6:26 another fun tip, you can make a link directly to a specific page in a PDF by adding #page=N to the end of the link path. For example, [[path/to/file.pdf#page=5]] to link to page 5.
You are a very good teacher! :) Could you do video on how you use Obsidian when you start to plan an essay or an article? How you look into the connections and gather the useful notes? It would be interesting to see the "end result" of zettelkasten.
Fantastic. I've been exploring the Zettlekasten idea for about 3 years now. You are really doing a great job of communicating the essence of linked note-making.
Thanks so much for saying so. Sounds like you're way ahead of me!! I feel like I'm just fumbling my way through - but the zettelkasten method has transformed my relationship to learning, writing, and knowing, so I want to share that journey!
Structure notes! Simple idea, but somehow never made this connection (hey, knowledge metaphor!). Structure notes. Also like the use of emojis for these process oriented types of pages to visually separate them from content tags. I’m a RoamResearch user. I’ve been using tags and queries to make conjure these kinds of tables, but formally composing tables would help me structure my thinking. I’m a UX researcher, I have tinkered with Zettlkasten but haven’t implemented, your videos have been super helpful. Thank you for taking the time to start and grow your channel!
This is the most helpful Zettelkasten/Obsidian video I've found!! Thank you so much! I only discovered Zettelkasten this week, and your videos present it much more simply than a lot of others. Your system seems simpler and easier than some of the complicated ones out there: I love your three tags and I'm going to use them!
Hi! I discovered your channel yesterday! I thought in the last video that I would like to see the academic part and here it is! Thank you! I will start with my master thesis in March, so I am excited about using this system myself.
Ah, congrats and good luck with your Master's thesis! Do you know what it will be about? I'm hoping I can share even more specifics about my academic process in future videos, too!
Wonderful. And what the best is, imo, is the fact that you keep it simple. Right, we / you need to find better ways to organize our knowledge. But it doesn't help when there are tons of (useless) tags. Thanks a lot for reminding it and sharing your experience !
Thank you for this! I’ve been considered using Obsidian but had trouble understanding how best to use it for my PhD notes and articles. This helped me a lot!
Great video. Definitely going to give this a try. Just thought I’d also comment on what you said about tags. You’d mentioned something about sub tags like #juggling/art or #juggling/sport. Another way to think about tags is a way to put something into multiple folders. Or giving something keywords to make it easier to find. So instead you’d add #juggling #sport to one and #juggling #art to another. Over time you’ll organically build up documents with many tags. Then later when you want to look into them, you narrow your search by adding more tags to the search. Tags also give you a way to add relevant keywords to something even if you didn’t use the word in the note. Anyway, great video. Excited to watch more.
That's exactly the power of tags over folders. One note can have many tags, but can only really be in one folder. Unless you have redundant space-consuming copies or utilise shorcuts as a pathological relation substitute that lacks the propriety of symmetry. After some point a tag could get too crowded to easily access a given note. That's where the more tags a note has, the more work they do for you. As said above, just narrow your search with multiple tags. It's like creating meta-folders on the fly that you would never have thought about creating them otherwise (bottom-up vs top-down organisation), and it has the added benefit of not cluttering your folder tree. Actually, that's also the reason why I hate organising my songs into playlist. Tags, for me at least, would be much more convenient and helpful as they give me a needed big picture of my collection of songs that I know and listen to. Now, if only something like a mashup between obsidian and spotify existed...
I could not have found your content at a more perfect time. I'm starting my astrophysics PhD this fall and I've been terrified of making the same mistakes I made with my undergraduate thesis (the notes for which are currently scattered across three different Notion databases). THANK YOU for making these videos!
Note-taking has been the bane of my existence since 12 years ago. I kept forgetting stuff and I don't have a way of organizing my thoughts. Your last video and this one inspired me moving forward.
Thank you so much for taking the time to create and edit these videos - I know it is not easy and you don't have a lot of extra time. Most of the zettelkasten information online is all about setting up and putting notes in, with nothing about how to "enter the network" and start getting useful knowledge out. This video is very helpful as I am just starting a zettelkasten to use for a very large and diverse topic for my work and need to get it going rapidly.
Your use of tags is so so useful! I was only just getting started with obsidian and already felt overwhelmed by the amount of notes i was creating and trying to link! Thank you ☺
I'm really interested in your thoughts on how to write an article using Obsidian. I hope you will still create that video at some point. You led me to Obsidian just as I was finishing my Master's thesis. It was too late to use it there, but my desire to write has been ignited. I want to use Obsidian going forward to organize my notes and generate new ideas. I really appreciate your content and clear style. Thank you.
Next week I should have a video coming out that explains what I've struggled with when it comes to writing using my zettelkasten. I offer some solutions, too, but it's mostly questions! After that there will definitely be a video about writing articles from zettelkasten notes. I just haven't gotten a good enough hold on that myself yet to make the video!
Oh wow, that's so cool. I haven't heard either of those terms before, really, but I think in theatre studies there are people doing their research using those forms. Through autofiction (for instance, creating a fictional play with participants that resonates with their life experiences) and life writing (I have a friend creating scripts/shows that are kind of documentation of memory). So, that's super cool. Have you read "In the Dream House" by Carmen Maria Machado? I want to say that has a bit of both forms! And what a good book!
@@morganeua that is so neat! I’m really fascinated with memory, too, and it how it (and emotions) affect our narratives in a way that is similar to writing fiction. I have read “In the Dream House” and “Her Body and Other Parties”! I love how you’re (were?) reading Murakami-I’m actually teaching “Norwegian Wood” in one of my lit classes.
Your ideas for how to collect ideas are *incredible* I love your gentle wisdom. Where is the best place to learn the nuts and bolts on how the setup obsidian? There’s so much on UA-cam I don’t want to waste time sorting out those who think they know from those who do Thank you for your thoughtfulness
If I might add. You could also make your [[Bibliography]] note into a tag to identify those kind of notes. A benefit of this would be that you could filter the tags in the graph view and do not have an artificial center in the graph around [[Bibliography]]. This way you could eventually identify paths or even disconnected islands of notes.
So true. I still need to figure out the ins and outs of graph view... For now I've decided to move all bibliographic notes into a folder so that I can hide them, but also see them altogether because of the artificial centre you're talking about, and also they were cluttering up my actual thought notes. Thanks for your comment, you're always welcome to add, it's sooo helpful! ☺️
Thanks for this video. Yup true, having a structure in your Obsidian note-taking helps you navigate your notes since you know exactly where to park and where you parked your notes. I've been using Obsidian for about a year now and listening to you and some other more experienced users really help me build an optimized and sustainable knowledge management system.
fantastic video series! I only now learn about Obsidian, which seems like the information organization tool I've always dreamed about. I've been using trello for many years now, which does a decent job for smaller collections, but as you mention in this video, information gets unwieldy after a certain corpus has accumulated. Also, in the digital age storing your life's research on a fickle cloud has been stressing me out lately. I appreciate that obsidian doesn't hide the data behind a weird file format or unreadable exports. so glad I found this, thank you!
I don't usually comment, but I have to add a +1 to the support you're receiving here. I think your previous video was the one that made my brain go 'click' (is that another metaphor for knowledge?) and made me enter into the world of Obsidian, as well as ZK and PKM, and I've found these things very useful. I particularly like the way you express yourself and explain these ideas, so thanks for sharing! You have a new subscriber here :)
I was stuck with taking notes & organize them properly for so long. Sure I tried several tools, watched tons of videos online about how to take notes efficiently but video of yours gave me the confidence to take notes. FINALLY! Approaches you've shared are straightforward and easy to follow. Thank you very much 🙏
thank you so much for these introdutions to zettelkasten, it’s exactly what I’ve been looking for and I feel so fortunate to have found it right as I’m starting my very reading/writing heavy degree - lifesaver!
