I know tags, properties, folders,… are meant to help with organizing and finding notes more easily. But isn’t it kind of against productivity to stop and think about the perfect tag or property for every single note?
Personally, I am considering to keep things simple, just use detailed titles and occasionally aliases. I don’t want to bother with folders, tags, properties,… anymore. Trying to figure out the best way to organize every note is slowing me down and making note-taking feel like a chore.
What do you think? Has simplifying helped your workflow or do you find that metadata actually boosts your productivity?
I use mostly titles for finding notes, because I will only open them by using the quick switcher. I don’t really use folders, besides something like templates and images.
My notes are always named “Category - Name”. So for example “UE5 - Character Controller” or “Ai - Task Generator”. No real nesting nor lots of categories, maybe 10 at max.
I also use some tags, but just for better filtering inside the Graph View. Which for me is just a way to see my notes grow, no further use case.
I tried a lot of different “systems” inside Obsidian in the past 2 years but I realized that’s all I really need.
The way you want to work is the way Obsidian is designed to work at its very core. Mind that the file management feature is just a plug-in (albeit a core plugin). So do not hesitate. Working only with clear titles and good linking can work. Anything within the notes is a keyword (or “tag” if you want) throught the powerfull and fast search.
I think whether tags, metadata and folders are “productivity killers” or not is entirely up to you, and how you feel comfortable thinking at the moment.
I use properties and links, but I don’t use tags and folders, and that’s what’s comfortable for me personally - I don’t have moments where I have to think about what property to assign to a specific thought - it just happens on its own, as if automatically, that’s how comfortable my thinking is.
If you feel that it is uncomfortable for you, and it only hinders you - just give it up, and work the way you are comfortable. I think this is the only proper approach to maintaining your system, knowledge base or whatever - base it on your own preferences rather than blindly following “accepted norms”.
I started creating my own system around 2020-2021, starting back in Notion, and in that time I’ve noticed that a decent number of people have a constantly changing approach to maintaining their systems.
First they use one thing, then another. Observing themselves and adding to their approach what they need at the moment. And take away what they don’t need. Sometimes you can see that some people follow a certain template for writing down their thoughts, and the structure of their old notes is completely different from the structure of their new notes - they led them differently.
So I think the other thing to consider here is that one’s approach to keeping a system - it’s constantly fluid, and it changes over time. So even if you feel like you’re missing something later on - just add it. And if you feel that something is hindering you - just remove it.
Don’t be guided by other people’s approaches - their approach comes from their personality, their mindset and their goals, and you are different.
Folders: I use these to organize notes by type since a note can only have one folder. I’m contemplating moving to using folders to organize notes by created date to prevent naming conflicts.
Tags: I don’t use tags. Like you said, considering all the possible tags is a time sink. I came from Org Mode where adding tags was super easy, but it was super easy to get bogged down in tagging. I’d like to try using tags, but I always find links or properties to be better fits.
Properties: I use properties for note metadata like the status of whatever the note represents. I think of notes as an abstraction of a thing. For example a meeting note is an abstraction of what occurred at the meeting. It is created in advance and is left in the “pending_meeting” state until the meeting occurs. Then, it moves to “process” state.
Links: I use links like how others might use tags. Primarily, I use them to link project notes to related information or tasks, then use Dataview to list the backlinks in the project note.
Yes, it is easy to go down the rabbit hole and get lots trying to get all of the organization bits just right.
99% of the time, I find what I want by using the Quick Switcher to find the note with title keywords or by searching within folder.
I use tags rarely
I only link when I really need to connect two or more notes together
I use properties only on datasets that have to be structured/tracked a certain way, such as tracking characters, dates, and places in my novel wip or indicating source and author in a news article.
I use folders and keywords in titles extensively. I spend very little time on organization.