personal thought process, information processing style, and worldview. They emphasize that their method is not the only way, but rather an example of how individual preferences can shape note organization.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Personal Philosophy on Note Organization

The speaker begins by expressing their hesitance to share their method of organizing their Obsidian vault due to differences in personal organization styles. They then introduce their general philosophy on note organization, emphasizing the avoidance of binary structures, building with scalability in mind, favoring structures that add context, and avoiding duplication of notes. The speaker explains their approach to using tags and folders, highlighting their preference for a more organic and adaptable system as their note collection grows.

05:00

🏢 Use of Folders and Tags in Organization

The speaker discusses their limited use of tags and folders in their Obsidian vault, referring to those who primarily use folders as 'folder heathens' in a tongue-in-cheek manner. Despite their personal aversion to folders, they acknowledge the utility of folders in establishing a namespace for organizing content. They detail the few folders they do use, such as 'assets', 'databases', 'obsidian-playbook', 'plugins', 'private', 'Readwise', 'scripts', 'sources', and 'system', explaining the rationale behind each category. The speaker also touches on their use of tags, albeit infrequently, for specific purposes like marking unprocessed items or tracking feedback for projects.

10:03

🔗 Leveraging Links and Dataview Queries for Organization

The speaker elaborates on their preference for using links and dataview queries as organizational tools, which allow for adding context and nuance that folders cannot provide. They introduce the concept of a 'map of content' or 'parent note', which serves as a starting page for their Obsidian publish site, 'Fork My Brain'. This map includes various topics and subsections with linked notes and additional information, offering a more interconnected and contextualized view of their notes. The speaker also explains how they use dataview queries for tracking purposes, such as managing Kickstarter projects and tabletop role-playing game sessions, providing examples of how these queries enhance organization and accessibility.

15:03

📌 Bookmarks and Personal Goal-Oriented Organization

The speaker concludes by discussing their use of bookmarks as a new organizational feature in Obsidian. They highlight the importance of having core principles, year-ahead plans, and other notes readily accessible through bookmarks. The speaker emphasizes the personal and goal-oriented nature of their organizational system, which includes tracking TTRPG campaigns, business information, and various other interests. They reflect on how their hyperconnected note structure aligns with their thinking process and worldview, and encourage viewers to find an organizational method that suits their own thought patterns and information processing.

Keywords

💡Obsidian vault

Obsidian vault refers to the primary storage area in the Obsidian note-taking application where users keep their notes and files. In the context of the video, the speaker describes their personal approach to organizing their vault, highlighting their preference for a non-binary and scalable system that can handle a large number of notes.

💡Binary organization structure

A binary organization structure is a system where items can only exist in one state or category, such as being either in a folder or not. The speaker expresses a preference against such structures, as they limit the ability to associate notes with multiple contexts or categories simultaneously.

💡Scalability

Scalability refers to the ability of a system or process to handle growth effectively. In the context of note-taking, the speaker emphasizes the importance of a scalable system that can manage an increasing number of notes without requiring excessive maintenance or restructuring.

💡Contextual structures

Contextual structures are organizational methods that provide additional meaning or relationship between items. In the video, the speaker prefers systems that allow them to understand not just where a note is, but also why it is there and how it relates to other notes.

💡Modularity and reusability

Modularity and reusability refer to the design principles of creating components that are independent yet can be used together in different combinations. In the context of note-taking, the speaker likes to have notes that are abstract and contextual enough to be used as building blocks for other ideas or projects later on.

💡Tags

Tags are labels or keywords that help categorize and filter notes in the Obsidian application. The speaker uses tags sparingly and mainly for tracking certain types of information, such as feedback for projects they work on, or to mark notes that require further processing.

💡Folders

Folders are a traditional method of organizing files and notes into categories within a file system. The speaker refers to users who primarily use folders as 'folder heathens,' acknowledging that while they personally prefer other methods, folders can still serve useful purposes, such as establishing namespaces.

💡Namespace

A namespace is a concept used to organize and contain related items within a specific scope, preventing overlap or conflict with other namespaces. In the context of the video, the speaker uses folders to create namespaces that help distinguish between different categories or projects within their notes.