So interesting! I'm particularly fascinated why the humanities and physical sciences are so divided and different in many aspects -- it seems everyone's collaborating in the physical sciences! And also seems now that any productive academic career in the sciences now is dependent on the ability to build productive collaborations. Anyway, rambling now -- thank you for these note tips, especially the tags plugin!
Thank you so much for creating such a detailed yet simple to follow and practical tutorial. In one word game-changing! I would be interested to see a deep dive into your Sources folder and the format you use for your biographies for books, articles, videos, webpages etc.
I had never heard of Zettlekasten, I came across your video by chance, but you explain things wonderfully. I'm looking into Zettlekasten and obsidian, it looks like it takes a lot of time and obsidian seems a bit overwhelming, so I'll need to do more research before I start using any of them. Your videos are really helpfull, thank you
I've watched two of your videos so far, and your clarity, presentation, and insights are amazing. I'm excited to see more of your content. If you ever write a book on knowledge management, consider me an automatic preorder!
I love your video. Im trying to be more organized at work, and I catch some interesting ideas, like "bottom to top" of notes organization. I Will keep investigating. Thanks for this great content.❤
Nice system. I developed a similar system of #toc (=table of content) notes. I like the idea to distinguish between #2write and #2link notes instead of #2do notes. I'd like to hear about your schedule and workflow: Can you leave a note unfinished? How often do you clean up your system - develop and review links, find new ideas and thoughts out of your system.
Thanks again. I'm enjoying your videos a great deal. I've been "circling" Zettelkasten for quite a while, and have poked at using index cards, DevonThink, The Archive, and a series of other tools. I think that Obsidian may tip me over into success with the methodology--which I *sorely* need. I've written massive projects in the past, but have been working for a while on some ideas that have eluded my previously successful approaches. For the moment, I'm working on ideas about domestication of animals, of sheep in particular. Some sections can be broken out--e.g., the multiple definitions of domestication--but the status of thought about the concept is changing rapidly and I need a way to keep track of who said what, when, and why, and how that does or does not connect to other people's ideas. That's just one tip of one iceberg. I really appreciate your presentations, which are giving me ways to begin to glimpse the parts of the iceberg that are under the surface.
That was amazing, thank you. I had the same issue with notes becoming intimidating because of sheer numbers, I felt lost in them. This looks really promising, I especially liked how you made an emphasis on emergence of structure. It bothered me before that ways of structuring I tried to use worked against what I was trying to do with note taking, not with it.
Another very useful and well crafted video. Thank you so much. I look forward to your next videos especially tips on how to take permanent notes using your own words.
Hi Morgan, You came at the right time for me. I’m returning to Obsidian after exploring Apple Notes. It has its strengths but it does not do what I need to do with Obsidian. I’m going to be using Obsidian to makes relating to learning to play guitar. Your idea of using structure notes is a good idea. I like structure notes because they help me organise my thoughts on the topic that I’m studying.
Thank you again for another informative walk through of zettelkasten and obsidian. Could you also bring us along with you to showcase the process you went through from reading articles to writing a paper or a thesis?
I just found your videos and they're so helpful. Thank you for going through your process in such detail! I've been feeling a little lost in how to get a handle on note taking and knowledge management. I'm using Logseq so it isn't exactly the same but the process behind it is exactly what I needed help with.
I’ve only just downloaded Obsidian so I think this has been helpful. No way to know until I start taking notes! I did, however, follow your example of sight and touch metaphors for understanding and wondered if you’ve considered purkinje cells. They are responsible for our ability to throw and catch by combining our ability to see where something is and will be and our ability to move our bodies, specifically our hands, to it. Your hand-eye coordination. These cells are very useful in juggling and knowledge metaphors 😅
That is so interesting. I never knew about this software. You know how to explain things in a structured way. Very helpful! I got some new ideas for the research I'm doing for work. Thank you for sharing! :)
Hi Morgan. I really appreciate your videos - especially the ones regarding taking notes. I'm about to start my PhD in education and am wanting to put together a system that'll fit my non-linear mind. I've been using Evernote for years and Obsidian looks really attractive as does the Zettlekasten process. I'd love more videos of this time (how to PhD). ❤️ Thanks! V
Absolutely, I have lots of PhD related ideas for videos!! "Non-linear" mind is a great way of putting it! Also, very jealous that you're doing a PhD in education. I would love to do an MEd or study education in some way!
Hello Morgan. This video is brilliant! I've been using Zettelkasten in some form since the late 90's and have been using Obsidian for about the last two. Now and again I've tried to explain each of these and how they work together with mixed results. Now all I have to do is point them to your UA-cam channel. Well done! Can you say more about how you use (or don't use) Obsidian's graph and sub-graphs? I've found ways to leverage the information they display to help me better identify areas of interest and connected information. These views have inspired blog articles I wouldn't have otherwise thought to write. The graph view is further enhanced by the use of multiple tags, as Jake Carter has identified elsewhere in the comments.
Unfortunately right now I cannot really speak to graph view. I wish I could, so I will be exploring its uses more. But I've seen other obsidian youtubers use it to great effect! I'm not very techy myself, so it might take a me bit to configure it and discover its value! 😋
It's been great getting your insights to thinking with Obsidian. I wrote my first non-fiction book last year and have a couple others in the works. With your help I've been able to move my process to Obsidian pretty smoothly, see, I have years of capture, some processed and some not. The most recent system I had let me capture on the fly and used tags. Now I'm contending with all that old structure and it's been a great excuse to start reviewing and updating the syntax to make connections. That said, I've been tinkering with some structure notes around projects. Many of my ideas reach into multiple ideas so having a way to aggregate content into a project is next on my plate. I did see some ideas around a structure note that acts like a review board or goals board. I'm thinking I'll eventually have a landing page note that reminds me of my purposes, my goals and my 'why's and each of those will lead to a structure page for that areas plans and organization. Thanks again for all you do Morgan. I appreciate your thoughts and ideas.
Thanks for your comment! My dream after my PhD is to write non-fiction books. So, I hope all my up front effort developing my digital zettelkasten will help with that goal! I've developed my structure notes a bit recently, especially because there's been more and more crossover between them, so I'll hopefully make an update video this summer! :D
Hi Morgane, I like to explicitly formulate explicit expectations for each structure note, since each structure note can do much more than just provide a place for notes of a similar topic. My structure note on investing in stock, for example, needs to be both receptive to everything I learn about stock (which is not a lot since I am just a retail investor trying to avoid the biggest mistakes) and give me a checklist of criteria (in my case a table) each stock needs to meet. Other structure notes are toolboxes, thinking canvases etc. I write these expectations explicit at the top of the note in a bold sentence. Like that, a structure note becomes a thing on its own, a little machine that serves me as a soldier in my homunculus army. :) Live long and prosper Sascha
Thanks for your video - I'm just getting started on this and am also a post-grad doing a thesis. What process do you use to convert your notes in Obsidian into a paper? By that I mean, what steps do you take to gather the relevant notes, and extract them into a document to be edited, expanded and polished?
Wow! Loved this video too. Also we are interested in the same things! I am a math teacher with typical math teacher hobbies like juggling, solving the rubik's cube, and magic. I feel like there are lots of connections between some of the debates about pedagogy -such as constructivism vs. direct instruction and how I have learned to juggle and learned to solve the rubik's cube. I'd love to hear more about your research!
Yeah, I frequently use juggling as a touchstone for understanding learning. Juggling offers immediate feedback, it normalizes constant failure, and it can be used to teach so many different academic fields from math to physics to performance to phys ed! I love seeing fellow jugglers in the comments section :) I should start making some juggling focused videos!
