How to achieve more while studying less - Obsidian & Conceptual Notes
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- Опубліковано 30 чер 2024
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Learn how making concept-based notes with Obsidian can help you learn things better, spend less time studying, and spend more time *doing*. What more could you want?!
Contents:
0:00 - Intro
0:24 - The problem we're trying to solve
2:05 - How you should be taking notes
5:05 - Conceptual notes help you learn things in real time
5:52 - Conceptual notes make use of old notes
7:22 - Conceptual notes allow more creativity
8:49 - Conceptual notes are fluid, just like your mind
10:21 - Conclusion
12:58 - Epilogue: some tips on conceptual note taking
As mentioned, I use the Sliding Panes plugin, as well as the Atom and Cybertron themes in Obsidian. For the drawings I showed, I do those in a program called Bamboo Paper using my Wacom drawing tablet, and then I take screenshots and paste them into Obsidian.
Video edited with Adobe Premiere.
Links I mentioned:
Maps of Content: publish.obsidian.md/lyt-kit/U...
Linking Your Thinking: / @linkingyourthinking
Explosion Effect:
Free Stock Footage by www.videezy.com - Наука та технологія
It would be amazing if you made a Obsidian tutorial with a more complete demonstration like do you use map of content how you setup your notes uses of links and tags
He had me convinced in the first few min and I was waiting for the tutorial to start😭
Can someone ping me if/when this guy decides to make a tutorial on this? Thanks
Learn the markdown syntax, it’s pretty easy actually :P
learn markdown. Its really simple
I don’t think that’s going to happen :(
This I think is one of the best and most genuine videos on notetaking, PKM etc. as it's about principles that can be implemented according to own needs and not about "the perfect way of notetaking"! Thanks
Really inspiring! I've been using Obsidian for 3 months to take notes as psychology student and wow, that "Wikipedia already exists" hit me hard. The desire of making shiny notes is so strong in me. This video is exactly what I needed to start a little revolution in my vault. I'm really interested to know more about your workflow to create evergreen notes
Yeah, that's a really strong desire in me too - takes a lot of reminding to avoid rewriting Wikipedia :)
And how has that been going? I'm also a psychology student, and I'm thinking about switching from Notion to Obsidian
@@AlvaroALorite I switched from Notion to Obsidian for the ease of Obsidian to link everything together using just a pair of square brackets. Psychology is highly connected subject: the same concept can be studied by cognitive psychology, social psychology, dynamic psychology, developmental psychology... and by sociology, neuroscience, anthropology and so on. Obsidian gave me the possibility to link all this knowledge and it's really satisfying
@@knowine_ I really took a liking in the idea of taking conceptual notes, but one problem I have with it, is how do I learn for the exam? If it doesn’t have any sequential structure how do I know I‘ve learned everything for passing the exam? What’s your way?
@@TheGamestime Really interesting point. I create a note in which I copy exam syllabus, just to be sure I don't miss anything
"The goal is not to learn, but to do as much as possible" hits home.
Thanks for this video! I'd love to see more of this coming, it seems to me that we might learn a lot from you in the PKM field. Let's keep this conversation going 🙌🏻
As a mechanical engineer, I wish I had the technology when I was studying. Your notes are what I have in my head, but oh boy, I'd love to have them out of my head in case I forget them! I did practice active listening, as I struggle to recall things. Everything I know, is because of first principles, and I derive all my working from there every single time (and Roarks). Having had something like this would have helped so much in making the links I needed for my understanding and even highlight new ones! Keep at it, you'll be able to effect change in any industry.
Thinking and taking notes in terms of concepts is a good approach and one I've done for many years, but there's still many reasons why sequential note taking is popular and one that I still use as well.
1. Lessons often follow a narrative structure. 3Blue1Brown, an amazing teacher on youtube, talks about how great teachers are great storytellers. And the thing about narratives is, they're mostly linear. Lessons are the same way, ideas brought up later in the lecture related to ones brought up earlier. When you start to break up your notes into loose concepts spread out over many pages, you risk losing that context.