💡Links

In the context of note-taking, links are connections between notes that allow for navigation and association between different pieces of information. The speaker prefers using links to create a web of interconnected notes, which provides context and allows for serendipitous discovery of related content.

💡Dataview queries

Dataview queries are a feature in Obsidian that allows users to generate dynamic views of their notes based on specific criteria or metadata. The speaker uses these queries to create organized lists and tables that track and display information from their notes in a structured format.

💡Bookmarks

Bookmarks in Obsidian are a feature that allows users to save and quickly access important notes or references. The speaker uses bookmarks to keep their core principles, goals, and frequently accessed notes easily available, ensuring that their daily actions align with their long-term objectives.

Highlights

The speaker shares their personal philosophy on organizing notes in Obsidian, emphasizing the avoidance of binary organization structures.

Scalability is prioritized in the speaker's note-taking approach, aiming to accommodate growth from thousands to potentially hundreds of thousands of notes.

The speaker prefers structures that add context to notes, allowing for a deeper understanding of why certain notes are placed in specific locations.

The principle of not duplicating content is emphasized, favoring modular and reusable note structures that can serve as building blocks for future ideas.

The speaker uses tags sparingly and mainly for categorization purposes, such as 'TVZ' for unprocessed items and project-specific tags.

Folders are used more for establishing namespaces than for organizing notes, serving as a collection point and restricting scope.

The speaker's use of folders is strategic, housing specific types of content such as assets, databases, and private notes.

The concept of a 'map of content' is introduced as a preferred method over folders, allowing for additional context and nuance in note organization.

Dataview queries are utilized for organizational purposes, especially for tracking and bringing together notes from databases.

Bookmarks are used to keep core principles, goals, and other important notes readily accessible and updated according to their respective timeframes.

The speaker's approach to note organization reflects a preference for hyperconnected structures rather than hierarchical ones, fostering serendipity and challenging conventional thinking.

The speaker's method is presented as personal preference rather than a one-size-fits-all solution, encouraging others to develop an organizational system that suits their unique way of thinking and processing information.

The video includes a live demonstration of creating a new note and applying tags for categorization and easy future reference.

The speaker discusses the use of folders for different types of content like Obsidian-specific notes, plugins, and sources, showcasing a varied application of folders.

The importance of maintaining an organized system is highlighted, with the speaker sharing their own methods for keeping track of sessions, projects, and meetings.

The speaker's note-taking approach is future-proof, having outlasted hierarchical structures and continuing to evolve organically.

Transcripts

- When people ask me how I organize my Obsidian vault,

I hesitate to tell them.

It seems like a lot of people do things differently from me

and my method, if you can call it that,

might leave several a few shuttering in dismay.

In this video, I'm giving you a tour of my Obsidian vault

and showing exactly how I structure everything,

and also how I don't.

A few things about my general philosophy

on organizing my notes,

and this is just my personal philosophy.

I'm not saying that it should be yours.

The first is that I try to avoid

any sort of binary or organization structure,

meaning it's either there or it's not.

So like for example, if you put a file in a folder,

it's either in that folder or it's not.

It can't really be in two folders at the same time.

I try to avoid structures like that.

Secondly, I like to build with scalability in mind

at work and also here with my notes.

I think that a lot of the structure of my notes

has evolved organically

and now I'm really hesitant to add too much structure

or too much organization

because it's just going to be an additional upkeep.

I have over 8,000 notes in my main vault

and I have several vaults at that.

And so anything that I introduced to my vaults

has to be something that I'm gonna be able to maintain

even when I have 10,000, 20,000, 100,000 notes.

The third is that I favor structures that add context.

I don't just want to be able to put notes in a certain spot.

I want to be able to say

why I put something in that spot

and why I didn't put it in a different spot

and what other spots it could be in.

Not all of the structures that I'm going to talk about

are capable of adding this extra context

and the ones that do are the ones that I favor.

And the fourth one is don't duplicate.

If at all possible,

I like to have things modular and reusable,

which does mean that I like to have my notes

contextual and also abstracted enough

that can be used as a building block

for other ideas later on.