Very interesting video’s you are making. Thank you for sharing. Note taking is what got me to your video’s, then Obsidian, now my curiosity in Knowledge and Learning. Very curious about your thesis and where is leads to.
@@morganeua on old friend did his phd in chemistry, (25 yrs ago). His thesis, the order in which your pour your milk into your coffee ☕️😉 at least that was how he summarised it. I never got the answer 😂 but it always stuck with me. It sounded so lighthearted but there was so much more to it! I am gathering that is also the case for you! A lot of work is going into this.
another brilliant video - and one that tells me that I am on the right path using Notion, simply because it is easier for me to structure my notes in a way that works like my brain works. Obsidian and Roam are cool, but they have their limitations - as does Notion of course. Blessings
Great content here. I'm new to Obsydian. I didn't quite understand how you link your themes in the Structure note to the many numerous notes you will have on a given theme. A book index takes you to a page number.
I like to replace word "tag" with the word "context". That helps to decide, what word i should use. "In what context i would like to see this note later".
Hi! I've really appreciated learning from your videos - they're great access points for this method. I'm curious to know whether there are common mistakes you would recommend people avoid or things you learned later that you wish you had known when you were first starting your zettelkasten? Thanks! Looking forward to using this method when I start my doctoral program in the fall.
Morgan...I suggest you try the program "TheBrain - The Ultimate Digital Memory"....according to the thought "A Zettelkasten is a personal tool for thinking and writing. It has hypertextual features to make a web of thought possible. The difference to other systems is that you create a web of thoughts instead of notes of arbitrary size and form, and emphasize connection, not a collection" , you will find that TheBrain approach is to build the web of thoughts and the linked ideas/texts at the same moment you enter the data. So the relationships are easier to find and visualize. You can also use TAGs not only for the ideas but also for the "link" between the ideas.
Thank you for this wonderful content, so useful. I was wondering if anyone knew if it is possible to embed a PDF that is not in obsidian but that is in a Zotero folder system? I have my obsidian setup so that I can click on a link to the file in the zotero filing system and open it in a PDF reader from obsidian, but would it be possible to embed the PDF in the obsidian note like it was shown in this video without having to duplicate the pdfs?
Hi Morgan, I would like to ask you a question about Obsidian as a note-taking tool. But first of all sincere thanks for the interesting and instructive series of videos that you have put together so far, videos that can perfectly stand next to work by presenters such as Nick Milo and others. So far, I learned from the various sources that the majority of information provided, relates to the collection, registration and connection of notes. However, I have not yet found any information in which the follow-up is also elaborated: examples in which the information entered is selected and brought together into a whole, a text that is eligible for 'publication' after a few minor adjustments have been made if necessary. Because that is what is claimed with Niklas Luhman's zettelkasten-method: Most of the work has already been done when entering the notes. The output would then only be limited to selecting and fine-tuning. By that I mean: practical examples in which the output is also discussed. Can you shed some light on that? Many Thanks Dirk D., Belgium
Agree on the tags being task driven as being a useful use... see also Bryan Jenks, does the same and uses emojis too. I also add which 'projects' also use which atomic note in which 'output' project, and your structure note, but as P1, P2, P3, etc., are grouped in the 'big' areas that any cross overs will come from the backlinks... and some area-to-area links show via the almost MOC to MOC connections show up. 3rd watch here, just wish I could like three times, etc.
Since you mentioned you're interested in pedagogy, I'd also love to hear any thoughts you have on using ZK for teaching/lesson-planning. Discovering your two videos on ZK have felt like hearing someone distill the problems, thoughts, and half-working systems I've already had in my brain, and as I'm getting started it all feels very intuitive for my research, writing, & reading notes. But I find myself stuck thinking about how this would work for notes for the class I *teach*, which are the most hopelessly-disorganized at present. The to-do items for teachers and the knowledge feel so intertwined and undergraduates really need well-structured knowledge systems from their classes, but I think I'd find it easier to pick up working on the class if I had some analogs of atomic pieces of knowledge (learning objectives, maybe?) and links between those atomic pieces of knowledge, the various moving pieces of the class (lessons, assessments), and my to-do list (migrating into the LMS, grading, lesson material prep, etc). Some light googling hasn't turned up any ZK resources specifically for teachers, so I think that could be a super valuable vid!
I've gone through the same thing. Notion evolved into something that was near-perfect for what you're describing but was recently blocked in my office and as hard as I tried to use Obsidian, which I already used for research, for more of the 'teaching' side of things, I couldn't make it work. It's a fantastic tool but I've gotten more out of it now that I've scaled back what I was trying to do and went back to the using separate programs for each task instead of trying to find the all-in-one kind of software. That said, the following video was useful in trying to figure things out. Music professor who teaches a good variety of classes and ties things up nicely in Obsidian. ua-cam.com/video/4T0q2kQwc2o/v-deo.html
This is an incredibly clear and concise explanation; thank you! I would love to see how you go about linking your notes. Say you had a note about siteswaps, I guess you'd instantly think of a few relevant notes to link, but do you then dig into other nonrelated notes to see if there is any overlap in ideas? I could see it being related to musical notation, for example, but that may not be obvious at first. When you have vast amounts of notes, how do you find notes to link to?
I think all organization methods mentioned are valid, I use folders for things like separating journal entries, tasks, people, events, etc but tags also duplicate that behaviour to an extent. I also use tags to mark that I still need to do something about a note or for stuff like time (for example #time/2000s/23/01/31/0213Z); the latter use allows me to both mark daily notes and ones about historical events.
Good summary. Quick question.I wanted to follow Zettlekasten, but struggling to find a best way to organize. So for technical stuff, how do you write notes? Is one note, one thought or is it more like it could be a lot of information. It's hard to have so many notes and then find it hard to organize it. I would rather have all the information that belongs together in one note, so I can easily look it up. Any thoughts on how you can use this for technical folks?
Hi Morgan, great videos, thank you! I've seen your first two, and I can see that the Z system should be a more efficient alternative to the old system of highlighting and shuffling of papers when writing essays, but... HELP! I'm crying ... I am still confused about how to actually link something that will be structured under themes (like a bottom-up approach) so that I can begin to see where my different sources say similar things about different themes. I keep changing how I create folders and notes, and I'm unsure how to begin my structure so I can find them when it comes to retrieving the information. Is there another video you can recommend?
I use a simple table in a word document in which i put the quotes i like from the books I read. then I create a link between the first quote and every quote after (even if the 'quotes after' were from totally different books).. then i create a link between the second quote and every quote after, & so on. after that, i take the quotes & the links to a different table where i just criticize them. after that, I combine the criticisms under each quote.. I edit what i combined.. & I put what edited back in the first table to replace the links with it. it's just a way of generating creative comments on the quotes that i like.
Great video again. I was just wondering. When you make a quick note of a random thought, how do you make sure that it doesn’t get lost? Do you immediately tag with the link tag? How do you make sure that there aren’t some unlinked notes that got lost somewhere in your vault?
I was wondering about this as well. I'm especially curious to know if in the instance one of those thoughts can be turned into an actionable idea/ item. How are they processed or are then moved to another GTD/ producivity system. I very much have Monkey Mind but also very curious to learn more so your videos have been immensely helpful in implementing a new thought management system.
That is one of the things graph view is for. It is very easy to identify orphan notes, as they become “islands”, i.e. nodes without a connection. In graph view, the orphan or island notes tend to be shown in the periphery of the graph, so that is where to look!
