78 lines
4.1 KiB
Markdown
78 lines
4.1 KiB
Markdown
My personal [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/) vault structure. A bottom-up approach to note-taking and organizing things I am interested in. This is not dogma, just my personal approach. Hopefully it can serve as inspiration, but do what works for you!
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To learn more about how I use Obsidian, visit my website [stephango.com](https://stephango.com/topics/obsidian/).
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## Get started
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1. [Download this vault](https://github.com/kepano/kepano-obsidian/archive/refs/heads/main.zip)
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2. Unzip the .zip file to a folder of your choosing
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3. Open Obsidian and create a new vault pointing to that folder
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## Vault structure
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### Theme and related tools
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- My theme: [Minimal](https://github.com/kepano/obsidian-minimal), more at [minimal.guide](https://minimal.guide)
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- My [web clipper](https://stephango.com/obsidian-web-clipper) for saving articles and pages on the web
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### Plugins
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Some of my templates depend on plugins I use:
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- [Dataview](https://github.com/blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview) for many database views
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- [Periodic notes](https://github.com/liamcain/obsidian-periodic-notes) and [Calendar](https://github.com/liamcain/obsidian-calendar-plugin) for daily notes
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- [Leaflet](https://github.com/javalent/obsidian-leaflet) for maps
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### Folders
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I use very few folders. My personal notes are primarily in the root, these are my [journal](/Categories/Journal) entries, [evergreen](Evergreen) notes, and personal ideas. That way I know that everything in the root is something I came up with. I do not use the file explorer much for navigation, instead I navigate mostly using the quick switcher or clicking links.
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If you want to use this vault as a starting point the **Categories** and **Templates** folders contain everything that you need.
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The folders I use:
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- **Attachments** for images, audio, videos, PDFs, etc.
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- **Clippings** for articles and web pages captured with my [web clipper](https://stephango.com/obsidian-web-clipper) written by other people.
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- **Daily** for my daily notes, all named `YYYY-MM-DD.md`.
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- **References** for anything that refers to something that exists outside of my vault, e.g. books, movies, places, people, podcasts, etc.
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- **Templates** for templates. In my real personal vault the "Templates" folder is nested under "Meta" which also contains my personal style guide and other random notes about the vault.
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The folders I don't use, but have created here for the sake of clarity. The notes in these folders would be in the root of my personal vault:
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- **Categories** contains top-level overviews of notes per category (e.g. books, movies, podcasts, etc).
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- **Notes** contains example notes.
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## Style guide
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### Templates and metadata
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I use templates very heavily, because they allow me to lazily insert most of the metadata I need about any kind of note.
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The `.obsidian/types.json` file shows which properties are assigned to which types.
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- Most of my properties attempt to be reusable across categories
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- Many properties have short names e.g. `start` instead of `startdate`
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- I use the `list` type more than the `text` type for many properties, because I find it useful to be able to enter multiple links
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### Categories and tagging
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My notes are primarily organized using the category property, e.g. `category: "[[Movies]]"`. These also function as links that help me easily navigate to the overview note for that category. Some rules I personally follow:
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- Always pluralize categories and tags
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- Use `YYYY-MM-DD` everywhere
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- Use a single vault for everything
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- Avoid folders for organization
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- Avoid non-standard Markdown
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### Rating system
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Anything with a `rating` uses an integer from 1 to 7
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- 7 — **Perfect**, must try, life-changing, go out of your way to seek this out
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- 6 — **Excellent**, worth repeating
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- 5 — **Good**, don't go out of your way, but enjoyable
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- 4 — **Passable**, works in a pinch
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- 3 — **Bad**, don't do this if you can
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- 2 — **Atrocious**, actively avoid, repulsive
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- 1 — **Evil**, life-changing in a bad way
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Why this scale? I like the 7 scale better than 4 or 5 stars because I need more granularity at the top, for the good experiences, and 10 is too many. |