All right, let's get into my vault

and I'll show you what I don't use that often.

We're starting with what I use the least, and that's tags.

So this is my main Obsidian vault

and I'm going to show you my tags here.

You might be tempted to think

that because I have a lot of tags that I use them a lot.

I don't actually.

I think that at times I have tried to use

a tag-based structure.

I personally don't like it.

There are a few that I do use.

I use this TVZ tag, which means to verzetteln.

It is just my way of saying that these things

are not processed.

And yes, that is a huge inbox.

I also use these k6 and nvdh ones.

K6 is one of the open source projects that I work on

and I do track things like feedback for it.

So that sometimes I will, you know, go to a conference

and I'll want to quickly jot down what people say

either it's a feature request or a bug

or a question about it,

because that helps me understand what to create content on.

And that is also the same principle I have

for the nvdh stuff.

I have a feedback tag here

and I also try to separate it

based on like a rough categorization.

So just so you see how that might work,

I'm gonna create a new note

and let's say that this is a daily note,

and I'll say Anna really likes

our new test comparison feature.

Okay, so I might write something like that

and then I'll just put a hashtag

and I'll say k2/feedback.

And then as I'm typing,

I'm just adding a slash to it to nest those tags.

And what that means is that the feedback

and anything else I put on there

are going to be nested under k6.

They're going to roll up into k6.

So let's say that that is analysis.

I also really like that as I'm typing,

I can see the categories that I've chosen before.

So I'm gonna hit Enter to that one.

Now here on the tag pane,

I can go into k6, feedback, analysis.

There's six on there and if I click it,

it opens up on the left here.

And here's that note where I said

Anna really likes her new test comparison feature.

So that is really handy

because that means that I don't have to create

a separate note.

I usually put this like within a daily note.

Sometimes I'll put it within a meeting note

wherever I happen to hear the feature.

And then this is a prompt from me

that maybe I should talk more

about this test comparison feature

or create videos or blog posts about that.

So as you can see,

I am in a situation where I really should clean these up

because they don't really mean anything.

However, I'm not too worried about it.

I don't use it, but it's not like they do any harm.

I just kind of pretend

for the most part that this tag pane doesn't exist.

That's because pretty much every other thing

I'm gonna talk about in this video

is better for my use cases

for organizing my notes than tags is.

So in previous videos, you may have noticed

that I call people who like folders

as their primary organizational structure, folder heathens.

That's really tongue in cheek.

Okay, I don't really think you're a heathen.

If you like to use folders,

you use whatever you want to use.

However, I do think that for my use case,

folders just don't cut it.

They go against every single thing

that I was talking about in the philosophy before,

not the least of which is that you can't put a note

in more than one folder at the same time.

But I do think that there is one thing

that folders are really good at

and that's to establish some sort of namespace.

A namespace in programming is like a bucket.

Sometimes it's for an environment or something.

It's basically a way to collect like items.

And it also is a way of restricting scope.

So that if you are in one namespace,

then you're not touching the other namespaces.

And for that, I use folders.

So I do use folders more than I use tags

but you might still be shocked at how few folders I have.

I have an assets folder

and this is just like good practice, I think.

Anything that is not a markdown file

or a script, I put here.

So mostly these are graphics, but sometimes they're PDFs.

And I put them all in this one folder

so that I don't have to worry about

having assets in different folders.

And I know everything else that's not in the assets folder

is a markdown file.

I have a databases folder here

and then I have two different kind of databases

that I track in Obsidian.

One is kickstarter or crowdfunding projects.

I'll show you that a little bit later.

I also have this video database

where I'm trying to keep track

of all of the videos that I create

for this channel but also for work.

It's kind of weird because I realized not too long ago

that I never take notes on my own stuff

and I'm trying to make all of that searchable

through my notes as well.

So I have those two in databases.

I do have a bunch of notes on Obsidian.

Now I kind of put them in an obsidian-playbook

with a goal of maybe packaging it up

into something later on.

I'm not entirely sure how I'm gonna handle that.

For now, it is its own folder

and this section is more heavily structured

because the intention is for other people

to go through this structure,

and that is something that folders are good at.