I was in love with Obsidian but struggled with many aspects of it, from no way of putting notes inside of notes to loosing too much time making MOCs(maps of content, as you called structures)... i was about to give up when i found Logseq. Have you tried Logseq? It can import/read an entire obsidian vault, it can also work with obsidian (both can be read/writing on the same folder, both working with markdown) Its an outliner first but for literature notes (or most notes frankly) it works amazingly well- since the main input is outlining i found out i was making mocs(structures) much more easily and even without noticing... it also made easier for me to split a note into more atomic ones... as well as joining atomic notes... AND THAT MADE SENSE THE MORE NOTES I HAD I think its the mental squeeze you talked about... at one point my graph was just too big, too noisy. It started making me rethink how i think of/perceive atomic notes... nowadays when a handful are all connected, or when it makes sense for then to be together from the get go (like quotes from the same source) i keep then in 1file- but in outlining and how well logseq filters and links it keeps the whole backlinking, graph-making, sense-making of digital zettel beautifully It also helped me with the concept of 'evergreen notes' and incremental growth/development... and i also liked how it handles pdfs, highlighting and extracting notes from pdfs right inside the pkm/zettel (inside logseq itself) Obsidian still rocks imo, have more plugins and better sync/mobile but Logseq fitted my flow so much more and better... i think you would love it if you tried. It also estimulated me to write more and dig deeper on the atomic toughts thanks to the whole outline of infinite deeper/child bullets
Thank you so much for your helpful video! It's really got me motivated to work with the zettelkasten method. I was wondering - if the literature you're reading paraphrases a different sources - how do you organize that into your knowledge system? Let's say, for example, that you're reading the following line by author X: "as study Y by author Z shows, the way you frame a question changes the way you're thinking about it." How do you then store this knowledge? Under author X with a reference to author Z, or directly under author Z? If you would store it under author Z, wouldn't you have to go to author Z's original text first, to see if the reference by author X was correct?
Hi. I am starting graduate education for doctoral nursing and would like to start using obsidian for knowledge management and long-term memory, as well as assisting in writing academic papers and fiction in my personal time. Knowing everything you know now about the limitations of organizational methods in obsidian, it would be so helpful if you did a coaching video for new users on how to begin using Obsidian and how to organize efficiently. I have different interests, and I'd like to capture my knowledge without it getting overwhelming, messy, and unsearchable/sortable. For example, I would like main domains like personal finance, health/medical knowledge, literature (for fun), academic literature/studies, music theory, art theory, and photography. Possibly other things like history and creative ideas for a fiction novel. How would I begin using Obsidian effectively for these goals? Thank you!!
Thanks for the request! I'll definitely have to do an update video soon. I'd also love to start organizing Obsidian for my own fiction writing project, so at some point I'll figure out how that might work and share it!
@morganeua Awesome! Thank you so much. I am so happy you replied. Nice to meet you virtually, Morgan. My name is Andrea. I like your videos. They are helpful and you seem like a very nice and interesting person.
Thank you for this video and sharing your methods. I have still have some interrogations : - what use for you is the "graph" view - is it still useable if you have many links ? - is obsidian appropriate for large number of notes ? I am afraid the "tree" will be cluttered ( I use for the moment a personal wiki with about 6000 pages)
I recommend Notion. I started with Obsidian but soon it started to felt not enough. Plus, Notion has mobile app which is really useful if you need to consult anything at any time.
I tried Notion two years ago and it wasn't for me, but if you say that obsidian isn't enough compared to notion I could give notion another try. Obsidian is cross platform as well, and although with community plugins there is technically a risk for malicious behavior, there are many plugins available it's insane. For example I write a note and need an illustration, so I switch to my ipad just in time and insert a excalidraw file (plugin) directly after the sentence and draw my thing, save it and there is an svg file embedded, then back to the desktop or whatever. Flashcard spaced repetition plugin, Audio notes, diagrams, pdf annotation linking, kindle notes, embedded web content, etc,... Notion is more like database while obsidian is text based. You can always take your notes elsewhere since it's basically just markdown files in folders. As I see it, obsidian just helps you interact with them in a user friendly manner. Although it's kind of nerdy compared to notion and needs individual configuration depending on ones needs. Syncing with iCloud between iphone, ipad and windows is a bit tricky, sometimes it creates duplicate files due to sync issues but nothing serious so far. I guess with the obsidian sync plan there are no such issues but it costs money.
Hello Morgan 👋 thank you so much for the super interesting content you're sharing 😊 💫 I'm preparing my PhD in German literature and intercultural discourse and kept struggling with it. Your channel is such a blessing to me. Please, what's the difference between notion and obsidian? Thanks in advance 💚🌷
Great video! I also loved your other video on note taking. I'm a Literature and Linguistics student and this is all so helpful. I don't know if this has been asked already but I saw it on your other video also, and I was wondering why you don't use spaces in titles and use "-"? A silly question maybe, but I'm curious!
Not a silly question! I wanted a consistent file name style and I liked kebab case the best, which is when you replace the spaces with dashes. There are some programs that can't read spaces in file names, I think, even if that'll never be a problem I personally have. So dashes seemed safer and I like the look better! Also hi! So cool that you're in school for literature and linguistics 😮 Do you have a specialty within those fields?
@@morganeua Thanks for the response! That makes a lot of sense actually. I started using Logseq for university notes, subjects' information and reading PDFs, so now I use Obsidian just for what some would call "permanent notes" and only important "literature notes". But I had a huge problem in Logseq with dots and spaces that were in the titles of my files because it read them as hierarchies and created multiples notes. Maybe I'll use your method from now on! As for my studies, I'm inclined towards literature, but linguistics is a relief when I get stressed out. And in the field of literature I'm interested in many topics that I usually choose for final exams so I have a great excuse to research them. Right now I'm obsessed with Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. I'm studying some poems in relation to Calderón de la Barca's La Vida es Sueño, especially the figure of monster in the baroque. And I'll stop here because otherwise I won't be able to shup up haha So your videos about note taking, because you also study a particular subject in depth, are very usuful and very inspirational. Thanks a lot for your work!
6:26 another fun tip, you can make a link directly to a specific page in a PDF by adding #page=N to the end of the link path. For example, [[path/to/file.pdf#page=5]] to link to page 5.
You are a very good teacher! :) Could you do video on how you use Obsidian when you start to plan an essay or an article? How you look into the connections and gather the useful notes? It would be interesting to see the "end result" of zettelkasten.
Agreed
Really love the little round video circle when you explain something on the main screen, is a refreshing new way of commentary youtube
Fantastic. I've been exploring the Zettlekasten idea for about 3 years now. You are really doing a great job of communicating the essence of linked note-making.
Thanks so much for saying so. Sounds like you're way ahead of me!! I feel like I'm just fumbling my way through - but the zettelkasten method has transformed my relationship to learning, writing, and knowing, so I want to share that journey!
@@morganeua No. I have been mostly playing and you are actually working. I was intrigued by your first video, but now I am inspired.
Structure notes! Simple idea, but somehow never made this connection (hey, knowledge metaphor!). Structure notes. Also like the use of emojis for these process oriented types of pages to visually separate them from content tags. I’m a RoamResearch user. I’ve been using tags and queries to make conjure these kinds of tables, but formally composing tables would help me structure my thinking. I’m a UX researcher, I have tinkered with Zettlkasten but haven’t implemented, your videos have been super helpful. Thank you for taking the time to start and grow your channel!
Thanks for commenting to help my channel grooow! 😁
This is the most helpful Zettelkasten/Obsidian video I've found!! Thank you so much! I only discovered Zettelkasten this week, and your videos present it much more simply than a lot of others. Your system seems simpler and easier than some of the complicated ones out there: I love your three tags and I'm going to use them!
