# About These Notes *Replaced by [[N1 About These Notes 20250402]]* - [[#Top of Mind]] - [[#Introduction]] - [[#My Journal]] - [[#Vault Management]] and [[#Folder Hierarchy]] - [[#Naming Conventions]] ## Introduction This "digital notebook" is an extension of my paper [[R2.21 My Notebooks 20230824|Notebooks]], a space for thinking through words. The main functional advantages of a digital notebook such as this are: - I can carry thousands of pages of my writing wherever I go (approximately 14,000 as of [[2024-06-09|today]].) - Notes can link to other notes and even include their contents for commentary or context. - Digital search tools enable efficient retrieval of past notes. It contains primarily plain text files in [[N2 Markdown 20210418|markdown]] format, which ought to be readable by most computer systems for the foreseeable future, but there are a few other file types in a folder labelled **22 Attachments**. My hope is that everything I write will start here and remain searchable, accessible, and preserved for decades to come. This is a lofty goal. --- ## Top of Mind I usually start in the [[W! Workshop 20231109|Workshop]], where I can find whatever I was working on last. Right now, my main areas of focus are building [[N2 Interior Storm Windows 20240505|interior]] and [[N2 Exterior Storm Windows 20240505|exterior storm windows]], completing my [[! R! ⧻ Cardinal Journals Index 20231216|⧻ Cardinal Journals Index]], drafting my [[R2.01 Untitled Zombie Novel Index 20240206|Untitled Zombie Novel]] and [[W1 In Search of a Foundation 20230902|finding a long-term foundation for myself]], in addition to managing the minutiae of my daily life. --- ## My Journal Nearly half of my digital notebook consists of journal entries going as far back as I have records, some 6,000 pages or so. Some time ago, I painstakingly transcribed all of my old paper [[R2.21 My Notebooks 20230824|Notebooks]] into an app called [[Day One]], and then [[2021-02-07|later]] I exported them all here to [[R2 Obsidian 20230619|Obsidian]]. The record is still incomplete—there was a time in [[2023-04-19|mid-April, 2023]] that I fell off of my transcription habit, and I still have not managed to get caught up. I have documented [[W1 04 "Morning Pages and Daily Notes Page transcription and review" 2022-12-15 Draft 20221215|my process]] somewhat, but I still have not [[R1 Get my Vault and my Notebooks Synchronized 20230816|gotten my digital and paper notebooks synchronized]]. My [[#00 Journal]] folder is divided by year, and each entry is recorded in the format `YYYY-MM-DD` ([ISO 8601 format](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601)) with one entry per date, such that today's entry for Wednesday, October 4, 2023 can be found here: [[2023-10-04]]. ^ahjsuk --- ## Vault Management There are several tools that make it easier to work within [[R2 Obsidian 20230619|Obsidian]] that can all be found within the [[#20 Vault Management]] folder. These include a handful of [[#23 Templates]] and [[#24 Dataviews]] that allow me to create and manipulate files within the vault, but the most important folder is titled ***21 Indices***. Each file in [[#21 Indices]] is an index or table of contents for a larger project whose files exist elsewhere in the vault. The only two top-level notes are this one and [[! R2.01 EMERGENCY!!! 20240511]], an index of resources that would be essential in the event of various emergencies. I want to use bats `!` sparingly—their main function as prefixes to file names is to ensure they appear first in search results and alphabetical file listings. ### Folder Hierarchy #### ! Active Projects - In proper [[N2 Getting Things Done (GTD) 20200916|GTD]] fashion, I consider a "project" to be any time-bound objective with a measurable outcome that takes more than a single action to complete. **! Active Projects** is a folder that requires weekly reviews for relevance to prevent it from becoming unmanageable, and I don't think it's feasible to commit to more than ten at a time (although this is a soft limit.) #### ! Active Resources - The notes that pertain to my [[#! Active Projects]] live here, temporarily, while I'm working on their associated project(s). Notes are pruned as they are deemed no longer relevant, or as their respective project is retired to [[#90 Archives]]. - [[! C1 Hello World! 20240601]] is the front-facing landing page for [my website](www.ianlhayes.com). #### 00 Journal - All "Daily Notes Pages" live here, as well as some monthly [[X2 Mental Inventory 20211116|Mental Inventory]] and concatenated review pages, divided into folders by year. #### 10 My Writing - All of my fiction and nonfiction writing lives here, excluding work commissioned by others and aforementioned [[#00 Journal]] entries. - Writing projects containing multiple notes and/or multiple drafts get their own dedicated folders. I have not yet decided whether to implement a numbering system for these sub folders. #### 20 Vault Management - Notes that pertain to the construction, development, management, or retrieval of notes in this Vault. ##### 21 Indices - Notes that are, themselves, collections of references to other notes, like indexes, tables of contents, brainstorming maps, etc. See [[R2 Index of Indices 20240103|Index of Indices]]. ##### 22 Attachments - Any file that does not end in a `.md` extension. ##### 23 Templates - Standardized note forms that I reuse frequently enough to make a template for them. ##### 24 Dataviews - Any note that leverages the [[R2 Dataview (plugin) 20230208|Dataview]] plugin so I can assure myself my primary Vault does not rely on it too heavily. (Astute readers will notice that there are many lingering [[#00 Journal|Daily Notes]] with extensive Dataview snippets, but that's only because I had such a hard