Comments

• GeoEng51

  November 4

  Good question, although I don't have an answer for you. I believe there is a discussion somewhere in the forum about different uses for tags. I use tags mostly to build up an index of what is in my Zettelkasten and sometimes to indicate future actions, with tags like "#unfinished" or "#unlinked". But there is no reason you couldn't use them in the fashion you are describing, which also includes future actions, but ones you want to take to further your learning.
• KillerWhale

  November 4 edited November 4

  Not a scientist, a fiction writer / consultant / music producer. However, that's how I'm working and one of the big reasons why Evernote worked for me and why I'm now firmly entrenched in Bear: the only system I need and use is tags (in conjunction with quick open, search and of course wikilinking). No folders – they're redundant with tags.

  The beauty of tags is that, of course, the same note can live in several places, removing a lot of decision anxiety when putting something somewhere (just put it in as many places as makes sense). Also, Bear's autocomplete makes filing something incredibly fast and efficient and removes it from view. Some notes never get developed past the initial stage, and that's okay. If relevant, they will be revisited and fleshed out.

  Here's my system:

  

  • billets and voyages are just quick access for shows, travel and relevant documentation.
  • @ is for people in my life, as well as clients, entities and people categories (to remember things about people I seldom meet but want to be able to replace)
  • à l'esprit is "on my mind" notes, like an extended pinned section
  • idées is ideas: rough ideas, sketches of things that I came up with but don't have a use for yet. Such as characters, world ideas, stories… but also gift ideas for my wife for instance
  • La Succession des Âges is just the book I'm working on right now, with its own dedicated section (and subtags such as plot, characters…)
  • p is for "projects", subdivided into areas of focus, and mapped exactly like my OmniFocus
  • prj système de notes is notes on my other currently big active project, my notes system
  • quoi is for "what": the nature of a note (structure note, how-to, reference material and so on)
  • t is for "themes", subjects tailored to my interests (things about writing technique have a lot of categories, much more than, say, architecture)
  • w is for "wishlists" – music tech keeps going forward and is costly so I track here future gear purchases

  And that allows me to file things very easily following multiple approaches. For example, a recurring writing workshop I give every year will be tagged with the corresponding project and client (p and @), allowing me to get there through any of those lenses.

  I can't emphasise that enough: the trick is not to file perfectly, it's to find the angles that work for you to find stuff again. In a way, it's a bit like one's Zettelkasten: my subtags really reflect the way I think and work and how I look for things.

  "A writer should write what he has to say and not speak it." - Ernest Hemingway

  PKM: Bear, tasks: OmniFocus, production: Scrivener / Ableton Live.
• wjenkins81

  November 5

  @KillerWhale said:
  Some notes never get developed past the initial stage, and that's okay. If relevant, they will be revisited and fleshed out.

  Now that you say it, it occurs to me that #revisit could be a good tag, as I know sometimes when I make a note that I'm not really happy with it, but I haven't put any kind of scheduled or automatic revisit/review/revise system in place.

  Here's my system:

  

  Thanks for this, I'll most likely create a similar system

  • à l'esprit is "on my mind" notes, like an extended pinned section

  This in particular sounds like a good idea. It's better than favorites I think, because you can have the benefit of it when the app doesn't provide a favorites function, which is the case with Obsidian by default.

  For example, a recurring writing workshop I give every year will be tagged with the corresponding project and client (p and @), allowing me to get there through any of those lenses.

  This is the key advantage of tags over folders. Notes can have more than one workflow tag even though files can be saved on only one directory (folder) path. I'm happy to use a folder structure in general, but being able to group things from different folders together has advantages.
• KillerWhale

  November 5

  @wjenkins81 said:

  Now that you say it, it occurs to me that #revisit could be a good tag, as I know sometimes when I make a note that I'm not really happy with it, but I haven't put any kind of scheduled or automatic revisit/review/revise system in place.

  I've done this and it didn't really work for me. I ended up with zillions of half formed notes which were "to be filled". Now I've decided that I will be filling them up just enough to move things forward and flesh them out more if I get back to them, or not at all.

  Of course, a disciplined approach (such as for an academic) would certainly yield different results!

  "A writer should write what he has to say and not speak it." - Ernest Hemingway

  PKM: Bear, tasks: OmniFocus, production: Scrivener / Ableton Live.