Note taking with Obsidian: Much of what the internet has to say on the topic
A slightly academic review of note taking in Obsidian
@readwithai - X - blog - Plugin REPL for Obsidian - 📖⚡️🖋️
The world has a lot to say about note taking. Note taking is a tool to engage in complicating thinking and complicated tasks. Sometimes people have difficult and important things to think about and problems to solve and so note taking does matter as a fundamental tool for this. Obsidian is a note taking app used by millions of people to take note - a lot of people have written or created videos about taking videos so it seems valuable to understand how and why people take notes. To this aim I have read much of what the internet has to offer on note taking in Obsidian and will summarize it for you.
Why people take notes
Notes are taken for different reasons. As a personal reference and searching1, thinking,2,11 motivation,1 as a tool for study and process of memorization,7,15 task management,1 to accurate recall lectures of meetings,5,6 or as a form of idea generation.15
People talk about the benefits accrued of taking notes over time.6,10,11 The can form links between concepts6 (potentially seemingly unrelated ones),10 as a form of abstraction.6,10 Notes can act as starting point for resources they make like talks or blog posts,6 or being used a “proof of knowledge” when seeking work.6 When creating content based on their notes, people talk about “never facing a blank page”10 or always having somewhere to start from.6 This sharing of notes can be seen as a form of public learning with public feedback.1,6
How people structure their notes
Notes are structured in different ways. There is a trade off between a structure of people’s thought, or the structure of another source or a process.3 People may order their notes as a log of what they did,6 following a lecture,15 following the material in a book.4 Even in an educational setting where there can a lot of material and people are aware that they will be tested on the precise material, some people structure their own notes rather than following the lecture structure.7 Notes may be deliberately structured to aid learning for example by phrasing notes as questions and answers.7
People may take notes on their thinking in an unstructured format,2 potentially organizing notes on a weekly basis.8,9
Some people index notes more by topics rather than anything thought related and produce single large files.4,5 Care may be taken to preserve the original expression of a source or author,4 which may get in the way of more free-form combinations of thought and note taking.
Note taking, particularly structured note taking, can act as a form of indexing of information.1 Note takers argue that the similarity between their note system and how they think provides benefits.1,10 Späti argues that the similarity between thought processes and notes (the Second Brain) property of Obsidian makes these searches easier.1 Some authors value efficiency in note taking provided by Obsidian.1 Some people have live and archived notes.1
Specific structures
People make use of Maps of Content to structure their notes and connect their notes.14 This is quite related to the idea of a structure note within Zettlekasten.11
People can use folders (a structure where each not belongs to precisely one group called a folder) or links or tags.14 Folders are referred to as “rigid”.14
When people make their notes
People make notes as a log of what they are doing,6 for meetings of lectures,5 or a log of what they are reading.4 People may split out a separate “processing step” for their notes which may be done immediately after taking notes or weekly.3 Note taking can be an adjunct to reading,4,16 or a thing to do to concentrate while in meetings.6
Why people use Obsidian
Obsidian is mentioned for it’s efficiency,1 implicitly people talk about Obsidian’s ability to link notes, its “Map’s of Content” (MOCs) sometimes provided by the dataview plugin,5 and graph view, some people make use of the “depth” property to explore the graph created by notes.7
Systems
Many people mentions methodologies as something that they avoid either as too heavy weight. People mention Zettlekasten15 and PARA as systems.9,10
People’s theories about note taking
It is likely that many people’s thinking about their note taking will be influenced by what others have written on the internet and specifically the prominent theories on the topic like Zettelkasten, you can sometimes seem to detect the same themes or wording between talks.10,11
People form analogies between “how the brain works” in terms of connections and how Obsidian (or “linked” knowledge bases) work in general, with some highlighting search in this area.6,9,10 People talk about how their notes can allow for a form of abstraction over time.6,10 Direct analogies are formed between mental processes and note-taking processes: creating maps of content is analogised to chunking, links are compared to relationships.14
People often broadly split the categories of their notes pages. Fleeting vs permanent,8 Evergreen notes vs temporary notes,9 notes on current work they are doing versus future work.2
Some of the frameworks have overarching aims. PARA is based around using your notes for action.12 Zettelkasten seems more about communication between your past and future-self solidified into a Zettelkasten.
