This Is The MOST USEFUL Obsidian Feature You're Not Using

This can change the way you use your entire computer; not just Obsidian. You might know the feature, but I bet you've never used it this way.
Take your creator journey to the next level: www.Plus1Creator.com
=============================
📸 EQUIPMENT
Favorite Pen: amzn.to/3JDyfZM
Sony ZV-1: amzn.to/3Uvdins
Base Mount Bracket: amzn.to/3UpOihm
Tripod / Selfie Stick: amzn.to/3FnnAlg
Extra Batteries: amzn.to/3gWGgPt
Shotgun Mic: amzn.to/3iBfeO1
Descript Editing: www.descript.com/?lmref=50y2Ew
My Preferred Email Newsletter Solution: shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=143020...
NOTE: Some of these links go to my own books / courses / paid stuff. Some of these links go to affiliate listings like my amazon equipment stuff. Generally act like they're all paid links (even when they aren't) and we'll be cool.
⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 Introduction to Obsidian's Hidden Feature
01:43 The Problem with Traditional File Systems
02:54 The Power of Embedding Media in Obsidian
05:59 Real-Life Example: How Embedding Saved Me
07:16 The Power of Metadata and Obsidian's Flexibility
08:49 Engage and Learn More
Other Titles I Considered
"Unlock the Power of Metadata: Embedding Files in Obsidian"
"Obsidian's Hidden Gem: Boost Your Productivity with File Embeddings"
"Streamline Your Obsidian Workflow: The Magic of Embedded Files"
"Obsidian's Best-Kept Secret: Leveraging File Embeddings for Enhanced Search"
"Maximize Your Obsidian Experience: Discover the Benefits of Embedding Files"
THIS VIDEO IS ABOUT
A powerful feature of Obsidian MD that allows you to find files in ways that you may never have thought about!
MOST OF MY VIDEOS ARE ABOUT:
technology, mindset, motivation, self improvement, psychology, success, business, sales, marketing, solopreneurship, inspiration, self development, networking, mentalism, consulting, negotiation, and other cool stuff that will help you win big in business & life.
#obsidian #productivity #system

[@zavant]

Here's the new version with screen share & examples: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p3qxpoStgZl4Y80

[@francescmunozlaporta1292]

Hi Jonathan, Can you show the concept in a screenshare, please? Thanks.

[@zavant]

I thought it wouldn't need it, but I'm realizing I should have made it that way. Maybe I'll do that next and connect them.

[@veganfamilykitchen]

Good idea for those who are ok organizing their files in a flat (folder-free) system. For me, I just copy the file's path into the appropriate notes, so the file itself doesn't become a part of my vault.

[@zavant]

There's an option to put the attachment inside the same folder as the note. So you could still be fastidious about your folder management and still leverage this approach. It's super neat! But the pathway approach works just as well, too!

[@Y-Soightnie]

Wouldn't the Johnny Decimal System solve that problem. A little forethought would organize most everything you deal with. If your Obsidan vault ever gets corrupted, you won't know where anything is. That could be catastrophic.

[@zavant]

You're right; there are a lot of other solutions to that problem. What you see as a problem, I see as the way I work best. And yes, it's living life on the edge. Such is the responsibility of hosting your own data. Welcome to the wild frontier!

[@Mike8Austin]

I'm in the process of reorganizing my Obsidian environment (I only at about 450 notes) and have been trying to figure out the best way to handle non-Obsidian artifacts. I had gotten to the point of realizing that if I have a non-Obsidian file in my vault, I also need a note with a link to that file if I want Obsidian metadata for finding it. But I hadn't made the leap to embedding yet. Great idea and thanks!!!!

[@zavant]

YES! Saved in the nick of time! Glad you're getting this at the start of your process. Hard to overcome 5 years of not doing it.

[@williambell4591]

@@zavant For me, I got nearly 3000 records in Coda I need to get out and into Obsidian - LAWD'HAMES-MACIES... 🤕😪

[@zavant]

👀

[@kevinmorris3331]

Feel like we share a brain sometimes. I have been doing this myself as well, and just not really realizing exactly why I was doing it, but I knew it worked. Another great video.

