Making Notes
Linked notes are the building blocks of knowledge for organizing and developing ideas in PKM systems.
Note design
When designing a PKM system with linked notes, it's helpful to think about the anatomy of a note, different types of notes, and how they relate to each other.
Structure
Obsidian notes are plain text Markdown (.md ) files with a name, metadata, and content. These notes evolve over time, increasing in value as they're developed and connected with other ideas.
An initial YAML front matter section between triple-dashes contains structured configuration and metadata properties. This is followed by note content with a title, text, links, list items, metadata fields, tags, and images organized into section headings and lists.
Types
Different types of notes in my PKM system have specific metadata properties and content structure. I distinguish between major categories of notes and maps based on their overall role and purpose.
Notes
Notes contain thoughts that focus on a single ("atomic") idea, concept, topic, or output as reusable building blocks of knowledge. There are different sizes of notes: small, short, or simple; large, long, or complex; or anywhere in between ("medium").
Language
These note types are similar to parts of speech in [[Notes - Language|language]]. They might represent a thing (noun) or statement (sentence or phrase). Using a descriptive qualifier (adjective) for notes provides more clarity and structure for both organization and workflow.
Templates
Each note has an associated template that defines its structure and metadata properties to all notes of a certain type.
- Source notes: Information from sources like articles, books, or courses
- Idea notes: Atomic notes focused on a single idea or concept
- Periodic notes: Capture thoughts, journal reflections, log experiences, review and plan by time period
- Output notes: Knowledge to publish and share as digital garden notes or website posts and pages.
Metadata properties
It's important to add associated meaning and context in metadata or surrounding text so that note link relationships have meaning beyond just a file connection.
The questions of "what, why, and how" are so critical to add thinking to your linking. This is one of the areas where maps can be very effective to provide structure and context for a cluster of related linked notes.
Metadata provides data attributes about a note for organization, categorization, and views.
- Properties: Structured metadata in YAML front matter (single-colon) such as up, related, created, and publish.
- Fields: Inline metadata field-value pairs (double-colon) on text blocks or list items.
- Tags: Categorize notes for easier selection, filtering, and sorting with Dataview queries (property or inline hashtag).
- Unique ID: Assigned by Advanced URI plugin for a stable ID reference regardless of name or folder changes.
- Aliases: Alternative names for notes to improve finding them.
Recommendations
These are some suggestions based on best practices and experience.
- Consistent naming: Use a clear naming convention for notes
- Atomic notes: Focus notes on single ideas for modularity and reuse
- Link liberally: Create connections between related concepts and ideas
- Use maps: Create map notes to organize complex topics
- Evolve gradually: Let your system grow organically over time
- Regular reviews: Periodically review and refine your notes and PKM system