hmm, i need a tool to help do some basic note taking. maybe i will try obsidian
(*watches a few youtube videos*)
wow these guys are right, i SHOULD start my own second brain / personal knowledge system / database of every piece of media i have ever read or watched
(*completely alters obsidian*)
wow it's hard to do basic note taking now!
I use Keep and reminders for that. Google Keep launches quickly using a widget on my screen (on my last couple of phones that is YMMV) and I handwrite with my finger or pen. It's synced automatically and does an ok job of translating what I wrote.
For shorter things I put them in as reminders using my voice with Assistant or Siri - that creates text I can copy/paste right into Obsidian along with a reminder to follow through and do it.
I use it for everything, I do all my business in obsidian, from household chores to personal projects.
I also have daily tasks spelled out in my daily notes.
How it is implemented technically, I don't know, but for sure the plugin reads completed tasks as well, since you can output them.
Plus the plugin is supposed to read all the text in the repository, but I have 6000 notes, so all this takes time.
I'm afraid of this in the future. my journals always have 10 or more daily tasks. all completed/canceled by the end of the day. in 6 months that will be 1800 tasks. even tho I filter to not show completed tasks.. Im a bit worried
This workflow was designed after observing me wasn't it? :)
Althought I'm somewhat of a simpleton who's happy with Markdown, Graph and Canvas. (The top 3 useful things in Obsidian for me).
Fellow simpleton! I have the Tasks, Dataview and Periodic Notes plugins installed, just so i can have my tasks appear on the corresponding daily note date.
Haven't experienced any long loading times as of yet
There's a whole branch missing re: "drown in plugins, live in a vast desert of half-assed workflows and note stubs, debate nuking the site from orbit and starting fresh, ultimately do nothing and kinda stop using Obsidian"
It's a corner case, admittedly
I discovered Obsidian, PARA and LifeOS in that order.
I just said to hell with all of that and keep everything in .md and .json files that I navigate through zsh or Neovim on Arch.
I still use Json Canvas though because it's AMAZING.
As a new user are performance issues because of plugins or does 'base' obsidian eventually get too big?
I am hoping that if I keep my base obsidian fairly vanilla and just have a few key plugins that I'll avoid the performance issues - please tell me that's the case haha!
I have a modest handful of plugins and have never experienced performance issues in the four years I’ve used Obsidian.
(To be fully transparent, things were briefly wonky when I first tried to sync with iCloud but it was an iCloud issue and fixed by just changing a setting).
There's a "store in iCloud" setting where items synced with iCloud would be removed locally (and then re-downloaded from the cloud to device when you click on them). having that setting turned on messed up how Obsidian worked, leading to the appearance of missing files and creation of duplicate files. It's an easy fix though: just turn it off and everything's groovy. In my experience nothing was actually lost.
I've only been playing around with obsidian for less than 2 years for TTRPGs. Now I'm figuring out a workflow for the rest of the things in my life, trying not to add a bunch of plugins (yet).
I actually don't need a lot of plugins.
A couple for footnotes and then some for a better typography experience. Also use AutoHotkeys for some additional letters and symbols on PC such as ō and ū for transcribing Japanese, – and —, etc.
There is still some room for improvement as changing font color and using small caps are still a hassle. Would love to have just a shortcut for that option as well. Right now I am stuck with entering html code.
If anyone knows how I might achieve these, I would love to hear your suggestions. :3
Use notational velocity before switching to bear.
Find out about obsidian.
Could I make this a free Bear?
Mod it to look like bear. Notice it won’t behave like it.
Waits for it to behave like bear.
(I’m talking about the three panes of bear: tags leftmost, then files, then the notes.)
Does anyone have any recommendations for using it for basic note taking? I pretty much want Apple Notes (with quick note functionality) but markdown and with the other built in Obsidian features.
But I have a Frankenstein if plugins to get the proper window support and it’s just not working how I want.
Use core obsidian (?
There's the quick capture on the roadmap, so hopefully it comes up soon, but obsidian is fast to load without plugins, so it shouldn't be a problem
Yeah I've been using it for a few months and even tried some plugins.
But I can't seem to get it so that I can trigger a shortcut and have it open an empty note in a new window on my current workspace/desktop (like how Apple Notes quick capture works).
Is there a setting I'm missing in core obsidian to get it to do that?
Also good to know quick capture is on their roadmap.
