# My PKM System Handbook This document is a detailed description of my own [[Personal Knowledge Management System (PKMS)]], based on the following template: [[PKM System Handbook Template]] that I have created as bonus material for my [[Knowledge Management for Beginners]] course. This serves both as a reference and as a tool that can be used when considering changes and improvements. Note I've turned a large part of my system into a product called the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]]. This handbook describes how *I* use it, with my own tools and habits. If you're learning PKM, don't copy all of it. Start simple, and pick the parts that solve a problem you actually have. If you're wondering if my system works well, then take a look at those: - My Website & newsletter: https://dsebastien.net - My public notes (you're already here): https://notes.dsebastien.net - Stats about my public notes: https://stats.notes.dsebastien.net Last updated on: 2026-10-07 ## Improvement opportunities - I want to eliminate [[Readwise]] from my system. I'll most probably cancel my subscription soon, and the Readwise plugin is already disabled in my vault - On desktop, the [[Obsidian Web Clipper]] has replaced it for curation. I clip pages with templates (the first one is for Reddit threads), and the clips land in my curated content folder - I can now use the [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Content Curation System]] for this. I still need to document the Web Clipper templates there - What I don't have yet is a good replacement for capture on mobile. That's an open problem. The Web Clipper on mobile is a candidate, but I haven't tested it seriously yet - [[Obsidian Web Viewer]] is still part of my toolbox for reading inside Obsidian - My Media Management System is built (see [[#Media Management System]]), but it's still empty: I haven't moved my movies, shows and games into it yet - I should move the remaining templates onto the OSK plugin's template helpers (pickers, date stamps and filing driven by the note type registry). Most of them use them now; the ones with custom logic (e.g., the person template) don't yet - I should decide what to do with my legacy Kanban boards (Perso, Writing, Mariage). I still use them as raw notes, but the Kanban plugin is gone and my tasks now live in TaskNotes - I should rename my process notes consistently. Most use a `Process - X` prefix, while the note type expects a ` (Process)` suffix - I should clean up the plugins that are installed but disabled (e.g., Readwise, Smart Connections, Omnisearch, Pandoc) - I should isolate people roles/jobs tags under a "job" parent tag - I should clean up all concepts to use the "concepts" tags in a more systematic way - I need to update [[How to convert notes from analog to digital]]. The conversion itself is now mostly automated (see [[#PKM Process - Capture]]), but the note doesn't say so yet - I should rename some templates for homogeneity. Low value (e.g., `Personal Note` to `Personal`), even more so now that templates are resolved from the note type definitions rather than by name - In yearly notes, I should replace navigation links to all the quarterly notes by links to all the monthly notes for that year - I need to fix the issue with notes created this week in weekly notes. The weekly template now has a "Notes created" query, so this may be fixed; I need to check ## Tools, platforms & hardware This section lists all the tools, platforms and hardware I use for my PKM system, including their costs, and the rationale behind the choices. The summary contains everything, while individual sections focus on different aspects and phases of the [[Personal Knowledge Management Process]]. ### Summary - Main computer: a [[Linux]] machine running [[Omarchy]] - Audible: €10/month (price often evolves) - Feedly: free - Social media platforms: free - [[Obsidian]]: free - Obsidian Publish: $8/month - Obsidian core plugins I rely on: [[Bases core plugin for Obsidian|Bases]], Publish, [[Obsidian Web Viewer]], Canvas, Random note, File recovery - Obsidian community plugins (all free). Here are the ones that matter most: - [[Obsidian Starter Kit plugin for Obsidian]]. It holds my note type definitions (properties, statuses, tags, folders, templates) and files notes automatically - [[Templater plugin for Obsidian|Templater]]: all my templates - [[Dataview plugin for Obsidian|Dataview]] + [[Dataview Serializer plugin for Obsidian]]: queries whose results are written into the notes (so they also render on my published notes) - [[TaskNotes plugin for Obsidian|TaskNotes]] + [[Kanban Action Planner plugin for Obsidian|Kanban Action Planner]]: tasks as notes, shown on boards - [[Journal Bases plugin for Obsidian|Journal Bases]] and [[Periodic notes plugin for Obsidian]]: my journal - [[QuickAdd plugin for Obsidian|QuickAdd]] and [[Meta Bind plugin for Obsidian|Meta Bind]]: quick capture and buttons - [[Notebook Navigator plugin for Obsidian|Notebook Navigator]]: navigation - [[Book search plugin for Obsidian|Book Search]]: book notes - [[Life Tracker plugin for Obsidian|Life Tracker]]: tracking health and habits in my daily notes - [[reMarkable Sync plugin for Obsidian|Remarkable Synchronizer]] and [[Transcriber plugin for Obsidian|Transcriber]]: my reMarkable notebooks, synced and transcribed - [[Voicenotes sync plugin for Obsidian|Voicenotes Sync]]: voice notes - [[Ghost Publish plugin for Obsidian|Ghost Publish]] and [[Typefully plugin for Obsidian|Typefully]]: publishing - [[Local backup plugin for Obsidian|Local Backup]] and [[Time Machine plugin for Obsidian|Time Machine]]: local backups and older versions of a note - [[Linter plugin for Obsidian|Linter]]: consistent formatting - [[Claudian plugin for Obsidian|Claudian]], [[Terminal plugin for Obsidian|Terminal]], [[Obsidian CLI REST MCP plugin for Obsidian|REST and MCP server]] and [[Agentic Resource Discovery Server plugin for Obsidian|Agentic Resource Discovery Server]]: AI inside and around the vault - Many of those are plugins I've created myself (Journal Bases, Kanban Action Planner, Remarkable Synchronizer, Transcriber, Ghost Publish, Time Machine, the REST and MCP server, the Agentic Resource Discovery Server, and the Obsidian Starter Kit plugin) - Past: [[Auto note mover plugin for Obsidian]] (replaced by the automatic filing of the Obsidian Starter Kit plugin) and the Kanban plugin (replaced by TaskNotes and Kanban Action Planner) - And many more that I have included in the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]]: [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Reference - Included plugins]] - I write about my favorite ones here: https://www.dsebastien.net/2022-10-19-the-must-have-obsidian-plugins/ - [[Obsidian Web Clipper]] (browser extension): free - [[Readwise]]: $10 per month, billed annually, stable price (I'll most probably cancel it soon) - reMarkable e-ink tablet + web, mobile, and desktop apps - eBook reader - Spotify: Family plan (price often evolves) - [[Typefully]]: $100 per year - Various other [[AI Tools I use]] - [[Voicenotes AI]]: paid one-time lifetime fee of $50 (early adopter) - [[OpenRouter]]: ~$25 per month - [[Claude]] Max: $200 per month - [[Claude Code]], [[Codex CLI]] and [[Gemini CLI]] - [[qmd]] (local search engine over my notes) and [[Beads]] (issue tracker for AI agents): free - Google Drive: $100 per year - [[Syncthing]]: free - Home NAS ([[Synology NAS]]) - Backblaze: $40 per month - [[Restic]]: free - [[n8n]]: $5/month for a VPS on Hetzner ### Tool for Thought - [[Obsidian]] - Rationale - [[Benefits of Obsidian]] - [[Why Obsidian is All You Need - From Simple Notes to Complete Productivity (Article)]] ### PKM Process - Explore - RSS feed aggregator: Feedly - Rationale - Could import my OPML file, keeps track of what I looked at - Simple to use - Not bugging me with ads - Loads quickly - Works fine - Don't see the point of paying for it, I don't need the advanced features - Bookmarks I open daily - "Open" folder on my bookmarks bar - Rationale - Simple to open the main set of Websites I want to look at daily (e.g., Hacker News, Reddit, etc) - Social media - X, Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads.net, TikTok, Reddit, ... - Rationale - Serendipity ### PKM Process - Curate #### Articles, videos and links in general - [[Obsidian Web Clipper]] (my default on desktop) - Rationale - Saves directly to Obsidian, as a proper note with metadata - Templates per website: each one decides what gets extracted, how the note is named and which properties it gets. My first one, `WCT Reddit`, captures a Reddit thread with its comments - Clipped content goes to my curated content folder (`32.08 Curated`), with one subfolder per source (Articles, Videos, Reddit, Papers, etc) - Integrates powerful AI features - Reduces my costs - [[Readwise]] (on its way out) - Rationale - Cross-platform - Browser extension for quick capture - I stopped syncing it to Obsidian (the plugin is disabled), and I'll most probably cancel it - [[Obsidian Web Viewer]] - Rationale - Core plugin of Obsidian - Can save pages in the vault - Emails to myself - Rationale - For urgent things - Spotify & Shazam for music - IMdb and TV Show time for movies and TV Shows - My Media Management System will take over part of this (see [[#Media Management System]]) - Past - Bookmarks - Manually save pages (e.g., to PDF) #### Books - Obsidian - Rationale - I create book notes for every book I want to read and to store my notes, summary, key quotes, etc - I can keep track of the reading status, dates, etc using metadata - It appears on my Books dashboard (a Base with a bookshelf view of the covers) - The Book Search plugin fills in the details (authors, cover, etc) when I create a book note - I can add references, etc - It's all part of my knowledge base - Past - Goodreads I've described my approach here: [[How I manage books and summaries in Obsidian]] #### Podcasts & audiobooks - Spotify - Rationale - Most of the content I care about is there - Audible - Rationale - Many books I want to listen to are there - Might get rid of it in favor of Spotify as I'm rarely interested in Amazon-specific titles #### On the go - Readwise (until I find a replacement) - Rationale - Easy to keep in one place - Only relevant if I can freely use my phone - This is the gap I mentioned in the improvement opportunities: once Readwise is gone, I need another way to curate from my phone - Emails to myself - Rationale - Useful for content I want to consume asap - ReMarkable e-ink tablet - Rationale - Better than paper - Dedicated notebook for content curation - Pen & Paper - Rationale - Last resort - Transfer to Obsidian or email asap ### PKM Process - Consume #### Articles, videos and links in general - Readwise (Reader app), for as long as I keep it - Rationale - Cross-platform - Obsidian Web Viewer - Rationale - Having content and my notes side by side in different tabs or windows - Helps me capture notes in context - Avoids context switching and distractions - Web browser - Rationale - Availability of all my browser extensions - YouTube - Rationale - Laziness #### Books - e-book reader - Rationale - Can store tons of books - Doesn't take much space - Doesn't weight much - Remembers the page I'm on for each book - Paper - Rationale - Last resort - Sometimes better for technical content #### Podcasts & audiobooks - Spotify - Rationale - Easy to use on mobile - Works offline - Can download content in advance - I explore podcasts pseudo-randomly - Audible - Rationale - Easy to use on mobile - Works offline - Can download content in advance - Mainly for fiction books ### PKM Process - Capture #### Notes, book notes and ideas - Daily notes in Obsidian - Rationale - Directly capture within my Tool for Thought - No transition required apart from knowledge ingestion - Capture buttons at the top of my periodic notes, and QuickAdd actions, make it a one-click thing - ReMarkable e-ink tablet - Rationale - Easiest when I'm not in front of the computer - Ultimately, notes transition to Obsidian. And that part is now automated: my [[reMarkable Sync plugin for Obsidian|Remarkable Synchronizer]] plugin syncs my notebook pages into the vault as images, and my [[Transcriber plugin for Obsidian|Transcriber]] plugin turns the handwriting into Markdown using AI (more on this here: [[I Built an Obsidian Plugin to Sync My reMarkable Notes (Article)]] and [[I Built an Obsidian Plugin to Convert Handwritten Notes to Markdown (Article)]]) - One notebook per context - Support for freeform notes and drawings - Automatically saved to the cloud - Doesn't take much space - Doesn't weight much - Battery lasts a long time compared to a tablet - Pen & paper - Rationale - Last resort when I can't use the other options - Messy and easy to lose - Hurts my hand :p - Ultimately, notes transition to Obsidian - AI Tools - Rationale - Help me in all sorts of way analyze, summarize, etc #### Highlights - Obsidian Web clipper - Rationale - Easiest when in front of the computer - Can leverage AI while capturing highlights - Directly imported in Obsidian - Easy transition to my daily notes - Readwise (previously) - Rationale - Easiest on mobile - Was directly imported in Obsidian (I've stopped that) - Easy transition to my daily notes - Emails to myself - Rationale - For urgent info I want to add to Obsidian #### Podcasts & audiobooks - Voicenotes AI - Rationale - Same as for on the go #### Documents & images - Obsidian - Rationale - Centralize all resources associated with my notes - Automatically organized (public and private attachments are kept in separate folders, so that I only publish what I want) - Google Drive - Rationale - For reference material I don't need in my notes - For heavy documents that I don't want in my notes - Home NAS - Rationale - For sensitive documents (eg medical records, loans, etc) #### On the go - Voicenotes AI - Rationale - Easiest when I want to quickly capture something without hassle - Doesn't require much attention - Works in various contexts (driving, running, etc) - Automatically imported into Obsidian - Easy transition from transcribed text to my daily notes in Obsidian - Emails to myself - Rationale - Useful when I want to quickly capture something to look at later - Can include context - Reviewed quickly because of my inbox zero rule - WhatsApp messages to myself - Rationale - Last resort - Easy, but messy - Could automate processing in the future ### PKM Process - Distill/Organize/Connect/Develop/Create - Obsidian - Rationale - All in one place - Can connect all the dots - What I use for this - Permanent notes for ideas and concepts, in the spirit of the [[Zettelkasten method]] ([[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Zettelkasten System]]) - Dots: small notes for wins, fails, challenges and lessons, which feed my personal notes ([[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Dot System]]) - Ideas: one note per idea, so that I can come back to them and turn some into projects - Creations: every article, newsletter issue, video, course or product has its own note ([[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Creation System]]) - Maps of Content and Bases to find and combine notes (see [[#Bases and Maps of Content]]) - AI Tools - Rationale - Gain time - I also maintain a few LLM wikis: knowledge bases written and kept up to date by AI from my sources, inside my vault ([[LLM Wiki]], [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - LLM Wiki System]]) ### PKM Process - Share - Obsidian - Rationale - All in one place - Prepare drafts and keep a copy of all published content - Obsidian Publish - Rationale - Easy to share/publish right from Obsidian - Good showcase - Reference for my own published content - Easy to reuse to crosspost elsewhere - Ghost (blog) - Rationale - Main entry point for everything I work on and share - Integrated into Obsidian using my [[Ghost Publish plugin for Obsidian|Ghost Publish]] plugin, so I write and publish without leaving my vault - Typefully - Rationale - Able to publish content to various social media platforms - Integrated into Obsidian using my plugin ### Backups - [[Restic]] - Rationale - My Linux machine backs up to my home NAS with Restic - Encrypted, deduplicated snapshots - Easy to restore a single file or a whole snapshot - [[Local backup plugin for Obsidian|Local Backup]] plugin - Rationale - Local backups of the vault, made from within Obsidian - Easy to recover - Local disk drives - Rationale - Easy to recover - Home NAS - Rationale - Provides additional redundancy - Also backed up with the rest of the NAS content - Backblaze - Rationale - Provides additional redundancy - Remote - Protected from local catastrophe - Git - Rationale - Fine control - Versioned with comments (commit messages) - Easy to synchronize to different locations - Easy to rollback changes (accidental or not) - Google Drive - Rationale - Provides additional redundancy - Remote - Protected from local catastrophe - Past: PowerShell scripts and Windows scheduled tasks, from the time my main machine ran Windows ### Synchronization - Syncthing - Rationale - I use Syncthing to synchronize my Obsidian vault across multiple devices - I use it because it works well and also because I rely on it for other purposes ### Automation - Obsidian plugins - Rationale - The Obsidian Starter Kit plugin recognizes the type of each note and files it in the right folder, and its automation rules update notes when their status changes (e.g., setting the completion date of a task) - I also use Obsidian plugins to trigger actions and workflows in other systems - [[n8n]] - Rationale - I use n8n to automate various tasks from and within my knowledge base in Obsidian - This enables me to integrate my notes with various platforms and systems, automating actions in those - n8n also enables me to integrate AI in automated workflows - Claude Code hooks - Rationale - Small scripts that run at specific moments of an AI session, e.g., to back up the conversation before it gets compacted, or to keep the AI from writing notes in the wrong folder ### AI - [[Claude Code]]: My current AI tool of choice - Rationale - Use AI from the command-line - Usable against any files - Can customize commands - Can directly read/write notes through the filesystem or the [[Model Context Protocol (MCP)]] - I can even run it inside Obsidian (Claudian, Terminal) - [[Claude]]: My current AI tool of choice - Rationale - Leverages my notes in Obsidian through the [[Model Context Protocol (MCP)]] - [[Codex CLI]] and [[Gemini CLI]] - Rationale - Alternatives to Claude Code, against the same vault, skills and instructions - [[ChatGPT]] / [[GPT4]]: My thinking sidekick - Rationale - Multi-modal - Keeps evolving - [[Gemini]] - Rationale - Free - Multi-modal: supports audio and video inputs in addition to text and images - [[Google AI Studio]] - Rationale - Free - Multi-modal: supports audio and video inputs in addition to text and images - [[NotebookLM]] - Rationale - Free - Can analyze and let me discuss with tons of source material at ease - Can generate podcasts dissecting the content in a notebook - [[ElevenLabs]] - Rationale - Handles Text to Speech for me - Can clone my voice - [[OpenRouter]] - Rationale - One API enpoint to use various LLMs - Single place where I need to pay for AI models - Supported by many tools and plugins - [[Perplexity]] - Rationale - AI search engine - [[llm CLI]] - Rationale - Sometimes useful to explore questions - [[Model Context Protocol (MCP)]] - Rationale - Integrate LLMs and AI-enabled IDEs with many other tools and platforms (including my knowledge base) - [[Ollama]] - Rationale - Install and use AI models locally - [[Code2Prompt]] and [[files-to-prompt]] - Rationale - Easily generate mega prompts that I can feed into various LLMs See [[AI Tools I use]] for more, and [[#AI assistant]] for how all of this plugs into my vault. ## Principles This section lists the core principles of my system. Those provide overarching "rules" that guide my design, implementation and evolutionary choices. - Everything that matters ends up in Obsidian, my Tool for Thought - I consider all the other tools, platforms and hardware that I use as temporary/transient, apart from a few exceptions and specific needs (e.g. big files that I prefer storing on Google Drive, home NAS, etc) - When curating content, I want to avoid relying on platform-specific features (e.g., X or Bluesky, bookmarks, YouTube save for later, etc) - Those are not reliable (change or disappear over time) - Those just create additional information silos - All my notes must be connected to time through my journal entries and roll from daily notes to yearly notes so that I can quickly see everything that I've explored in a specific time frame - My journal MUST be easy to navigate - I MUST easily be able to go from one day to the previous/next, to the previous/next week, month, etc - I MUST easily be able to create new periodic notes - Every content type I use should have specific rules, naming conventions, tags, metadata, etc - I prefer automating content organization using tools and plugins, rather than wasting time doing it manually - My most important content types should have pre-defined templates and automation rules to reduce friction and increase consistency - I prefer regrouping notes in very few generic and content-agnostic folders, unless for specific needs (e.g., quotes, book notes, meeting notes, etc - I prefer using tags than folders to associate content with topics (tags > folders) - This enables me to associate notes with multiple topics/domains - This enables me to query notes in more interesting ways - My Tool for Thought SHOULD - Be and remain highly performant and responsive, at scale (>= 10K notes). My vault now holds more than 19,000 Markdown files - Handle notes, tasks and different types of resources (documents, images, audio and video files, etc) - Store data locally, under my control - Use an open and portable data format - Work offline - Work across platforms and devices - Support synchronizing the data across platforms and devices - Directly or indirectly support - Links and backlinks - Tags and tag hierarchies - Custom metadata - Full-text search - Search and replace (local and global) - Creating and persisting advanced