Interesting thread, this. I hadn't heard of Zettelkasten, but I think I may be doing something similar in the way I organise my notes into categories and sub-categories. In fact, I use the same categories and subcategories as my MLO outline (maybe because I used to store *all *my notes in MLO, in a folder under the the relevant branch of my outline - I still do that with non-work notes). So, that structure is:
*For tasks*: Area of Life --> Role --> Project --> sub-project *For notes*: Area of Life --> Role --> Topic --> sub-topic I should have mentioned, before starting to use OneNote at work, I've also played with using GoodNotes and iThoughts for capturing notes on my iPad. I still use iThoughts because I love the mindmap structure for grouping, arranging and summarising my knowledge. In *iThoughts *on the iPad, my notes are captured in mind maps, with an indexing mind map for the first two levels in the above structure. In *OneNote*, my outline is captured in Notebook --> Section --> Subsection --> page --> subpage. Notes for small projects start as a single page, might expand to become a section with multiple pages, or as they get larger they might end up with a whole, collaborative notebook assigned to them. As they expand and move, I maintain a list of my projects in my default notebook, with links to the appropriate page, section or notebook. It's made less manually intensive by setting up and applying tags - generally a tag to for a project, with a checkbox for when the project is complete - OneNote can search and create summary lists of any tags, so I can easily create an index to the notes for any of my projects. I also copy useful, reusable information from my project notebooks into a "reference library" notebook, with sections for topics and subsections for sub-topics. Regarding Christoph's point about not wanting to lock notes in a proprietary format - I'm OK with using the above tools, because they've all got options for exporting my notes to non-proprietary formats such as OPML, HTML, pdf, etc. Hmm, all that sounds complicated on re-reading it, but it's very simple and straightforward in my mind - probably because I stick to a rigid set of areas of life, roles and main topics in both my task outline and my notes outline. On Saturday, 6 March 2021 at 13:50:46 UTC [email protected] wrote: > Great help and lots to think about, Christopher! I appreciate your input. > > I'm probably going to give Obsidian a try. I've got a few videos queued up > on YouTube to begin my journey. 😁 > > > On Sat, Mar 6, 2021, 5:57 AM Christoph Zwerschke <[email protected]> wrote: > >> On 06.03.2021 02:11, c.k. lester wrote: >> > I saw that book mentioned on YouTube when I was researching Obsidian >> > and Dynalist. I think Obsidian, especially, is all about that >> > Zettelkasten... which I don't know what that is yet. :D >> >> Obsidian is very flexible, it can be used as a Zettelkasten, but it's >> not specially designed for it. Similar to how MLO can be used to >> implement GTD, but was not specially designed for that purpose only. >> >> If you enjoy the Zettelkasten method, Zettlr may be even more >> appropriate. Both follow the approach that your notes stay on your local >> computer and are under your control and can be edited with any text or >> Markdown editor. On the other end are tools where your notes are in the >> cloud in a proprietary format, like Roam. I don't like becoming too much >> dependent on the cloud, a particular service provider and network >> access. And putting your private notes in the cloud always raises data >> privacy concerns. That's why I don't use Evernote any more - in the >> latest version they removed the possibility of having local notebooks, >> among other degredations. When tools become "mainstream", make profit >> and new managers are hired, they often get worse because they want to >> appeal to the masses and create maximum revenue, and being useful to us >> power users is of little concern. >> >> You should ask first whether you want a cloud based service or files >> under local control, whether you need mobile aps and sync, and which >> kind of sync (against a central server, or via your LAN with the desktop >> as server - MLO offers both, or using a separate cloud service like >> Dropbox), whether end-to-end encryption is important for you or not. >> There are many note-taking apps, but asking these questions first will >> reduce the awailable choices significantly. >> >> Also, narrow down which category of tools best fits your needs: >> >> - Outliner (strictly hierarchical trees) >> - Graph-based with backlinks (more free linking) >> - Personal Wiki (similar, old style) >> - Zettelkasten (special method) >> - Spaced Repetition (for learning stuff) >> - Journaling tools (daily notes, chronological ordering) >> - Bibliographic database (archiving articles from the Web) >> >> Personally, I found that outliners (like OneNote) are too strict to map >> my real life and knowledge where everything is connected with everything >> else and things don't fall into single categories, but multiple, and >> categories and interests are always changing. I want to be able to >> categorize more freely and to sometimes just jot down daily notes (the >> chronological entry of notes was what I liked most about Evernote). >> Currently I settled with Obsidian because it allows free linking, but is >> also flexible enough to also support journaling and hierarchical >> indexes. You can still create a hierarchy of knowledge like in an >> outliner by storing your notes in a hierarchical folder tree and/or >> adding Markdown index pages pointing to other nodes. But you are not >> forced to put everything in a single outline. >> >> -- Christoph >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the >> Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. >> To unsubscribe from this topic, visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/topic/mylifeorganized/mFWOD-wiXoU/unsubscribe >> . >> To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to >> [email protected]. >> > To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/573a1103-6dae-fffc-d97f-30bb78ec88bf%40online.de >> . >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/ed9f2bcf-aab6-49f7-9a4f-ce9539da7fd1n%40googlegroups.com.