time stripping them.) ##### 25 Scripts - Barely used, but if when I want to automate my workflows using something like [[N2 QuickAdd (plugin) 20230611|QuickAdd]] or [[R2 Templater (plugin) 20230113|Templater]], and I want to use `.js` files, they go here. ##### 26 Canvases - A "Canvas" is a specific form of Obsidian note that operates like a cork board where you can freely connect and rearrange different notes (or even duplicates of the same note). Since this format is currently unreadable by other apps, I want to silo them away to facilitate potential future migration to different note-taking platforms. #### 90 Archives - Literally everything that doesn't fit into the above categories, catalogued only with the [[#Naming Conventions]] outlined below and casual tagging. #### 99 Temp - Some of my [[#23 Templates]] are triggered on the creation of new files, but if I let [[R2 Templater (plugin) 20230113|Templater]] watch the root folder of the vault (`/`) then they'll get triggered for everything (including [[#00 Journal|Daily Notes]],) and I don't want that. Instead, this folder holds new files temporarily until they can be properly catalogued. This is also a great landing zone for files added to the vault from Finder. #### 100 Trudy List Temp - Without getting too deep into the weeds, my late aunt Trudy Fisher recommended an exercise to get a handle on what I most enjoy doing in life that consists of listing everything I've ever done, assigning a level of enjoyment to each (on a scale of one to ten,) indicating whether I prefer to do them alone or with others and if they're something I think I *should* be doing. Using YAML frontmatter properties and [[#24 Dataviews|Dataview]], I expect to be able to simplify the process of interpreting the results, so this folder exists for much the same reason as [[#99 Temp]]—it's a temporary container that adds the appropriate properties fields to each new note within it before the note is filed away into the [[#90 Archives]]. --- ## Naming Conventions ### Folders I use a modified [Johnny Decimal]([https://johnnydecimal.com]()https://johnnydecimal.com/) system (imaginatively titled the [[N2 Hayes Johnny Decimal System 20240404|Hayes Johnny Decimal System]]) that assigns all top-level folders a two-digit integer prefix to give each a fixed spatial location in my sidebar. The system is designed to be flexible, personal, and intuitive (to the person who created it,) and I hope to eventually use it to catalogue all my computer folders. ### Notes On [[2023-09-19]], I was persuaded to start naming and categorizing my files based on the ISO 8601 standard [[#^ahjsuk|mentioned above]] and five primary categories. This gives the entire database a chronological hierarchy and enough classification that I can quickly distinguish between different file types...with the exception of this file, naturally. Each filename outside of the [[#00 Journal]] folder is save in the format `YYYYMMDD-? Name of File` where `?` is replaced with one of five letters and an optional subcategory `1` or `2`. Generally, `1` refers to something that originated with me or my life experience, and `2` refers to something that originated elsewhere. In the case of a *project*, I sometimes find it useful to append the project type (in the case of a writing project) such that, for instance, [[R1W2 "The Education of Jason Fuller" Unfinished Draft Index 20170828]] is easily identified as a work of fiction, but this may be redundant, superfluous, or both. ### C — Correspondence - C! — Correspondence to be catalogued. - C1 — Outgoing correspondence (correspondence that originated with me.) - C2 — Incoming correspondence (correspondence addressed to me.) ### N — My Notes (something I wrote about something) - N! — Notes to be catalogued. - N1 — Spontaneous (thoughts that originated with me.) - N2 — Prompted (thoughts I had in response to something else.) ### R — Records - R! — Incomplete projects. - R1 — Completed or abandoned projects. - R2 — Reference records (discrete entities, such as books, films, events, indices, persons, or organizations.) ### W — Works of My Own Creation (with Some Specific intention) - W! — Works to be catalogued, or multimedia files like tools (such as [[#23 Templates]], [[#24 Dataviews]], or [[#25 Scripts]]) I use to manage other notes and most [[#22 Attachments]]. - W1 — Nonfiction writing. - W2 — Fiction writing. ### X — Others' Notes - X! — Others' notes to be catalogued. - X1 — Notes with my annotations (highlights, comments, paraphrases, etc.) - X2 — Unaltered notes (direct quotes or complete works, with proper attribution.) ### Examples - [[! C1 Hello World! 20240601]] - [[C2 Customer Reviews of My Performance 20160928]] - [[N1 How I Write a Novel 20210909]] - [[N2 File System Information Manager 20231002]] - [[R1 Banquette 20230301]] - [[R2 The Writing Life 20211225]] - [[W! IanLHayes Weblog Workbench 20230905]] - [[W1 In Search of a Foundation 20230902]] - [[W2 "The No. 9" Welcome Party 20130719]] - [[X2 Life is composed of days 20211014]] - [[X2 iOS Share and Capture — Drafts 20231004]] ### Notebook Naming Conventions I would be remiss if I neglected to mention that I also have a specific format I'm using to refer to my [[R2.21 My Notebooks 20230824|Notebooks]]. Essentially, the first two letters refer to the notebook's manufacturer (LT for Leuchtturm1917, MS for Moleskine, MN for Mnemosyne, etc.) while the following Roman numeral indicates which volume of that collection it is. The year ought to be self-explanatory, but in case it warrants further clarification, it's intended to be the year I began using that notebook. An example would be `LT-XIV`, representing my fourteenth Leuchtturm 1917 volume. Page number references can be appended to the notebook designation, e.g. `LT-XIV-03`.