People construct theories about different types of activity that form part of note-taking. Top-down is distinguished from bottom up.14 People talk about emergent earned structure as opposed to more early naive structure.14 People distinguish gardening versus architecting versus collecting.13
People talk about material requiring context to understand and talk about removing context from notes.6,16
My personal take
I feel that focused on “technique” can detract from just do some note taking. A viewpoint echoed by many others. In truth, I think a lot of the value of notes is giving you something to do while you think and read. My experience is that most of the “frameworks” I have found are too structured and my general opinion on note taking is write something, do what helps you think, apply some techniques when needed, use your notes reading and improve them.
To me, the value in reading how other people take notes lies in getting a gist of people’s philosophy and “techniques” so you can apply them as appropriate.
I tend not to be that worried about re-finding things. I tend to remember the things that I want to remember and be able to find them. A slight exception is specific technical implementation like precisely what command to run or precisely how to do things.
I view note taking as more of a process of thought and finding the things I have already written can be useful here - but I would not necessarily mind if I lost all my notes, as I would fairly quickly rebuild them. I do value “re-finding” what I have said on a topic to aid my thinking (as mentioned by 6).
Most of my notes are for thinking and structured as small notes with heavy thinking. I dislike any “processing step” when doing things, though will access processing as part of a task. Some of my notes reflect carrying out tasks rather than doing things.
I am a little concerned by Obsidian’s ability to give me too much ability to “tinker” (as mentioned by 10) particularly when it almost gives me something complicated that I want. A good examples here is “typed” links and the Excalibrain plugin that just doesn’t quite work. Some tinkering is okay particularly if it is directly relevant to your task. I imagine the predilections of personality (as partly explained by the BIG 5 personal metric) will be a factor in note taking. It feels like “collecting information to do stuff” and “tool for thought” will be two quite different categories of note taking.
Sources
Sources (see below):
[1] Späti, [2] sebdd, [3] ahappytomomo, [4] Demco, [5] A reddit thread on note taking, [6] Hoeven, [7] Helfant, [8] Obsidian Rocks, [9] McGranahan, [10] Kirsanov, [11] Zettelkasten.de, [12] Forte Labs, [13]Obsidian rocks (moc), [14] Milo, [15] Godoy, [16] Obsidisan Rocks (reading)
Glossary of concepts
Summarizing much of the internet
[1] My Obsidian Note-Taking Workflow (Späti)🔗
Themes: Thought as index, memory
Part of Späti’s interest in optimising search. Späti likes that Obsidian allows him to explore a graph of knowledge to find information which he terms “Search based on thought”. They has a trick of adding keywords to notes if he cannot find them straight away as another form of indexing. They like the efficiency of note taking that Obsidian provides, citing vim keybindings.
Späti shares a subset of notes which are tagged on the internet. At views the feedback he receives a form of learning.
[2] How to take notes & my Obsidian setup (sebdd) 🔗
Themes: Action, Tasks, Recall
The author disagrees with second brain maximalists preferring something action based taking inspiration from PARA. He has his own philosophy of “Now, Next Notes”. Their note taking process is partly about clarity of thought and motivation. It os based around projects and daily notes. He distinguishes task tracking from note taking not using Obsidian for task tracking.
He argues that because Obsidian uses Plugins it allows him to have a minimal setting with only the plugins he wants, though notes in passing that Obsidian does allow you to “bloat” your set up.
The author keeps notes on tasks and views note taking as partly a tool for thought. The author has a structure for his notes consisting of a free form section, logs which aid for motivation. In addition, the author does some journaling in daily notes which may combine several topics.
Now, Next, Notes 🔗
This is the authors philosophy on how to structure things that go in his Obsidian notes. Now is in effect for task management and acts as a way of limiting the number of things in progress and ensuring that everything in this topic is moving forward. This is analogous to processes in Kanban. Notes in the now section eventually get moved to an archive.
Notes are distinguished as something the author wants to remember long term
The Next section collects notes about what could be done next. It enables a form of concentration on a topic with “other ideas” be collected and reviewed after a project is complete.
[3] A reddit post on the topic (ahappytomomo)🔗
Themes: Accuracy, Others structure, link separate
Note taking and note linking are distinguished as separate activities. The author argues for linking notes separately as a form of review.
The author takes notes in the lecture, and wants to maintain the structure of the lecture course. The author found they could not structure notes while taking notes.
Personal note: This very much differs from my personal process. I love doing things like trying to do my own think / create my own structures while a lecture in taking place. This is perhaps a general orientation towards independence and disrespect. I can see some activities - e.g. taking notes in a trial - where accuracy is crucial where this might not apply.