queries and their results within notes (ala Dataview + Dataview Serializer) - Editing multiple documents at once - Transclusion - Visualizations (i.e., infinite canvas) - AI - Publishing content to a static site - Installing and creating extensions, ideally with a full-blown SDK - I SHALL NOT consider migrating to a different tool or platform (including my Tool for Thought) unless if it's dead-obvious that I'm missing out on extraordinary features or if I'm stuck on a dead end road because of what I'm currently using - I SHALL AVOID all forms of vendor lock-in for my Tool for Thought, either through the tool itself or through its extensions - If my Tool for Thought disappears and I need to switch, most of my data (95+%) should be fine and "functional" - The information in my Tool for Thought MUST be highly redundant. I need multiple copies/backups - Those backups MUST provide a low recovery time (low MTTR) and the ability to recover very recent data (low RPO, i.e., Recovery Point Objective). At worst, I can accept to lose half a day of work, not any more - i MUST be able to recover any version of any individual note or file in the system ## Content types This section lists all the types of content that exist at some point or another in my PKM system. Some transform over time or simply disappear, while others remain. I use the note types of the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]]: [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Reference - Note Types]] Each note type is defined in the [[Obsidian Starter Kit plugin for Obsidian]]: its folder, template, tags, properties, statuses and naming rules. I have 65 of them today. The main families are: - Journal: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly notes - Actions: goals, plans, projects, tasks, boards, activities and ideas - Knowledge: fleeting notes, literature notes, curated content, quotes, book notes, permanent notes, dots, Maps of Content - People: persons, contacts, and (for my business) customers - Creations: articles, newsletter issues, videos, social media posts, products, etc - Media: movies, TV shows, anime, manga, comics, video games, board games and music albums (see [[#Media Management System]]) - Meta: personal notes, routines, processes, and the notes of my AI assistant ## Special notes Right now, I use the following special notes in Obsidian: - Core values and personal principles (My Core Values, My Personal Principles) - Gift ideas - Goals: History of my past goals (one note per goal, plus an archived "My Goals" note) - Kanban and/or project boards (generic + per project). My tasks now live in TaskNotes and show up on Kanban Action Planner boards; my old Kanban board notes (Perso, Writing, Mariage) are still there and I still use them as raw notes - Me: Stuff about myself, my physical and mental health, progress, etc (gathered in a "Me" Base) - Non-goals: What I want to avoid in the future (My Non-goals) - Routines - System maintenance: Help me notice problems with my knowledge base (duplicate notes, unpublished notes, most and least used tags, quick actions) - Top of mind - Waiting for: Things I'm waiting for (e.g., someone owes me something, someone must take an action, etc) - Wishlists (the Media Management System will take this over: every media note has an ownership property, and "Wishlist" is one of its values) - Yearly plans (e.g., 2026 Plan) ## Conventions This section lists all specific conventions for the system and its different parts. - Whenever possible, I SHOULD use the same base/core folder structure across tools and platforms in the system - I follow my own advice regarding - Tags - [[Why and how to tag notes in your PKM]] - Note names - https://www.dsebastien.net/the-art-of-note-naming-keys-to-effective-knowledge-management/ - [[The Art of Note Naming - Keys to Effective Knowledge Management (Article)]] - [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Tutorial - Note Naming]] - All notes - SHOULD be tagged with a specific type tag to be able to easily recognize those - MUST carry the mandatory tags of their note type, including a zone tag (e.g., `zone/areas`). Templates add those automatically - Generic notes - SHOULD all have a unique name (at least unique within their specific "category") - Tutorials and step-by-step: SHOULD names should start with "How to " - ALL note types should use the prefix/suffix documented here: [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Reference - Note Types]] - For some types, the suffix is optional (e.g., permanent notes, literature notes) - Quotes SHOULD all be linked to a person note - Enables listing all quotes by X in the corresponding person's note - Maps of Content (MoCs) - SHOULD use queries to list corresponding content (i.e., maintained automatically) - MAY include multiple queries - MAY include manual links - Contact notes - Name should be "Given name Family name" - People notes - Name should be "Given name Family name" - Projects - Name ends with the ` (Project)` suffix (e.g., "Obsidian Starter Kit V6 (Project)") - MUST have a dedicated folder in the structure - SHOULD regroup project goals, notes, plans, tasks, etc - MAY be split across different tools and platforms (eg resources) - Tasks - One note per task (TaskNotes), filed by year and month - Media - One folder per medium. Things that have parts get their own folder, with the parts inside: a TV show and its seasons, a comic series and its albums, a board game and its expansions - Every media note has a `cover` (the image URL) and a `local_cover` (a copy of the image in my public attachments folder, named after the note) - Media notes are private by default (`public_note: false`), except wishlist sections, which I want to be able to share as a gift list - Resources - Name MUST be unique across the entire system - SHOULD be regrouped in a single folder, with two subfolders: one for public attachments and one for private ones - SHOULD be filed automatically - Special notes - MUST all stay grouped together for ease of use - SHOULD be reviewed at least once per year - Yearly plans SHOULD be archived when a new one is created ## Folder structure ### Core structure This structure is present in all my tools and platforms. It takes inspiration from the [[PARA method]], and the [[Johnny Decimal system]] of [[Johnny Noble]]. ``` - `10 Meta/`: System configuration, personal information, processes, goals, tasks - `20 Actions/`: Productivity related with goals, plans, projects and tasks - `30 Areas/`: Areas of responsibility and knowledge domains - `40 Journal/`: Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly notes - `50 Resources/`: Reference materials, attachments, templates, prompts - `60 Archives/`: Archived projects/notes (I never publish those) ``` There are some variations, but I use something as close to this as possible everywhere I can to maximize findability, and ease of use. ### Tool for Thought Within Obsidian, I use the following structure: [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Reference - Folder structure]]. Which is part of the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]]. Here's what the second level looks like in my vault today: ``` - `10 Meta/`: 11 Personal, 12 Routines, 13 Processes, 14 Maintenance, 15 Private, 16 DeveloPassion, 99 AI Assistant - `20 Actions/`: 21 Goals, 22 Plans, 23 Projects, 24 Tasks, 25 Boards, 26 Activities, 27 Ideas - `30 Areas/`: 31 Fleeting notes, 32 