⏶ Obsidian Process 2021

## Obsidian Process 2021 🔹 *parent* [[Obsidian|Obsidian]] ▫️ *related* [[⏶ Obsidian Process 2023|Obsidian Process 2023]], [[❞ How to Take Smart Notes|How to Take Smart Notes]], [[@ Bryan Jenks|Bryan Jenks]] ### Overview This is my original written process for Obsidian that I wrote in 2021. My current process is outlined in [[⏶ Obsidian Process 2023|an updated 2023 guide]] as I continue to develop my workflow. *Please note:* Resources listed here may be out of date, changes to tagging, plugins, and general style have changed. [[Obsidian|Obsidian Index]] has updated index of concepts. ### Table of Contents [TOC] ### Guide I've learned Obsidian at the same time as the Zettelkasten method. Though they're independent and not every user of Obsidian uses Zettelkasten (or visa versa), I think they work best together. **Obsidian** is a program for writing and organizing notes. It's open source, free, and has a number of core and community [[#Plugins]] that can be used to add features. **Zettelkasten** is a way of processing new information through writing notes that link related ideas. Notes can be *Fleeting* (temporary, like meeting notes or ideas), *Literature* (notes taken while reading a book or watching a video), *Permanent* (topics that have developed through writing), or they can be time-based such as *Daily Notes* (journal notes that can be referenced by date). The main idea is that I create new notes using templates, link them to related notes, and categorize them based on types listed above. ### Online resources **Beginner** - [Obsidian Beginner Guide](https://www.sitepoint.com/obsidian-beginner-guide/) - [Obsidian Markdown Style Guide](https://obsidian-rs.github.io/docs/doc1/) - [How To Take Smart Notes - YouTube Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG1tfC7tSYw) - [Zettelkasten Smart Notes: Step by Step with Obsidian - YouTube Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziE6UExsOrs) **Intermediate** - [How to take Smart Notes in Obsidian - YouTube Playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5tkaGAzZPyo527K4sJQbyM9FcRV86RM_) - [Introduction to the Zettelkasten Method - Article Guide](https://zettelkasten.de/introduction/) **Advanced** - [Bryan Jenks 2021 Comprehensive Obsidian Zettelkasten Workflow (Advanced)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB89lJs5A3s&t=1635s) - [Bryan Jenks - Personal Knowledge Management & Zettelkasten - YouTube Playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5fd4SsfvECy0zzf8Cyo20ZoipEt6YeL3) ### Books [*How to Take Smart Notes*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34507927-how-to-take-smart-notes) ^4 - The philisophy behind "smart notes", broad but an excellent primer to understand concepts that Obsidian empowers. - [My Goodreads review](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3636412056) - [[❞ How to Take Smart Notes|My Notes]] Short reads with practical examples [*Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58165477-digital-zettelkasten) [*How to Take Smart Notes in Obsidian*](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62003447-how-to-take-smart-notes-in-obsidian?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=sBrw6DRQn8&rank=1) - ### Plugins Official Plugins [List of Plugins from Obsidian Help](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/List+of+plugins)[[#^obsidianOfficialPlugins|2]] **New/Testing** [[Permanent/Topics/Obsidian/Obsidian Plugins|Obsidian I'm Testing]] **Main Plugins** - [[⚑ Note Composer|Note Composer]] - [[⚑ QuickAdd|QuickAdd]] - [[⏶ Templater|Templater]] - [[⏶ imgur plugin|imgur plugin]] - Graph View - Backlinks - Outgoing Links - Obsidian Git - Daily Notes - Templates (I use Templater more often) - Command Palette - Markdown Format Converter - Zettelkasten prefixer - Workspaces - Publish ### Workflow #### Tags [[Tag Taxonomy]] **Tag Pattern for new notes:** - permanent 📝️ - literature 📥️ - daily ⛅ - fleeting 💭️ - Map of content 🗺️ - Todo ✅️ - then sub-categories - then status color (Obsidian 🟣 , Important 🔴 , In Progress 🟡 , and Complete 🟢 ). I may change this later, especially if I decide to use evergreen note statuses. I think the purple Obsidian tag should be used for configuration and Obsidian-related notes. Active tags will also now be in a bubble - css in `tag-pills.css` #### Editing / Reading view The newest version of Obsidian adds inline editing and preview/edit mode, a *cool* **feature** that I came across in [[⏶ TickTick|TickTick]]. If it's on the element/line, it will show the formatting but once moved off will go into preview mode. Game changer! I got rid of unnecessary CSS that was trying to achieve this same thing. It also seems that I deleted my original highlight colors, so I added those back in, and also added spacing below each `<li>` so that each quote has more space. Colors show in 'read' mode (as its called now) but not in 'edit' mode. - I originally targetted this with .literature-left, but realized that doing so wouldn't keep the formatting on pop-up, so I removed it. I think the CSS selector `ol li q` should be enough considering that `q` is rare and is being used specifically here for literature quotes to distinguish them from any markdown quotes. Here's an example of a reference that is important. I searched through the references by opening brackets `[[`, then using `#` to search file, then `^` to search block, then looked for color `orange`, and scrolled through options. If I rollover and click `cmd`, it displays the quote in style. [[References/Readwise/Books/Reveries of the Solitary Walker#^a2b079|This is a test quote]] ![[Pasted image 20220111153954.png]] #### Graph View In search, you can leave out items by targeting elements in the search box with a `-` symbol. For instance, this would remove everything that has the YAML css class "weekly-notes" ``` - weekly-notes ``` A list