2. Organizing notes is not easy, and takes time. Trying to do so while learning concepts in real-time during a lecture is an almost impossible feat. Ideally your classes should be challenging you, and you should be struggling to keep up just trying to understand the concepts in class. If the class were easy enough that you could immediately identify key concepts and structural patterns, then you are probably not learning much from that class anyways. In a difficult class, if you try to organize your notes while still trying to grasp the material, you risk making a big mess out of your notes. It is far easier to just write down as much as you can. And once you do that, you can always go back home and then re-organize it into concepts when you better understand it. The lecture only happens once. At home you have all the time you need.
In my chemistry class, we were allotted a standardized printed periodic table that we could use as a cheat sheet. Notes were to be written on the table side only. So in lecture, I took notes linearly, and at home, I organized the information, as small as I could write, on to the periodic table. I ended up reprinting it several times as I often felt I'd ruined it. In order to save space I devised simple color coding and symbols, and colored in the different categories of elements. I also wrote things I knew I wouldn't be able to perfectly memorize, such as the rules for sigfigs and some cation/anion names. It wasn't perfectly organized but I was well prepared for tests and didn't even have to reference it as often as I thought I would need to.
The assessment system need to revamp to not test us on memory of terms but concepts(ie. connection) of how things work. Else we will always incline to take note in the fear that we might "forget" certain factual knowledge.
@@vservicesvservices7095 There is one incredibly simple and effective way of modifying a test so that memorization is less of an issue. Multiple choice. It has saved me many times, it draws the answer out of my memory more effectively.
I agree, his system looks like a great fit for him and it looks really cool, but every your point stands correct(losing context, takes time).
You can promote active learning with much less things, all you have to do is to stop copy line-by-line lecture notes. You try to grasp material, while simultaneously writing it as chaotic as possible under the note of one lecture, and then back at home, or at downtime you have time to refactor and link notes together.
I can't imagine atomizing my notes so much, relating to topics that I study, I am studying DS & Algorithms, and I can't even imagine how would I apply things that author said to my note taking, where I try to follow Zettelkasten and basically this is my connections at the moment:
Recursion -> (Head Recursion, Tree Recursion, Tail Recursion, Tree Recursion, Static and Global Variables in Recursion, Time Complexity of a Recursion -> ( Time And Space Complexity -> ( Algorithms and Data Structures ).
And most of them are very solid, having code snippets, diagrams with activation records/tree tracing, analyze of time/space complexity, conclusions. And the only downside, that on average lecture which lasts ~17 minutes, would take me like ~25 to write down chaotically, and then another ~10 minutes to organize and link everything properly.
I started using Obsidian recently, and you basically addressed all the difficulties I had while taking notes in it.
I now see that "treating my personal knowledge system as a project in itself" is one of the main reasons why I didn't felt motivated to do it more often.
Great video!
Felt like I intuitively knew this but needed someone to spell it out for me. So wish I had this during my university but I still love learning so better late than never. Thank you much.
definitely one of my favourite videos i've seen recently even the timing is perfect as i will start my first semester studying physics next week
This video was really interesting to me. This is my first exposure to these ideas. Although, I was familiar with links enhancing material. So I used to have a little paper chart of shared elements between classes. So I occasionally was able to use older notes. But it was generally too hard to find. And old textbooks tended to be more useful.
2 minutes into this video and I already love how well it's made, great job !!
yeah, it's just insane what value this video has, and how clean it's made in general!!!
Thank you! This is hands down the clearest and most succinct video on how to make atomic notes.
I went down the PKM rabbit hole a few months back and was really struggling to get away from what you call sequential notes. Now it all makes perfect sense.
Thanks for the awesome video!
HOW is this content free. WOW dude this is literally how i remember stuff the best but never knew there could be software to help/aid in that, the way you explained everything is amazing. Thanks man!
DUDE! YES! I've been taking conceptual notes for a while now. I thought that I was just weird that needed to take notes in a "graph-like structure" because "that's how it works on my brain". Glad to know that I'm not a freak and this is actually something formalized (?). Seeing people on the same path I'm making but further into it is a great feeling. Also, this feels to me like an evolution to Zettelkasten.
