How I refactor notes in Obsidian
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- Опубліковано 15 тра 2024
- It's not enough for me to just take notes - they have to be useful, too. Here's how I refactor notes in Obsidian using community and core plugins to inventory, structure, categorise, explain, and modularise my notes. Refactoring isn't just for code. It's for notes too! It's only through gradually updating my notes over time that I can begin to reap the benefits of continuous note-taking.
// RESOURCES
Monitoring (notes): notes.nicolevanderhoeven.com/...
Coding and writing converging (notes): notes.nicolevanderhoeven.com/...
Quick Switcher (notes): notes.nicolevanderhoeven.com/...
Outline (notes): notes.nicolevanderhoeven.com/...
Search (notes): notes.nicolevanderhoeven.com/...
Strange New Worlds (notes): notes.nicolevanderhoeven.com/...
Readwise Official (video): • How to process notes i...
ExcaliBrain (video): • How to use the ExcaliB...
Obsidian Excalidraw (video): • Visual map of content ...
Note Refactor (notes): notes.nicolevanderhoeven.com/...
// TIMESTAMPS
00:00 What is refactoring and why should you do it?
02:07 Inventory - start with what you've got
05:13 Structure - restructuring your notes
09:33 Categorise - organise headings within the note
11:59 Explain - fleshing out your note
13:33 Modularise - break it apart into smaller notes
19:09 Summary of how to refactor notes
---
// ABOUT ME
Site: nicolevanderhoeven.com
Mastodon: pkm.social/@nicole
My work at Grafana Labs: • My work at Grafana Labs
// APPS I USE
- Obsidian: obsidian.md
- Readwise: readwise.io/nicole
- Shortform: shortform.com/nicole
- Reclaim: go.reclaim.ai/eg0tgbamp7cb
- Snipd: link.snipd.com/Cx7S/nicole
- Napkin: napkin.one/?via=nicole
// GEAR
nicolevanderhoeven.com/gear/
// WANT TO SUPPORT ME?
❤️ Join my Patreon and get my sample vault with templates: / nicolevdh
☕ Buy me a coffee: ko-fi.com/nicolevdh
⭐ Buy Obsidian for Everyone, my beginner course on Obsidian: courses.nicolevanderhoeven.co...
Note: Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means I may get a small percentage when you sign up using those links. To see how I decide what to promote in this way, check out my Ethics Statement: nicolevanderhoeven.com/ethics/ - Наука та технологія
The example I'm using in this video is a technical one, but I don't think you need to understand the contents of the note to see how I refactor it. (Links in the description for everything below!)
CORE PLUGINS: Quick Switcher, Outline, Search
COMMUNITY PLUGINS: Strange New Worlds, Readwise Official, ExcaliBrain, Obsidian Excalidraw, Note Refactor
THEME: AnuPpucin - ua-cam.com/video/7-SOwxpZQNI/v-deo.html
Thank you. I found your channel around two years ago, and the first time I ever heard about obsidian was from your videos. The discovery of this app led me down the beautiful rabbit hole of PKM, and has fundamentally changed the way I learn for the better.
This video already caused me to create two new notes in my vault on the same topic as it gave me ideas of what was missing from the existing analysis. Thank you!
So happy to hear that!! I always worry whether these types of videos are too specific for my use case, so I'm glad you got something out of it.
Nicole, you are the best. I look forward to your high quality videos every week. Looking forward to more content!
Awww, thank you, Ryan! Appreciate the encouragement to keep going! Sometimes life gets in the way.
You're back, yay!
Video editing is super stylistic, wow!
Not familiar with refactoring term, but sounds like editing to a writer.
Editing being the hard work to create something hopefully valuable, from the initial 'easy' writing, which might be a chaotic brain dump full of typos and errors.
But also obsidian has that structural aspect that makes it kinda halfway between writing and coding.
Looking forward to a future when I can talk to my AI assistant and reshape my raw notes without forgetting, losing stuff, or struggling with indexing/meta fields and all that mechanical proces to prevent my vault falling into chaos. Oops too late!
I am back! :) Yay!
Yes, I think editing is probably the more general term for refactoring. As both a writer and an engineer, I think editing would be more broad, and can encompass more changes in meaning and content than refactoring does. I tend to think of refactoring as not changing much of the semantics or the intention behind the code, but changing things around it to make it more functional, easy to read by other devs, or easy to find.
I sometimes use AI tools for writing/taking notes, but usually earlier on in the process. I haven't liked using AI within Obsidian, but I do use AI in tools like Napkin to bring up connections I had forgotten. It's also really good at applying tags/other metadata. I'm kind of happy it doesn't sync to Obsidian though... I am wary of giving any app access to my notes! :D
Nicole, I strongly agree about the parity of the refactoring concept. It sure applies. I do a lot of refactoring on my notes. Some people see this as a waste of time, but I like making sure my notes, especially when important, capture the essence of my thoughts. It is also a healthy review process. By the way, I see you are still using Strange New World. I will be giving that some love here soon (perf enhancements, sorting, etc). Keep up your great work.
Coming as an old school - i.e. essay based, rather than snippets/atomic, with clumsy footnotes being the closest to the [[ inline]] links. This function of Obsidian and its natural - either make atomic initially, and then as your reading or understanding expands - the notes grow, get bloated and then 'refactored' a newer 'atomic' note - yet by including the 'sub-note' as a heading as a link is just so natural.
It almost gives you an export ready 'whole essay', where by an outgoing 'publishable version could be simply be created - with even smaller 'glue' sentences add to make the atomic notes actually flow. Will see how that works soon.
