Between Obsidian and Notion
My Quest for the Perfect Idea Management System
From the beginning of this newsletter, if not earlier, I struggled with organizing ideas.
I have too many of them.
If I keep them isolated without any implementation, at some point, they merge without my consent and turn into something new, usually, for the better. But some ideas disappear from the horizon; if I don't write them down, they vanish. I might mourn them, or rather mourn the possibilities that might have been, but I can't visualize them anymore. Not only do I not remember what they were, but I also have new ideas as replacements (not necessarily better).
That’s why I note them.
I don't have problems coming up with new ideas. I try to write down 5 ideas daily. For all sorts of things: games, applications, stories, info-products, anything.
The challenges lie elsewhere:
How to store them?
And once I have a good method, how to use them? And reuse them? How to find them when they’re needed most?
But more importantly - how not to waste them?
How do I store them?
A long time ago, I stored ideas in OneNote. But it was shit, so once I learned about Obsidian I moved happily there. I'm keeping my Obsidian Vault on Dropbox so I can access it on both of my computers (work and private). I guess I will have to use Git for it as well at some point 😉
But at the beginning, I did not know how to use Obsidian properly. I only knew how to use links and Markdown. Not much, to be honest, hence I did not know how to use it better.
Enter Notion. Some people use it to create webpages or notes. I use it for the free database. I started using it for backlog refinement, once I learned it's better than Google Shits to view the data I stored. So, I have a table for the books I read, a table for the games I played, and a table for almost everything. And making new and new views to see the data from different angles is strangely addictive. So I eventually started using it to store ideas.
I invent new ways of categorizing. Then, having a new view, I go through the entire dataset to fill in the missing data, and then I stare at the new views like I had discovered something fascinating. There's either something wrong with me, or I should do something related to looking at tables. Data Analyst, perhaps? Never mind, too late for that.
Notion isn't perfect. No tool is. Data is kept in the cloud, which suggests that at some point it stops being free. It’s also overly complicated (due to the many possibilities it offers).
Recently, I discovered templates in Obsidian, which has resulted in my returning interest in Obsidian. It's not that I stopped using it. When I tried to store all of my Kindle clippings, it was obvious that I should convert them to Markdown files and look at them with Obsidian. When I made transcripts of Masahiro Sakurai's YouTube videos, I stored them in Obsidian.
But now, I see that with the help of properties, an Obsidian note is the same as a Notion page. Obsidian gives me more ways to link notes from very different "tables", which is a plus. I'm not sure yet how browsing data will work. But the DataView plugin will help me generate views, not sure yet how efficient it will work.
Perhaps the time has come to unify my second brains.
The No-Waste Idea Composer Method
When you note down every possible idea you have (and sometimes I break them down if they consist of many ideas already condensed into one), you need a good system to use all those ideas again!
This system should allow me to reuse every possible idea I have ever had noted (even more than once), and link ideas together. I know a game should have one simple mechanic, but sometimes this one simple mechanic can be complemented by: setting, characters, scoring approach, art style, and so on. Still one game mechanic, right?
So, let us start...
First, I create a new note:
(Blueprint) Napoleonic Fire Emblem Clone
I name it “Blueprint” because this is, in fact, a blueprint for idea composition.
Then I describe my idea.
At this point, no querying, although I might try to make a blind shot when describing something. By blind shot, I mean create a link to a note even if it doesn't exist.
How to describe an idea briefly? I answer the following questions:
What is the game genre? turn-based strategy, similar to Fire Emblem, X-Com, etc.
What is the story genre? Historical fantasy, maybe Alternative History? Or maybe just fantasy, but in a similar setting? (This can help because both genres lead to the gamer's genre expectations)
What is the setting? Napoleonic Wars
What are the main mechanics? weapon triangle stolen from Sid Meier's Gettysburg + chess, waifus, army management on a map.
For every question, I make a section now.
For every section, I make a Dataview table and search for notes storing ideas using keywords.
Every idea I had for turn-based strategies
Every idea I had for waifus.
Every note that references Napoleon.
Every note with dates and ages when Napoleon lived.
Every event near Napoleon's lifetime.
Every note referencing X-Com.
Every note referencing Fire Emblem.
Every note on waifus (for example, essays on marriage in Napoleon’s times, or just conclusions from games I played).
Every note I have on Sid Meier's Gettysburg.
Every note I have on army management during the Napoleonic Wars (honestly, I don't think I'll have any on this topic, but that only points to where I need to do research, right?)
And yes, I have to store all these keywords in the note's metadata if I want to find them later.
Hardcode those you like the most or those you're sure you will use.
Categorize them by the 3 layers of game design to see what you are lacking.
Hardly the end, but it's a start!
If I fail to do this in Obsidian, well, I will have to do it in Notion. This might save me from writing code that will download all my data from Notion and put it into Markdown files. Not that I won’t do it 😁
What do you think I'm missing? How would you approach it?
I myself have also recently started using obsidian. I use it with a git plugin and it works quite well so far. :) I've looked at tutorials and built templates that I use for writing down ideas. I really like your approach. Thanks for this detailed insight.