Hi! I discovered your channel yesterday! I thought in the last video that I would like to see the academic part and here it is! Thank you! I will start with my master thesis in March, so I am excited about using this system myself.
Ah, congrats and good luck with your Master's thesis! Do you know what it will be about? I'm hoping I can share even more specifics about my academic process in future videos, too!
I’ve seen many videos that try to explain obsidian and your last video was the best one I saw!
Wonderful. And what the best is, imo, is the fact that you keep it simple. Right, we / you need to find better ways to organize our knowledge. But it doesn't help when there are tons of (useless) tags. Thanks a lot for reminding it and sharing your experience !
I've been trying to transition into zettelkasten but for a History MA (very linear writing) and your channel has absolutely been the most helpful!
Thank you for this! I’ve been considered using Obsidian but had trouble understanding how best to use it for my PhD notes and articles. This helped me a lot!
I'm glad the older videos are still helping people, even as my own research and note-taking changes and (hopefully) improves!
Great video. Definitely going to give this a try. Just thought I’d also comment on what you said about tags. You’d mentioned something about sub tags like #juggling/art or #juggling/sport. Another way to think about tags is a way to put something into multiple folders. Or giving something keywords to make it easier to find. So instead you’d add #juggling #sport to one and #juggling #art to another. Over time you’ll organically build up documents with many tags. Then later when you want to look into them, you narrow your search by adding more tags to the search. Tags also give you a way to add relevant keywords to something even if you didn’t use the word in the note.
Anyway, great video. Excited to watch more.
Ooooh, great points, thank you for adding!!
That's exactly the power of tags over folders.
One note can have many tags, but can only really be in one folder. Unless you have redundant space-consuming copies or utilise shorcuts as a pathological relation substitute that lacks the propriety of symmetry.
After some point a tag could get too crowded to easily access a given note. That's where the more tags a note has, the more work they do for you. As said above, just narrow your search with multiple tags.
It's like creating meta-folders on the fly that you would never have thought about creating them otherwise (bottom-up vs top-down organisation), and it has the added benefit of not cluttering your folder tree.
Actually, that's also the reason why I hate organising my songs into playlist. Tags, for me at least, would be much more convenient and helpful as they give me a needed big picture of my collection of songs that I know and listen to.
Now, if only something like a mashup between obsidian and spotify existed...
I could not have found your content at a more perfect time. I'm starting my astrophysics PhD this fall and I've been terrified of making the same mistakes I made with my undergraduate thesis (the notes for which are currently scattered across three different Notion databases). THANK YOU for making these videos!
Ooh, best of luck in the degree! I'm sure your zettelkasten will look totally different than mine, but I hope it's just as useful!
Note-taking has been the bane of my existence since 12 years ago. I kept forgetting stuff and I don't have a way of organizing my thoughts. Your last video and this one inspired me moving forward.
It's one of the best videos about organising notes.
Your system is inspiring! I am so excited about you sharing how to write notes in our own words!
Thank you so much for taking the time to create and edit these videos - I know it is not easy and you don't have a lot of extra time. Most of the zettelkasten information online is all about setting up and putting notes in, with nothing about how to "enter the network" and start getting useful knowledge out. This video is very helpful as I am just starting a zettelkasten to use for a very large and diverse topic for my work and need to get it going rapidly.
Your use of tags is so so useful! I was only just getting started with obsidian and already felt overwhelmed by the amount of notes i was creating and trying to link! Thank you ☺
I'm really interested in your thoughts on how to write an article using Obsidian. I hope you will still create that video at some point. You led me to Obsidian just as I was finishing my Master's thesis. It was too late to use it there, but my desire to write has been ignited. I want to use Obsidian going forward to organize my notes and generate new ideas. I really appreciate your content and clear style. Thank you.
Next week I should have a video coming out that explains what I've struggled with when it comes to writing using my zettelkasten. I offer some solutions, too, but it's mostly questions! After that there will definitely be a video about writing articles from zettelkasten notes. I just haven't gotten a good enough hold on that myself yet to make the video!
I'm also so incredibly excited for all three of the future videos you mentioned! I have a structure note for "Autofiction" and for "Life Writing."
Oh wow, that's so cool. I haven't heard either of those terms before, really, but I think in theatre studies there are people doing their research using those forms. Through autofiction (for instance, creating a fictional play with participants that resonates with their life experiences) and life writing (I have a friend creating scripts/shows that are kind of documentation of memory). So, that's super cool. Have you read "In the Dream House" by Carmen Maria Machado? I want to say that has a bit of both forms! And what a good book!
@@morganeua that is so neat! I’m really fascinated with memory, too, and it how it (and emotions) affect our narratives in a way that is similar to writing fiction.
I have read “In the Dream House” and “Her Body and Other Parties”!
I love how you’re (were?) reading Murakami-I’m actually teaching “Norwegian Wood” in one of my lit classes.
Your ideas for how to collect ideas are *incredible* I love your gentle wisdom.
Where is the best place to learn the nuts and bolts on how the setup obsidian?
There’s so much on UA-cam I don’t want to waste time sorting out those who think they know from those who do
Thank you for your thoughtfulness
If I might add.
You could also make your [[Bibliography]] note into a tag to identify those kind of notes. A benefit of this would be that you could filter the tags in the graph view and do not have an artificial center in the graph around [[Bibliography]]. This way you could eventually identify paths or even disconnected islands of notes.
So true. I still need to figure out the ins and outs of graph view... For now I've decided to move all bibliographic notes into a folder so that I can hide them, but also see them altogether because of the artificial centre you're talking about, and also they were cluttering up my actual thought notes. Thanks for your comment, you're always welcome to add, it's sooo helpful! ☺️
Thanks for this video. Yup true, having a structure in your Obsidian note-taking helps you navigate your notes since you know exactly where to park and where you parked your notes. I've been using Obsidian for about a year now and listening to you and some other more experienced users really help me build an optimized and sustainable knowledge management system.
fantastic video series! I only now learn about Obsidian, which seems like the information organization tool I've always dreamed about. I've been using trello for many years now, which does a decent job for smaller collections, but as you mention in this video, information gets unwieldy after a certain corpus has accumulated. Also, in the digital age storing your life's research on a fickle cloud has been stressing me out lately. I appreciate that obsidian doesn't hide the data behind a weird file format or unreadable exports. so glad I found this, thank you!
I don't usually comment, but I have to add a +1 to the support you're receiving here. I think your previous video was the one that made my brain go 'click' (is that another metaphor for knowledge?) and made me enter into the world of Obsidian, as well as ZK and PKM, and I've found these things very useful. I particularly like the way you express yourself and explain these ideas, so thanks for sharing! You have a new subscriber here :)
I was stuck with taking notes & organize them properly for so long. Sure I tried several tools, watched tons of videos online about how to take notes efficiently but video of yours gave me the confidence to take notes. FINALLY! Approaches you've shared are straightforward and easy to follow. Thank you very much 🙏
That's how I felt when I learned about zettelkasten, so I wanted to share it with others! Glad I could help!
thank you so much for these introdutions to zettelkasten, it’s exactly what I’ve been looking for and I feel so fortunate to have found it right as I’m starting my very reading/writing heavy degree - lifesaver!
The future video topics you mention at the end sound great. Can't wait! 🙌
So interesting! I'm particularly fascinated why the humanities and physical sciences are so divided and different in many aspects -- it seems everyone's collaborating in the physical sciences! And also seems now that any productive academic career in the sciences now is dependent on the ability to build productive collaborations. Anyway, rambling now -- thank you for these note tips, especially the tags plugin!
