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BONUS 'Obsidian Good Parts' Follow-up: Q&A, Templates, Screenshots, Thoughts
🕑 Added 2025-02-07 13:46:09 +0000 UTCOPEN THE ATTACHED MARKDOWN FILES IN YOUR OBSIDIAN TO READ THIS PROPERLY. Patreon can't handle the power of my formatting, especially for code.
There are two attached markdown files, one is the source of the post you're reading now but with code blocks rendered, the other is an overview of my hybrid GTD/Zettelkasten system, which you can use as context for the templates and dashboards in this post.
Also, please check out the attached screenshots, demoing a daily note and a linked project (The Decapsulate podcast).
More questions? I'll answer all comments. Thanks so much for your support folks, I'm so grateful! Much more to come :-)
Where is The Good Parts Demo Vault?
It's in this previous post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/good-parts-vault-121361085
What is in The Demo Vault?
A minimal demo structure showing a single project with sequentially linked children.
Do You Have Multiple Vaults?
I recommend only one vault. This is another common pitfall for newbies: Folks set up a work vault, a personal vault, vaults per project or similar. Obsidian can't easily link between vaults, so you lose the force multiplier effect. I use Workspaces to make different views on the same vault - such as an NB workspace with slide previews and checklists, and a LT workspace stripped down to a simple writing flow, and a planning workspace with the Project plugin loaded, and some splits set up for organisation, etc.
Breadcrumbs Plugin V4 Thoughts
v4 works GREAT for me, solving a number of long-standing annoyances (such as vim mode bugs)
afaik juggl integration caused a lot of bugs (because each plugin is developed by independent devs). I didn't use the breadcrumbs juggl view in v3, a graph at the top of each document takes up too much space for me. Breadcrumbs V4 and juggl (my current setup) are still complementary plugins!
Breadcrumb Structure
The great thing about using links for organisation instead of folders is that folders must exist before use, but links don't.
At any point in your writing you can link to, say, [[a note that doesnt exist]], and it will show up in the graph view and in autocomplete in the properties and so on, even without a file.
Once I use a placeholder like this more than once, I click on it (or press c-ENT) and not only is the note created, but all the previous links to it crystallise and become real.
This is core to the up: [[link]] convention that I use to organise my brain. When working out where to save a new note, instead of starting at the top, clicking through a whole bunch of folders to get to the nth level where I actually want to put it, I go straight there, linking to the lowest level of my brain that makes sense at the time. The actual location of the file doesn't matter, they go in the root of my vault, typically.
Writing lecture notes on a statistics for programming module?
You could link to up: [[stats101]], (and, for extra credit, also link to the previous lecture notes with prev: [[stats101-lecture-1]]) or if that doesn't work at the time, perhaps, up: [[statistics for programming]]. Category doesn't exist? invent one for now and link to it! Can't think of a category? Link it to [[up: mathematics]] or, hell, [[up: inbox]], and sort it out later.
Still too much work? type #tofile anywhere in the note and do nothing else.
Later, at a quiet time, do an obsidian search for tag: #tofile and file your notes then. (or even better, steal the Fleeting notes from my system - read on)
Do You Use Daily Notes?
I do! I also use the Day Planner plugin, really great combo that's always at the side of my screen, like a dashboard! (see attached screenshot)
How to best handle Public Interfaces (outside of obsidian) such as Publishing to Web
Public interfaces are tough, It's the biggest part of my system that I've had to retain folders - a core feature of URLs, such as: https://www.namtao.com/No-Boilerplate/ (which is built with the Quartz free plugin) Named Links fall back to being regular links, so they will show up in backlinks and on the graph. I'm following the Digital Garden ideas for building my own site https://maggieappleton.com/garden-history
No Folders? But What about File Name Collisions?
It's honestly never come up in my usage, partly because the names of my notes are often long statements, such as "Story is an internal struggle not an external one" (an atomic note referencing a concept from Story Genius by Lisa Cron)
But also I guess other notes often have long file names too?
It's also partly that folders don't totally solve the duplicate name problem because Obsidian will detect duplicate file names and add them to your link with an alias, which then breaks the auto-renaming of links feature that I like so much in Obsidian.
(very often I'll write in a new link with placeholder text like [[alice's mother TODO]], using it in multiple places throughout my note before figuring out the name for it.
What about Attachments' Metadata?
Everything in one vault, everything in the vault. I have an attachments/ folder (ugh!) where everything is dumped in when I attach them.
I admit I've never felt the need to attach metadata directly to attachments such as images. The majority of my vault is markdown notes, and if they have attached images, pdfs etc, the context and metadata is on the note they are linked from
Embedded (![[image.jpg]]) attachments are also links, and can be explored using Obsidian's native methods.
Can You Synchronise Tags and Folders?
There's a plugin called Auto Note Mover, that allows you to set up folders to move files to based on their tag. It works, but wouldn't you be happier just ditching folders ;-)
Could be good in a folder->tags migration, I suppose.
UUIDs or Dates for Filenames?
No. My dislike of folders doesn't extend to filenames. Filenames are used in links.
For my atomic knowledge base I like filenames that are statements (Story is an internal struggle not an external one) as they can be transposed mid-sentence into other files and still read well.
Clear, short project names ([[LT17.5]] or [[TPC2.3]]) for projects because I'm often linking INSIDE them, such as [[LT17.5#Act 3]].
Dashboards like Notes To File or Projects can have short names, as I expect them to be global distinct.
How Do You Use the up/down Links?
The non-answer is "any way you want".
The helpful answer is "Start with the Breadcrumbs plugin". This plugin has revolutionised my workflow and surfaces exactly the information you want, and even has commands you can map to hotkeys for navigating your links! It's amazing, and the core of the Demo Vault
How Do You Rename Tags?