[4] Mastering the Craft of Obsidian Note-Taking (Demco)🔗
Themes: Reading
Demco views note taking as part of reading with a focus on comprehension. They use a single large note or possible two notes (one for the source, another for their interpretation) for taking notes rather that create a range of notes on different topics.
They distinguish three types of notes: paraphrasing, quotations, and their own thinking. They look at the notes they take on a topic and use that to drive the creation of their own notes on a topic.
[5] A reddit thread on the topic of note taking (Various)🔗
Themes: Others structure, long notes, just write it down.
People talk about the advantage of “one large note” on some topics to aid searching. Others argue in favor of Atomic notes where you have one small notes on a topic. I am not clear what the difference is, one difference might be that people studying need to “cram” a lot of topics, while people who are blogging or working have a little less information load and are engaged in more of a thinking activity.
People talk about transclusion as a way of combing “complete” notes with more of an atomic structure. Your main note then becomes a stream of “transcluded notes”.
Maps of content are discussed.
Personal note: In Wikipedia people sometimes transclude the first section of a page to another page - this approach could allow nice “summaries”
[6] Taking notes for work with Obsidian (Hoevan)🔗
Themes: Personal notes, brain analogy
Hoeven contrasts note taking in Obsidian, “the new way of note taking”, to notes taken in Education, arguing that the former was based aroond a specific goal of a test while notes in Obsidian “continuous notes” (analogous to continuous deployment in development) are meant to last forever. They analogise to the structure of the brain in terms of “connections”. They argue for a system of notes that can evolve over time and point out the distinction between “contextual notes” for a particular use and "abstracted notes” that can be used in more general situations.
Hoeven draws distinctions between different modes of note taking:
“Logging” is writing notes while trying to do a task without much analysis
“Learning” takes logs and find what is correct and produces a summary.
They produce personal documentation at times which they argue is relevant to their use and so more tractable.
Hoeven talks about “learning in public” as well. They publish some of their notes.
They argue that taking notes is a form of “communication with your future self”. The argue that patterns “accrue over time” while taking notes. They argue that it is easy to write about a topic because they tend to have preexisting note to start from. They talk about “learning exhausts” positive externalities that can be shared from learning.
Making notes actually useful in Obsidian (Hoeven) 🔗
Hoeven uses a separate capture and processing steps. The processing step involves paraphrasing abstraction and linking. Notes are refactored based on the length of notes and backlinks are used to update their database in response to the addition of new information.
[7] The Best Method For Taking Lecture Notes In Obsidian (Helfant)🔗
Themes: Education, Linking, Personal notes
Helfant discusses note taking in education and argues for linking notes between disparate topics as a form of creativity and means of creating interest.
They argue that the value of note taking is a lens of topics from an individual. They argue that linking notes is a form of review and “deep learning”.
They deliberately try to build a web of topics, including a related notes section in all notes. A form of question and answer is used in note taking as form of review.
[8] Getting Started with Zettelkasten in Obsidian (Obsidian Rocks)🔗
Themes: Zettelkasten
The author complains about reading without retention, and that the notes they took often required context to understand. He argues Zettelkasten is about making long lasting notes.
They distinguish between fleeting and permanent notes based on Obsidian. Fleeting notes are easy to take but are processes into permanent notes. They distinguish permanent or “Atomic” notes as not needing context to understand and containing a single idea per note.
There is an emphasis on a delayed “processing step” to convert short and contextual notes.
[9] How I take notes in Obsidian (McGranahan)🔗
Themes: Note classification, scratch-pad
McGranahan notes the existence of “formalized” systems for note taking such as ZettleKasten but prefers something light weight.
They keep notes on Projects, Evergreen notes on topics and notes on people as well as using a variety of features of Obsidian.
The use a single “scratchpad” that they term the Inbox where all notes goes rather than organizing as they go which they periodically tidy.
[10] Understanding note-taking | Zettelkasten (Kirsanov)🔗
Themes: Zettelkasten, Links
Kirsanov introduces Zettelkasten, which he defines in terms of index cards with short self written “atomic ideas” connected to one another.
Kirsanov argues that bottom up note taking with an emergent structure is advantageous. He argues that this structure will likely change over time. They argue that the “second brains” produced using Zettelkasten will be unique to the individual and argues that this is advantageous because the notes will be organized how an individual thinks.
Kirsanov argues that a Zettelkasten system can allow for serendipitous links between concepts and forms of abstraction. Kirsanov talks about the benefits of “externalisation” (writing in one’s own word) as a way of finding blindspots. Kirsanov argues that note taking can “spread out” the writing process arguing that the individual who takes notes is never faced with a blank page.