Finding the videos very helpful! Thanks so much - and definitely +1 for the video on how to write an article based on notes from the Zettelkasten!
Thank you so much for creating such a detailed yet simple to follow and practical tutorial. In one word game-changing! I would be interested to see a deep dive into your Sources folder and the format you use for your biographies for books, articles, videos, webpages etc.
I had never heard of Zettlekasten, I came across your video by chance, but you explain things wonderfully. I'm looking into Zettlekasten and obsidian, it looks like it takes a lot of time and obsidian seems a bit overwhelming, so I'll need to do more research before I start using any of them. Your videos are really helpfull, thank you
I've watched two of your videos so far, and your clarity, presentation, and insights are amazing. I'm excited to see more of your content. If you ever write a book on knowledge management, consider me an automatic preorder!
I love your video. Im trying to be more organized at work, and I catch some interesting ideas, like "bottom to top" of notes organization. I Will keep investigating. Thanks for this great content.❤
Nice system. I developed a similar system of #toc (=table of content) notes. I like the idea to distinguish between #2write and #2link notes instead of #2do notes. I'd like to hear about your schedule and workflow: Can you leave a note unfinished? How often do you clean up your system - develop and review links, find new ideas and thoughts out of your system.
I found the comparison of structure notes to a table of contents particularly helpful. Thank you.
Thanks again. I'm enjoying your videos a great deal. I've been "circling" Zettelkasten for quite a while, and have poked at using index cards, DevonThink, The Archive, and a series of other tools. I think that Obsidian may tip me over into success with the methodology--which I *sorely* need. I've written massive projects in the past, but have been working for a while on some ideas that have eluded my previously successful approaches. For the moment, I'm working on ideas about domestication of animals, of sheep in particular. Some sections can be broken out--e.g., the multiple definitions of domestication--but the status of thought about the concept is changing rapidly and I need a way to keep track of who said what, when, and why, and how that does or does not connect to other people's ideas. That's just one tip of one iceberg. I really appreciate your presentations, which are giving me ways to begin to glimpse the parts of the iceberg that are under the surface.
🤔. You’ve got me thinking. Good job communicating a method of structuring notes. Thanks Morgan.
You are amazing. I'm now inspired to get back into my Obsidian process. It had become overwhelming
I would love to read your dissertation once you've finished!
That was amazing, thank you. I had the same issue with notes becoming intimidating because of sheer numbers, I felt lost in them. This looks really promising, I especially liked how you made an emphasis on emergence of structure. It bothered me before that ways of structuring I tried to use worked against what I was trying to do with note taking, not with it.
Another very useful and well crafted video. Thank you so much. I look forward to your next videos especially tips on how to take permanent notes using your own words.
Hi Morgan, You came at the right time for me. I’m returning to Obsidian after exploring Apple Notes. It has its strengths but it does not do what I need to do with Obsidian.
I’m going to be using Obsidian to makes relating to learning to play guitar. Your idea of using structure notes is a good idea. I like structure notes because they help me organise my thoughts on the topic that I’m studying.
Thank you again for another informative walk through of zettelkasten and obsidian. Could you also bring us along with you to showcase the process you went through from reading articles to writing a paper or a thesis?
I just found your videos and they're so helpful. Thank you for going through your process in such detail! I've been feeling a little lost in how to get a handle on note taking and knowledge management. I'm using Logseq so it isn't exactly the same but the process behind it is exactly what I needed help with.
I'm looking forward to those future video ideas you mentioned at the end. Also, thank you for the embedded pdf tip.
Love the way you are using tags!!
I’ve only just downloaded Obsidian so I think this has been helpful. No way to know until I start taking notes!
I did, however, follow your example of sight and touch metaphors for understanding and wondered if you’ve considered purkinje cells. They are responsible for our ability to throw and catch by combining our ability to see where something is and will be and our ability to move our bodies, specifically our hands, to it. Your hand-eye coordination. These cells are very useful in juggling and knowledge metaphors 😅
Excellent video again, very concise and well explained. Thanks for sharing this!
Thank you! Your explanations make these topics so easy to understand and implement.
That is so interesting. I never knew about this software. You know how to explain things in a structured way. Very helpful!
I got some new ideas for the research I'm doing for work. Thank you for sharing! :)
Hi Morgan. I really appreciate your videos - especially the ones regarding taking notes. I'm about to start my PhD in education and am wanting to put together a system that'll fit my non-linear mind. I've been using Evernote for years and Obsidian looks really attractive as does the Zettlekasten process. I'd love more videos of this time (how to PhD). ❤️ Thanks!
V
Absolutely, I have lots of PhD related ideas for videos!! "Non-linear" mind is a great way of putting it! Also, very jealous that you're doing a PhD in education. I would love to do an MEd or study education in some way!
Thank you for sharing your experience and show how you handle your development 👍
Hello Morgan. This video is brilliant! I've been using Zettelkasten in some form since the late 90's and have been using Obsidian for about the last two. Now and again I've tried to explain each of these and how they work together with mixed results. Now all I have to do is point them to your UA-cam channel. Well done!
Can you say more about how you use (or don't use) Obsidian's graph and sub-graphs? I've found ways to leverage the information they display to help me better identify areas of interest and connected information. These views have inspired blog articles I wouldn't have otherwise thought to write. The graph view is further enhanced by the use of multiple tags, as Jake Carter has identified elsewhere in the comments.
Unfortunately right now I cannot really speak to graph view. I wish I could, so I will be exploring its uses more. But I've seen other obsidian youtubers use it to great effect! I'm not very techy myself, so it might take a me bit to configure it and discover its value! 😋
It's been great getting your insights to thinking with Obsidian.
I wrote my first non-fiction book last year and have a couple others in the works. With your help I've been able to move my process to Obsidian pretty smoothly, see, I have years of capture, some processed and some not.
The most recent system I had let me capture on the fly and used tags. Now I'm contending with all that old structure and it's been a great excuse to start reviewing and updating the syntax to make connections.
That said, I've been tinkering with some structure notes around projects. Many of my ideas reach into multiple ideas so having a way to aggregate content into a project is next on my plate. I did see some ideas around a structure note that acts like a review board or goals board. I'm thinking I'll eventually have a landing page note that reminds me of my purposes, my goals and my 'why's and each of those will lead to a structure page for that areas plans and organization.
Thanks again for all you do Morgan. I appreciate your thoughts and ideas.
Thanks for your comment! My dream after my PhD is to write non-fiction books. So, I hope all my up front effort developing my digital zettelkasten will help with that goal! I've developed my structure notes a bit recently, especially because there's been more and more crossover between them, so I'll hopefully make an update video this summer! :D
What a great video!! Super beneficial for sure!
Hi Morgane,
I like to explicitly formulate explicit expectations for each structure note, since each structure note can do much more than just provide a place for notes of a similar topic. My structure note on investing in stock, for example, needs to be both receptive to everything I learn about stock (which is not a lot since I am just a retail investor trying to avoid the biggest mistakes) and give me a checklist of criteria (in my case a table) each stock needs to meet.
Other structure notes are toolboxes, thinking canvases etc.
I write these expectations explicit at the top of the note in a bold sentence. Like that, a structure note becomes a thing on its own, a little machine that serves me as a soldier in my homunculus army. :)
Live long and prosper
Sascha
Very inspiring & very helpful! Thank you so much!
I'm finding your videos to be so helpful.
Thanks for your video - I'm just getting started on this and am also a post-grad doing a thesis. What process do you use to convert your notes in Obsidian into a paper? By that I mean, what steps do you take to gather the relevant notes, and extract them into a document to be edited, expanded and polished?
