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by octorian 141 days ago
Do I hoard notes/links? Yes.

Do I struggle to turn them into actions? No.

Do I struggle to keep them organized for later reference? All the time.

Do I use Obsidian? No.

I actually use Joplin, which I switched to after deciding I needed to dump Evernote. And before then (and somewhat simultaneously with), I used a pile of disorganized text files (sometimes shared via DropBox).
1 comments
item007 141 days ago
That’s a really clear split: “actions are fine, reference organization is the pain” — and Joplin/text files is a very real workflow.

If the goal is later reference (not task generation), the most useful thing to validate for me is: what “organized” means in practice for you. Is the biggest failure mode:

1. you can’t find it because you don’t remember the right keywords, or

2. you remember it exists but it’s scattered across too many places/notebooks, or

3. you find it but it’s missing the surrounding context?

Details in my HN profile/bio if you want to see the angle I’m exploring (it’s not only Obsidian-specific).

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octorian 140 days ago
Mostly some version of 2. Or more specifically, I have a lot of top-level note documents with somewhat clear titles and organizations. And then there are a lot of "thing to remember" snippets that frequently have no obvious place, and are often related to the greater topic of multiple note documents.
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item007 140 days ago
One pattern that may help (without heavy re-org) is to treat those snippets as first-class items with a stable home, and only link them out:

- keep an “inbox / snippets” note (or a single folder) where every orphan snippet goes

- give each snippet a short, searchable handle (one line title)

- add 1–2 lightweight links: related topics, and optionally “why it matters / when I’d need this”

Then when you’re in a top-level doc, you can embed/query “snippets linked to this topic” instead of trying to decide the perfect location for each one.

In your case, are those “things to remember” mostly time-bound (follow up, renew, schedule), or more like evergreen reference (commands, ideas, reminders)?

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