This resonated strongly with me. I was strongly constrained by the following feeling: Before I can start with my PKM, I need to know as much as possible about Obsidian and the associated best practices as well as the zettelkasten method before…
Specifically, I was concerned with the following obstacles:
A) Usage of tags
- First question I had : use tags to group topics?!
- but: clear choice of keywords necessary
- rather: use tags to declare status of the note
- fleeting-note
- evergreen-note
- daily-note
- meeting-note
- question
- Grouping notes via MOCs
B) Metadata
- Should I include the metadata after YAML front matter?
- but then I can’t filter e.g. in the graph view…
- Instead rather have own section with metadata?
- I still don’t know how to best embed metadata in a zettelkasten…
C) Number of vaults
- A single vault containing everything (raw ideas, fleeting notes, evergreen notes, meeting notes, …)?
- Or one vault with meeting notes, literature notes, … and a separate zettelkasten?
D) Filenames
- I wanted to use unique IDs as file names to ensure secure linking of my notes.
- But unfortunately this naming is cryptic for humans, the graph view is not really usable and I can only create new text in a limited way using the bottom-up principle (like in Andy Matuschak notes).
- Currently, I use a combination of short summary + ID.
- But I still wait for Use H1 or YAML property "title" instead of or in addition to filename as display name - #71 by dywami91.
I have now switched to just going ahead and working with two vaults. In the first vault I collect my literature notes, meeting notes and all other notes. Here I have an inbox where I triage. Promising notes then go into second vault which is set up according to zettelkasten method.
However, there is still a certain ambiguity inside of me: Can’t you still improve something? How do other people approach the matter?
I’m also still inhibited by the fear that one day I have to go through all my notes and make systematic changes. But here I always try to calm down: first collect 50-100 evergreen notes and then see…