This is the best explanation of the concepts behind Obsidian and that whole domain of note-taking I've seen so far. Great job and thank you for making this video!
I remember this video as the one that first that got me to *really* think about how and why I take notes when I'm trying to learn something. It introduced me to the concepts of a "Second Brain" and a "Personal Knowledge Management" system. I just rewatched it and you do an amazing job of breaking down and explaining the "why" behind all of these ideas. I will definitely be recommending this video to anyone who asks me about why I use Obsidian and take notes the way I do. Great job!
Awesome video, never thought about how my approach to note taking might be totally flawed. It’s easy to forget how these tools should be constructed in a way that mimics our own though processes in order to be legitimately useful later on. Thank for putting in the work to make these ideas public and easily digestible.
The time lapse feature in Obsidian is the best thing ever. Imagine seeing what you learned in whole middle school for example.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who loved this feature!
Thank you so much for sharing these information! I’ve been using Obsidian for over a year already and I’ve never properly figured out how to use it to maximize its potential. Looking forward to watch more videos from you.
I love these videos which genuinely help those who want to change, but seem too open ended for those who just seem like they want to change.
Love the video!
Ill rewatch this for sure, i got it on my feed and im so thankful, ive been wanting to find something like this for ages! Thanks man :D
Bravo, great thinking, keep 'em coming!
Our Control Systems professor gave us this lecture about 'power of abstraction' at the start of semester. To try to abstract away the 'application' and focus on the idea / structure, and try to apply / relate it to other courses we are taking. I like to study about behaviour psychological and how it is used in politics and media, so I started relating engineering concepts / topics to psychological techniques and human behaviour in general, and they started to feel more intuitive. It was the turning point in my life, when studying starting to feel fun rather than a burden. My study group buddies often compliment me that I explain topics in very easy to understand way, and also correct me where I am wrong, so it works best if you have 2-3 people to discuss/test your ideas with.
Whatever you do them on (and a follow up would be great), I hope you keep making videos. This would be impressive for someone who had a page full of uploads. Great thoughts (and then subsequent edits!).
Thanks for making a great video! I love the shift from conceptual notes rather than trying to capture everything word for word in sequential order. Looking forward to future videos on ideation as well.
One of the best youtube videos I’ve watched in a while. You truly have a gift. Please make more videos and share your knowledge.
Everything that I had in my brain without a single vision you've told in this video with such a great effort! Now everything is connected. Thank you for it!
Thanks for the video and your effort.
One problem I still have with "mastering" Obsidian is how to store the notes.
After researching, creating a lot of directories with multilevel subdirectories isn't the right way of using Obsidian, but I am guilty of doing this often and have a hard time finding any other way.
Whoa, this video was awesome. I was expecting this to be a huge channel and was surprised that there were no uploads in 7 months. You have the skills for a great YTber!
An incredible video. Thank you. You have a very cool presentation of information. I hope you continue to make videos and get a deservedly large audience.
So inspired by this. Currently studying engineering in CS and it's so funny that this video talks about connecting concepts when this video could easily be more generally linked to memory management and movement of data/information. Obsidian also lets you have plugins that you can create scripts for to actually USE the data that you have accumilated?? This is just a dream come true.
If I just saw a random ad for this I probably would have just thought it as a really fancy note taking tool but when you put it in the perspective of linking concepts I realized this is exactly what I need to visualize what im learning and keep connecting my knowledge the further I advance my studies. This is literally the best of ALL worlds.
Huge props!
You literally took the words out of my mouth, I think of the exact same things all the time! Sick video btw
I truly didn't realize the value of this video until I familiarized myself with obsidian first and then watched the video. The note-taking ideas stick more now that you aren't wondering what the heck obsidian is. And this idea really works well with obsidian. Great video.
There needs to be a "❤️" button. Great presentation, great voice, and straight to the point! I've seen so many videos on note taking using a similar idea, but you really packaged it well in this video. Thank you!
