Finding the right tags for different ideas for an obsidian thinking box

Hi,

I’ve been working to setup obsidian to be a more effective thinking box. In the ideal state this means that I can go into a ‘thinking obsidian workspace’ and continue building off my previous ideas and thoughts.

One of the key requirements for the system is to have a handy list of previous, typically recent, thoughts and half-baked ideas to continue thinking from.

To achieve this, I’ve settled on a workflow of writing any idea or thought anywhere in my vault as a task tagged with the type of thought, typically a question, idea, thought, etc. I then use the task plugin queries to setup a query in my ‘Thought Kickoff’ file to pick from here.

However, I’ve been struggling to find the right tags and structure for these different types of thoughts. I’ve spent several hours debating and trying out different tags for different types of thoughts that I’m tracking. I’ve got the following:

  • #open-question : An idea/thought that’s an open question
  • #idea : Sounds obvious, an idea
  • #thought : Unclear what’s the difference between a thought and an idea is, I found that I used most of these interchangeably
  • #belief : Got this from Jerry’s Brain. I’m using this more like a personal thought as opposed to someone else’s thought. It gets tricky however when it’s someone else’s thought that I also agree with

The only one that I feel most comfortable about is the #open-question tag. These are easily to classify and also help me build lists of always open questions that flow nicely into the concept that Tiago Forte talks about here.

As for the others, I’m wondering if there’s a better way to distinguish between these concepts. Are there any best practices or recommendations you’d like to share for classifying and categorizing thoughts?

I’d also be interested to hear any systems or workflows that encourages deep exploration and ongoing reflection on specific topics. Workflows that promote constructive thinking about a topic over time, creating an integrated thinking environment, or “thinking in a box.”

Thanks,

Mike

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