Getting the Most out of Obsidian

In Part 1, I wrote about how to get your data out of Evernote and into Obsidian. In this post, I’m going to cover how to get the most out of Obsidian in terms of functionality.

Organizing in Obsidian

At a high level, I like to use The PARA Method, which consists of 4 high-level folders for storing your notes. Those folders are:

Projects: Projects are things you are actively researching or working on, such as this blog post. They have deliverables and they have deadlines. Notes should not exist in your project folder forever, but instead be moved into another folder.

Areas of Responsibility: The literal definition that I’ve seen elsewhere is “activity with a standard to be maintained over time”. If you’re using Obsidian for work, it might be for platforms which you own and perform occasional maintenance on, runbooks for dealing with specific issues, etc. If you’re using Obsidian for personal use, it might be for taking notes from books you read, notes about your health, your car, finances, etc.

Resources: A resource is defined as “a topic or theme of ongoing interest”. This might be things like recipes, ideas for home improvement, and the like. I will be the first to admit that sometimes the line blurs between Resources and Areas. The best advice I can offer is to try not to sweat the details here.

Archives: Stuff you’re not using anymore, such as projects you’ve finished or travel plans for trips taken. I recommend ZIPing the folders that hang out in this directory. (Obsidian won’t mind)

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