I need more of this, Please make more videos about this subject. Really inspiring and informative, while not getting stale :))
3:36 uh no no no nooooo!
"If you just feel like you don't need to write it down then you are probably right"
That is the biggest mistake I was making. YOU WILL FORGET IT. Even if it is perfectly reasonable and memorable on the spot. Well - it is... But just because you were listening to a guy for one hour and he was building whole tower of context in your brain.
One week later you won't even remember what the lecture was about. Let alone specific concepts.
You don't need to write absolutely everything. But you have to take time to build your intuition about what is actually worth remembering. And at the beginning you won't be able to distinguish those things - and you can't trust yourself.
At least this is what I learned during my studies in STEM field. Maybe for less technical studies it will work.
Exactly what I was thinking
Awesome, conceptualizing notes. I started doing something like this because it lets ideas grow instead of being spread out all over from trying to take notes on a bunch of different courses all organizing stuff a different way when there tends to be a lot of cross over that we aren't taking advantage of. This video helps to give pointers on doing it way better than my trial and error try and figure out a method and in much frustration, rewriting stuff which really ruins my calm demeanor.
I also realize I really need to work on my obsidian css presentation. I like your notes.
How does this channel only have 1.6k subs? You deserve more man. Cheers to you, and good luck with your future videos.
This is an excellent video. I've recently started using Obsidian and I love the concept of calling it a "second brain". Your points here about concept-based learning are wise. I've often said the most powerful form of memory is associative. Associating concepts with each other rather than following a strict set of curriculums really is the key, and it makes learning a lot less boring. In IT, this is really important. Trying to fully understand all these incredibly complicated system/networking concepts without associating them with one another is impossible.
I love the way you used metaphors to explain what you meant! As a educational sciences student I can vouch that everything you said is completely correct 😊
Watched this video for the second time now. You should keep doing more stuff like this. Really enjoyed it
Excellent EXCELLENT delivery. Your clarity is inspiring mate.
Everything you shared in this video is one long, continuous, slow-mo mic drop! Your observations have helped me to back away just a little bit, and helped me to begin to see the forest from the trees! And for that, I am grateful.
I can't believe I found this during my last semester of my masters, brilliant video.
This is the best video on Obsidian I have watched. I was intrigued by it, but every video I watched made it look like more work than neccesary and quite unorganized. Your video showed how well all the information goes together, perhaps it's just you and how you use it, but now I think I could give it a try. Thanks! (also, I feel called out as I am a data hoarder)
is no one gonna mention how insane this guys' graph view is, it looks beautiful
This video is a true gem. Insightful and funny. I'm excited for more.
Really nice video. Especially this thing about concepts. Because every time I am in lecture, I struggle to make sense from it. Thank you for great ideas!
Chris, that was an amazing presentation. Great voice, fast (but not rushed!). Really spoke to me. Thanks. Looking into your channel now (and subs)
I have a huge problem...come across so many disparate things I want to integrate and learn more about... Obsidian looks great. Linking... fantastic.
This is amazing. It could have saved me years of my life if I knew it before. I'm implementing this from now on. Thank you!
Man this is the best video I've watched in a long time. And I watch UA-cam videos all day long everyday. So, yeah, I liked and subscribed. Thanks for your amazing work!!
This really hits home, I thought a few time about something like this but never implemented it, about to enter my 3rd year of mechanics after struggling last year, it's better to have a realization like this later than never I guess, thanks.
Good luck!
Still waiting for that follow-up video, definitely one of the best videos on the topic. Thank you for making this
Thank-you brother for making this video. You are truly gifted/ skilled. And thank-you so much for the "linking your thinking recommendation"!
Great video! 11:57 well, this two you describe are _two_ different kinds of declarative memory (conscious recall of information): semantic (concepts) and episodic memory (events and stories). There is a thir one on this branch, spatial memory. Combining the three can be better.
Another tip, emotional related memories are more easily consolidated, so try to engage emotionally with what you are learning. Also, very high stress and very low stress hinder learning; this is related to cortisol levels.
