This is definitely one of those questions that's hard to give a definitive answer to. It really depends on what you're using the YAML for and whether not having it on all relevant notes would prevent you from accomplishing your goal.
Let's say I have my watched movies in Obsidian. I have basic YAML like IMDB link, genre, and year released. Later, I decide I want to see what directors I have watched the most. In this instance, not having the director YAML on all of my movies is something I would want to fix.
Continuing the above example, I would do two things to make adapting the new structure easier. First, I would update my template for movies to automatically include that field for any new movies I create. Second, I would probably use Dataview to create a utility page to identify movies with no director. The logic of the query would basically be "select all from movies where no director". That way I could systematically update my existing notes without having to look through all of them individually.
Hopefully this gives you a couple of ideas. If you have any follow-up questions, let me know!
Very fair hehe. Sometimes with all of the backlinking and connections forming in Obsidian I can sometimes reach for one that's not quite sound. Calling it separation of concerns was probably just me trying to sound smart ;)
Either way, glad to see I'm not the only one that feels this way. I've heard good things about TickTick too. I wish you luck!
Appreciate the reply! Now that I have my mind wrapped around a couple of the more commonly-used plugins I think I could probably manage it in Obsidian. I do use Dataview for a few different utility notes, like making sure my YAML is properly formatted.
I have definitely seen some nice-looking task setups in Obsidian. Perhaps one day I will try integrating the two again. For right now though I'm loving having a separate spot for my "thought inbox" and action items, using Obsidian as a means to brainstorm and explore further.
Thanks again for the reply :)
Personal issues aside, do you have a source on their releases historically containing malware? Been a long time but I don't remember encountering any issues.
Just wanted to talk about the only separation I have in my workflow. Obsidian was a game changer for me when I discovered it a couple of years ago. Suddenly remembering and following up on thoughts was a game, and even more excitingly, a collection.
I fell off the productivity bandwagon a few months after. When I returned to the software about a month ago, the first thing I did was identify what went wrong the last time. Aside from going too crazy with community plugins towards the end, I believe my primary pain point was keeping all of my tasks readily at hand. Frequently I would write something to do in my daily note only for it to be lost and never followed up on. I would return to a note and see either a task I had completely forgotten about or a task that was later duplicated somewhere else in my vault.
This time around I have had a lot of success using a different utility specifically for tasks. This is not a Todoist sub so I won't go into detail but it's absolutely the missing piece of the puzzle. I try to minimize time from thought to writing, but this tiny bit of extra friction to categorize between "want to do" and "want to know" was a big help.
Curious on other peoples' thoughts on this! I know some people do absolutely everything in Obsidian. What has worked for you and what hasn't in terms of keeping your action items readily at hand?
Great insight! This is one of those real "a-ha" moments that keeps me using Obsidian today.
One concept that backlinking and a bottom-up note structure gave me insight on was actually this exact concept of "emergence." The idea that out of a large amount of chaos, order and structure can naturally form. I've been able to connect it to everything from philosophy to mental health to natural language and it's very exciting.
I am a person with late diagnosed ADHD/autism so my life breeds chaos. The assurance that you can just write without having to worry about where the note goes is so powerful.
Nicole van der Hoeven is a great resource! If you're looking for more YouTubers, I would recommend Artem Kirsanov. He has a couple of videos on bottom-up note taking/zettelkasten, but also has some really interesting conceptual videos on how people learn and retain knowledge. He's a computational neuroscience student but he's great at being interesting and not overly dry about his explanations. My primary Obsidian resource on YouTube is Bryan Jenks. I've basically stolen most of his setup because he also has the same pain points I do (namely having terrible working memory and issues starting tasks).
Good luck and thanks for the post!
If you're using regex I'm assuming you know of utilities like Regex 101 to check your syntax.
With JS-styled regex the entire statement is enclosed in slashes. /parent:: $/ should have the desired effect here.
I second DataView for these kinds of tasks as the plugin revolves around YAML frontmatter. I have a utility note called "notes with cleanable metadata" that has a bunch of these DataView queries that update in real time.
Good luck!
Check out this handy link courtesy of the Obisidan discord. Syncing between devices can be somewhat cumbersome if you don't want to pay for Obsidian Sync, but a lot of people (myself included) have success with using FolderSync on android with whatever cloud service you have your notes on.
Hey welcome to Lemmy, second comment here :)
Wanted to say that I relate to the "productive procrastination" that PKM stuff like Obsidian can cause. I'm coming back to it again after Notion didn't work for me.
If I were to give one piece of advice to new users it would be to start small! Figure out exactly what you want to achieve with the software and then try to meet those needs with as little complication as possible. There are thousands of incredible community plugins out there but don't feel like you need to master even one to be successful.
Above all I agree with being proud of yourself for just writing things down, and accepting that your setup doesn't have to be perfect.
Thanks again for the comment!
Hey there, I just wanted to say that I really like this comment. I used to work a tech-centric position at an office type job and the amount of electronic waste there was insane. Seeing a huge dumpster full of old computer parts was quite depressing. Good on you for taking matters into your own hands. I would love to do something like that if I am ever in that sort of position again. Good luck!