Literature notes (incl. 32.08 Curated), 33 Permanent notes (33.01 Dots, 33.02 Content, 33.03 Visualizations, 33.04 Creations), 34 Maps (34.01 MoCs, 34.02 Bases), 35 Voice notes, 36 People, 37 Meeting notes, 38 Media (one numbered subfolder per medium) - `40 Journal/`: 41 Daily notes, 42 Weekly notes, 43 Monthly notes, 44 Quarterly notes, 45 Yearly notes - `50 Resources/`: 51 Attachments, 52 Excalidraw, 53 Scripts, 54 Templates, 55 Obsidian Publish, 56 Prompts - `60 Archives/`: mirrors `20 Actions/` and `30 Areas/` ``` Journal notes are filed by date (e.g., daily notes by year and week), and tasks by year and month. ### NAS I use a more complex variant of my base structure on my home NAS because that's where I store all my family documents, pictures, video, software, and a ton of other things. I discussed this in a previous article: [[Personal Knowledge Management organization (Article)]] ## Tags I combine parent and nested tags (aka tag hierarchies). Parent tags include a mix of note types, topics, statuses, etc. My note type tags are leveraged for automation. Changing those requires adapting my automation rules (automated note filing), as well as my [[Map of Content (MoC)|Maps of Content (MoCs)]]. I used to add type tags only once I had an actual use case. That changed: every note type now has mandatory tags, which its template adds automatically. That includes a type tag (e.g., `type/task`, `type/book`, `type/media/movie`) and a zone tag that says where the note belongs (`zone/meta`, `zone/actions`, `zone/areas`, `zone/journal`, `zone/resources`, with sub-zones such as `zone/areas/permanent_notes`). The Obsidian Starter Kit plugin uses those tags (along with folders and name patterns) to recognize the type of a note. My current note type tags are those of the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]]: [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Reference - Special Tags]] With those additional ones: - DeveloPassion (my company) - Courses: `#developassion/course` - Free resources: `#developassion/free_resource` - Products: `#developassion/product` - Services: `#developassion/service` In addition to type tags, I also heavily use taxonomy tags in various ways. I consider multiple sub-types for those: - Pure ones such as `psychology`, `personal_development`, `pkm`, `knowledge_management`, `knowledge_work`, ... - The generic `concepts` one, for notes about a concept - I once planned a hierarchy (`concept/<domain>/<sub_domain>/<concept name>`), but I never actually used it I rarely use status tags because I generally prefer to consider my notes as [[Evergreen notes]]. I actually use type tags to recognize certain states of my note types (e.g., draft and published articles). I don't specifically use action tags, but instead rely on metadata to capture the current stage in my workflows. More on this in the next section. ## Metadata This section describes the most important metadata I use and rely on. I use the metadata properties of the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]]: - Generic: [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Reference - Note Properties]] - Specific: [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Reference - Note Types]] - Also, the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]] includes the [[Obsidian Starter Kit plugin for Obsidian]] that I rely on for note type definitions, property definitions, association with folders, templates, etc A few properties do most of the work: - `status`: each note type has its own list of statuses (e.g., To Watch / Watching / Watched for movies). Each status has a role (backlog, active, done, etc), and some statuses stamp a date when I set them (e.g., `date_finished`). More on this here: [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Status System]] - `priority`: the same scale for goals, plans, projects, tasks and media, from `99 - TBD` to `10 - Top`, plus `manual_order` when I want to sort things by hand - `public_note`: whether a note gets published on my notes website - `last_reviewed`: when I last reviewed a note (useful for personal notes, which I want to keep up to date) ## Templates I use the templating system of the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]]: - [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Templating System]] - [[Obsidian Starter Kit]]: [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Reference - Templates]] How it works in my vault: - All my templates are [[Templater plugin for Obsidian|Templater]] templates (`TPL <Name>`), one per note type - A dispatcher template (`TPL Dispatcher`) runs whenever a note is created. It recognizes the type of the note (from its name, tags or folder), applies the right template, and that template moves the note to the right folder. So I never file anything manually. More on this here: [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Automatic Note Filing System]] - Most of my templates don't hardcode lists of values anymore. They read the statuses, priorities and other allowed values from the note type definitions when they run, through a shared script (`osk_template.js`, in `50 Resources/53 Scripts/`). If I rename a status, those templates follow - [[Obsidian Web Clipper]] templates live next to the others (`WCT <Name>`), each with a short note that documents it I also have a meta-template for gathering statistics about my knowledge base: `TPL Stats`. That template includes a Templater code block that gets executed when the template is invoked. It analyses the whole vault and generates two files: - `Stats.md` under 50 Resources/55 Obsidian Publish - `stats.json` The `Stats.md` file is published on my notes website: https://notes.dsebastien.net/50+Resources/55+Obsidian+Publish/Stats The `stats.json` file gets committed and pushed by the template to a separate Git repository on GitHub. From there, a GitHub Action builds the HTML version of the stats and publishes it on https://stats.notes.dsebastien.net/ I only run it from time to time, for instance during yearly reviews, in order to notice trends and have cool stats to share. ## Data and information flows This section describes how information flows through all the parts my system (tools, platforms, hardware, etc). My Tool for Thought (Obsidian) is the final destination. What I discover through Web browsing, RSS feeds or social media used to end up in [[Readwise]]. That's no longer the case on desktop: I now clip what I want to keep with the [[Obsidian Web Clipper]], and the clips go straight into my curated content folder as typed notes. I sometimes consume directly through my Web browser or Obsidian and capture raw information directly in Obsidian daily notes. On mobile, I don't have a good flow yet (see the improvement opportunities). I review clipped content and highlights during weekly reviews, and add relevant pieces to my daily notes and/or turn them into tasks. Notes taken on my ReMarkable e-ink tablet are synced into my vault automatically, then transcribed using AI, and I add what matters to my daily notes (cfr [[How to convert notes from analog to digital]]). For paper notes, I convert them to digital the same way, and then I get rid of those. Voice notes that I take using [[Voicenotes AI]] are automatically transcribed and imported into Obsidian. I review those during weekly reviews, and add relevant pieces to my daily notes and/or turn them into tasks. I then delete those. I rarely