# How to structure notes to better align with Obsidian?

**URL:** <https://forum.obsidian.md/t/how-to-structure-notes-to-better-align-with-obsidian/585>\
**Category:** Knowledge management\
**Created:** [May 27, 2020, 6:16am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/how-to-structure-notes-to-better-align-with-obsidian/585 "2020-05-27T06:16:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nein3m](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/bbce88/32.png) [@nein3m](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/nein3m)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 6:16am UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/how-to-structure-notes-to-better-align-with-obsidian/585/1 "2020-05-27T06:16:51Z")

</div>

How should we take notes with Obsidian? Here are some patterns I’ve thought of, but not sure if I should structure my notes like this.

- a few big files with lots of headings
- a few big files with lots of bullets, but few headings
- lots of tiny files with only 1 heading, per file
- every topic in its own folder
- everything top level, no folders
- what should I do with tags?

I’m trying to figure out the idiomatic Obsidian way to do things. I’d love to know how other people structure things.

I’m a programmer and want to keep notes on books I’m reading, side projects ideas, code snippets, todos.

Helpful discussions

- [Tags vs page/link](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/tags-vs-page-link/193/7)
- [Quote Notes: How to label, an exploration - 40 notes downloadable](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/quote-notes-how-to-label-an-exploration-40-notes-downloadable/543)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nickmilo](https://forum.obsidian.md/user_avatar/forum.obsidian.md/nickmilo/32/50620_2.png) [@nickmilo](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/nickmilo)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 5:07pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/how-to-structure-notes-to-better-align-with-obsidian/585/2 "2020-05-27T17:07:28Z")

</div>

Obviously, everyone has their own opinion, but this is important: **Obsidian is non-opinionated**.

That means you do whatever you want. Obsidian just allows you to do it.

That said, my rule of thumb is: one note = one page or less\*

\*Just like the English language, there are about a million exceptions to this rule

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PhDResearch](https://forum.obsidian.md/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/b3f665/32.png) [@PhDResearch](https://forum.obsidian.md/u/PhDResearch)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 2:44pm UTC](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/how-to-structure-notes-to-better-align-with-obsidian/585/3 "2020-06-05T14:44:58Z")

</div>

This is what’s been working for me thus far:

> [@Tags vs page/link](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/tags-vs-page-link/193/2):
>
> My purposes might be different than yours, but for me it’s very clear. I do research in the humanities that requires interdisciplinary methods. So tags are concepts or ideas that are typically referenced (implicitly or explicitly) by a wide range of scholars across varying disciplines. Links, on the other hand, are for the argument of a particular theorist/scholar. Notes/pages/links are typically an article, chapter, or book of a particular theorist/scholar. Or it can be an edited volume whe…

But this video is making me rethink a few things:

[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/XUltI4v_UU4/maxresdefault.jpg "Organize Your Knowledge with Zettelkasten") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUltI4v_UU4)

EDIT = (in ref to the video above) but I’ll be honest, I’m also in the humanities and in my subfield, scholars are citing others out of context. I think it’s somewhat accepted, but personally I find this unethical and just intellectual appropriation. So while I see the efficiency of atomized notes, I don’t think I can get myself to do that. So I’ll probably keep my current method.