Way to quick add notes?

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17

Just wanted to share that I meanwhile changed my workflow for taking quick notes whenever I am working outside of obsidian.

I gave up the QOwnNotes solution as 1. it actually makes no sense having a running application minimised to your system tray all the time eating RAM despite only being used a couple of times a day (if at all…) just for typing down a spontaneous thought and 2. it tended to crash regularly.

My current - really lightweight - solution is to use vim.

This is my workflow (on Linux):

  1. create an alias in your .bashrc by adding the following line:
    alias nn='vim ~/path/to/your/vault/quicknotes/$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S).md';
  2. Whenever you have an idea you quickly want to write down with as little distraction as possible from what you were doing at the moment, open a terminal with your favorite specified shortcut, type “nn” and press Enter;
  3. Write down your quick note using markdown syntax, add some #tags if you want and save/quit with :wq (which is the default vim shortcut).

Detailed explanation for anyone not so familiar with the above-mentioned commands:

The first step defines a short command (I chose “nn” for “new note” but you can choose whatever you like as long as it doesn’t collide with an actually existing terminal command) which, when typed into the terminal, will automatically be replaced by its alias. The complete command (‘vim ~/path/to/your/vault/quicknotes/$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S).md’) tells the terminal to start vim and immeditaly create a new markdown file with a date-time based unique zettelkasten id file name. The file is placed directly in your vault (I established a subfolder “quicknotes” in my vault so that I can easily find my quick notes later on in obsidian, edit them, make links to other notes if necessary and finally move them to my actual zettelkasten folder).
Vim is really doing a good job with writing markdown syntax!

One more thing: Vim starts, by default, in “normal mode” which means you can’t type any text. By pressing “i” vim changes to “insert mode” which is what you need to write down a note. In order to just being able to start typing after you opened your terminal, add the following line to your .vimrc:
au BufRead,BufNewFile * startinsert
This will make vim start in insert mode whenever you open a new file.

Both the .bashrc and the .vimrc files live in your home directory. If they don’t, just create them (don’t forget the dot in the filename!).

So, this is a really really fast and lightweight mode to quickly write down any spontaneous thought, have it saved in your obsidian vault and postponing any editing stuff (which would distract you from what you are doing at the moment) to any later point in time.

Edit: An even more time-saving way would be to create a new terminal profile (name it “quicknote” or whatever you like) and, instead of defining an alias in your .bashrc, tell your new profile to immediately execute the command 'vim ~/path/to/your/vault/quicknotes/$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S).md'as soon as it starts. Then define a global keyboard shortcut for opening your new profile. In my case, however, my terminal always crashes with a segfault whenever I try this - I spent some hours of searching but couldn’t figure out the reason for this… :frowning_face: If anyone has any idea what could cause this issue, I would be happy to hear about it!

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18

After posting this question and getting so much feedback, I should have come back and posted what I ended up doing – which is basically this.

I set up a bash function and an alias, one for very short notes and one for slightly longer notes:

For shorter notes, I use the function, with my note as a string argument. I’ve set it to append a single long running file instead of creating a new file, because I like reviewing all my notes in one place before organizing them.

function n() {
   now=$(date +"%m/%d/%y, %H:%M") && echo -e "##" $now "
      "$@ >> /Users/path/file.md;
}

For longer notes, I do basically the same as yours, but with the same single file as above.

alias nv='now=$(date +"%m/%d/%y, %H:%M") && echo -e "
""##" $now "
" >> /Users/path/file.md'

I also have a keyboard shortcut set to open terminal – so whenever I want to jot a quick note I just ⌘⌃T and type n "note to save".

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19

  1. What about an icon for quick entries in the menu bar (macOS), throwing ideas into a chaos box/desktop folder in Obsidian without the need to open obsidian and disrupt my workflow?

  2. Isnt it possible to create an extension in macOS system preferences, allowing access to obsidian/desktop folder from other (markdown quick entry) apps?

I am not a developer and not native english, just a simple user. Sorry, if this question is already answered somewhere. But the mass of ideas and informations are too challanging for me to sort out a solution that works.

Kind regards and many thanks, if somone might answer my question in a “simple“ way.

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20

Hi ShaneNZ, I can’t express my gratitude to you in words. What a wonderful alfred workflow. Thank you so much…

21

Hi Augie, would you mind sharing some of your alfred workflow for getting the most out of obsidian? I have been using Alfred for a while, but never ventured much beyond the basics…Would love to learn from an experienced Alfred user

22

You’re most welcome :slightly_smiling_face: I suggest you also take a look at the thread Alfred - Obsidian Utilities - there’s a much more developed and capable set of Alfred utilities in there, which is what I’m using these days.

23

I made an autohotkey script for myself. It’s incredibly hacky and depends on my situation (and theme that I use), but maybe someone else finds it inspiring or useful:

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24

Thanks ShaneNZ for the pointer. I chanced upon it and bookmarked it for later reading and further hacking. Limiting my time on hacking the system so that I could actually get some real work done using Obsidian. For now, your script has been very useful

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25

You’re wiser than I :slight_smile: My first month on Obsidian was all hack, no work

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26

You can start vim in insert mode with vim File +star

27

I use nvAlt on Mac to quickly create and edit notes right into my Vault. nvAlt is now getting replaced by nvUltra. Both feature super fast searching and note creating. I don’t think the links work exactly the same, so i stick to basic MD.

28

This is awesome! Thanks so much!

29

For those who uses Windows can suggest to try qNote - my AHK script

30

I just learned about mem.ai, which is another note app based on links. At least for Mac users, it includes a Spotlight-equivalent, where you press ⇧⌘+Space, and a pop-up appears for either searching old notes, or writing a new one.

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This is pretty much precisely the functionality I was looking for when I started this thread.

Unlike Obsidian, it keeps all your writing internally, so you can’t access your notes except through the app. For that reason, I’m probably staying with Obsidian, but it would be super super cool to see this functionality added on!

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31

Have you looked into the Alfred workflows that exist? They might provide what you’re looking for.

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32

I’m not an Alfred user yet, so only at a distance. Probably the way to go.

33

Thanks so much. Exactly what I was looking for :+1:

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34

With respect to those who advocate for Alfred, I’d still vastly prefer a more Obsidian-specific solution.

Mem’s spotlight opens a popup, preloading any selected text into it, and giving the user the choice of saving the text to a new note, appending to an existing note, or creating a new blank note. If nothing is selected, the current webpage in your browser is saved as a link with a thumbnail snapshot of the screen.

The popup also allows one to quickly search all of one’s notes, allowing not only fast storage of new information but also fast access of existing information.

It’s an absolutely brilliant tool to make adding stuff to mem.ai frictionless.

I’m not sure it makes sense to have many Obsidian users (re)invent this kind of functionality with Alfred or whatever.

And I think it’d be a huge selling point for those who cannot or just don’t want to learn how to write an Alfred workflow.

35

This sounds like it would be a good #feature-requests for expanding the functionality of the existing quick switcher — or a plugin to offer a more powerful alternative. I suggest opening an FR for it.

The trick is, I don’t know if Obsidian can create a system-wide keyboard shortcut. It looks like there is some precedent for it in Electron, however:

36

There’s an existing feature request along these lines. I’ll add a reply there instead of starting a new one.

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