Wow! Loved this video too. Also we are interested in the same things! I am a math teacher with typical math teacher hobbies like juggling, solving the rubik's cube, and magic. I feel like there are lots of connections between some of the debates about pedagogy -such as constructivism vs. direct instruction and how I have learned to juggle and learned to solve the rubik's cube. I'd love to hear more about your research!
Yeah, I frequently use juggling as a touchstone for understanding learning. Juggling offers immediate feedback, it normalizes constant failure, and it can be used to teach so many different academic fields from math to physics to performance to phys ed! I love seeing fellow jugglers in the comments section :) I should start making some juggling focused videos!
Very interesting video’s you are making. Thank you for sharing. Note taking is what got me to your video’s, then Obsidian, now my curiosity in Knowledge and Learning. Very curious about your thesis and where is leads to.
Thanks! Once my thesis is finished, I'll have to share it on the channel somehow!
@@morganeua on old friend did his phd in chemistry, (25 yrs ago). His thesis, the order in which your pour your milk into your coffee ☕️😉 at least that was how he summarised it. I never got the answer 😂 but it always stuck with me.
It sounded so lighthearted but there was so much more to it! I am gathering that is also the case for you! A lot of work is going into this.
another brilliant video - and one that tells me that I am on the right path using Notion, simply because it is easier for me to structure my notes in a way that works like my brain works. Obsidian and Roam are cool, but they have their limitations - as does Notion of course. Blessings
Thank you so much. Thanks to you I am setting up my own Zettelkasten. Thanks for the inspiration.
Great content here. I'm new to Obsydian. I didn't quite understand how you link your themes in the Structure note to the many numerous notes you will have on a given theme. A book index takes you to a page number.
It is an honor for us!
I am using OneNote to structure my notes, but as you mentioned tags have a limit. Thinking to moving to obsidian.
Thanks for the video
I like to replace word "tag" with the word "context". That helps to decide, what word i should use. "In what context i would like to see this note later".
That you for sharing your experiences, that save me time and efforts - that you one more time
Your videos are a wonderful experience
Hi! I've really appreciated learning from your videos - they're great access points for this method. I'm curious to know whether there are common mistakes you would recommend people avoid or things you learned later that you wish you had known when you were first starting your zettelkasten? Thanks! Looking forward to using this method when I start my doctoral program in the fall.
As I get deeper into my zettelkasten myself, I'll make a reflective video about what I wish I knew. Great idea!
Great Idea to have Tags indicating some status in notes!! Thanks.
Morgan...I suggest you try the program "TheBrain - The Ultimate Digital Memory"....according to the thought "A Zettelkasten is a personal tool for thinking and writing. It has hypertextual features to make a web of thought possible. The difference to other systems is that you create a web of thoughts instead of notes of arbitrary size and form, and emphasize connection, not a collection" , you will find that TheBrain approach is to build the web of thoughts and the linked ideas/texts at the same moment you enter the data. So the relationships are easier to find and visualize. You can also use TAGs not only for the ideas but also for the "link" between the ideas.
Thanks a lot Morgan! This is very helpful. I like your videos:)
This is absolutely brilliant, thank you!
Thank you for this wonderful content, so useful. I was wondering if anyone knew if it is possible to embed a PDF that is not in obsidian but that is in a Zotero folder system? I have my obsidian setup so that I can click on a link to the file in the zotero filing system and open it in a PDF reader from obsidian, but would it be possible to embed the PDF in the obsidian note like it was shown in this video without having to duplicate the pdfs?
Hi Morgan, your content and the way your share it are fantastic!
Thanks, really appreciate the clarity
I have learned something new today. Thanks a lot!
Hi Morgan, I would like to ask you a question about Obsidian as a note-taking tool. But first of all sincere thanks for the interesting and instructive series of videos that you have put together so far, videos that can perfectly stand next to work by presenters such as Nick Milo and others.
So far, I learned from the various sources that the majority of information provided, relates to the collection, registration and connection of notes. However, I have not yet found any information in which the follow-up is also elaborated: examples in which the information entered is selected and brought together into a whole, a text that is eligible for 'publication' after a few minor adjustments have been made if necessary. Because that is what is claimed with Niklas Luhman's zettelkasten-method: Most of the work has already been done when entering the notes. The output would then only be limited to selecting and fine-tuning. By that I mean: practical examples in which the output is also discussed. Can you shed some light on that?
Many Thanks
Dirk D., Belgium
Agree on the tags being task driven as being a useful use... see also Bryan Jenks, does the same and uses emojis too. I also add which 'projects' also use which atomic note in which 'output' project, and your structure note, but as P1, P2, P3, etc., are grouped in the 'big' areas that any cross overs will come from the backlinks... and some area-to-area links show via the almost MOC to MOC connections show up. 3rd watch here, just wish I could like three times, etc.
Please keep on creating video. you have so much potential please carry on
best of luck and wish for the more sub
Since you mentioned you're interested in pedagogy, I'd also love to hear any thoughts you have on using ZK for teaching/lesson-planning. Discovering your two videos on ZK have felt like hearing someone distill the problems, thoughts, and half-working systems I've already had in my brain, and as I'm getting started it all feels very intuitive for my research, writing, & reading notes. But I find myself stuck thinking about how this would work for notes for the class I *teach*, which are the most hopelessly-disorganized at present.
The to-do items for teachers and the knowledge feel so intertwined and undergraduates really need well-structured knowledge systems from their classes, but I think I'd find it easier to pick up working on the class if I had some analogs of atomic pieces of knowledge (learning objectives, maybe?) and links between those atomic pieces of knowledge, the various moving pieces of the class (lessons, assessments), and my to-do list (migrating into the LMS, grading, lesson material prep, etc). Some light googling hasn't turned up any ZK resources specifically for teachers, so I think that could be a super valuable vid!
I've gone through the same thing. Notion evolved into something that was near-perfect for what you're describing but was recently blocked in my office and as hard as I tried to use Obsidian, which I already used for research, for more of the 'teaching' side of things, I couldn't make it work. It's a fantastic tool but I've gotten more out of it now that I've scaled back what I was trying to do and went back to the using separate programs for each task instead of trying to find the all-in-one kind of software.
That said, the following video was useful in trying to figure things out. Music professor who teaches a good variety of classes and ties things up nicely in Obsidian.
ua-cam.com/video/4T0q2kQwc2o/v-deo.html
I'll be looking forward to the next videos!
This is an incredibly clear and concise explanation; thank you!
I would love to see how you go about linking your notes. Say you had a note about siteswaps, I guess you'd instantly think of a few relevant notes to link, but do you then dig into other nonrelated notes to see if there is any overlap in ideas? I could see it being related to musical notation, for example, but that may not be obvious at first. When you have vast amounts of notes, how do you find notes to link to?
“But what’s a little anthropomorphizing to save our planet?” Haha perfect note. I hope that makes the dissertation!
I think all organization methods mentioned are valid, I use folders for things like separating journal entries, tasks, people, events, etc but tags also duplicate that behaviour to an extent. I also use tags to mark that I still need to do something about a note or for stuff like time (for example #time/2000s/23/01/31/0213Z); the latter use allows me to both mark daily notes and ones about historical events.
Good summary. Quick question.I wanted to follow Zettlekasten, but struggling to find a best way to organize. So for technical stuff, how do you write notes? Is one note, one thought or is it more like it could be a lot of information. It's hard to have so many notes and then find it hard to organize it. I would rather have all the information that belongs together in one note, so I can easily look it up. Any thoughts on how you can use this for technical folks?
Very smart to organize and categorize afterwards for it naturally emerges from the studying.
