What you'll see in this repo is a highly opinionated and unapologetic way to use Obsidian. Note that this is not the only way to use Obsidian, nor is it the correct way. But it is a way that works really well, especially once you understand the philosophies behind it.

Some of these techniques may be familiar to you, others may be novel due to the idiosyncracies about how my own mind works. I'll do my best to explain all of my philosophies and lived experience in the creation of this vault. Some techniques, processes and plugins are built into the platform. Other techniques leverage powerful external softwares to greatly enhance the Obsidian experience. I'll argue for those as they come as well as provide potential alternatives.

By following this guide and leveraging this template, I can promise that you'll be able to evolve from possibly never having used Obsidian to being up to date with the way I think about using this phenomenal software. I hope you enjoy and have fun!!

Motivation

I've been using Obsidian for well over a year and have developed many experiments, some of which succeeded and many others that have failed. I have tried to compile all the lessons from these experiences and create a vault that mirrors my up to date thinking on how Obsidian can be maximally utilized.

Philosophies

Before we get into anything practical we need to discuss the underlying philosophies powering this vault, or none of the implementations will make any sense. Most of these philosophies I've learned or adapted from great contemporary and erstwhile authors and thinkers -- the following is a reflection of both my value structure as well as my take on the works of others.

Philosophies we'll encounter along the way:

Deep Work (Cal Newport)
Time Block Planning (Cal Newport)
PARA (Tiago Forte)
CODE (Tiago Forte)
Progressive Summarization (Tiago Forte)
Zettelkasten (Luhmann)
Published Zettelkasten (Andy Matuschack)
An unexamined life is not worth living (Socrates)
Jamming (Music Production)
AGILE (Software Development Project Management)
Metcalfe's Law (Computer Science)
Atticus Finch is the same in the house as he is on the public streets (To Kill a Mockingbird)
Large Language Models and Transformers (Machine Learning)
Automation and Scripting (Software Development)
Content management systems (Software Development)
Antifragility (Nassim Taleb)
GTD (David Allen)
Version Control Systems (Software Development)
Causa Sui (Ernst Becker)

Deep Work

To do deep work is to be able to focus on a significant problem for an uninterrupted block of time. As a software engineer and writer, I am dependant on the flow state to create my best work and cut through the noise of digital and physical distraction.

To enhance the likliehood of entering the flow state, and enhancing the quality of the flow state while it's engaged, this vault has tools to help you cut through the mud and focus on what needs to get done.

Processes:

Zettelkasten Harvesting
Keeping relevant project info in one spot
Vault wide task management protocols

Plugins:

QuickAdd
Tasks

PARA

The PARA framework is a structure that can be used as buckets to capture different ideas. The main value to this vault is the Project and Archive folders. These two folders alone do a ton of work and allow resources to stay in sync with th

Implementation

todo

Elements of Markdown

Footers

Footers serve two very important roles: citation and non destructive updates. Citation is used in the Zettelkasten, to help link a note to its source material.

Folder Structure

todo

Tests

todo

External Tools

Bramses' Highly Opinionated Vault 2023 uses a lot of external tools and technologies. I firmly believe that each of these technologies plays a significant role in making Obsidian an ecosystem instead of a stand alone application. These tools serve as scouts, fetching information from different places and returning the goods to "home base". That being said, some/most/all have some form of financial component as well as their own learning curves, so I wouldn't be dissapointed if you don't want to use them. That said Bramses' Highly Opinionated Vault 2023 works a lot better as a holistic system if you do.

Tools Used

Readwise ($)
Alfred (Mac only) ($)
Shortcuts (iOS only)
Zotero
GitHub
Sync ($)
Publish ($)

Installation

Great! Now that that's out of the way, we can finally get to running the vault, phew!

Select Use this Template or git clone https://github.com/bramses/bramses-highly-opinionated-vault-2023.git
Download into your local machine
Open the vault and rename it to whatever you want and open it in Obsidian

After You're Up and Running

After getting your sea legs for a few days (perhaps a week!) and you feel comfortable with Bramses' Highly Opinionated Vault 2023 system, it will sadly be time for us to part and for you to forge onwards. You'll be able to safely delete the following files:

README
_tests/*
Readwise/ (if you're not using the service)
_tutorial/*
_PARA/Archive/Archived Project (!Note: do not delete the Archive folder itself, just the example folder)
_PARA/Projects/Test Project (!Note: do not delete the Projects folder itself, just the example folder)
_PARA/Projects/Test Project 2 (!Note: do not delete the Projects folder itself, just the example folder)

"Required" Plugins

Truly nothing in this vault is required, but if you want the full experience, these community plugins are quote-unquote mandatory:

Auto Link Title
Calendar
Commander
Dataview
Excalidraw
Folder Note
Footnote Shortcut
Kanban
Natural Language Dates
Obsidian Git
Omnisearch
Periodic Notes
QuickAdd
Readwise (look -- I really hate to put a paid subscription plugin on the "required" list, but this app is so good, it's really revolutionized my reading experience across Twitter/Kindle/blogs/podcasts. Plus their new Reader app is straight up awesome. A lot of the ease of this vault derives from Readwise, so don't use it at your own risk)
Style Settings
Supercharged Links

Optional Plugins

These plugins aren't needed, as some are QoL and others have a steep price tag attached (some even have both!). But these apps are no less critical to my workflow than the "Required" apps above, so I need to include them.

A Day in the Life - Real World Use

Bramses' Highly Opinionated Vault 2023 is only helpful if you can use it day in/day out as a tool to help you in life. Here's how I would use it in any random day (let's say Tuesday, perhaps):

Noon (wake up -- I'm a night owl and a degenerate) 🤷

Special Case: Staurday or Sunday

Reflection is a critical component to the value of this vault, and so one day a week must be carved out to do reflection. This shouldn't take more than thirty minutes or so, but it does need to happen once a week, so choose what works best for you.

Final Word

todo