[@zavant]

Thanks for giving it a watch; did you see the new version? kzbin.info/www/bejne/p3qxpoStgZl4Y80

[@kevinmorris3331]

@@zavant I did. Actually watched them out of order. LOL. Also great.

[@zavant]

@@kevinmorris3331 Movies tend to make more sense when you don't watch 'em backwards. X^D Glad you enjoyed it.

[@enriquepalomino6644]

Great video, Jonathan. Keep it going!

[@enriquepalomino6644]

Actually, I like having my files and info in a hierarchical way. I'll explore this "new" way

[@zavant]

Thank you!

[@zavant]

It's great for divergent, non-linear, ADHD brains. And if we're going to have our own digital exocortex then it should be that way too!

[@Dave-cg9li]

I think you'd love DevonThink, it was made for exactly that 😄 I use obsidian all the time, but this feels maybe a little over-complicated. But that's the beauty of obsidian, you can use it for a lot of stuff haha

[@arnenostitz-rieneck7996]

the amazing part of DevonTHink is, that it also understands the content of most files (pdf, images, textfiles, docs) and has a pretty neat AI build in to sort and find related stuff WITHOUT writing any metadata. what i find DevonTHink lacks is a good way to keep track of metadata though... if you want to attach predefined fields you can do that - but only for ALL files as far as my last interaction with DT goes. and these additional fields are stored away in a closed system - and when i recently switched computers, all of this data was gone. so ... thanks for the tipp with obsidian - not exactly the same powerful tool - but in a way even better ... just worrying about the way to sync this .... currently github is my place to store and sync - but thats no bueno for anything other than MD files ... how do you go about this?

[@zavant]

I'll check it out!

[@zavant]

Here's how I sync (syncthing to my desktop to avoid using megacorp servers). kzbin.info/www/bejne/a2ebZoSXbZaXaNU

[@damonpthomas]

Thanks for the great video and idea. I'm wondering what this does for your syncing processes. I pay for Obsidian Sync and already I'd say it takes longer to sync just normal Obsidian files across my phone, laptop and iMac than I would like, so surely adding in large Word, PPT, or whatever files would bog things down pretty badly. Is there a way to point Obsidian to these files as they're stored on your machine (or for me it's mainly in OneDrive) without having to sync them to Obsidian itself? I don't want to replicate them across all my machines, but it would be awesome to use the search capabilities of Obsidian to improve the file management system on the computer. Or maybe this only really works when you do commit to uploading everything to Obsidian. It's definitely food for thought. I'm sitting at just under 4,000 notes in my vault, so keeping it minimal is probably the way to go, but I do appreciate you sharing your idea. Keep up the great work.

[@zavant]

My vault is 70+ gigs. I use syncthing for keeping my vault up to date (made a video about it) & I have a secondary phone-to-computer vault to capture random thoughts without eating up so much of my phone memory. I do think there's an option to keep embedded files in their natural environment so you don't need them to live in your vault natively.

[@KeithGyarmati]

I haven't been creating a new note for it, but I have been calling it out within my daily notes. I think it would be great to use the single note system. I just recently started doing single notes for meetings instead of inline my daily note.

[@zavant]

I like using the daily note as my immediate go-to, and then if the note deserves its own file, I'll extract it out. I find this more helpful than having a proliferation of randomly-titled orphan notes with almost zero content.

[@dhtoran1]

I like the idea. Need to try

[@zavant]

Give it a shot, tell me how it goes.

[@zavant]

Oh, and did you see the recently updated video where I include a screenshare / walkthrough? kzbin.info/www/bejne/p3qxpoStgZl4Y80

[@true7702]

a demo would be nice to tie it all up

[@zavant]

I think you're right. I thought I could talk about it and that would do it, but after so many comments like yours, I'm realizing it should have been a screenshare all along. I'll put this at the top of my list.

[@Petertwohig1948]

Thanks so much. Pete.

[@zavant]

You are very welcome

[@gaidin]

This video was rough without a single example

[@zavant]

I thought it would be straightforward enough to not need it, but I think you're right. I should make a follow up that shows it in action.