Hi Morgan, great videos, thank you! I've seen your first two, and I can see that the Z system should be a more efficient alternative to the old system of highlighting and shuffling of papers when writing essays, but... HELP! I'm crying ... I am still confused about how to actually link something that will be structured under themes (like a bottom-up approach) so that I can begin to see where my different sources say similar things about different themes. I keep changing how I create folders and notes, and I'm unsure how to begin my structure so I can find them when it comes to retrieving the information. Is there another video you can recommend?
QUEEEEEEN!
my brain = liberated. omg thank you.
I use a simple table in a word document in which i put the quotes i like from the books I read.
then I create a link between the first quote and every quote after (even if the 'quotes after' were from totally different books).. then i create a link between the second quote and every quote after, & so on.
after that, i take the quotes & the links to a different table where i just criticize them.
after that, I combine the criticisms under each quote.. I edit what i combined.. & I put what edited back in the first table to replace the links with it.
it's just a way of generating creative comments on the quotes that i like.
Great video again. I was just wondering. When you make a quick note of a random thought, how do you make sure that it doesn’t get lost? Do you immediately tag with the link tag? How do you make sure that there aren’t some unlinked notes that got lost somewhere in your vault?
I was wondering about this as well. I'm especially curious to know if in the instance one of those thoughts can be turned into an actionable idea/ item. How are they processed or are then moved to another GTD/ producivity system.
I very much have Monkey Mind but also very curious to learn more so your videos have been immensely helpful in implementing a new thought management system.
That is one of the things graph view is for. It is very easy to identify orphan notes, as they become “islands”, i.e. nodes without a connection. In graph view, the orphan or island notes tend to be shown in the periphery of the graph, so that is where to look!
I was in love with Obsidian but struggled with many aspects of it, from no way of putting notes inside of notes to loosing too much time making MOCs(maps of content, as you called structures)... i was about to give up when i found Logseq.
Have you tried Logseq? It can import/read an entire obsidian vault, it can also work with obsidian (both can be read/writing on the same folder, both working with markdown)
Its an outliner first but for literature notes (or most notes frankly) it works amazingly well- since the main input is outlining i found out i was making mocs(structures) much more easily and even without noticing... it also made easier for me to split a note into more atomic ones... as well as joining atomic notes... AND THAT MADE SENSE THE MORE NOTES I HAD
I think its the mental squeeze you talked about... at one point my graph was just too big, too noisy. It started making me rethink how i think of/perceive atomic notes... nowadays when a handful are all connected, or when it makes sense for then to be together from the get go (like quotes from the same source) i keep then in 1file- but in outlining and how well logseq filters and links it keeps the whole backlinking, graph-making, sense-making of digital zettel beautifully
It also helped me with the concept of 'evergreen notes' and incremental growth/development... and i also liked how it handles pdfs, highlighting and extracting notes from pdfs right inside the pkm/zettel (inside logseq itself)
Obsidian still rocks imo, have more plugins and better sync/mobile but Logseq fitted my flow so much more and better... i think you would love it if you tried. It also estimulated me to write more and dig deeper on the atomic toughts thanks to the whole outline of infinite deeper/child bullets
Thank you so much for your helpful video! It's really got me motivated to work with the zettelkasten method.
I was wondering - if the literature you're reading paraphrases a different sources - how do you organize that into your knowledge system?
Let's say, for example, that you're reading the following line by author X: "as study Y by author Z shows, the way you frame a question changes the way you're thinking about it."
How do you then store this knowledge? Under author X with a reference to author Z, or directly under author Z? If you would store it under author Z, wouldn't you have to go to author Z's original text first, to see if the reference by author X was correct?
Hi. I am starting graduate education for doctoral nursing and would like to start using obsidian for knowledge management and long-term memory, as well as assisting in writing academic papers and fiction in my personal time. Knowing everything you know now about the limitations of organizational methods in obsidian, it would be so helpful if you did a coaching video for new users on how to begin using Obsidian and how to organize efficiently. I have different interests, and I'd like to capture my knowledge without it getting overwhelming, messy, and unsearchable/sortable. For example, I would like main domains like personal finance, health/medical knowledge, literature (for fun), academic literature/studies, music theory, art theory, and photography. Possibly other things like history and creative ideas for a fiction novel. How would I begin using Obsidian effectively for these goals? Thank you!!
Thanks for the request! I'll definitely have to do an update video soon. I'd also love to start organizing Obsidian for my own fiction writing project, so at some point I'll figure out how that might work and share it!
@morganeua Awesome! Thank you so much. I am so happy you replied. Nice to meet you virtually, Morgan. My name is Andrea. I like your videos. They are helpful and you seem like a very nice and interesting person.
Thank you for this video and sharing your methods. I have still have some interrogations :
- what use for you is the "graph" view - is it still useable if you have many links ?
- is obsidian appropriate for large number of notes ? I am afraid the "tree" will be cluttered ( I use for the moment a personal wiki with about 6000 pages)
I recommend Notion. I started with Obsidian but soon it started to felt not enough. Plus, Notion has mobile app which is really useful if you need to consult anything at any time.
I tried Notion two years ago and it wasn't for me, but if you say that obsidian isn't enough compared to notion I could give notion another try.
Obsidian is cross platform as well, and although with community plugins there is technically a risk for malicious behavior, there are many plugins available it's insane. For example I write a note and need an illustration, so I switch to my ipad just in time and insert a excalidraw file (plugin) directly after the sentence and draw my thing, save it and there is an svg file embedded, then back to the desktop or whatever. Flashcard spaced repetition plugin, Audio notes, diagrams, pdf annotation linking, kindle notes, embedded web content, etc,...
Notion is more like database while obsidian is text based. You can always take your notes elsewhere since it's basically just markdown files in folders. As I see it, obsidian just helps you interact with them in a user friendly manner. Although it's kind of nerdy compared to notion and needs individual configuration depending on ones needs.
Syncing with iCloud between iphone, ipad and windows is a bit tricky, sometimes it creates duplicate files due to sync issues but nothing serious so far. I guess with the obsidian sync plan there are no such issues but it costs money.
Hello Morgan 👋 thank you so much for the super interesting content you're sharing 😊 💫 I'm preparing my PhD in German literature and intercultural discourse and kept struggling with it. Your channel is such a blessing to me.
Please, what's the difference between notion and obsidian? Thanks in advance 💚🌷
Great video! I also loved your other video on note taking. I'm a Literature and Linguistics student and this is all so helpful. I don't know if this has been asked already but I saw it on your other video also, and I was wondering why you don't use spaces in titles and use "-"? A silly question maybe, but I'm curious!
Not a silly question! I wanted a consistent file name style and I liked kebab case the best, which is when you replace the spaces with dashes. There are some programs that can't read spaces in file names, I think, even if that'll never be a problem I personally have. So dashes seemed safer and I like the look better!
Also hi! So cool that you're in school for literature and linguistics 😮 Do you have a specialty within those fields?
@@morganeua Thanks for the response! That makes a lot of sense actually. I started using Logseq for university notes, subjects' information and reading PDFs, so now I use Obsidian just for what some would call "permanent notes" and only important "literature notes". But I had a huge problem in Logseq with dots and spaces that were in the titles of my files because it read them as hierarchies and created multiples notes. Maybe I'll use your method from now on!
As for my studies, I'm inclined towards literature, but linguistics is a relief when I get stressed out. And in the field of literature I'm interested in many topics that I usually choose for final exams so I have a great excuse to research them. Right now I'm obsessed with Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. I'm studying some poems in relation to Calderón de la Barca's La Vida es Sueño, especially the figure of monster in the baroque. And I'll stop here because otherwise I won't be able to shup up haha
So your videos about note taking, because you also study a particular subject in depth, are very usuful and very inspirational. Thanks a lot for your work!