Hub Note Explained (The best way to use Obsidian Canvas!)

Time Stamps
0:00 - Intro
0:23 - Recap Productive Thinking
1:32 - Hub Note Definition
1:38 - Cooking Analogy
4:02 - How a Hub Note got created
5:17- My Vault
5:38 - Example 1: Top-Down (Note)
6:38 - Example 2: Top-Down (Canvas)
8:07 - Example 3: Bottm-Up (Canvas)
9:14 - Create from scratch
9:40 - Create a canvas
10:12 - Dumping notes onto the board
10:26 - Removing Backlinks
11:28 - Making sense in the Hub Note
12:15 - Organizing the Hub Note
13:27 - Adding new info to the Hub Note
14:43 - Ending
I've got a lot of questions regarding Hub Notes, so hopefully, this video clears up some confusion by clarifying the concept and showing you plenty of examples. 😊
FYI: I previously had made this video (kzbin.info/www/bejne/i5LSiJWim5yWhtE) about Hub Notes but I realized that, despite the process being true to the original Zettelkasten system, I was pretty hard to maintain. So the method introduced in this video is what I have refined and currently using in my own daily process.

[@u6tory]

Awesome!! You're always structural, practical, easy to understand, easy to apply! This is why Obsidian dev team developed canvas feature prior to other hopings.

[@dsuthapong]

Thanks so much Katcher 🙏🏻 I love Canvas features too! Kudos to the Obsidian team.

[@ARNBNDL]

​@@dsuthapongIt could do the same than Malinote ?

[@brendtevenden6389]

THIS is exactly what I needed. You're doing with HUB notes and Canvas what I'm looking to do and your explanation of the process you use was very enlightening. Thank you!

[@dsuthapong]

Thanks so much! This video is one of the most time-consuming to make, so I’m really glad it is helpful to you 😊

[@brendtevenden6389]

@@dsuthapong I've found your way of explaining things is really understandable to me. I've watched a lot of videos on PKM, Obsidian and how to use it but for some reason your info has stuck. 🙏

[@YohanGayle]

Wonderful explanation. Thanks for sharing. Your videos have helped me immensely!

[@dsuthapong]

Great to hear! Thanks so much for your comment.

[@arifaliwibawamtk864]

Thanks Darin. You keep repeating important concepts, and add analogy to it, thats help me to understand more. Already watched 4 videos from you, now I need to stop and think how to implement it.

[@dsuthapong]

Haha! Thanks so much Arif!

[@luker4598]

Really nice content, thank you! I've watched a number of your related videos and I think your system is very good for Obsidian/Zettelkasten beginners (such as myself) as it is very intuitive and easy to implement. Thumbs up 👍

[@dsuthapong]

Thank you! Glad that this is helpful ❤️

[@kowalskifrog]

This is an interesting approach and has a similar set of problems that it solves as I have with my project management. I hadn't considered using Canvas but I did end up with a high level 'hub' or planning note to manage the varied content and approaches I have for project management and being able to pick up and drop things more easily.

[@dsuthapong]

Thanks for sharing! Yes, this is a classic problem of information management.

[@haiketremblay5816]

I have recently discovered Zetelkasten and Obsidian. Thank you for your clear explanations. I have subscribed!

[@dsuthapong]

Thank you so much. Glad that this is helpful!

[@vinodsamala8592]

I watches this video like for 3days straight. Now I am able to undertstand. This whole obsidian is new to me. lol

[@dsuthapong]

Thank you 😍

[@vinodsamala8592]

@@dsuthapong Thank you 🙌

[@wiramonol5266]

This is exactly what I needed! Thanks

[@orepertorioliturgico]

Same for me - shoutout to KZbin Algorithm that recommended for me

[@dsuthapong]

Thanks so much!

[@NickyTeachThaiLanguage]

❤

[@pgoldrup]

My entry into your channel, and an immediate subscribe. This was great!

[@dsuthapong]

Thanks so much!!

[@Etnoosfera]

Thanks for sharing, Darin! 😊

[@dsuthapong]

Thanks Josue!

[@lajourdanne]

Incredible! 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾

[@dsuthapong]

Thank you 🙏🏻

[@igz]

I see you have a note on "Input divided by Output = Productivity" but I wonder, shouldn't it be Output/Input?

[@dsuthapong]

Good idea! Should have written the note that way 😂

[@Filosofíayletras1]

Thaks Darin. I understood that always you can, you will do a sumarize not with canvas plugin?

[@lexsemenenko]

Thank you for the explanation. However, I'm still unclear about the distinction between a reference note and a permanent note. To me, they seem identical. For instance, if I watch a video on a topic and jot down ideas in what I believe is a reference note. But since I want to re-visit it later, would it be a permanent note instead of a reference note? Could someone shed more light on the differences between the two reference and permanent?

