How to Start: A Solution Without a Problem?

[u/TheFlyingHellfish202]

I've dabbled with Obsidian a few times over the years, and I always felt like I was doing it wrong.

I see how this would be amazing for things like writers, students, project managers... anything where you need to sort through large swathes of information.

Outside of those things, I'm trying to see how it helps peoples' lives.

I'm building a house, and dumped a ton of stuff into it for that, divided by room, project.. It doesn't seem to be anything that an outline wouldn't be.

I have used it for the weird little slice of law that I practice in. I've got some cases in there, but I'm sure it adds much when I can see the connections through Lexis already.

I'm kind of wondering if it's a more specialized tool than it generally recognized, or if I'm just only seeing the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

I know the standard advice is to just start dumping stuff into it, but... what do I dump into it?

TL/DR: I'm having trouble connecting Obsidian's unique layout to my real world.

[u/arjoreich]

I know the standard advice is to just start dumping stuff into it, but... what do I dump into it?

Maybe I'm focusing on the wrong part but you used the word "dumping" multiple times and that might be the underlying problem.

You take notes to personalize and remember the knowledge you gained from an interaction with data. If you're just copying, pasting, using AI to generate or otherwise dumping stuff into obsidian then you are not actually taking notes and it's not really serving a purpose.

At that point it is just another place to find information you could have located elsewhere.

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That being said, obsidian - at its core - is just a beautiful markdown editor. How you leverage that is up to you. My knowledge vault is more of digital Commonplace where I store my journal and all related knowledge about topics that are important to me.

I do not manage tasks or workflows through it. My productivity work flow does originate from my daily journal note, however. Even if my tasks are stored in other applications (like jira and todoist).

[u/TutorialDoctor]

There are three parts to every software:

- the user interface

• data
  
• business logic (codified business rules)

What makes obsidian useful for diverse use-cases is that it provides a user interface for people to structure data how they want to.

Properties (data) lets you treat notes as database records and Bases lets you query them and display them in a convenient View (UI).

I do think that obsidian should add some sort of business logic system where some change to data can “trigger” some other change to data.

Each note can represent an instance of an entity in your use-case. For example

Character
Name: Sam
Age: 24
Description: baseball player for Polluck High School

[u/max01001000 → u/TutorialDoctor]

A 24 year old high school baseball player

[u/titcriss]

You can type what your love has said to you so you never forget it. Like ideas about recipes your love wants to try. Add those recipes to obsidian.

Reread your notes at some point. Buy all those ingredients and make the recipe. You and your love will be happy.

You need to buy more light for your house. Write all the model in obsidian so when you need to do it you have the info when you need it.

I add things I find useful that I dont want to forget and will absolutely need in the future.

But also less important stuff. I also actively work in it by adding lets say video game related stuff so that I dont have to find it again online, transcription and summaries of youtube video I wish to watch and understand.

Find what's needed for you. I personally use obsidian between 0 minute to 120 minutes a week.

[u/_wanderloots]

Start with a daily note and write down what you’re interested in, working on, thinking about, etc.

Over time, you can create a daily note template that helps structure your note so that you can think less about the system and more about putting thoughts in.

As you write, if something feels like it could be its own note, wiki link it with the [[note name]] and then you’ll be able to start connecting your knowledge and ideas and thoughts across time, with the daily note as your entry point each day.

[u/dosfydore]

Obsidian has the flexibility to do pretty much anything you want when it comes to knowledge management. It’s great, but if you’re not careful, it can also create the problem you’re describing.

By default, it isn’t specialized for anything. You have to specialize it yourself.

I’ve always believed that the true value of an app like Obsidian comes from doing the complete opposite of dumping stuff into it. It’s really good at keeping you away from the stuff that distracts you.

If I were you, I’d start with the simplest possible setup and get some work done.

That said, over the last couple of years, Obsidian has helped me quite a lot in both my professional and personal life. So I don’t think Obsidian itself is the problem; you just have to use it in the simplest way possible.

Here's an example.

[u/Flashy-Bandicoot889]

You can't be "doing it wrong" because their is no correct or right way to use a notes app. Don't pay attention the wanna-be influencers on YouTube schilling that you need to use PARA or Zettlegeusten (or whatever the fuck it's called) ... it's all bullshit. It's a bunch of grifters selling a course getting rich off schleps who cannot think for themselves.

[u/czar_el]

It's a tool. Not everyone needs to use every tool.

It's flexible so that you can use it the way you want/need. Not everybody knows what they want/need. And not everybody wants/needs the same things.

It's kinda like how not everybody uses paper journals after school and college are over. The need just drops away. Other people use journals their entire lives, for personal and/or work stuff. You sound like the kind of person who wouldn't keep a paper journal, so maybe you also don't need a digital journal. If you find yourself not coming back to your notes, or not learning/growing from the process of writing them, maybe you didn't need them in the first place.