How I Structure My Obsidian Vault  ## Metadata - Author: [[Nicole van der Hoeven]] - Full Title: How I Structure My Obsidian Vault - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: - #obsidian - #pkm - #notetaking Author: Unknown (YouTube creator) Source: YouTube – *How I structure my Obsidian vault (Obsidian tour 2023)* Reference: [Video Transcript](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAwS-js2iB0) date created: 2025-08-23 21:43 --- # Title: Obsidian Vault Organization – Scalability, Context, and Hyperconnected Notes ## Table of Contents: - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) - [📖 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-diversity-equity-inclusion-and-belonging-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) - [🔍 DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) --- ## 📝 Summary: This Obsidian vault tour emphasizes a **scalable, context-rich, and non-binary approach to knowledge management**. The creator avoids rigid folder/tag systems and instead leans on **links, maps of content, DataView queries, and bookmarks** to create a hyperconnected system. Their philosophy prioritizes **avoiding duplication, providing context, and building for long-term scale**—fitting even with 8,000+ notes. The vault is structured around namespaces (folders only where absolutely necessary), dynamic tracking (via DataView), and intentional maps of content that serve as living indexes. --- ## 📖 Main Content: The organizational philosophy centers on four pillars: 1. Avoid binary (in-or-out) structures like folders. 2. Build for scalability (designed for 100k+ notes). 3. Prioritize contextual structures over rigid placement. 4. Prevent duplication by creating modular, reusable notes. Tags are used minimally (mostly as placeholders for feedback). Folders are reserved for assets, databases, or shared playbooks. The heavy lifting comes from **links, maps of content, and queries** that dynamically connect notes and provide narrative context. Bookmarks layer on goals and planning, keeping principles and milestones top of mind. The vault’s “chaotic order” is intentional—designed to spark serendipity. ### 🗒️ Notes - [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAwS-js2iB0&t=0) Philosophy: scalable, contextual, anti-duplication, non-binary. - [02:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAwS-js2iB0&t=150) Tags: used sparingly; examples include `#k6/feedback`. Nested tags help but not central. - [04:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAwS-js2iB0&t=297) Folders: namespace use only. Assets (PDFs, graphics), databases (projects, videos). - [07:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAwS-js2iB0&t=443) Separate buckets: private notes, sources, scripts, Readwise imports, templates. - [09:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAwS-js2iB0&t=598) TTRPG campaigns: major note cluster (2,700 of 8,620 notes). No subfolders; everything sits flat. - [12:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAwS-js2iB0&t=752) Maps of content: contextual indexes replacing rigid folders. Example: Ops tools with annotations and deprecation notes. - [14:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAwS-js2iB0&t=895) DataView queries: used for Kickstarter projects, TTRPG PCs, and meetings. Automates organization without manual linking. - [17:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAwS-js2iB0&t=1045) Bookmarks: core principles, yearly and weekly planning, high-level priorities. - [19:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAwS-js2iB0&t=1140) Reflection: Hyperconnected system sparks serendipity and resists rigidity. Notes must reflect how *you* think. --- ## 📖 References: - Obsidian documentation: [https://help.obsidian.md](https://help.obsidian.md) - DataView plugin: [https://blacksmithgu.github.io/obsidian-dataview/](https://blacksmithgu.github.io/obsidian-dataview/) --- ## 🗣️ Paraphrase: 1. Original: *“Folders restrict scope but can’t carry nuance or context.”* Paraphrase: While folders group items, they fail to capture relationships or reasoning behind placement. 2. Original: *“Hyperconnected notes reflect how I think, unlike rigid hierarchies.”* Paraphrase: A web of interconnected notes aligns better with thought patterns than rigid folder trees. --- ## 📰 Newsletter: 📚 **Rethinking Vault Structure in Obsidian** Forget rigid folder hierarchies—this Obsidian tour shows how to scale a vault past 8,000 notes without losing context. Highlights: - Maps of content > folders: provide meaning, not just storage. - DataView automates tracking across projects, games, and meetings. - Bookmarks keep long-term goals visible at a glance. 