[@dsuthapong]

I’m glad you ask! Let me try to see if i can help clear things out. A Reference note is a note written to help you remember key ideas from the information you consumed - A reference note records information from a single source - ⭐️A reference note can contain many ideas - A reference note doesn’t have to be super polish or organized (while it can be as well) - A reference note could be as lengthy as possible (for example, a reference note from a book) On the other hand…. A permanent note is a concise, well written note talking about a single idea - A Permanent contains a single idea (crystalized from reviewing a reference note) - A permanent note could contain information from the reference note, but one permanent note should only contains information about one idea - A Permanent note should be concise, clear, and written as if the reader doesn’t have any context - A permanent note should be written with great care, like a mini section from a published article - one reference note can produce many permanent notes Side note… if you find that your reference notes are very similar to the permanent notes… it might mean that you can process the information very well already and you just need to split different ideas into different permanent notes The reason why we want to break each idea on each permanent note is because we want to be able to link each permanent note to other permanent notes or hub notes and form new ideas! I hope this is helpful

[@lexsemenenko]

​@@dsuthapong WOW! Truly appreciate. Exactly what I needed. Clicked! I honestly think the "Productive Thinking" system is brilliant.

[@mhew86]

Your videos are by far the most helpful Obsidian guide that I've seen. Thanks a lot. Curious, is the 10x managers slides also something that you can share?

[@dsuthapong]

Thanks so much! Really glad you found it helpful :) Unfortunately I can't share the original slides, but will try to share the content from these slides in the future posts 😉

[@TALKmd]

Great 🎉

[@dsuthapong]

Thanks!!

[@salman_babar]

Obsidian came out to get rid of defining structures beforehand, and instead let them evolve individually for each user. Users: hub note, daily note, reference note, permanent note. Some years ago, the late Nobel prize-winning Dr. Albert Schweitzer was asked by a reporter, “Doctor, what’s wrong with men today?” The great doctor was silent a moment, and then he said, “Men simply don’t think!” Earl Nightingale 1956. 1956 🤯🤯🤯

[@joecaz]

8:47 The thing about the productive thinking system is that it's not a Wikipedia; as I review the notes written down, the information in the hub note, it changes how I see the world, it changes how I operate my daily routine. So, that's the point of the productive thinking system, it's that it's not just about thinking or information management, but the process of SHARPENING your thinking helps you perform your actions on daily basis better.

[@zakaria20062]

Respect

[@dsuthapong]

Thank you 🙏🏻

[@dennisng5437]

This is a clear and concise explanation. Thank you!! Could a hub note be also considered as a permanent note for other hub notes? Also what is the difference between a “map of Contents” vs your idea of hub note. I’ve heard a lot of terms around a note that links out but this feels more graspable and relatable to me.

[@dsuthapong]

Thanks so much Dennis 🙏🏻 Really appreciate your feedback. 1. Can a Hub note be a "permanent note" of another Hub note? -> Yes! This happens often in my system. Often times you will find that Hub notes do support each other. For example, a Hub note about "Body Language" can supports a Hub note "How to communicate effectively"? 2. MOC VS Hub Note On the surface level, they look very similar and serve a very similar purpose, which is to provide a place for several permanent notes to be "mapped". together. The key difference is The philosophy behide each concept. As far as I understand, Map of Content, as the name suggests, is the "Map" of your content! Personally I don't view a "Hub note" that way. It's more like a "Lab" .. a separate island on its on to achieve certain goals. Sure, as I mentioned earlier, a Hub note can be linked to other Hub notes, but that is note the main purpose of the Hub Notes. The main purpose of a Hub Note in Productive Thinking system is to either 1.) Achieve certain goals in your life (Top Down) OR 2.) Explore interesting concept (Bottom Up) Also, I named it "Hub Note" as I want to preserve the naming from the original Zettelkasten method as much as possible to honor Niklas Luhmann 😊 Hope this helps

[@rocketman4558]

Hi Darin When we remove the connections from Hub - don't we loose the ablity to search and interpret from the graph view ? - we are essentially removing the connected notes via an Hub Note -- replacing them with a Canvas. Canvas dont seem to show branched relationship and would not contribute to the Graph view.. Speaking from a knowledge management standpoint - we are achieving the goal, yes but do we loose any features in the spaced repetition phase ? - by doing this

[@dsuthapong]

That's correct! You made a really good point. Later I realized the drawback of summarizing a hub note this way, and nowadays I need to put the permanent note link into a hub note to preserve the searchability through the graph view. It's a bit more cumbersome but at least the connections now show up in the graph view.

[@SWINDISA]

The images (ex. 4:02) are beautiful. Did u make that with excalidraw? If so, do u think u could make a video about it?

[@dsuthapong]

Yes, I made this using Miro. ☺️ This is the link of how to use Miro kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y6eYYauIjNVonLssi=3JG4C2FlQveGR61H

[@yeehimwong8810]

Thanks for your splendid work. I've a question. Is Hub Notes your invention? What are the origins of Hub Notes?

[@dsuthapong]

Thanks so much! Yes, I invented this concept, but the name "Hub note" is inspired Zettelkasten system created by Niklas Luhmann. You can watched more detail in this videokzbin.info/www/bejne/h2PdimqiZ9mtpbM However, the "Hub Note" in my "Productive Thinking" system is pretty different from the original Hub note, but I still named it this way to honor Luhmann, who is a big inspiration of the system I created :) There is also another similar concept called MOC (you can search for this in KZbin) but I felt that it's not exactly the same. Hope this helps!

