New user. I’ve been treating annotations in pdfs as, in effect, “fleeting notes.” Works fine. Won’t be possible when I’m reading books or other printed material.
Interested in hearing about ways folks use Obsidian to collect and store fleeting notes for later review, editing, and conversion to permanent notes.
I do it in two steps: first, marginal notes on the printed page: then, after finishing an article or chapter or book or whatever, I copy whatever of those notes are still valuable onto a lit note in Obsidian. (After that, I go thru my lit note and create atomic notes from it.( This creates extra work, and means I don’t always find time to make notes on everything I need. But most of my initial thoughts on a text are pretty lame anyway so that filtering process is valuable for me. Also, I prefer to read and think away from a screen whenever possible, for many reasons (I have kids and want to set an example as an adult who isn’t tied to his phone all the time; I think slowly and more carefully on paper; I’m on a computer at work all day and it hurts my eyes; etc.).
If your computer hurts your eyes, consider reducing the screen brightness (it’s not the only thing that can cause that, but it’s a common one).
Thanks. I’m a single retired guy, so I don’t have to set a good example for my kids. But my little dog does not approve of my phone obsession.
I agree that writing forces thinking. Margin notes are often off the mark, or a least not clearly on it. Reading pdfs in PDF Extra allow me to edit them. Often they need further editing before conversion to permanent notes.
I’ve quit writing in books, though I do allow myself to make a dot with a pencil to remind me of interesting spots. I think I’ll write tentative notes while reading in books in Obsidian on my phone, perhaps dumping them into a designated folder for editing later. But I’d like the process of getting them into my vault after editing to be as simple and easy as possible.
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