They are better for when you're sharing it

with somebody else.

It is much more recognizable

because people are familiar with this concept.

Then I have plugins here.

There are a few plugins I have that generate

kind of their own notes.

So this is from Initiative Tracker.

I have lots of different combats

for my tabletop role playing game sessions

and I put them here.

I have some canvas stuff, some textgenerator templates

and Excalidraw draw stuff in there as well.

I have private, I'm not gonna show that to you.

But basically I have anything

that I definitely don't want published.

So meetings, notes on people and that kind of thing.

Readwise is its own separate bucket for now,

just because there are a lot of them.

Actually, I'm going to turn on a plugin

so that you can better see how things are organized.

So this novel word count plugin shows how many words

and how many notes are in each bucket.

I just thought it might be

a good way for you all to see how I kind of break it up.

I have scripts, however, they are all JavaScript files.

And so although I have them

as a separate folder in Obsidian,

they don't actually show up in Obsidian

but I think I have like 10 or something like that.

Then I have sources.

These are for the most part from people other than me.

So me going to a conference or reading a book

or reading an article, this is one of those things

where this is the structure that I started with

and I haven't yet quite migrated it.

Because in many ways, this is also reiterated in Readwise.

So lots of things that I have to fix there.

I also have a system folder.

Now I do have a data model

for all of the frontmatter that I use

just to help me with consistency.

And this is separated

based on different templates that I use.

And then I have a projects file

and those are both Kanban boards,

actually one for Grafana Labs

and one for my own personal stuff.

And I have things that are related

to like keeping this system maintained and running.

So reviews and projects.

Cards are mainly like video ideas or content ideas.

So blog posts would go into this as well.

And then templates,

I'll probably go over in a separate video

because that's its own thing.

And then I have a ttrpg folder,

and this is a good example of namespace.

These are all of the campaigns or one shots

or separate worlds that I play or have played in.

And some of them are actually in the same world,

like when it's been a published world.

And having folders helps me distinguish

between this world's version of one place

and that world's version of the same place.

And now this might still seem like a lot of folders.

I never said that I don't use folders at all.

However, it might be interesting

to note that with these folders,

when I click on it there are actually no sub folders here.

everything goes in here.

Whether they're session notes or NPCs

or places or factions, they're just kind of all in there.

And when you look at my folders,

it's the ttrpgs that have the most notes at 2,700

out of the 8,620 notes that I've got.

So if you add all these up, you'll see that about

6,000 of the 8,000 files that I have in this vault

are actually within one of these folders.

And the rest of them

are kind of just all in the root directory.

Now this is the part that people are surprised by.

I use some other methods of organization

that make more sense to me.

The first is links.

One of the things that I said earlier

in my general philosophy about organization

is that I prefer to be able to add context

to whatever organizational structure I use.

You can't really do that with folders

because you just put them in there

and that's it and tweak endlessly.

So instead, I use something that you might have heard

being referred to as a map of content.

I think it could also be like a parent note or something.

When you go to my Obsidian publish site,

this is the starting page for it.

It's called Fork My Brain.

And I try to keep this fairly updated.

I look at the topics that I write a lot about

and I try to make sure that they're represented here.

So just to show you the outline, I've got Tech and Software,

Taking notes and making stuff, TTRPGs.

And then within each kind of subsection,

I have specific notes

that are also like maps of content in themselves.

For example, if I click on performance testing here,

there it defines performance testing

but it might also have a video that I created

and it links to other pages.

A map of content is basically a list of these pages

and other notes.

So you might think that I could have had

just like a performance testing folder

and then I could have had all of these links within it.

And while that's true,

I wouldn't be able to add some nuance to it.

So let's look at, for example, this page ops tools.

On this page, I have a bunch of notes linked

and I'm not only linking them,

I'm also adding the site

because I know that when I'm looking for different tools

to use for software operations and DevOps.

I'm going to probably want to check out their site.

And in some cases I also say like,

oh, this one is deprecated

but I'm just still putting it here for completeness.

And I'm able to separate

different kinds of operations tools.