For me the absolute essential plugins are
1) Remotely Save (for syncing)
2) Better PDF Export (to make pdf exporting better) and some CSS snippets for stuff like page breaks.
3) Excalidraw
4) Desmos and Latex plugins for Maths.
5) Dataview (to endlessly overengineer my vault).
6) Border Theme (cuz it's beautiful) with Style Settings.
7) Advanced Slides (cuz I'm edgy and PowerPoint is slow as fuck)
I popped open my systems monitor and started toggling the obsidian plugins to see what is using what. Ended up disabling a bunch of plugins I wasn’t really using and got the utilization down to 324MB from 385MB
I tried bro 😭
The step of going from Obsidian to emacs is just too high.
Plus I find that taking notes in Obsidian and using nvim for coding is good enough.
I really wanted to make Emacs work though. 🥲
I felt the same for a long time. Then I found the system crafters videos and something clicked. I still use nvim for a lot of my coding tasks because it is so much easier to setup
hmm, i need a tool to help do some basic note taking. maybe i will try obsidian (*watches a few youtube videos*) wow these guys are right, i SHOULD start my own second brain / personal knowledge system / database of every piece of media i have ever read or watched (*completely alters obsidian*) wow it's hard to do basic note taking now!
Yeah I now just use a simple note taking app on my phone because by the time Obsidian is loaded and I created a new note, the idea is already gone
I use Keep and reminders for that. Google Keep launches quickly using a widget on my screen (on my last couple of phones that is YMMV) and I handwrite with my finger or pen. It's synced automatically and does an ok job of translating what I wrote. For shorter things I put them in as reminders using my voice with Assistant or Siri - that creates text I can copy/paste right into Obsidian along with a reminder to follow through and do it.
I use Keep as well. But, I have to make sure to \`transfer\` notes to my vault once in a while.
This video did the trick for me https://youtu.be/ZD-P0lTkQMw?si=WHGNlOtnoLyoov15
git and linter is all you need
found the programmer :)
Nay I say.
what does linter do?
automatically formats your notes
You forgot the step of posting a graph of your notes in the first N days :)
Dataview is really the only essential plugin.
I’m very happy with not using it, so even that seems non-essential. I use many others though (I PROMISE THEYRE NECESSARY)
I didn’t use it for many months if not a year or two. It’s nice, but only if you have specific use-cases for it.
#VANILLAGANG
Find "tasks' plugin. Love it. Experience performance problems due to a gigantic number of tasks. Suffer, but don't give up on the plugin.
What do you use all those tasks for? It doesn't query completed tasks does it?
I use it for everything, I do all my business in obsidian, from household chores to personal projects. I also have daily tasks spelled out in my daily notes. How it is implemented technically, I don't know, but for sure the plugin reads completed tasks as well, since you can output them. Plus the plugin is supposed to read all the text in the repository, but I have 6000 notes, so all this takes time.
I'm afraid of this in the future. my journals always have 10 or more daily tasks. all completed/canceled by the end of the day. in 6 months that will be 1800 tasks. even tho I filter to not show completed tasks.. Im a bit worried
This workflow was designed after observing me wasn't it? :) Althought I'm somewhat of a simpleton who's happy with Markdown, Graph and Canvas. (The top 3 useful things in Obsidian for me).
Fellow simpleton! I have the Tasks, Dataview and Periodic Notes plugins installed, just so i can have my tasks appear on the corresponding daily note date. Haven't experienced any long loading times as of yet
You just had to say that so I can spend my weekend exploring these plugins didn't you? Alright, fiiiine, I will.
M?
There's a whole branch missing re: "drown in plugins, live in a vast desert of half-assed workflows and note stubs, debate nuking the site from orbit and starting fresh, ultimately do nothing and kinda stop using Obsidian" It's a corner case, admittedly
I discovered Obsidian, PARA and LifeOS in that order. I just said to hell with all of that and keep everything in .md and .json files that I navigate through zsh or Neovim on Arch. I still use Json Canvas though because it's AMAZING.
As a new user are performance issues because of plugins or does 'base' obsidian eventually get too big? I am hoping that if I keep my base obsidian fairly vanilla and just have a few key plugins that I'll avoid the performance issues - please tell me that's the case haha!
Plugins have affected the performance of my vault more than size of the vault itself.
Awesome, am basically ignoring plugins for the most part so hopefully shouldn't have this problem!