of common things to remove ``` -weekly-notes, -Templates, ``` ### Obsidian Process #### Templater and Yaml New notes are created using Templater plugins stored in the Permanent note directory. Each contain [[⏶ YAML|YAML]] frontmatter sections containing Title, Zet id, aliases (AKA titles), tags, date created, and publish status. - tag formatting is still being perfected but is used sparingly for note types (MOC, literature type) - I removed *modified* because [[File Info]] plugin shows: modified, size, and various character count. #### Inbox and Fleeting note process In order to process notes in Inbox or those labeled 'Fleeting' - **Relate to other notes:** Add to existing project and relate to 3+ notes - Add references if they exist - Make sure that it's linking to the **correct index** - Parent note should link - If it's part of a sequence (chaptes, course modules), add *prev* and *next* - Otherwise, **delete or add to another note** - avoid leaving hanging notes (more work later) - Move to appropriate folder #### Projects / Topic Process - **Add Project topics as index for note topics** (i.e.,"React") and then link all smaller notes to this topic index. * **Zettelkasten notes can be seen as Atomic notes** — consider small format when creating new notes, and make sure that everything is filled out before putting in Zettelkasten folder - This could be an actual project like *Red May* or *Job Search*, or it could be a topic I'm collecting notes on like *Vue.js*. #### Permanent note process - **Permanent** Folder should contain the following: - *Topics* - Permanent notes (and drafts) — New ideas built from collected atomic notes. This folder can have a 2-3 level structure. - *Information* — Notes containging permanent reference information (Attachments, Instructions, Warranty Info, Obsidian guides) - *Templates* — all Templater files #### Literature notes Currently my Literature Notes folder contains - **Literature notes** (notes taken as part of study) for Books, Articles, and Videos. I can add new notes here and should label them with {}, (), $. - This has worked well for videos but not all notes have correct labels. However this helps distinguish them from Readwise syncs. - **Readwise syncs** - highlights from books and articles auto-generated through Readwise. Both types need to be kept up-to-date with current note format. Permanent topics can reference both. #### Current Folder Structure + *Inbox* (Fleeting notes before process above) + *Kanban* (project-related process to reference) + *Projects* - MOC or notes currently being worked on + *Daily Notes* - all temporal notes + *Fleeting* - Still in process but eventually will remove and just use Inbox + *References* - literature notes, notes taken in learning process and Readwise highlights + *Permanent* - Topic articles, Templates, Information, etc + *Zettelkasten* - atomic notes for individual topics Based on [[✦ Zettelkasten Smart Notes - Step by Step with Obsidian|Zettelkasten Smart Notes]] ### Styling Colors - currently using a theme called Things. It is putting _italics_ in pink, which looks super awesome, but not sure I love the `mono font` #### Callouts Obsidian added *callouts*, which are a built-in version of [[* Admonition|Admonition]]. > [!Tip] This is a tip > Multiple lines would > Look like this! > [!INFO] Title of tip > First line is style (casing ignored) and title > Second+ is the body *Types:* note abstract, summary, tldr info, todo tip, hint, important success, check, done question, help, faq warning, caution, attention failure, fail, missing danger, error bug example quote, cite This style can be edited in the *Obsidian.css* ```css .callout[data-callout="my-callout-type"] { --callout-color: 0, 0, 0; --callout-icon: icon-id; --callout-icon: '[svg tag goes here]'; } ``` --- #### Fonts Really like this font config ![[Pasted image 20220104224611.png]] 'Proxima Nova' 'Graphik Regular' 'SFMono-Regula, Menlo,' 'Founders Grotesk Regular' ![[Pasted image 20220111154358.png]] I customized the Graph view with groups. - **Nodes** that are linked but have yet to be created are grey - **Daily Notes** (time-based) are orange - **Zettelkasten** (permanent notes) are pink - **Literature** (Books, Articles, Papers, Videos) are green - **Categories** (Map of Content) are yellow - **Fleeting** (temporary notes) are blue ### Creating References I've setup a text expander with [[⏶ Espanso|Espanso]] and [[⏶ YAML|YAML]] to create `` references that can easily add references to the bottom of notes (mostly for *Literature* notes). #### Yaml `:sup` creates: `[[Note-Title#^TopicNameYear|1(ref-num)]]` `:ref` creates: `[Lastname, Firstname (year). *Name of book, journal, article*](URL)^1-TopicNameYear` #### Searching local and global `[[^]]` - searches the note `[[^^]]` - searches the whole library - type any phrase, then add a pipe with a number reference For instance links to a block that has been auto numbered: `[[! The DOM#^dbe4d2|1]]` OR In this I just used `[^]` then searched *Ref* and picked the topic name: ` [[2021-07-14-Wed#^1-TopicNameYear]] ` Graph view information[[#^GraphCSSClasses|1]] ### References 1. *Graph CSS Classes* [*Graph CSS Classes*](https://publish.obsidian.md/help/Plugins/Graph+view)^GraphCSSClasses 2. List of Official Obsidian Plugins [*List of plugins*, Obsidian Help](https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/List+of+plugins)^obsidianOfficialPlugins 3. Jenks, Bryan (2021). *My Obsidian Kindle Notes Workflow*, [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKj6y7nKlxY)^bryanJenksKindle 4. Ahrens, Sönke (2017). *How to Take Smart Notes*, [Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34507927-how-to-take-smart-notes)^topicNameYear 5. Kadavy, David (2021). *Digital Zettelkasten: Principles, Methods, & Examples*, [Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58165477-digital-zettelkasten) ^36872c