Keep in mind having your own personal "second brain" is useful, however the brain is obviously better at combining knowledge in the fly than Obsidian, so "memorizing" is also useful. The best way to retain knowledge on memory is to practice active recall, make connections to what you already know, and (this VERY important) good night sleep after study sessions (7-8 hours, that "5 hour sleep a day is enough for me" is more of a myth than anything; it's more likely that you are hit by a lightning than having the biological hability to sleep with
Ah, I'm getting flashbacks to AP Psychology :)
Good advice all around. Actively using the stuff you learn (on practice problems, for example), is definitely the way to get good at using any concepts.
I think obsidian has a plugin for spaced memorization/recall.
I always wanted to make conceptual notes in class and have tried to.. several times but I always returned to making sequential notes since its the only way to keep up with the class since my irl writing speed sucks. What sucks more is the realization that the notes could have been organized better after you are done taking sequential notes. You could always do it at the time of revision if you study regularly. But during the pandemic I lagged quite a bit in watching the recorded classes our school put out, meaning lack of revision time hence forgetting the ingenious connection I made when I finally have time for revision. But this seems to be the answer I was searching for during these desperate times. Thank you for the gem of a video :D
This is an incredibly valuable video on note-taking, please make more.
this is among the best advice I've got on note taking ever. You've truly mastered to put things straight too and illustrate ideas. Highly motivated to pursue the idea of conceptual note taking from now on. Thanks a lot!
Please make more videos like this, it's really inspiring and entertaining. Thank you!
I have recently been studying through the use of mindmaps so the method of conceptual notes has been the core of my success these past 2 years. It is great for putting together bigger concepts but can be limiting when designing something complex as you need a number of mindmaps which can start to become overwhelming.
This tool is amazing and your video is absolutely mindblowing. I am still in the middle but needed to post this comment.
Excellent Video! I already take conceptual notes, and you've made some excellent points that I hadn't thought about, or was not doing effectively.
Awesome video, I started taking notes like this at the beginning of this year after seeing Obsidian from Randy's second youtube channel (game dev, here for context) and it's been a blast!
I have some issues with some (really bad) professors jumping around arguments every 1.5 seconds or explaining stuff with no explicit logic but yeah, just the thought of going back to pen and paper (especially as a dysgraphic) or any other notetaking technique it's a nightmare.
This is the best material about the organization of knowledge of all that I have met.
Very inspiring.
Thanks.
This is literally the best flipping thing I've heard in my entire life. Never before have I felt so validated. Thank you.
Finally found a video that showcase learning while showing a tutorial for Obsidian. Much love
This is the best video about Obsidian I watched until now. I would love to see a video about how to write notes in general with more details. If you have informations from a book or video for example and you have to take notes. How you write a good note for studying and learning if details matter.
But thank you anyway for this video!
You have introduced me into a whole new world of learning stuff, thank you!
Seriously, such a great explaination for me on PMK and note-taking. Thank you!!
I managed to get the early bird discount for Obsidian sync because the concept of building a knowledge graph seemed pretty cool for remembering stuff and discovering things, but I wasn't totally sure about how to "correctly" use it. Your video showed me a nice way to use it now, thanks!
I used to use folders to organise everything under categories, but thinking of everything not as within a displine, but as a concept has changed a lot about how I think about things
Btw,
As a Physics major, I absolutely love how you interconnect your topics.
This is probably the most brilliant UA-cam video I’ve ever seen. Nice job
This is an awesome video, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this topic. I'm grateful that you focused on principles, and not tactics. This is a video that I will save and come back to many times, I'm sure.
One of the best video on learning and note taking. First principles thinking and importance of conceptual note taking, Knowledge is not disciplines rather a universe are golden advice. Thanks.
I really like your note taking method! After watching the video, I realize having individual notes for specific topics and linking them together is similar to how wikipedia articles are structured.
One of the best video on this topic. Love it!
Seriously, one of the best videos I've seen on the topic
Just great job. The content and the making of the video is the best proof that what you are saying is worth pursuing.
Great content and I really like the way you organize your obsidian!
This is one of the best youtube videos I've seen this year, and I watch a LOT of youtube.