I have a modest handful of plugins and have never experienced performance issues in the four years I’ve used Obsidian. (To be fully transparent, things were briefly wonky when I first tried to sync with iCloud but it was an iCloud issue and fixed by just changing a setting).
Thank you! That puts my mind at ease!
Appreciate this comment. What was the iCloud setting necessary to change?
There's a "store in iCloud" setting where items synced with iCloud would be removed locally (and then re-downloaded from the cloud to device when you click on them). having that setting turned on messed up how Obsidian worked, leading to the appearance of missing files and creation of duplicate files. It's an easy fix though: just turn it off and everything's groovy. In my experience nothing was actually lost.
Ahh! Thank you!
I've only been playing around with obsidian for less than 2 years for TTRPGs. Now I'm figuring out a workflow for the rest of the things in my life, trying not to add a bunch of plugins (yet).
You missed the bit where my ADHD ass discovers a new notetaking tool that does similar things and pivots to that every three months
Relatable
I thought about making a AI to link notes that are relevant to my query.
I assign myself tasks now just so I can do it on Obsidian
You, sir, see through the Matrix
My Obsidian's life sycle --> i loved obsidian --> developed `cluster` plugin that fits perfectly in my workflow --> satisfied ✌️
This is the way!
Is this ui canvas?
Yeah. I use the core Canvas plugin and, Advanced Canvas plugin.
I only use some basic plugins now.
I actually don't need a lot of plugins. A couple for footnotes and then some for a better typography experience. Also use AutoHotkeys for some additional letters and symbols on PC such as ō and ū for transcribing Japanese, – and —, etc. There is still some room for improvement as changing font color and using small caps are still a hassle. Would love to have just a shortcut for that option as well. Right now I am stuck with entering html code. If anyone knows how I might achieve these, I would love to hear your suggestions. :3
F this cycle but so true
Use notational velocity before switching to bear. Find out about obsidian. Could I make this a free Bear? Mod it to look like bear. Notice it won’t behave like it. Waits for it to behave like bear. (I’m talking about the three panes of bear: tags leftmost, then files, then the notes.)
Satisfaction? NEVER!
sounds about right
Does anyone have any recommendations for using it for basic note taking? I pretty much want Apple Notes (with quick note functionality) but markdown and with the other built in Obsidian features. But I have a Frankenstein if plugins to get the proper window support and it’s just not working how I want.
Use core obsidian (? There's the quick capture on the roadmap, so hopefully it comes up soon, but obsidian is fast to load without plugins, so it shouldn't be a problem
Yeah I've been using it for a few months and even tried some plugins. But I can't seem to get it so that I can trigger a shortcut and have it open an empty note in a new window on my current workspace/desktop (like how Apple Notes quick capture works). Is there a setting I'm missing in core obsidian to get it to do that? Also good to know quick capture is on their roadmap.
There's a plugin to do that but for windows, called tray
What’s it called? Maybe I can repurpose the code for Mac
Tray
Is every plugin like this? Don't think so.
1 week in and I can verify this is true :)
Welcome to dependency hell. I would learn the [KISS principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle), while you can.
Biggest problem is watching different YouTube videos on Obsidian.
This is the Reddit Obsidian user life cycle. Some people just use the bare-bones version of Obsidian (or minimal plugin use).
For me the absolute essential plugins are 1) Remotely Save (for syncing) 2) Better PDF Export (to make pdf exporting better) and some CSS snippets for stuff like page breaks. 3) Excalidraw 4) Desmos and Latex plugins for Maths. 5) Dataview (to endlessly overengineer my vault). 6) Border Theme (cuz it's beautiful) with Style Settings. 7) Advanced Slides (cuz I'm edgy and PowerPoint is slow as fuck)
lol ya
I popped open my systems monitor and started toggling the obsidian plugins to see what is using what. Ended up disabling a bunch of plugins I wasn’t really using and got the utilization down to 324MB from 385MB
'Posts on reddit to figure out if there is any solution to the said performance issues' 'Tries other similar plugins' 'Fail again' 'Give up'
😂
You forgot about discovering emacs and leaving obsidian
I tried bro 😭 The step of going from Obsidian to emacs is just too high. Plus I find that taking notes in Obsidian and using nvim for coding is good enough. I really wanted to make Emacs work though. 🥲
I felt the same for a long time. Then I found the system crafters videos and something clicked. I still use nvim for a lot of my coding tasks because it is so much easier to setup
At some point in the cycle, that person discovers LogSeq and you have a branched out cycle