[@liyaingermany5152]

have you tried to use Excalidraw? I have heard the excalidraw is more powerful, Could you compare Canvas and Excalidraw?

[@ShivamSahu-oi9st]

Thx for making this video. When you use canva option for Hub notes for coonecting them and when not you use ?

[@dsuthapong]

Most of the time i now use canvas since it’s much easier to process notes. 😊 But if i have a very clear idea of how to organize the permanent notes I might not create a canvas.

[@epireve]

This is so helpful Darin! May I know what is the horizontal thunder-like at your note’s naming. Or is it a plug-in cosmetics? I found it so cool!

[@dsuthapong]

Thanks so much! The thunder icon (⌁) is a built-in emoji that can be used on any device. You can simply insert this emoji as text.

[@epireve]

@@dsuthapong Thanks! Appreciate it Darin

[@eb-ku3ot]

Pls see if u can clarify: Can we say hub notes is a place where its a collection of Canvas..Can i use hub notes without Canvas by organizing in form of index? Thank you for the video

[@dsuthapong]

Hi! Yes, you can use a hub note in a form of index without using a canvas In my system, using a canvas is optional.

[@eb-ku3ot]

@@dsuthapong thanks for the response

[@smartindointernetbusinessc7563]

May i ask your Hub Note and Permanent Note about Productivity? i'm kinda interest about it

[@dsuthapong]

I would love to make a whole video about it! I’m glad you ask 😄

[@gustube2000]

I am confused, is hubnote a new folder or how do you create, very simply, a hub note? For absolute beginners like ?

[@dsuthapong]

Hi there! A Hub Note is about a bigger idea/topic/area than a permanent note Let’s say you want to stop procrastination.. you can simply create a Hub note called “End procrastination” and when you have permanent note related to this, you can connect it to this hub note. You can create a Hub note beforehand (before consuming information) or you can wait until you come across a permanent note related to the topic, and then create a hub note. No right or wrong way

[@carloslandivar]

Hi Darin, I'm from Brazil, I'm using the translator. One question, is there "Hub Parent" and "Hub Sons"? For example, Hub "Career" and another Hub "How to be promoted". Does the latter necessarily need to be within the first? And when that happens, do you stop using the parent Hub and start using only the child hub? Or do you still link both in a specific note on this topic?

[@dsuthapong]

Hey Carlos! Thanks for the questions. 1. Yes, Hub notes can have parents and child relationship. This happens a lot when i first explore a broad topic and then break it down to smaller ones. 2. And yes, once you break down into child hub notes, then you stop using the parent

[@HeyLeoGames]

Great video Darin, congrats! What theme are you using?

[@dsuthapong]

Thanks! It’s mininal theme :)

[@HeyLeoGames]

@Darin Suthapong I love it, looks so clean, probably makes work and study lighter too... Would you mind share your settings?

[@dsuthapong]

@@HeyLeoGames will share this in the future video ;)

[@ShivamSahu-oi9st]

Previously you share templates for obsidian. Do you still uses those templates or changed. If you changed please give us new templates 🙏. If possible make a video about them.

[@dsuthapong]

Great Questions! I will soon make an updated video about my current templates. Actually they are much less complex than before.

[@StevenMichels]

Thanks for sharing! What theme is that? It's a good one.

[@HeyLeoGames]

I think is Things, mas I'm not surr

[@dsuthapong]

It’s Minimal Theme :)

[@krzyszt0fus]

Great content! Are you aware that Canvas has the concept of a Group?

[@dsuthapong]

Hi! I’m not aware of the concept of group. I’ll learn more about this :)

[@UsmanKhan-tb7ll]

I'm New At Obsidian What Plugin you're Using ?

[@dsuthapong]

Hi there! I use quite a few of plug-ins 😂 Here are some that I use on daily basis: - Hider: to make things more minimal - Hotkey++ : for advance shortcut - Calendar: Turning daily notes to calendar view - Kindle Highlight

[@alexkakoyiannis9346]

When you drag the permanent notes to the canvas and connect to hub canvas note are they still available in the files so you can find and reuse somewhere else?

[@dsuthapong]

Yes! Mainly this process is just the linkage. You can still use these files elsewhere

[@sliimgeek286]

Plz what name your thame

[@dsuthapong]

It’s a minimal theme ☺️

[@karannagrale1109]

You are so beautiful Darin. :)

[@dsuthapong]

Thank you 🥰🥰🥰

[@corgikun2579]

I was gonna write the same @@dsuthapong

[@dafphtthedislikeupdater7836]

My problem is that I try to make everything a permanent note 😂

[@dsuthapong]

In fact, I recently thought that making everything a permanent note is actually a pretty good strategy! And once that permanent note gets a lot of backlinks it automatically acts as a Hub Note 😁

[@dafphtthedislikeupdater7836]

@@dsuthapong I'm gonna go watch a bunch more of your videos. I'm on my last semester in university right now and I am burned out af. Still, I want to grind as many coursera courses to put on my linkedin, and that's gonna take some major workspace optimization. I still have zero clue on how to use dataview lol