#1

Hello!

Before asking a question I watch 4-5 videos on Youtube. I also read topics in the Showcase section of the forum. But I can’t find documentation from developers.

I’m still don’t understand, how right to use Obsidian. But it’s very interesting for me, and please help me understand some things:

Real-Life Example. I’m now learning how to play chess. I get 1 lesson per day in the next 7 days. Here are examples of lessons:

  • Lesson 1. How to put chess pieces on the chessboard.
  • Lesson 2. How chess pieces move.
  • Lesson 3. How to checkmate with two rooks.

For better understanding, I want to take short notes from learned lessons. Please, tell me. In this case, I just should create 3 different notes for each lesson. And link every 3 notes between?

Or I can just create 1 big Note, where I write all rules about chess, how to play, how to move, how to checkmate, and all other rules in one single note? What is better and can Obsidian help me in my case?

#2

It is hard to give specific advice in this situation. This is because there is no one correct way to do it and you have to find the way that works best for you. But I can offer a few suggestions to move toward a system that a lot of users have found to be useful.

First - just start taking notes. In general you want your notes to be short and about one idea. In the example you show you could do one note per lesson, or if there are multiple concepts in a lesson you could do one note per concept. Once you have some notes you will want to organize them a bit.

Second - now you want to look at each note and link it. Many folks have found that it is good practice to link each note to 3 others minimum. One that is above it in the mental flow, one at the same level and one that is below. Right now you may not have all those but in time you will. For your example here you are going to want to add some sort of Table of Content or Index page to use as a pathway to all your lesson concepts. So you will create a “Chess Lessons Index” (or whatever you want to call it) and create links to each lesson in order sort of like:
Lesson 1: [[How to Put Chess Pieces on the Board]]
Lesson 2: [[How Chess Pieces Move]]
and continuing in that fashion. If you have only one note per lesson that will give you the organization you need for this project. If you have made multiple concept notes per lesson then you’ll want to make another index note for each of the lessons you’ve linked above. So you’ll have a note titled How to Put Chess Pieces on the Board which is a sub-index that links to all the concepts you captured for that lesson.

As you continue you will notice concepts that relate to other concepts and you will want to create links between those. Obsidian will keep track of all this for you.

Hope this helps and good luck.

3 Likes
#3

Marking it as resolved, thanks for answering @greasemonkey!

If you need more advice, I would suggest posting under Knowledge Management. Thanks!

#4

@Silver no thanks needed, this is a great community. I do wonder why my VIP status is captured in Discord but not here? (Likely different user name issue?, sign-up email is the same though).

#5

Added, sorry about that!

You upgraded so early, we didn’t have the “what’s your Discord and forum handle?” fields ready back on May 24.