Workflow

Here I describe my overall productivity workflow, featuring the tools I use and methods I follow.

Note-Taking

I use Obsidian which uses a “file over app” philosophy.

File over app is a philosophy: if you want to create digital artifacts that last, they must be files you can control, in formats that are easy to retrieve and read. Use tools that give you this freedom.

File over app is an appeal to tool makers: accept that all software is ephemeral, and give people ownership over their data.

In Obsidian, notes are written in markdown.

Personal Vault Structure

I use one main vault to store everything, except for storing this quartz website.

Old Structure

My original vault used the following organisation methods →

• Organise by folders
  • Main folders based on context (Academic, Personal, etc)
    • Allow a folder for quick rough notes
    • Store templates, attachments in a “Central” folder
  • Sub folders based on topic (Programming → [Python, C++, OOP], BSc → [Modules])
• Notes are organised into folders
  • Written in bullet points

Which, overtime (2-3 years), came with the following issues →

• Lots of →
  • Repeating information in multiple places
  • Duplicate topics from different sources
• Therefore →
  • Harder to navigate
  • Harder to easily make use of information
  • Quicker to forget information

New Structure

To try to fix the faults of the previous system, which ends up defeating the point of it, I have started a new vault to test a different method, using links rather than folders. This method takes a lot of inspiration from Steph Ango’s personal vault and organisation system.

The only folders in this vault are for templates, attachments, notes (split into some vague categories for some better organisation), web clippings, dated notes, and categories. Categories are topic specific. Each note will have a property linking to a category. Dated notes are daily notes, to log what was written and done on a day.

Note Content

Notes will aim to have one main focus and are split into general notes and technical notes. This is one of the only times there is separation of notes based on folders. (There are a few other types, which are more niche, and are split to figure out a good system or for organisation purposes).

For technical notes, the following system is used →

1. Create note for one single “idea”
2. Identify note properties
3. Put information into note
4. Identify related notes
5. Identify branched notes
   • E.g. A note on decision trees will contain information on decision trees, which will then be linked to gradient boosting which will then be linked to XGBoost

Keeping a note focused on a single idea, and then creating separate notes for related ideas keeps the coupling low and the cohesion high - allowing me to reuse, reapply, and more efficiently use notes.

General notes take any form, and may have overlapping content as it is more relaxed with less structure.

The goal of this is to have a “wiki” or “dictionary” of information I collect which is easy to navigate, allowing me to better make use of this information.

Digital Garden Structure

The main aim of this digital garden is to convert the more “atomic” style single idea notes of my personal vault into more complete fully fledged notes and documents.

The rest of this page is still being written