> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://blog.warrenweb.net/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Notes and Maps - URL: https://blog.warrenweb.net/notes-and-maps/ - Published: 2024-07-31T21:15:52.000Z - Updated: 2025-06-28T21:30:04.000Z - Description: Use maps for Obsidian notes to collect, cluster, and organize linked content for apps, efforts, and outputs. - Author: Doug Warren - Tags: PKM, Workflow ## Notes As I focus my thinking on my notes about the *Reader* app and associated [Read Workflow](https://blog.warrenweb.net/read-workflow) with [Arc Browser](https://blog.warrenweb.net/arc-browser) and [Obsidian](https://blog.warrenweb.net/obsidian), it's important to explore the types of notes that I'm creating and how they are linked to related notes. ## Maps Although I have notes about apps, it's also extremely valuable to have mapping notes, or maps of content (MOC). I prefer to call these simply *maps*, since I use them to map what I want to do with a group of notes on a topic. They provide a workbench for me to collect, cluster, organize, and refactor related notes, and also provide a framework for sparks, thoughts, questions, actions, and freewriting about the topic. Like notes, there are several types of maps. ## App Note Obviously, I have an *app note* for *Reader* that represent the application *Readwise Reader*, which is my main *topic* that has associated efforts and related outputs. This note includes all the content I want to publish about *Reader*. However, that's too much information to be contained in a single note so it will actually consist of a cluster of linked notes on this topic. The app note will provide a *landing page* for that app with relevant structure and links to all my notes about *Reader*. Other notes might include a link to this *Reader* app note when mentioning or discussing Reader, such as using a workflow with `[[Reader]]` in a *Read* space of `[[Arc Browser]]`. It makes sense to title app notes with just the app name to simplify such references without having to provide an alias every time I mention an app. ## App Map I want to separate the content that I'm writing on a certain topic such as Reader from all my thinking and linking about the "what, why, and how" about the topic. So I have an associated map for a cluster of notes on a specific topic. So this would be *Reader Map* as an *app map* that's related to the corresponding *Reader* app note. ## Templates To ensure consistency with the scaffolding for these relationships in my linked notes, I use templates to create a new topic such as the *Reader* app. With simple prompts, it generates appropriate properties, navigation, title, headings, structure, and related linked notes. For example, every topic has an associated topic map like *Reader Map*. ## Actions I prefer to use the term *action* rather than *task* or *to-do* to describe something that I want to get done in some area. Often these are combined as action groups for a group of related actions, and I use nested lists to outline these with tags and fields as associated metadata that I can use for views with Dataview queries. ## Effort Note Likewise, I prefer to use the term *effort* as an umbrella container for a set of related actions in a certain area. Some of these might be considered a *project* in the traditional sense, if they have a definite outcome with a completion date. However, efforts can be less defined and others might be even broader than projects. Sometimes, it can be useful to create a specific *effort note* that's similar to an app note for an application, with everything about that specific effort. For example, currently, I have started efforts about the Reader app and associated Read Workflow that will publish multiple outputs over time. ## Effort Map It's common to have one or more efforts for a topic that focus associated actions for what I want to do in that area. For example, I might have a *Reader Effort* that would be an *effort map* that would be my compass to guide my activities about my *Reader* content that I create, think, link, and share in outputs as notes, posts, pages, newsletter, or social media messages. ## Output Note It helps to identify the outputs for each effort, so an *output note* provides a way to think and link about what I want to share. These will evolve as notes in Obsidian, and eventually be distributed as pages, posts, or newsletters on my Ghost website. For example, a recent post included an output about [Publishing WarrenWeb Notes](https://blog.warrenweb.net/publishing-warrenweb-notes). ## Output Map To help me plan, outline, and organize my content for these *output notes*, it also helps to have corresponding *output maps*. For example, I have an output map about the *Reader* pages that I'm creating for my Ghost website. This helps me write my content using the consistent writing process that I learned in the [Writing Original Works](https://blog.warrenweb.net/writing-original-works-course-launch) workshop (and course). ## Hub Map When linking my notes for a cluster of related notes on a specific topic like *Reader*, it helps to have intermediate maps that help to group sections of related pages together and simplify navigation on a website with linked pages. So I find it helpful to have *hub maps* between *main maps* and *topic maps* and all the related topic notes. It's desirable to create pages in bite-size reusable "chunks" to allow content reuse in various contexts. The combination addresses both needs quite nicely. ## Workspace As I develop my linked *notes* and *maps* in *efforts* about *apps* that share specific *outputs* on my Obsidian Publish and Ghost sites, I find it helpful to use Obsidian workspaces with multiple split-view panes where I can *pin the map* while *nurturing the notes* and publish my *outputs*. ## WarrenWeb Notes Currently, I'm working on these notes in my main Ideaverse vault, but I have started moving content to my WarrenWeb vault that is available to *Plus* subscribers. Eventually, these notes in my digital garden will evolve into pages and posts for my Ghost website and newsletter. Please subscribe to see what I'm thinking, linking, and sharing now.