Taking notes for work with Obsidian

In this talk, I show why I think taking notes for work with Obsidian has not just helped me learn faster but improved my career working in tech as a Developer Advocate and performance engineer. I take notes continuously as a way to keep my skills relevant. This is a rehearsal of a presentation I gave at EuroSTAR 2023.
EuroSTAR 2023: conference.eurostarsoftwarete...
How I use Obsidian for work as a software developer advocate: • How I use Obsidian for...
My published notes: notes.nicolevanderhoeven.com
// TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro
00:38 Keeping up with tech trends
04:26 New way of taking notes: continuous note-taking
08:43 What is Obsidian?
10:50 Getting started with Obsidian (demo)
16:13 Logging - a devlog/test log
19:48 Learning in Public
23:13 Advantages of continuous note-taking
26:24 My personal Obsidian graph
---
// ABOUT ME
Site: nicolevanderhoeven.com
Mastodon: pkm.social/@nicole
Videos for my work at Grafana Labs: • My work at Grafana Labs
Adobo & Avocados (with Marie Drake), a channel about intersectionality in tech: / @adoboandavocados
Beyond the Character Sheet (with Leah Ferguson), a channel about TTRPGs: / @beyondthecharactersheet
// APPS I USE
- Obsidian: obsidian.md
- Readwise: readwise.io/nicole
- Shortform: shortform.com/nicole
- Reclaim: go.reclaim.ai/eg0tgbamp7cb
- Snipd: link.snipd.com/Cx7S/nicole
- Napkin: napkin.one/?via=nicole
// GEAR
nicolevanderhoeven.com/gear/
// WANT TO SUPPORT ME?
❤️ Join my Patreon and get my sample vault with templates: / nicolevdh
☕ Buy me a coffee: ko-fi.com/nicolevdh
⭐ Buy Obsidian for Everyone, my beginner course on Obsidian: courses.nicolevanderhoeven.co...
Note: Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means I may get a small percentage when you sign up using those links. To see how I decide what to promote in this way, check out my Ethics Statement: nicolevanderhoeven.com/ethics/

[@nicolevdh]

I recorded this as a way to practice for a talk I gave recently, and then decided to post it here in the spirit of learning in public, mistakes and all! :) Obsidian theme: AnuPpuccin - kzbin.info/www/bejne/bV62gKqupb-EhKs Obsidian plugins: Advanced Slides, Publish (core), Dataview, Graph (core)

[@lpanades]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ This video is fantastic! It give the key, the sense of being, of the whole thing and how it connects with a person, business and life.

[@colinbrookes8625]

Thank you for posting this particular video Nicole. This for me is you at your best: no sound-effects, music or interrupting animations, just you talking passionately, from the heart and based upon living what you are sharing. I continue to support you on Patreon, as so many do, as a 'Thank You' for what you have taught me, and continue to teach me. But I have struggled as you have explored new styles of presenting your material here on KZbin. This video was akin to your content of old, and which i personally engage with far more deeply: generous content shared with the recipient in mind. Even as a long-time user of Obsidian, I still got so much out of this video. Warmest regards.

[@TheSnero3]

thank you so much for this. I have always had this itch about obsidian, in that I felt it would be good for me but I could never put my finger on why. Your presentation really helped me solidify that in my head!

[@JimMendenhall]

Your presentations are amazing. Thank you!

[@marionmartin7169]

Thank you for this video. I am starting my obsidian journey and you are my go-to for getting started with now

[@daridimas9769]

Thank You, finally i found clearly Information about obsidian

[@nicolevdh]

Thanks! Happy it was useful. :)

[@dangomez1170]

Thank you for the insightful and valuable presentation.

[@emilmubarakshin49]

Thank you for sharing your passions ❤ with such passion!!!

[@Mikarevival]

Great Presentation Nicole! I am using Obsidian 2 years. After the first use 3 years ago, I thought that Obsidian wasn't for me. Than I had so many ideas and information that I couldn't connect. It was too difficult. Then I tried again and I unterstood what is Obsidian. Last year I had similar thoughts: that's a shame, that I couldn't use Obsidian when I was in school or when I started to work. It would help me soooo much!! But It is never too late! I am happy now and I try to improve myself and my workflow day after day. Thank you for sharing Nicole. Take care.

[@mitalinigam9692]

Fantastic video❤ Thank you for this. Was stuck in atomic vs literature videos. But this was my last stop.😊

[@la3135]

Hi Nicole, this is so awesome! Excellent explanation!

[@ryanonvr2267]

Always great videos!

[@antoxicchannel]

Great content! Due to the lack of experience with note-taking lifestyle I feel like I always miss something. But in those moments when I start working on something and understand that I have it already in my notes - this feeling is amazing, because at least something I did before makes sense. The most important rule is trust your second brain and look into it before searching through the Web. Thanks for the video!

