how to setup obsidianmd with para, note taking & tasks

This article describes how you setup your work / writing environment to be productive.¹ It use Obsidian to organize what I you do and write. The high-level structure are PARA folders.² You'll create and configure folder, plugin, and template to setup the general organization & usability, the task management & note taking and finally the folders for projects, areas, and resources. The setup avoids plugins & fancy features. If you have ideas to simplify the setup mail me I'm always happy to improve 😊

Organization & Usability

1. Plugin Folder Notes:³ I use folder notes so I can organize projects and areas in folders and have one entrypoint to the folders.
2. Plugin Dataview:⁴ To get an overview of some folders I query all articles.
3. Folder templates: I create template folder.

I suggest you add some convenience plugins:

• Cycle through planes: Helps you to tab though multiple planes
• Collapse all: Collapses all folders in your sidebar.
• Footnote shortcut: Footnotes help keep the flow of your notes clean. With the shortcut you can create a footnote in one step.

Projects

I create for each of my project a folder with a folder note.⁵ Then I initialize the project with my project template. The project template includes the

• goal of the project,
• the (link to) the backlog and
• a section for resources.

1. Create the 01_PPROJECTS folder and a folder note that holds a list of projects and a list of someday projects (they might be just some text). For each project write down the KPI and the release schedule and the DRI⁶.
2. Create a template: project⁷

   ---
   tags: type/project status/(plan|do|done)  }
   ---
   	
   The minimal viable outcome (KPI) of this project is ...
   		
   # backlog
   		
   - [ ] LINK TO BACKLOG HERE
   	
   # status
   	
   Continously update here the status with the most important results.
   	
   # Footnotes & Resources
   	
   

3. For each project create a folder with a folder node based on the project template

For each (planned) result in a project only write the achievement and the DRI in the status. Make tasks from then in the backlog. Write the details in an article linked in the one-line description. The articles also link to the resources.

Task Management & Note Taking

I use Things 3 to manage tasks. After I created project in things 3 with obsidian-things-link. When I in a document (meeting notes in daily note, an article of a project, area or resource) I write down a task and add it to a project backlog.

Each evening I look at Things and add timeboxes for the next day to the calendar. To plan⁸ the I add information about the situation to the timebox calendar entry .⁹ The next morning just typing ;agenda into my daily note. This snippet creates the day's agenda from my calendar with a script.

1. Create a the journals folder for the daily notes.
2. Configure the periodic notes plugin to create a new notes each day where I outline my agenda and note. I use day_template template for each day with sections for the agenda, notes and a link to the task overview query¹⁰.
3. I use the calendar-to-agenda.py script to transform my calendar into my agenda.⁷

Areas

I create for each (private) area where I maintain a standard a folder note inside 02_AREAS. I initialize the folder note with my area template. The area template contains goal (key results) and regular habits that help to maintain the standard. These habits lead to timebound projects with clear goals in a certain (short timespan). Finally, I collect valuable information in the resources & footnotes section.

1. create folder: 02_AREAS.
2. Create area template⁷

   ---
   tags: type/area
   ---
   	
   ## Key Results
   	
   - 
   	
   ## Habits
   	
   - 
   	
   ## Resources & Footnotes
   

3. Then I create a overview file in the 02_AREAS folder note. The overview file use !investor#Habits syntax to create an overview of all habits and key results of each area.

I use the overview to regularly check for projects & task I need to start. Further I confirm that I do my habits.

Resources

I organize (public) "topic or theme of ongoing interest" in the 03_RESOURCE folder. One folder is a collection of related information around this topic. Inside a collection I create articles. Articles are either whatis or howto.¹¹ For more info around the differences check knowledge management. I name the whatis article same as the content the article describes e.g. artificial intelligence / regex. I name howto articles with an howto in the name e.g. howto implement an artificial intelligence product / howto regex.¹² I click on the collection folder and then use Shift - N to create a new note. whatis articles explain a topic and create understanding / foundations e.g. "what is artificial intelligence". Howto articles describe how to do somethings e.g. "How to implement a model (to identify cars)".

1. Create 03_RESOURCES folder with a collection.
2. Create a collection template

---
tags: type/collection
classification: private
title: ''
aliases: []
season: spring
---

This file list all the different articles.

```dataview
TABLE WITHOUT ID
  link(file.link, title) AS "Title", type AS "Type", tags AS "Tags" FROM #computerscience
WHERE "type != collection" AND contains(tags, "")
SORT file.mtime DESC
/```

1. Create articles template

---
type: howto|whatis, samplecollectionName, sampleRelatedCollection
season: winter
classification: private
title: ''
aliases: []
---

- Intro (Goal, Situation/Complication/Background) - This article describes ...

- Content (depending on the topics differnt formats e.g. RFC/ADR format, 6 pager ... with differnt chapters)


## Footnotes & Resources

1. Use the templates to create the collections and articles. Differentiate between howto and whatis in the tags and add relatedCollectionNames.¹³

Optional:

• You can setup devonthink for a better search.
• You also want to prevent to write private information into a public note. The highlight public notes plugin flags public notes based on the frontmatter classification with a read heading.
• You can use the Flashcards to turn articles into anki cards to learn them continously.

Footnotes & Resources

Further I use some non-essential plugins ¹⁴.

• Merge / link productivity setup and process and knowledge management specifically howto structure information and articles - e.g. like tag management.