Hi, I'm New Here
Hello,
I am a new member to the community.
I am someone in school learning to become a pharmacy tech and also am learning to make my own game, specifically a Touhou fangame. I want to learn to better process and understand information so I was drawn here by the work of Al Khan who is someone who helps other learn better.
He brought here with a link on atomic note taking. I have read the article on atomic note taking and will now read the article on the Zettekasten system.
I am a Windows user and have Obsidian, so does anybody have any tips or videos they could link me to to that will help me set up Obsidian to be Zettekasten friendly? Or is the base app already so?
JMJ,
Starwarp
Howdy, Stranger!
Comments
@Starwarp
Haha! Love your moniker
Welcome to the Zettelkasten forum! And I hope you find a comfortable place here, to learn about the ZK world.
Obsidian is pretty much set up, out of the box, to create a ZK. Its main problem is that it has way too many features and way too many distractions enticing you to add even more features to the app. You don't need most of that to create a ZK; you just need a way to create and link notes, and add tags and (possibly) references.
A much simpler app could meet your needs, but so too could Obsidian - just don't get distracted by all its bells and whistles. Other free apps that work well in Windows and could also do the job are Logseq and Zettlr. I've used both and found them quite capable.
Personally, I work on a Mac, so there are a couple of other options in that computer space. The Archive is a really good one and there is also NotePlan. I really like (and use) both of them. In fact, NotePlan has a web version that works on any platform. The cost for The Archive is nominal (small, one-time cost) whereas NotePlan is subscription-based.
Anyway, best of luck in your ZK journey. There are lots of good resources on this web site, which I encourage you to read, and then of course, ask questions if you get stuck!
Hey welcome. I'd recommend you start with zettler instead of obsidian because it's just plug and play, instead of as you say having to work around a plugin ecosystem or settings.
The getting started portion as you mention is great to get to know the system.
The base app is all you need for the Zettelkasten Method. You just need:
Obsidian offers way more than that.
I am a Zettler
Hi and welcome,
I've been using Obsidian for about 3 years for my Zettelkasten. What the others have said is true... keep it simple.
However, there is one option that you might want to switch on. In the Zettelkasten method, we generally choose a way to add a unique id to each note. A datetime stamp is a popular way to do that.
In settings, under 'Core plugins' (which come pre-installed), scrolling down a bit will show you the 'Unique note creator' for "workflows like zettelkasten or slipbox".
Enabling this gives you the option to automatically add a datetime stamp to file names. You could then assign a hotkey to that too if you wanted.
There are some videos on YouTube, and you might get some ideas from them, but in the end everyone develops their own style. You could start with the YouTuber Morganeua who has done some good Zettelkasten stuff before.