[@rlnash0123]

Very well done and informative!

[@piotrzabrocki862]

Great inspiration, thanks!

[@lkodman]

Thanks! I recently discovered your videos while trying to learn uses for Obsidian. Though the way we use it in the content intervals is going to be vastly different, you have very thoughtful insights and your presentation style is very easy to follow as well as practical. Thank you for your efforts.

[@nicolevdh]

Thank you so much! I appreciate that feedback and encouragement.

[@henryberlin]

I love your comments with * on you paper notes regarding calculus. These are already linking thoughts 😊

[@ponchoelgran1]

Hi Nicole! I had to pause halfway through to type this; you're amazing and produce such incredible content. Everything you share is insightful, concise, and delivered so eloquently. Thank you for what you do and for providing this content to the web. Your thought process on the things you cover really helps me process my own thoughts and think of new ways to do things. I appreciate you!

[@nicolevdh]

What a great comment! Thank you so much for reaching out. Happy you're enjoying my work.

[@sagepandadev6550]

Thanks for sharing ... I do like the idea of a changelog.

[@maurolimaok]

I consider myself, and many people do, also, smart, but I have TREMENDOUS difficulty organizing my thoughts in writing, so they can be useful for me in the future. You notes are a POWERFUL light on the ways I can get more organized. Thanks for sharing.

[@RACH-sqh]

Fantastic 🙌🏼

[@AndrewScottQUT]

Thanks for another thoughtful video. I disagree with your assessment that your old calculus notes 'didn't work' though. I'd suggest that they worked very well indeed-the time you put into them helped you internalise the content such that you didn't *need* to look at them again, you passed the exam, and built upon that knowledge in later calculus studies. I often find that hand-written notes allow me to retain ideas more than typed notes-there's something about the kinaesthetic experience that works for me, especially sketchnoting. Of course your continuous, active notetaking approach probably achieves success through continuous engagement with the content and prompting new ideas that might have not otherwise occured. I love Obsidian and your terrific content has helped me apply it to my needs many times, thank you.

[@garolstipock]

Agree with your sentiments on hand written notes and memory retention. Cant beat it. BUT it does come with that caveat of being static. Still, everything has a place, value, and scenario where its the right tool for the job.

[@RameshKumar-ng3nf]

I learned a lot of obsidian from you 🙏🏻. Thanks for your great lessons 🙏🏻. Helped me understanding lots of study concepts. I switched to Craft app since 9months , only reason being its smooth to work in apple ecosystem. But i still love obsidian even though stopped using it .

[@paulakokic2355]

Amazing presentation, thank you so much for sharing! And pure respect for going from "nothing in IT" to "I can deploy my own Grafana instance on K8s cluster" 👏👏 (I'm DevOps engineer myself 🤓)

[@scienceskills]

Ciao Nicole, you are a great teacher 💪🏻 I use it for a long time "Notes" to create a second brain because of the simplicity with which it allows me to expand the database and manage it. However, I like Obsidian too. Perhaps one day I'll invite you to explain more about it, ciao! 😊

[@williambryant1672]

i love your channel tbh

[@MettleHurlant]

I have been using onenote for school and work. I tried notion but not connecting with it. I’m interested in trying obsidian but it seems more advanced. I’m thankful for your tutorials.

[@timbushell8640]

Nice talk - sounds and feels nicely more formal for the 'presentation' style... "Written for the future me!" I am going to put that on a wall some where, Banksy wise. : )))))))

[@martijnonderwater]

thanks, good introduction! I didn't get the link to job searching until the last minute 😂

[@imgeffrey]

One takeaway that I had in this video was the 'topic' notes, where you aggregate your learnings. I should really consider doing that.

[@AmeeliaK]

How I would love to get back to 13 year old me and give her Obsidian! It would have been so great to go to school and university and build up my knowledge base constantly. I kind of envy those who are young now to be able to do this.

[@orusmateo]

Your graph is awesome. It looks 3D even. Any idea on how to make it fully 3D?

[@niallwhelan2648]

Great video and channel Nicole! I'm always wondering how best to separate work related notes from personal notes. What is your way of ensuring you keep proprietary work related info private to work (maybe using a separate vault) but also keeping the peronal learning about a topic in work in your personal vault? Do you use separate vaults, and if so how does this interrupt your note taking flow? Does anyone even worry about this besides me?

[@lpanebr]

Great content as usual. Do you create notes directly inside folders, move them later, both, or neither? And if so, which folders and levels do you use? Thank you!

[@nicolevdh]

Do you create notes within folders?

