Process your notes#
Of the ways to retain your notes value is through processing them. Either through Tiago Forte’s progressive summarization method, or some other framework. The idea is to extract gems from that piece of content and give your future self less headaches as the volume of notes you take increases.
The random notes core plugin is a great tool to find unprocessed notes too! (Or community plugins—I recommend the Advanced Random Note plugin).
The summary property#
I don’t use the properties view as I prefer to edit a file’s frontmatter in source mode (using a hotkey to switch between live preview and source mode).
But the idea remains, having a “summary” frontmatter in the note allows you to query it using Dataview giving you a “at a glance” look and not have to reread it.
Really handy when it comes to articles or research papers. You can condense the main points of the study or article as a one-liner (or multiple lines) in the note’s frontmatter. (Credits: Marley)
Random note Fridays#
A weekly review essentially. Take a few minutes, 15-30 maybe, to sieve through random unprocessed notes.
Use the graph view (to find orphans)#
The graph view is one of those useless-not-so-useless feature of obsidian (which new users are intrigued by). Fortunately, I came across an interesting way to make the graph view more relevant. (credits: Vicky Zhao) I see this as a great way to process consumed content, seeing how a piece of writing, paper, article, story, or thought relates to other items in your knowledge base.
Hit publish#
Show your work, even if no one reads it. You’re building a digital space where growth flourishes and insights emerge. So hit publish! Newsletters, a personal blog, in-person events, the dead blue bird reincarnate, YouTube comments, I don’t know… something.
Blog post inspired by Dann Berg.