Newbie from OneNote totally overwhelmed

[noat]

Background

I’ve been using OneNote for my notes since around 2012. Nothing is linked, I have a ton of Sections, Section Groups, Pages, etc for all areas of my work and personal life. I am an IT consultant and use OneNote for research, learning new tech, meeting minutes, sketching out ideas, etc.

I also use it for my hobbies, books I’ve read, travel plans, diary, recipes, health, etc.

I want to try using Obsidian, but the task seems pretty daunting. I tried the importer, but it failed to work. I also tried using Pandoc to convert to .md, and it kind of worked, but all my notes will need some work to reformat them. Anyway, this isn’t the main reason for my post. I will figure that out. The real problem is how to organise my new vault.

Nike Milo’s ACE

I got attracted to Nick Milo’s ACE, and it feels kind of culty to me, but I like the ideas. I thought maybe I would try this out but I don’t like having a ton of plugins, because to me that removes the future-proof of the notes, I want something simple that works. Maybe I just build my own vault that resembles the ACE structure without all the fancy plugins? The Ideaverse Pro looked like a good idea until I saw the price. I’m not willing to spend that.

Forte’s PARA

I haven’t read How to Build a Second Brain yet, but have it on order to read. Maybe I should structure my vault like that? I dunno. I don’t want to spend all my time futzing around in the vault when I just want to be productive at work and take good notes that are linked together in a coherent system that will work for my work life and home life.

Other ways?

I’m sure there are other structures out there I haven’t discovered yet, but I’m trying to avoid going all-in to one system, only to find it doesn’t work and then redoing it so now I’m feeling a bit paralysed by the whole thing.

I’m looking for a way to start taking notes, in fact I have already begun doing that in an unstructured way, but I want to get a system in place ASAP before my current notes end up in a mess without going down a rabbit hole of procrastination.

Any advice?

[hamsterslayr]

@noat

Nike Milo’s ACE

I got attracted to Nick Milo’s ACE, and it feels kind of culty to me, but I like the ideas. I thought maybe I would try this out but I don’t like having a ton of plugins, because to me that removes the future-proof of the notes, I want something simple that works. Maybe I just build my own vault that resembles the ACE structure without all the fancy plugins? The Ideaverse Pro looked like a good idea until I saw the price. I’m not willing to spend that

That’s sorta what I did. I also moved from OneNote but I don’t think my notebook was as extensive as yours, so I did a lot of it manually.

I too wanted to keep the plugin list slim for future proofing. This has been aided slightly in that I don’t manage tasks in Obsidian^[1]. I do use plugins but my intention is that they don’t leave much of a permanent footprint in my notes, but they do help me get from A to B or collate things. My current in-use list is in order of actually useful to nice to have:

1. Templater
2. Dataview
3. Paste image rename
4. Automatic Table of Contents
5. QuickAdd
6. Lazy Plugin Loader
7. Smart Typography
8. Style Settings
9. Soundscapes

Two that I have installed, but only switch on for use when needed:

• Excel to Markdown Table
• Tag Wrangler

Dunno if that helps. The best advice is to start small and let your vault evolve into a structure you need. I would start with a little thought though into overall structure, and that’s where I borrowed from ACE. I also didn’t want a deep folder system.

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1. I have chronic pendulumitis between analog and digital. At the moment the pendulum has swung to task management using pen and paper. ↩︎

[Naranya]

Folder structure isn’t terribly important in Obsidian. Many people don’t use any, relying on links, tags and properties coupled with Dataview for structure. I’d recommend one for attachments in any case. Outside of that, take inspiration from the systems you reviewed to the extent that they fit your needs, but also add whatever isn’t there but you see as a section that you’d rather have in a separate folder for some reason.

As an example, most of my folders are based around the type of note, so there’s one for book notes, for articles of any kind, for knowledge notes, for recipes etc. Mostly, it’s useful to me because each of those has an associated template and it is included automatically when I create a note in that folder (Templater plugin option). Topics I connect with links, tags and properties across folders.

In case some of your OneNote notes would be better off split into smaller notes (or merged) in Obsidian, there is a core Obsidian plugin Note Composer that makes it a breeze.

Personally, I’d dump imported OneNote notes into a folder and work on my new notes. Then as I get more familiar with Obsidian by working in it, I’d gradually build a structure that works for both new and old ones.

[hamsterslayr]

I like that folder by type idea. My concern with the popular method of almost folderless notes is that I want to be able to find things in 30 years when I may not have anything as nice as Obsidian. I feel that folders will outlast Markdown links and tags. I may be slightly pessimistic though.

[noat]

Thanks, I think the feeling of being overwhelmed is I am trying to get it right straightaway. It will have to be a slow evolving process. I am new to obsidian too, so I have to learn the app, and also how to structure things at the same time which is a lot and I will have to be patient.

[Rogfrich]

I’m in a similar boat, except that I have 12 years of my life in Evernote. I’m a fan of Gall’s Law, which states (roughly) that any complex system that works is based on a simpler system that worked. I’m using that to remind myself that I don’t need to set up Obsidian with tons of complexity to start with - it’s better to make sure my notes are safely in, establish some basic structure and then allow a system to evolve naturally.

So for now I’m organising notes according to PARA and linking where I think it makes sense.

[iamiq]

I moved over from Evernote a few months ago. I wanted a simple setup too, I use four community plugins which contribute to my quality of life but I can mostly live without (Kindle highlights, Style Settings, Waypoint, file color). Although, Waypoint would be tough to do without.

I looked into multiple frameworks - PARA, ACE, Zettlekasten. However, I spent more time trying to set it all up instead of writing and connecting my thoughts.

Sp, in the end, I made a vault structure that worked for me. So far, I only had to adjust it slightly. Are there better ways? likely, if i find one that makes sense to my brain then I will consider switching.

I recommend have note templates created which you can apply to new notes based on what theme they will have (meeting, expense, journal etc).

[nehakakar]

I understand how tough it feels to move from OneNote to Obsidian. Start small with a simple setup, and your vault will slowly grow. Obsidian lets you try different things without making it too complicated.