Nice portal gameplay footage. Shooting the portal gun aimlessly is basically what we do when taking notes in class.
wow, i first saw your sub count as 1.64m and was shocked when it was only 1.64k, this video was amazing and informative. thank you so much!
Very convincing and eloquent. Would love to see more videos from you 👌🏻
Thanks for sharing! A little suggestion is that you can edit the voice channel from stereo to mono, so it won't affect the audio difference, and adjust the volume in each section.
Huge mind blow, I love the way you do it.
Thanks you! this is the upgrade i've been searching for.
I really like your idea. Especially the point about making use of old notes. I was always frustrated that I kept making new notes every year that are only relevant for that year but not that useful later.
But there are still some questions that came up after thinking about your system:
- Can you explain how you would define a concept? What are aspects of a concept that help me recognize them?
- Why did you make a note on "more carbon = more brittle"? It seemed easy enough to understand to me. Did you do it because the concept seemed important to you?
- You recommended to not write down things I already know. What if I avoid writing things down that I think already know but then I maybe forget it in the future? That happened to me after school with math, physics etc. After what is the equivalent of high school I had a gap of about 4 years where I barely used the things I learned in math and physics etc. Then 2 years ago I started to study medical engineering and I still have trouble remembering the stuff I learned.
- In the beginning of the video you explained the analogy of a painter who doesn't have their paint in reach which disturbs the flow. So where is the line to be drawn between a concept is memorizable, should be an atomic note and can be googled? Because one could argue that googling is similiar to not having the paint in our reach in the painters analogy. What if I rely too much on googling the concepts and end up having no flow because the googling creates too much friction?
this was de video that got me started in PKM. Thanks. And that's all I have to say, really, thank you
i've personally been able to move most of high school stuff into my long term memory and its making some of first year subjects so easy as they are mainly just a rehash of high school. so all in all this video truely speaks wisdom even if i already kinda know it
My old high school notes are now ash, I burnt it due to the fact that we are forced to copy what the teacher wrote on the board, and we aren't encouraged to write our own notes in our own understanding, for they check the notebooks and add them to our grades. If we miss one note, our grades will be deducted.
I just relearnt concepts and topics online, luckily I jotted down everything in my head before I burnt the notebooks.
I am loving this video, it is amazing, I learnt a lot from it and gave me a sense of hope. Thank you.
That system makes me kind of.... angry is probably the best term for the loss of human potential that might have resulted from such a strict system - glad you could find a way through and eventually think about your notes freely!
I think people can fear that if they've finished high school/college, then it's too late for them. But you're a great example of how the best time to start thinking about things conceptually is right now, and like compound interest, those notes will just pay dividends over time.
Thank you very much for the kind words! Makes a big difference.
Dude, I seldom leave comments on UA-cam videos, but well done! This piece was really interesting to watch, and the way you conducted the viewer through the ideas is quite cool. Loved the part about going to hill to explain the next point because "it's what you're supposed to do on youtube" or whatever it was that you said. A touch of humor and surprise really makes makes a difference haha
The video is about so much more than just taking notes. subbed!
Damn this was a very well made video. Keep up the good work man👍♥️
I wish I've seen this earlier. This is amazing! Thank you for the video!
Great video. That walk on the hill gave me major CPGrey vibes. Please make more videos, you have a talent you might not have known about before.
My man... I've been trying to apply Zettelkasten and PKM approached for a whole year, and your video is the first one to explode my Lil' Brain senses this hard
Thank you so much, this is a treasure
This video is seriously helpful. Just what I needed. Thank you very much
The algorithm may suck most of the time but I'm glad for absolute gold like this
Thank you so much
Will give it a try
This video, is one of the best Conceptual Note taking explainer. Congratulations... :)
Very nice! This was only recommended to me because I already use Obsidian, but there was still much to learn and extract from this video. Cheers!
"your focusing on the same connections as everyone else in the world, which is the fastest way to never have an original thought"
incredible video, bravo
we appreciate that you are selling something as a product of ethos rather than logos.
👍