So nice to hear about the new improvements to SNW soon! Yes, still using it and definitely noticed the performance improvements from the last time already. You're on such a roll!
Hello Nicole , Great info as always.
I have a request for a video in future .
Please do share all the latest tech devices you use - Laptops, tablets, mobile phones for your daily productivity . Any specific software which you use but never shared to the public.
Would be interesting to know all these 😊
I never saw such a techie person of obsidian who has indepth knowledge on it 👍. Your huge fan from India 🙏
Thank you both for your input! @Ramesh, you can find all the gear I use on a daily basis here: nicolevanderhoeven.com/gear/
Excellent - 'larger process' vid. and great summary at the end. Many thanks.
THIS... having moved to Obsidian, this just works so much easier than the 'old' app and its process (almost noexistant) - thank you, again.
"On one hand, it seems pretty obvious that refactoring your notes takes a lot of time. It requires sitting down, reviewing your notes, and thinking critically about what notes need to be changed, how, and why. On the other hand, it is precisely this type of work that differentiates just taking notes from having an actually usable personal knowledge management system that is an accurate reflection of what you're thinking at any point in time.
Having a continuous note-taking system means so much more than taking the notes in the first place. It means continually updating your vault as what you think changes as well. If you'd like to learn more about continuous note-taking and some best practices for it that I've stumbled across in my years of doing it, then check out this video, where I talk specifically about how I use Obsidian for work, but it's still going to be valuable in other contexts."
And this is how - with these baby steps the daunting task of a few thousand notes get 'converted' no a more useful structure (and hersay of tagging) ;
"Sometimes it's easier mentally to just say, "I'm just going to touch this one little thing," and I don't have to change the rest of it."
It's difficult to talk about the larger process of refactoring without getting in the weeds about the specific thing I'm refactoring. Happy you liked it, Tim!
Inspiring. Thank you!
Amazing content as usual ! Glad for Strange New World plugin and note refactor 😊Thank you
Do you have a video on how you made your changelog? I'm interested in having the same 😍
May I know what you use to show keys on the screen please ?
Hi! Thank you!
Would you find the Smart Connections plugin useful for the inventory portion?
I really enjoy the way you use obsidian. I usually use logseq, and if I need to write longer notes, I have my logseq graph in my obsidian vault, so I can easily make new notes. But this almost makes me want to ditch logseq for obsidian full time. I think for me the way logseq works makes a bit more sense in my brain.
Yay! I WANT to like Logseq because it's open source and works natively with GitHub, but I just can't get used to the bullet-based block system. I know it works better for others, though!
Just having Excalibrain open to the side is encouraging me to link more things, immediate improvement!
Awesome! Glad you got some use out of that! I felt the same way. In one workspace that I have for processing notes, I have a whole separate ExcaliBrain window open so it's a bit bigger.
I like your simple changelog shown at the end. How did you make it?
10 January 2024
at 16:52 you update the title of your note. What causes the filename to change at the same time please ? Was it manually done or via a setting or plugin ?I like how its done.
Hi Nicole, interesting :) question why are you sqtill using inline fields when properties are so handy?
Residue of past workflows? (that's my case)
Hi! Great question. Hmmm. Yeah, it's mainly still a residue of past workflows. I have some scripts that used the inline fields, so I need to update those first before I fully make the switch! I have moved to using the YAML frontmatter for most other properties, though.
You are making me want to make a bunch of notes related to monitoring LOL
Haha do it!!!
Sorry if you went through this and I missed it but, is changelog a plugin or a manual process? I am guessing plugin but please let me know if you can 😅
Loooove your work!
Nevermind I found the plugin thanks ❤
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
00:00 📝 *Introduction à la refactorisation des notes dans Obsidian.*
- La refactorisation des notes signifie les améliorer sans changer leur contenu. Cela s'applique également aux notes, pas seulement au code.
01:25 🧭 *Étapes pour la refactorisation des notes.*
- Identification et inventaire des notes existantes sur un sujet.
- Structuration des notes pour refléter la compréhension actuelle.
- Catégorisation des contenus des notes.
- Explication des raisons de la catégorisation et ajout de liens.
- Modularisation des notes en morceaux plus petits, si nécessaire.
13:05 📦 *Avantages de la modularisation des notes.*
- Facilite la gestion des notes complexes.
- Permet une réorganisation plus simple à l'avenir.
- Offre la possibilité d'abstraire des concepts pour une réutilisation dans d'autres contextes.
19:47 🔄 *Évolution constante des notes.*
- La refactorisation des notes fait partie de la prise de notes continue.
- Les notes doivent être constamment mises à jour pour refléter votre compréhension actuelle.
- Cela garantit que votre système de gestion des connaissances reste pertinent.
Made with HARPA AI
Merci pour le résumé ! J'espère que vous avez aimé la vidéo
Okay, this is really dangerous. I think your brain works similarly to mine and I can feel myself being sucked down the rabbit hole o.o
Relatable! I try to remind myself often that it needs to serve to provide an output.. I’m not taking notes for myself, I’m doing it to do other things. But agree it’s easy to organize for its own sake 😂
Haha! I get sucked down the rabbit hole A LOT. I really feel pulled to categorise and explain everything and have to pull myself back all the time.
Same! I try to restrict myself by time. Otherwise I could keep going forever!
First of all, great video. Nice explanation of your process. Secondly I definitely missed something, since when is Nicole referring to Bavarian greetings 😂
Haha! Hey! Someone got it! And the answer is: since I spent a week in München recently. ;)
thank you watching
How can I have to make No?