used fleeting notes nowadays and prefer to write raw notes directly in my daily notes. I review and process those once a week, similar to the way I do it for highlights and voice notes. I create new maps of content whenever I feel the need to find notes for specific topics or combinations of topics. I create meeting notes for important meetings for which I want to capture information. I review those during my weekly reviews, integrate whatever I need into my daily note and tasks, but I never delete the meeting notes themselves. Once created, they're considered read-only. I capture valuable prompts in my daily notes. Same for quotes, expressions, poems, etc. So, basically, everything enters my knowledge base through daily notes. Then, during my weekly reviews, I go through all the daily notes of the week and use my knowledge ingestion process to extract and connect new notes (literature, permanent, etc). As part of that process, I replace notes in daily notes with links to the newly created notes. Each daily note has a "Discoveries" section. My AI assistant adds a link there to every note it creates or updates that day, so my journal also logs what happened in my vault through AI. Major elements of my daily notes are copied to weekly notes, then to monthly notes, etc as part of the corresponding periodic reviews. I generally do this once a week, once a month, and once a year. I rarely do formal quarterly reviews. My articles and newsletters are directly written in dedicated notes. Once created, I add a link to my daily note. Then those follow the same path as other notes through periodic reviews, which summarize everything. My book notes are also directly added to dedicated notes. Once created, I also add a link to my daily note. Then those follow the same path as other notes through periodic reviews. The same goes for media notes (movies, games, etc). During weekly reviews, I also created contact and people notes so that I can link quotes, book notes, etc to the corresponding persons. I also directly create YouTube video notes when I prepare a video. Same for projects, etc. Resources are always added to my dedicated attachments folder, and directly named correctly (clear name instead of timestamps void of meaning). Tasks enter my system at various points. Each task is a note of its own (with the [[TaskNotes plugin for Obsidian|TaskNotes]] plugin), linked to its project when there is one, and I see them on boards with my [[Kanban Action Planner plugin for Obsidian|Kanban Action Planner]] plugin. Personal and special notes are long-standing, and I review/update those mostly at random, but also during periodic reviews. More details about all this here: - [[Overview of my PKM System]] - Visualization: [[Personal Knowledge Management System (PKMS).canvas|Personal Knowledge Management System]] ## Workflows This section lists the main workflows I rely on. ### Journaling - Importance: High - Frequency: Daily Journaling is at the very core of my PKM practice. I always have my daily note opened somewhere. Whenever I open Obsidian, my daily note is created (if not there already) and opened. I use it all day long to capture ideas, new knowledge, interesting links, keep track of what I've done, etc. As described before, everything enters my knowledge base through daily notes. I avoid creating new notes in the moment, to minimize context switching and go back to whatever I'm busy doing. I open today's note with my [[Journal Bases plugin for Obsidian|Journal Bases]] plugin. The template names the note correctly, applies the right structure, and files it in the right folder. The [[Periodic notes plugin for Obsidian]] is still installed: the dispatcher template uses its formats to recognize periodic notes. I used to have one shortcoming: if I missed some days and created their note after the fact, those stayed at the root of my vault and I had to file them manually. The dispatcher template now catches those too, and files them like any other note. ### Periodic reviews - Importance: High - Frequency: Weekly/Monthly/Yearly I perform weekly, monthly and yearly reviews. Those have multiple goals: - Feel grateful about my journey - Look back objectively - Plan ahead - Review notes - Ingest new knowledge So there are multiple dimensions to those: - Personal development and health - Productivity - Planning - PKM system maintenance I also review/update my task lists. Last but not least, during my weekly reviews, I execute my knowledge ingestion process (see below). I also have AI skills to prepare my reviews: a daily check-in, weekly planning, a weekly digest of what happened in my vault, and a summary of what I learned during the week. Additional details: - [[Weekly review process]] - My own weekly review checklist: [[Process - Weekly review]] - [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Tutorial - Running your weekly review]] ### Knowledge ingestion/extraction - Importance: High - Frequency: Weekly My knowledge ingestion/extraction process is simple: - Go through all daily notes - Extract relevant ideas to new notes - Apply the relevant template - Move the content from the daily note to the new note - Add a link to the new note in the daily note - Add metadata, tags and links - If time allows, improve the content In addition, I also look at recent voice notes, highlights, etc that might also need to be processed. I then remove those. AI skills can help with part of this: they go through my daily notes, suggest which ideas deserve their own note, and draft them. ### Knowledge capture - Importance: Medium - Frequency: Ad-hoc Whenever I stumble on interesting/valuable ideas, I capture those in some way. The means don't matter. Ultimately, everything goes into my daily notes. ### Analog to digital - Importance: Medium - Frequency: Ad-hoc For voice notes, it's fully automated. For my reMarkable notebooks, it's mostly automated as well: the pages are synced into my vault, and I transcribe them with AI from within Obsidian. For paper notes, I use the approach I've documented here: [[How to convert notes from analog to digital]]. Once converted, I add the content to my daily note. ### Publishing notes - Importance: Medium - Frequency: ~3 times a week Every few days, I publish new or updated notes to my notes website over at https://notes.dsebastien.net To do this, I use my publish template (`TPL Publish`), which also updates the lists of recently added and modified notes. The full lists are here: - Recently added: https://notes.dsebastien.net/50+Resources/55+Obsidian+Publish/Recently+added - Recently modified: https://notes.dsebastien.net/50+Resources/55+Obsidian+Publish/Recently+modified ### Publishing articles and newsletters - Importance: High - Frequency: ad-hoc When I prepare an article or newsletter, I write it in Obsidian, publish it on my notes website, then crosspost it from there to different platforms. I publish to my Ghost blog directly from Obsidian with my Ghost Publish plugin. That process is documented in detail in my business processes list, and is also (partly) covered by [[My communications plan]]. ### Publishing stats - Importance: Low - Frequency: ad-hoc I sometimes update the stats about my knowledge base. When I decide to do so, I: - Run my stats template (it also pushes the updated `stats.json` to GitHub, which rebuilds https://stats.notes.dsebastien.net automatically) - Publish the updated stats note ### Serendipity - Importance: Low - Frequency: ad-hoc When I feel uninspired, I open notes at random using the Random note built-in plugin to find some inspiration. When I do so, I often update/fix the notes I stumble upon, and scribble down ideas and links in my daily note, that I then use as input for creating new things. ## Action system: goals, projects and tasks My vault also runs my productivity system, based on the [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Action System]]: - Goals and yearly plans (e.g., my 2026 Plan) - Projects: one folder per project, with the project note, its notes and resources - Tasks: one note per task, with the [[TaskNotes plugin for Obsidian|TaskNotes]] plugin. Each task has a status, a priority, and links to its project, goal or activity - Activities: the recurring things I do that aren't projects (e.g., reading, maintaining my knowledge base, playing board games) - Ideas: things I might do one day - Boards: my [[Kanban Action Planner plugin for Obsidian|Kanban Action Planner]] plugin shows tasks, projects and other notes as Kanban boards, with the columns taken from each note type's statuses Because tasks are notes, they get the same treatment as everything else: links, metadata, backlinks, and a place in my journal. ## Bases and Maps of Content I use two ways to list notes automatically: - [[Bases core plugin for Obsidian|Bases]] (Obsidian's built-in databases, see [[Obsidian Bases]]): I have around 20 of them, e.g., Actions, Books, Creations, Dots, Health, Me, People, Processes and Maintenance. I use them to browse, filter and edit notes as tables, cards, timelines, graphs or bookshelves - [[Map of Content (MoC)|Maps of Content]]: notes with Dataview queries whose results get written into the note by Dataview Serializer. I prefer those for anything I publish, because the serialized results render on my notes website (Bases don't) More details: [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Reference - Bases]] and [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Maps System]]. ## Media Management System This is the newest part of my system. I wanted one place to track what I own, want, am consuming and have finished, for every type of media. As usual, I built and tested it in my own vault first, and it ships with the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]] v5.1. What it includes: - 11 note types: movies, TV shows, TV seasons, anime, manga, comic series, comic albums, video games, board games, board game items and music albums. Each medium has its own folder under `30 Areas/38 Media` (`38.01 Movies`, `38.02 TV Shows`…), with a folder note; TV seasons, comic albums and board game items live in their parent's folder. Each type has its own tag (e.g., `type/media/movie`), plus `zone/areas`. Books stay in their own type - Shared properties across all of them: status, priority, rating, ownership (Wishlist, Preordered, Owned, Previously Owned, Borrowed, Sold, etc), loans (`lent_to`, `lent_on`), wishlist priority and price, pledges and preorders (Kickstarter, Gamefound, etc), dates stamped by status (e.g., the date I finished a movie gets set when I mark it as watched) and covers - Automation rules on every media type: lending something stamps `lent_on` (and clearing `lent_to` removes it), marking it Owned stamps `date_acquired` and removes its wishlist priority, selling it stamps `date_disposed`, and a delivered pledge stamps `date_acquired`. Dates I typed myself are never overwritten - Each medium has its own statuses (e.g., To Watch / Watching / Watched / Abandoned for movies, plus "Waiting for New Season" for TV shows) - Parent/child folders: a TV show folder holds its seasons, a comic series folder holds its albums, and a board game folder holds its expansions and items - A `TPL <Medium>` template per type (e.g., `TPL Movie`, `TPL Board Game`), with two rows of buttons under the title (log a session, change the status, rate, lend, update a pledge, fetch the cover, etc). The templates read every value list (statuses, priorities, ownership) from the note type definitions, through the OSK plugin's template helpers, and file the note in the right folder - A Media Base with views across every medium (and my books), one Base per medium with its own views and Kanban board, and a Year in Media Base - Maps of Content: a Media MoC, one per medium, one for books and a Year in Media MoC (wishlist, in progress, completed by year, ratings, etc) - Metadata from the Web: the Media DB and Boardgame Search plugins fetch details and covers (TMDB, MyAnimeList, Steam, MusicBrainz, Comic Vine, BoardGameGeek), and Web Clipper templates cover sites without an API - Quick Actions (add, log a session, add playtime or episodes, lend, return, rate, change status, etc) and a set of `osk-library-*` AI skills (capture, enrich, log, import, lend, deals, etc) - My person note template lists the media related to that person, and what I've lent them Details: [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Media Management System]] and [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Tutorial - Managing Media]]. ## AI assistant AI is now a big part of how I work with my vault. This section is an overview; the details are in the linked notes. - I mostly use [[Claude Code]] (sometimes [[Codex CLI]] or [[Gemini CLI]]) directly on my vault. They read and write Markdown files, so no export or import is needed - Skills: a few hundred AI skills (instructions for specific jobs: reviewing a daily note, writing in my voice, auditing my notes, managing tasks, etc). Most come from the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]]; some are specific to my business. See [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Reference - AI Skills]] - Agents: specialized AI roles (a ghostwriter, a project manager, a maintenance worker, a coach, etc), each with its own identity, memory and daily log in my vault. They share a common memory: facts about me, my preferences, hard rules and lessons learned - My personal notes (values, principles, voice profile, etc) give the AI the context it needs to work for me rather than for "anyone" - MCP servers connect the AI to my vault and my tools: the Obsidian Starter Kit plugin (note types and properties), the Obsidian CLI and REST server, TaskNotes, [[qmd]] (local search over all my notes), the Agentic Resource Discovery Server, and Readwise (until I cancel it). See [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Reference - MCP servers]] - [[Agentic Resource Discovery Server plugin for Obsidian|Agentic Resource Discovery Server]]: my plugin serves my skills and agents to AI tools on demand, so that they don't all have to be loaded upfront - [[Beads]]: an issue tracker for AI agents, which I use for multi-step AI work - [[Obsidian CLI]]: lets the AI read, search and edit notes through Obsidian itself - I can also run Claude Code inside Obsidian, with the [[Claudian plugin for Obsidian|Claudian]] and [[Terminal plugin for Obsidian|Terminal]] plugins - LLM wikis: a few knowledge bases (e.g., on AI providers, and on PKM) that the AI writes and keeps up to date The whole setup is described here: [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - AI Assistant System]]. ## Personal Identity System I maintain a constellation of 33 personal identity notes in `10 Meta/11 Personal/`. These serve as both personal life documentation and rich context for AI-assisted workflows. The notes are organized by