I can embed other maps of content, like in this case,

monitoring tools is a separate page

and I'm embedding it within the ops tools page as well.

So here I'm adding more context.

Like I'm saying that Grafana look works well with Prometheus

or that OpenTelemetry is the merger

between OpenTracing and OpenCensus.

Those are things that you can't really add with folders.

So that's links.

The other thing that I use heavily for organization

are dataview queries.

For example, I showed you the Kickstarters Database

earlier in the folders.

However, that's really just to keep everything

in one place and market as a database

rather than like ideas on their own.

So this is more for tracking purposes.

That's how I use the folders.

But this page is about

actually bringing together those notes.

This is kind of like a way of creating a map of content

without actually doing it manually

'cause everything else was manual.

And honestly, I still prefer the manual approach

for most of the time,

because I think when you are just pulling in queries,

a lot of times you don't really think about

whether that needs to be on this page.

However, in this particular case,

this isn't really about what's connected to what.

It's just a tracking database.

And so I find it really useful

to have a table of pending projects.

So this is the dataview query.

This is basically looking through that folder

to see what projects I have backed that I'm still expecting.

And then there are also handy links

and some other metadata about it.

I use dataview queries in tabletop role playing games too.

This is one of my campaigns.

My most active one

is the World of the Temporary White Circle.

And this is a Dataview query for PCs actually,

including the ones that have retired.

And I also do this for sessions.

I'm using the minimal cards CSS snippet

by Stephan Ango or kepano,

who's also the CEO of Obsidian now.

And this is the way that I am able to keep track

of all of the sessions and also kind of have a fun AI

mid journey generated photo to remember the session by,

as well as like a quick one sentence

or one phrase summary of the session.

I do something very similar for meetings and people.

I obviously can't show you that here

with a real meeting or a real person.

But in the person template, I do have a dataview query

that shows every meeting I've ever had with them.

And the summary of that meeting.

So I can tell at a glance where we talked about

the last time that we spoke.

The other organizational structure that I've been using,

and this one's fairly new because it was only released

in a few versions ago, and that is bookmarks.

So I have bookmarks here

and I really like to have My Core Principles first.

So these ones are kind of like my review notes.

So I start with My Core Principles and then my Year Ahead,

which is like a snapshot of where I'm going to be

in the year and the main milestones

or events that are happening within each month.

And then I go through the year, quarter, month

and weekly notes for that.

And as we take over to the new week, month, quarter or year,

then I update these bookmarks.

And that way they're always front of mind for me

so that I can make sure

that everything that I'm doing is going towards the goals

that I set for myself.

And then I have some other things here.

There's NVDH stuff that's like YouTube

and I have some stuff on making things.

And then those tags that I told you about.

And I have business stuff here,

like money and other company information.

I have TTRPGs.

These are the three games that I most often play.

And this is the one that I'm running,

and I have a bunch of other TTRPG related things.

And then I have some graphs here.

Actually, some of these other ones have graphs as well.

I think the way that I organize notes

in this hyperconnected kind of way

really reflects how I think better,

and it also reflects how I see the world

as things that don't always fit nicely

into segregated little boxes.

I also mentioned this earlier,

but there's something about folders that makes my brain itch

to look at them

because I always think I didn't organize it the right way

and maybe I should rejig it.

I went down this path with Notion

and I didn't find myself very productive with that tool,

because that is a tool that really encourages

hierarchical thinking, which I found out

is not the way that I think.

So for me, a hyperconnected note structure

is actually more future proof because it has lasted

more than any sort of hierarchical

folder type structure has.

I like to structure my notes

with a little bit of organization

and a lot of what others might see as chaos.

But what I see as opportunities to spark serendipity

continually challenge the way that I think

and prompt me to apply ideas in different contexts.

But what I've just shown is how I structure my notes,

not the way that you should.

In the end, your notes are about you

and your organizational structure

should reflect the way that you think,

the way that you process information,

and the way that you make sense of the world.

If you'd like to see more about

the differences between metadata, links, folders, and tags,

then check out this video where I go into that.

Thanks for watching.

And by the way, do you listen to the girl in red?