[HELP] Fairly new user to Obsidian, hear me out :P

I am fairly new here, I did try it back in June, but couldn’t get it into my workflow. I used to study on iPad mostly and wanted to have ANKI for SRS.

Since, there is a script that can convert my notes to ANKI, I wanted to shift to Obsidian.

Earlier, I used to directly enter notes into ANKI, but it made me difficult to put a erspective to the facts I was learning.Then I moved to notion, which had a script too for converting my notes to ANKI but it was a hassle needing to download my pages and uploading to a website that did the conversion. There was always a change of missing a page or two. Pro was to have notes synced everywhere, irrespective of where I study.

I need to weave the things together to prepare for my exams. I liked the idea of atomic and small notes, but when it comes to writing answers, I have to recall everything related to a particular thing which makes me wonder if I have to write long notes or just [[ ]] every small things together? And again, how to keep notes – in QA format or hierarchical bullets or paragraphs. I am getting confused. I have already wasted a lot of time!

So here is what I wanted to ask:

  1. What is/will be your workflow for taking notes from readings and having a SRS?
  2. Suggestions for my possible workflow?
  3. Any cross platform hack? (PC, Android, IOS)
  4. Good way to make ANKI notes in Obsidian.

Pardon me to be this direct, I am really very tired of searching for ‘the’ way.

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Ok, I see that you want a flashcard system.

Workflow: Start with a template format for each reading for some frame of reference and write out your own words in a “note” for various sections of the reading.

  • Do not worry about formatting yet, just raw text as ideas or thoughts come up.
  • Breaking them up with headings for each logical section"# Heading1", “## Heading2”, “### Heading3” for each logical heading.
  • Above each heading add a “—”: In the core plugins there is “Slides” you can break-up notes with “—” and it will constrain each slide to between them.
  • You may want these rather short.

You can always make a note to contain these various notes and imbed them with ![[FileName.md#Heading1]] You will need the “Files and Links” set to “Use Wikilinks” for section references to work rather than an entire note like with markdown “![Note Name](FileName.md)” but block references can be made with “^”.

The help file with all the options listed may be necessary to get the functionality you want between Wiki / Markdown / Zettel methods.

I tend to add tags like “Hub” for a collection of links in a given note. You could make something similar tagged as “ANKI”.

You can still lean on most forms of text editors.

My best shot at it for now.

Not sure if you’re still searching for a method, but you could check out my Obsidian_to_Anki community plugin!

I am already using the plugin :slight_smile:
I am the one raising all kinds of issues and requests on github.

(Remember the name, dummifiedme! ) :stuck_out_tongue:

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Oh lol nice. Maybe this could be moved to resolved help then?

Yes, I just dont know how to do it :stuck_out_tongue: Searching for it since I typed that reply.

Hi there - I’m also a student studying a course that requires me to both 1) memorise lil factoids (which, as you know already, anki is very good for) and 2) understand complicated concepts.

At this stage I find it very fiddly to make ankis straight out of obsidian - and making ankis takes an inordinately long time for me anyway. The fact that Anki flashcards store information in a disjointed way neither benefits my thought process nor makes it easy for me to retrieve the information later on. However, the concept of SRS is very useful, and I think I’ve found the sweet spot in the middle for my use case.

An overview of my workflow: I use anki to remind me (at SRS intervals) to go over my previous notes - the front of the card shows the note title, and the back of the card (optional) shows the questions that test the most important concepts in that note. So when I am actually revising my ANKI deck, I just go to obsidian and search for the note using cmd + O (which is still quite fast on the computer). I bulk import the names of new notes as cards into anki at the end of every week.

Importing filenames as anki flashcards:
I use a Mac - I’m not sure if PCs have this workaround. But basically:

  1. I go to my vault folder in the finder, which has all my notes.
  2. I hit cmd + a to select all my notes, and then i hit copy.
  3. I open textedit, and then i hit paste.
  4. this pastes all their filenames as filename.md into the list.
  5. I then open excel, and copy this list into it. Make sure that each filename has its own row.
  6. I export this as a CSV file, and voila, you can easily add this to your anki deck.

When I make new notes, they go in a separate folder in my vault. At the end of the week, I repeat the above steps on that folder, and add the filenames to my anki deck. This ensures that all my notes remain ‘in circulation’, and that once I make a note, I’ll see it again eventually.

My vault only has one folder (the new notes folder). I use tags, the graph system, and a few well placed ‘index’ notes to organise everything. It’s working fine for me so far, and makes it easier for me to keep track of what needs to be added to the deck at the end of the week.

I’m tempted to actually show you a real example of how i use obsidian and anki together, but I don’t want to make this post more unwieldy than it already is. I hope you find this helpful!

I think it can be even easier than how you are doing it. I already thought of it, didn’t implement it yet.

So, the Obsidian to ANKI script can add path to the file right there in a field of the card. You just have to find a right regex to identify the title of the file, thats it. Just send the card from Obsidian whenever it has a certain pattern like

# Title
#SRS

Content

Here 

and here

So, the plugin will autometically attach the link to this note and you can jut cluck the link to open the page in obsidian.

!!! Ooooo I’m going to try this out!! Thanks!