category: - **Identity & Values**: About Me (hub), Core Needs, Core Values, Key Beliefs, Mission, Personal Manifesto, Personal Principles, Non-goals - **Narrative & History**: My Life Story, My Career, My Education - **Self-Knowledge**: My Strengths, My Weaknesses, My Fears, My Darkness, My Enduring Insights, My Health Profile, My Reader Persona - **Communication**: My Communication Style, My Voice Profile, My Voice Card (how I write, so that AI can write in my voice) - **Relationships**: My Relationships - **Interests & Leisure**: My Interests, My Hobbies & Leisure - **Direction & Current State**: My Life Vision, My Current Life Priorities, Top of mind, My Time Structure, My Challenges - **Achievements & Failures**: My Life Achievements, My Career Achievements, My Life Failures & Lessons, My Career Failures & Lessons The achievement/failure hub notes aggregate [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Dot System|Dot]] notes (wins, fails, challenges) and link to completed goals/projects from the [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Action System|Action System]]. All personal notes use `type/personal` + `zone/meta` tags (plus a sub-tag per category, e.g., `type/personal/values`) and include `last_reviewed` for staleness tracking. ### Routines I document my routines in `10 Meta/12 Routines/`: - Morning Routine - Exercise Routine - Health Routine - Reading Routine - Content Creation Routine - Shut Down Routine ### Processes I maintain 48 process notes in `10 Meta/13 Processes/` covering everything from newsletter publishing to financial reviews, releasing new versions of my products, and working on my code repositories. ### AI Skills for Personal Identity A set of dedicated skills maintain the personal identity system: - `osk-identity-personal-review` reviews and updates personal notes conversationally - `osk-identity-life-event` captures significant events across multiple notes and systems - `osk-identity-personal-harvest` scans daily notes for signals that should update personal notes - `osk-action-routine` creates, reviews and audits routines - `osk-action-process` does the same for processes - `osk-action-retire` archives outdated routines/processes - Other `osk-identity-*` skills help me reflect (e.g., a life timeline, a future-self conversation, a map of my influences) These integrate with the daily check-in (loads personal context), weekly planning (surfaces stale notes), and close-day (prompts achievement/failure capture). ## Habits and routines In this section, I summarize the habits and routines associated with my PKM system. Most are actually realized by the workflows that I've described before. Here are the core ones: - Journaling: capture everything meaningful relevant - Periodic reviews: look back, plan ahead, ingest new knowledge - Creation: leverage my knowledge base - Review and maintenance: take opportunities to improve over time (continuous improvement) Some of these are tracked as activities in my vault (e.g., "Enrich my knowledge base", "AI Assistant Maintenance", "Read"), so that the related tasks and time spent end up in one place. ## Automation This section describes the automation I've put in place and rely on in your system. First of all, the [[Obsidian Starter Kit plugin for Obsidian]] and my dispatcher template automatically file all my notes where they belong, based on their type. I never want to file something manually. That replaced the [[Auto note mover plugin for Obsidian]] I used before. I also rely on configuration to automatically add new attachments to the dedicated folder. The Obsidian Starter Kit plugin also runs automation rules: when I change the status of a note, it can stamp a date (e.g., when a task is done, or a movie watched). I also have automation in place (through Obsidian plugins) to automatically import voice notes and sync my reMarkable notebooks. My backups are also fully automated. I also automate tasks with [[n8n]], which runs in production on a small VPS. And AI is now part of my automation: Claude Code hooks run small scripts at specific moments of an AI session, and AI skills take care of recurring jobs like maintenance checks or periodic summaries (see [[#AI assistant]]). ## Synchronization I've documented how I synchronize and backup my notes here: [[How I synchronize and backup my Obsidian notes]]. I'll update this section if anything major changes. ## Maintenance I evaluate the state of my PKM system once in a while, often when I feel too much friction or realize some parts are becoming messy or when I feel too much friction. At this point though, the most important parts are very stable (cfr [[Obsidian Starter Kit]]), and I don't need to make major changes. When I do this, I take a look at different things: - My maintenance note listing duplicate notes - My maintenance note listing unpublished notes - My maintenance notes listing the most and least used tags - My Maintenance Base - Orphaned notes ([[Obsidian Starter Kit - Tutorial - Detecting Orphan Notes]]) I also look at the list of installed Obsidian plugins, to see if there are some I could disable or remove. I also use that opportunity to install/test new plugins to see if they could help me automate more tedious tasks or improve some aspects of my system. AI helps here too. I have a maintenance agent and maintenance skills that check my notes against their note type definitions (missing properties, wrong folders, broken links, unused tags), detect when templates drift from the note types, and check the health of my AI skills. Last but not least, I also take a look at my ideas list for improvements and see if some are worth investing time into. I also take a step back and think about ways to further simplify, automate or eliminate parts of the system. I have a few recurring tasks in my calendar to remind me about performing system maintenance. ## Backups I've documented how I synchronize and backup my notes here: [[How I synchronize and backup my Obsidian notes]]. I'll update this section if anything major changes. Since I wrote that article, my main machine has changed: it now runs [[Linux]] ([[Omarchy]]). It backs up with [[Restic]] to my [[Synology NAS]]. On top of that, the [[Local backup plugin for Obsidian|Local Backup]] plugin makes local backups of the vault from within Obsidian. The PowerShell backup script and the Windows scheduled task I described here before (once a day, and every time my desktop computer was locked) belong to my old Windows setup. I no longer use them. ## Related - Template: [[PKM System Handbook Template]] - [[Overview of my PKM System]] - Visualization: [[Personal Knowledge Management System (PKMS).canvas|Personal Knowledge Management System]] - [[Personal Knowledge Management System (PKMS)]] - [[Personal Knowledge Management Process]] - [[Benefits of Obsidian]] - [[Why Obsidian is All You Need - From Simple Notes to Complete Productivity (Article)]] - [[Weekly review process]] - [[How to convert notes from analog to digital]] - [[How I manage books and summaries in Obsidian]] - [[PARA method]] - [[Johnny Decimal system]] - [[Zettelkasten method]] - [[Obsidian Starter Kit]] - [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Systems]] - [[Personal Knowledge Management organization (Article)]] - [[Map of Content (MoC)]] - [[Evergreen notes]] - [[How I synchronize and backup my Obsidian notes]] - [[The Art of Note Naming - Keys to Effective Knowledge Management (Article)]]