Zettelkasten in Obsidian (Kirsanov)🔗
Kirsanov argues that technical tools can distract from note taking. They distinguish references from notes. Reference notes are used to quickly reference external source from within Obsidian. Kirsanov makes use of templates.
[11] Zettelkasten.de🔗
Themes: Conversation with your notes, structured notes, Zettelkasten
This is an extensive website about Zettlekatsen. It is argued that Zettelkasten allows for more complicated process and that a naive system can become unmanageable over time.
Zettel’s (notes within the Zettelkasten system) are meant to be contain an “atomic thought” and references for this thought. Current projects can be used to constrain what notes you should take. At one extreme, notes are only taken if they are relevant for a current project. The concept of a “byproduct” or another project is introduced. It is argued that creating a hierarchical with “structure notes” that relate different Zettels is valuable for seeing your project as a whole. 🔗
A theoretical framework is introduced on you communicating with your Zettle and your various notes “communicating with one another” (albeit through you).🔗
They talk about the concept of “buffer notes” to collect information to be processed later.🔗
It is argued that writing as a form of thought can encourage more coherent thinking, prevent one from jumping around too much, improve memorization. It is argued that you can then by adding notes to your Zettelkasten “communicate” with your Zettelkasten, or past thinking, and be surprised by what you find.🔗
[12] The PARA Method (Forte Labs) 🔗
Themes: Note categories, action
This is a system of note taking that is optimized for actions and goals. It is a method of indexing notes by Projects, Areas, Resources and Archives.
In a sense resources, corresponds with “Evergreen notes” defined elsewhere and is a bit of a catch all. Archives is an acknowledgment that some project are live and some are not. Areas is an acknowledgment that some projects are ongoing.
It is argued that projects create a sense of motivation because your goals change over time rather than being consistent.
[13] Maps of Content (Obsidian Rocks) 🔗
Themes: Map of content, types of note taker
Organization becomes harder the more notes you take. The author distinguishes modes of organization (and organizers): planning (architect), cultivating (gardeners), collecting (librarian).
The author talks about how a collection of notes can grow, change and improve over time, talking about the metaphor of a digital guardian.
The author talks about a Map of Contents (MOC), a term which isn’t really defined, but examples are given of “higher level” pages that link to other pages as a means of exploring or navigating a digital garden.
[14] Idea Emergence Q&A Part 1: How to Create MOCs, How to use Tags & Folders (Milo) 🔗
Themes: Brain analogy, Emergence, top-down versus bottom up
Milo argues that "folders” are top-down and a convergent way of thinking contrasted with links that provide for bottom-up thinking. They talk about a “mental squeeze point” where one is forced to “chunk data” by making a map of content to avoid forgetting, but distinguish it from when you know what you want to say and create content.
Milo argues that creating maps of content facilitate “chunking” of information. Milo argues that maps of content should be linked up to a home note to allow rapid movement between notes.
Milo introduces the concept of unearned structure as a problem of top-down structure, though notes that there be preexisting “emergence” of structure outside of a note taking system.
Note from me: There is a concept in machine learning that “compression is learning” which is perhaps best represented in autoencoders “autoencoder” that squeeze data throw a limited representation to force learning.
[15] Taking class notes (JorgeGodoy)🔗
Godoy distinguishes between types of learning where one is expected to create something new versus absorb information, and those where one has to filter information.
They argues for a separate Zettelkasten when taking notes mostly to absorb information rather than collect ideas and that this should link to your main notes. And argues for “one note per class”.
For studies where you are creating ideas, which Godoy associates with post graduate study they argue that you should use any method you want, though they mention Zettelkasten as a way of generating new ideas.
For note taking related to work, referred to as Corporate Training, Godoy argues a similar approach as for “postgraduate study” should be used though notes that the metadata associated wit hnotes may be simpler.
[16] How to take Book Notes in Obsidian (Obsidian Rocks)🔗
The author was influenced by the desire to note forget material they read, and to make notes that can be easily found. They where influenced by Zettlekasten and the idea of maps of content.
They note that notes can require context to be understood arguing that these notes are of little value. They talk about the idea of “disconnecting” a note from the material in a book.
They use an approach where multiple notes for different ideas are created as atomic notes which reference a note representing the book, together with a final summary. They note that ideas extract from a book will continue to evolve over time.
I am @readwithai - Creating tools for reading, research, agency and Obsidian. Sharing my work and thoughts along the way.
If you want to follow me along I’m on X or you can subscribe below.
