I have hundreds of handwritten Moleskines, Leuchtturms, and copy books that track my personal digital transformation. I want to pull those thousands of notes together. I’m using a handwritten batch of index cards stored in a wooden box complemented by Markdown files inside Obsidian.
I’m using Obsidian in as clean an installation as practical–with 14 plugins because I don’t want a cluttered workspace. I discovered I don’t need Calendar for example.
I tried a setup with all the bells and whistles when I first started with Obsidian. I had to spend more time seeking Help Files and short tutorials instead of actually writing. I was downloading guidebooks and updating Chrome extensions every fortnight.
I needed a straightforward note-taking process, one that interlaced with my need to curate decades of my field journals. Explorers, writers, and thinkers have shared their work without tech. I want to be like them.