Another reason I use tags sparingly - you have to use the 'tag renamer' plugin to rename them!
Links are the core of my Good Parts because they're so deeply integrated and automatic - I can't have a fussy system!
Why Wikilinks not Markdown Links?
wikilinks are a first-class citizen in obsidian: auto-renaming only works on wikilinks. Also, personally, I prefer the ergonomics of the linked page being the link text by default. Github wikis also use this format, and there's great integration possibilities there, such as opening a gh wiki clone with obsidian!
Any Tips for Migrating from Folders?
Make your existing (good) folders into notes, then use the up: [[link]] property to link notes that were in that folder to their new 'parent'.
Try the Breadcrumbs plugin, it's amazing.
How Do You Use This Structure Productively?
I use many parts of Zettelkasten - a good video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugxcbsgjEHI - this lightweight system ALREADY has two different kinds of links: parents and siblings. Being able to navigate your links by type is essential for functioning, not even value-add, it's the basis of a semantic knowledge system.
The TLDR benefit is that I want to be able to surface related notes automatically, in a way that isn't a flood of 100s of backlinks. Named Links allow me to build such a system (starting with the Breadcrumbs plugin)
Templates
(see attached markdown (good parts followup post.md) for code blocks, Patreon can't begin to format anything well)
Capture.md
This is the template I use for capturing my fleeting thoughts, ideas, tasks, anything that comes to me.
I use the quickadd plugin to pop up an uncluttered text box where I pour my ideas into, hit c-ENT and it's gone, and I can get back to work, without being distracted by researching or even filing the new idea.
As you'll see in the process dashboard below, I will figure all that out later.In addition to the full thought being the file name, it's also pasted into the callout in place of {{VALUE}}. This is because when I rewrite this fleeting note into a fleshed-out atomic one, I want to keep my original thought.
Atomic.md
This template is very simple. Atomic notes are tagged #atomic and should have an up link of some kind when written.
NewChild.md & NewSibling.md
These both should be triggered by highlighting some text in a note that you'd like to refactor into a new note, linking back to the one you're currently editing.
The quickadd plugin cuts the text, puts it into the {{VALUE}} in the template, links back to the note you cut the text from using {{LINKCURRENT}} and, finally, inserts a link to the new child/sibling into the place the original text was.
This is very similar to the "Note Composer" feature of Obsidian, except this automatically links back to the note it came from.
Dashboards
ProcessFleetingAndLiterature.md
Two kinds of notes come into my system regularly:
Fleeting notes that contain unformatted streams of consciousness from me (often copied from some other inbox, paper, or messages to self)
Literature notes. These are copied quotes/highlights from books, articles, videos, podcasts etc. They are not in my own words, but are linked to from other notes.
Every morning I look at this query and write up a new #atomic note with some knowledge that I read or thought about, expanded and in my own words.
nextactions.md
This query I couldn't get to work using normal dataview. I'd have to break out dataviewjs, and life is too short for that.
projects.md
This shows a list of all in-progress projects:
Due date isn't comically far in the future
Due date isn't in the past
Has been scheduled at some point in the past
has at least 1 outstanding task
The table shows a pretty percentage bar of progress of tasks in the project
Soonest due first
Comments
No Boilerplate
They sure do, I'm using the great readwise plugin. It's another example where folders are required, so I let them in!
Nghtfall
Do your Readwise highlights still go into a Readwise folder in the vault?
No Boilerplate
Oh, it's a tree that starts off with one single parent at the top. Mine's called Home.md! The breadcrumbs plugin actually refuses to work unless you can link from the current note all the way up to the home note - kindof non-obvious! Look at the diagram at this point in the video for a visual demo https://youtu.be/B0yAy2j-9V0?t=503
Nghtfall
Ok so I understand that you use named links as organization in place of folders. But I’m not sure how you organize the ghost notes/parents. Like for example if I have a bunch of notes linked as up: [[writing]] how would you organize the note “writing”? Obviously it doesn’t exist by default by I find clicking into it an easy way to see everything linked to that parent note.
No Boilerplate
I use exactly 4 tags: Fleeting, Literature, Atomic, Project. :-D You're exactly right, some plugins NEED tags, so I have reluctantly started using these 4. Where it makes sense (and not before) I have made a few child tags, the two most important in my own system are #literature/unfiled (for highlights that have synced from readwise but I have yet to process into atomic notes) and #project/nb, #project/lt #project/{name} - tags for my big production projects, this channel and my podcasts. This is mostly for plugins that can theme or highlight these in results, which is pretty!
No Boilerplate
Tasks are pulled from notes tagged #project, whatever they link to, and the first task of each is shown in the Next Actions list (which you can see in the screenshot). Task management for me is note-focussed. The note has the due date, start date, etc, and any tasks inside the note are pulled using that query. This deserves its own video, and I have very good news that this is exacltly what I'm working on - a full video of the FLAP system, the final letter, P for Projects includes tasks. But it's very simple. My advice is to noodle with querying Tasks using dataview, and once you know how to query them, you'll know how to structure your documents https://blacksmithgu.github.io/obsidian-dataview/queries/query-types/#task
Randy Roberts
I'm also interested in your general use of tags. It sounds like you would avoid them, but they are useful with too many plugins that are valuable. Is this a correct reading? You also mention the ability to nest tags e. g. #tag/subtag1/subtag2/subtag3... Do you use queries for say, #subtag2 that are independent of #tag/subtag1/subtag2 ?
Randy Roberts
I'm interested in how you deal with tasks. Are they atomic notes with a link to the project? Does your project file include a list of open tasks for the project? Do you have a tasks view for your whole vault? How do tags play in your use of tasks?