[@robotstepheny]

Excellent video as always Nicole. I was wondering about the changelog you mentioned -- is this something you curate manually or are you aware of a way to update this automatically based on the files you edit/create? Thanks!

[@nicolevdh]

Thank you!

[@heytherehowdy]

Thank you for your Obsidian Tips and Tricks. I have been trying to assimilate it into my daily work life, specifically with taking notes while learning programming. I recently added Data view into my vault. I can see how powerful it is, but I also have many notes without a header. Is there a way to automatically update already created notes with headers? Also is there a way to modify all of the headers (in case I want to add something to them)? Thanks again!

[@nicolevdh]

Hi! Yeah, Check out the Meta Edit plugin, but I know the Obsidian team also has better ways to work with frontmatter on their roadmap-- coming soon!

[@jonr6680]

Hope it went well, the Obsidian train is gathering steam... You did a full rehearsal nonstop, and given your track record made it seem easy, but I recognize the effort that went into this. Btw is there a vid in the pipeline about your trip or are you still on it? PS I see a new Icon on my Obsidian app, honestly liked the original better but never mind. Actually I thought it was perfect... Not sure why it was changed.

[@nicolevdh]

Thank you! Yes, the planning and slides and research beforehand always take a lot of effort for me! The actual presentation is not as bad, but I do find it useful to record myself so I'm forced not to keep repeating it until it's"perfect". I didn't vlog my trip, because vlogging is so tiring!

[@dfalconer99]

a bit off topic maybe but your glasses frames look awesome!

[@afammadudaniel2982]

I enjoy your content always. Please what is the name of the plugin you use for your wonderful presentation? Thank you.

[@nicolevdh]

Hi! Glad you liked it! :) I always leave the plugins I mentioned in the first (pinned) comment. In this case it's Advanced Slides, but there is also a core Obsidian plugin called Slides that is simpler but might also work for you!

[@JotaPalma]

Wonderful video both for new and seasoned Obsidian users. I'm impressed at the size of your vault! Is it slow or lagging in any way? My own vault is at 1200 notes and I'm scared Obsidian won't be able to keep up with the (almost) decade of notetaking I have ahead of me in University.

[@nicolevdh]

Glad you liked it! I have experienced a bit of slowness in a few situations; when using Obsidian Publish, executing a poorly written Dataview query, using the global graph view, or attempting to do a block reference without specifying a note to take it from. I deal with the Publish slowness and the rest are easily avoided. I don't notice any slowness any other time. I think having community plugins cause a more noticeable slowness than the number of notes do. Good luck! :)

[@timbushell8640]

That wouldn't worry me - I would worry about taking my older stuff - mostly not taken in the style of Zettlekasten, etc.

[@kurbybro]

Great video! Are you still developing a learning Obsidian course?

[@AmeeliaK]

Do you have different vaults for work and private life? For me, it doesn't make sense to separate because computer science and programming is both my personal interest and also my work. Work is just a folder inside the computer science folder for now.

[@gabrielgrommeck2885]

Love the hair and the content, legend

[@galen__]

👍

[@skorotone]

Please make a video about your Karabiner setup :)

[@nicolevdh]

Wow. How did you even spot that??

[@skorotone]

@@nicolevdh You switched apps in video haha

[@commentscommenter]

Could you be more explicit : Have you in fact presented or included a / one of- / your Obsidian vault to potential employers as a resume component ? Thank you

[@nicolevdh]

Yes, I often include links to my public Obsidian vault in presentations, social media profiles, and CV.

[@AlessandroScaltritti]

I'm really missing the point here example: during a meeting I take new infos about two clients, I go to their folder and update their docs. done. why should I take this info in a note about the meeting and than link it to them, then link them to it and, when I need the infos, everything is everywhere. A rigid logic structure is quite more streamlined, especially when in need to recall informations I really can't understand why this method is spreading and, obviously, I'm missing something (i've seen a lot of video and read a lot of threads but I can't see the convenience when things move from theory to practical) from mypoint pf view you are just increase the work during note taking and during consultation

[@guidoferri8683]

The only problem is that not every employer is willing to buy a commercial license

[@manjubeli]

Not every employer? Try no employer. Any decent organization will have o365 and stuck with damned OneNote

[@TheChameleon84]

@@manjubeliI felt this in my bones

[@swayzz5447]

@@manjubelifun fact Amazon will for almost anyone. You’re an l4 with a take home laptop? You’ll get approved on the marketplace

[@AmeeliaK]

My employer sent an email to everyone some days ago, asking who uses Obsidian for work, and there were about ten of us who did, and one day later I got another email with a license 😊 maybe because we are a software development company and would never accept to be forced to use Microsoft products 😂

[@5SADH]

I wonder why

[@Rkcuddles]

Please don’t mix bright white slides and dark mode text editors back to back. Know your audience