a year of obsidian
Perhaps I like messing about with the tools more than actually using them, but I regularly change where I keep my notes - a merry-go-round of Apple Notes, Bear and Obsidian.
I suspect this is a good old fashioned example of procrastination, honing the tools whilst looking for the next even better thing. I've decided to stop and stick with one tool for a whole year(!). The tool of choice will be Obsidian, it seems to do most the things I need and is highly configurable - yes I know I will be tempted to tweak rather than do.
Why?
Deciding that keeping changing the note tool is a waste of energy has been strangely uplifting, I have always wanted to pursue a Zettelkasten approach and Martin Adam's ebook Atomic Notes has made it finally click. Obsidian appears to be a popular choice for this, I think it will be better to use something where there is plenty of help in forums etc.
What have I done so far?
So here is what I have managed to do so far with Obsidian:
- Installed on mac and iphone.
- Exported from Bear. I created a bear backup file and tried to use the importer plugin with no luck, in some cases images ended up being attached to the wrong notes. Instead I used this guide from Alexander which worked perfectly.
- Sorted sync. I have tried Obsidian a few times, using iCloud to sync, it felt flaky. This time I have invested in the Obsidian sync service, although it works flawlessly I'm not convinced the price at $96 a year is value for money. Jury is out on that one.
- Installed a theme. The minimal theme looks good and is well supported by other plugins to tweak even further.
- Tweaked some settings. Yes, more tweaking but I will stop soon. The hider and style settings plugins cleaned up a few things. The custom file explorer sorting plugin allowed me to put folders in the right order without having to resort to a cluttered numbering system. Lastly a couple of CSS snippets cleaned up the tabs and the emojis for the tasks plugin I'm going to use.
- Written a daily note shortcut. Put together a shortcut to allow me to add things quickly to to the daily note. These uses the advanced-uri plugin to create the right hooks. Once I've tested this I'll stick it on here for others to try.
- Created the zettelkasten. Created the folders, following Martin Adam's guide, put nearly everything I had collected back into the fleeting notes folder so I can rethink about them - I was very much a collector and not a thinker.
Not too bad a start, wish me luck. Advice appreciated.
PS - yes I know I've mainly been tweaking, and yes, it is a lot of fun! 😄