[@brianwitter3271]

This is how I've been using Obsidian from the start. I don't use a single attachments folder like you mention in the comments. Having gone through a few note apps I started with the goal that if I had to switch again, I would have things organized in a way I could use my files on their own. Having one giant dump of images, pdf's, etc. seems like a nightmare waiting to happen. I name every attachment so that it relates to the note with date and subject. Any moving or renaming of files is done in Obsidian. Evernote and OneNote let you just add files with no care of the name and the location is abstract in the cloud. Obsidian is local so I take full advantage of it.

[@zavant]

Yeah this is the best way to do it. I'm nowhere near that put together to do it that way so I tag my notes to kingdom come.

[@brianwitter3271]

@@zavant Tagging is in heavy use as well, folders and naming only go so far. I give myself a fighting chance with folders and names because tags are less portable. I've learned in my years of photography and graphics that tags are great and I use them extensively, but they aren't as dependable. There are "standards" for writing metadata, they are often ignored by the programs trusted to read and write them.

[@zavant]

@@brianwitter3271 Yeah, as soon as there's another program involved, you have a whole new set of issues & challenges!

[@joemoss5138]

Yes, i have done that.

[@zavant]

It's remarkably useful isn't it? Everyone gets so focused on linking notes that they forget that you can use notes as the metatags around files.

[@zavant]

Want to accomplish more than just "being productive?" Come join my creator community: www.plus1creator.com

[@audiocognizance]

I've watched several of your videos and recommended your videos. I usually get what you are saying. You usually simplify what others complicate. Bu, Jonathan, I have NO IDEA how one would implement what you said! Does everything on one's hard drive have to be inside an obsidian vault to do this?

[@zavant]

Yeah, I thought this one could work without a screenshare. I'm pretty sure I was wrong. X^D I might give it another shot here soon. But not all your files are in obsidian; just the important stuff that you FOR SURE want to keep track of.

[@MichaelAllanFrancisSheaver]

What happens if I move the file are inserting it as an embed?

[@zavant]

Goodbye link! That's why I have a single "attachments" folder and every embed gets copied into it.

[@tubaguy0]

@@zavantthat seems like it wouldn’t work very well if you use Obsidian Sync

[@zavant]

Solid insight. There's an option to copy attachment into your vault into a specified folder. Mine is called "The Void." This means it will sync with your vault. And mine has reached 70+ gigs. It's chonky. Second, here's my approach to Sync: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a2ebZoSXbZaXaNU

[@williambell4591]

That's exactly where I'm at now! I have an "Ingest" process where I place all my "incoming" files onto a particular drive - as I rate them I them move them over to either a "Temporary" (to clear off my Ingest drive) or final "Storage" drive, etc. So I was thinking about writing a plugin that would that would actually MOVE the files for me - keeping track of any asset references (thumbnails etc.) based on metadata and other "directives" within the notes. Is it possible - hopefully, am I ready? NOAP - need to learn the plugin architecture... 🤕

[@williambell4591]

​@@zavant Watching now - thanks! FYI - for over a decade I've been using VeraCrypt on ALL my important data drives (partitions). Edit: - Cryptomator does look like a nice kit - thanks! Now I'm wondering if I tried pointing my dropbox folder to a _mounted_ VeraCrypt partition??? Not sure how DropBox would handle an unmounted drive - curious to see however!..

[@BrokenKanuck]

So this was ten minutes of talking with no visual description of what you're trying to elaborate on. Come on..

[@zavant]

Looks that way.

[@yavordjenkov]

Quick Tip: Next time you do a video like this, just show us what you do, how you do it and what it does.

[@zavant]

I'll take it under consideration

[@williambell4591]

You just KNOW I'm sitting in a FRONT-ROW'SEAT w/Popcorn and 3D Glasses finn'n to ENJOY this video!.. Edit: THAT's ME 👋👋 Trying to find just a single or handful of files out of Zillions!! Obsidian has def finally given me a leg-up with my cataloging chores - I love it!

[@zavant]

😂 hope you find what you're looking for!

[@williambell4591]

@@zavant LOLz - PROPS!! 🤣

[@zavant]

🙏

[@HenkOuwejan]

A lot of talking. But it leaves me confused.

[@zavant]

Yeah, I'll be remaking this with a full screenshare soon.