👉 If your vault feels cluttered, maybe chaos isn’t a bug—it’s a feature. Full video: [Obsidian Tour](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAwS-js2iB0). --- ## ✅ Action Items: - Apply **context-first vault design** to WordPress documentation and contributor knowledge bases. - Advocate for **hyperlinked “maps of contribution”** in WordPress/FAIR dashboards instead of rigid folder-based taxonomies. - Experiment with **DataView-style dashboards** for tracking contributions across repos (akin to Kickstarter queries). - Build **goal-driven contributor bookmarks** (principles, milestones) into onboarding flows. --- ## 🧪 Hypotheses: - H1: Hyperlinked maps of content increase contributor recall and engagement compared to rigid folder systems. - H2: Automated dashboards (DataView-style) reduce admin friction in large OSS projects. - H3: Goal-driven bookmarks improve contributor alignment and retention. ### 📊 Methodology: - A/B test contributor docs: folder-based vs. map-of-content designs. - Run contributor surveys on knowledge retrieval efficiency. - Track onboarding success when bookmarks/goals are surfaced. ### ❓ Questions: - How do hierarchical vs. hyperlinked structures impact long-term knowledge retrieval? - Can OSS dashboards adopt Obsidian-inspired context maps? - What role should automation (queries) play vs. manual curation? ### 🔮 Future Research: - Explore PKM crossovers with OSS governance (Obsidian ↔ GitHub). - Model contributor knowledge graphs like vault links. ### 💡 Implications: - Policy: Governance docs should adopt context maps. - Practice: Reduce reliance on folder silos in contributor platforms. - Knowledge: Shifts OSS from rigid repositories toward knowledge webs. --- ## 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment: - Visual: ✅ DataView tables, bookmarks, graphs. Could add more infographics. - Aural: ❌ No podcast/audio option. Could add narrated tours. - Verbal: ✅ Rich analogies (namespace, chaos vs. order). - Physical: ❌ No hands-on tasks. Could add vault-building exercises. - Logical: ✅ Cause-effect reasoning (scalability → simplicity). - Social: ❌ No built-in discussion prompts. Could add forums. - Solitary: ✅ Emphasis on self-reflection and personal fit. - Naturalistic: ❌ No analogies to environment/nature. Could integrate sustainability metaphors. --- ## 📊 Accessibility Assessment: - Transcript: ✅ available. - Screen reader: ❌ unclear without semantic headings. - Alt text: ❌ missing for visuals. - Improve: Provide descriptive alt-text, ensure headings are semantic, optimize keyboard navigation. --- ## 🌍 DEIB Assessment: - Cultural Relevance: ❌ Western tech-centric; expand with global PKM practices. - Inclusive Language: ✅ neutral, but jargon-heavy. Needs definitions. - Neurodiversity: ❌ long dense passages. Break into chunks. - Representation: ❌ focuses only on individual workflow. Could include diverse PKM voices. - Psychological Safety: ✅ encourages personal adaptation, not one-size-fits-all. --- ## ✅ Logical Validity: - Positive reasoning: Sound causal chain (scalability → non-binary structure → sustainability). - Valid analogy: Namespace = programming bucket. Strengthens clarity. - Fallacies: None major; slig - Summary: In this video tour of an Obsidian vault, the presenter shares their personal philosophy on organizing notes, which emphasizes avoiding binary or rigid structures, building with scalability in mind, favoring structures that add context, and avoiding duplication. The presenter uses a combination of folders, tags, and a "map of content" approach to organize their notes, with folders primarily used to establish a namespace and a few subfolders for specific topics. The map of content serves as a starting page for their Obsidian publish site and is updated regularly with links to specific notes within their vault. - URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAwS-js2iB0&ab_channel=NicolevanderHoeven - When people ask me how I organize my Obsidian vault,I hesitate to tell them.It seems like a lot of people do things differently from meand my method, if you can call it that,might leave several a few shuttering in dismay.In this video, I'm giving you a tour of my Obsidian vaultand showing exactly how I structure everything,and also how I don't.A few things about my general philosophyon organizing my notes,and this is just my personal philosophy.I'm not saying that it should be yours. The first is that I try to avoidany sort of binary or organization structure,meaning it's either there or it's not.So like for example, if you put a file in a folder,it's either in that folder or it's not.It can't really be in two folders at the same time.I try to avoid structures like that.Secondly, I like to build with scalability in mindat work and also here with my notes.I think that a lot of the structure of my noteshas evolved organicallyand now I'm really hesitant to add too much structure or too much organizationbecause it's just going to be an additional upkeep.I have over 8,000 notes in my main vaultand I have several vaults at that.And so anything that I introduced to my vaultshas to be something that I'm gonna be able to maintaineven when I have 10,000, 20,000, 100,000 notes.The third is that I favor structures that add context.I don't just want to be able to put notes in a certain spot. I want to be able to saywhy I put something in that spotand why I didn't put it in a different spotand what other spots it could be in.Not all of the structures that I'm going to talk aboutare capable of adding this extra contextand the ones that do are the ones that I favor.And the fourth one is don't duplicate.If at all possible,I like to have things modular and reusable,which does mean that I like to have my notes contextual and also abstracted enoughthat can be used as a building blockfor other ideas later on.All right, let's get into my vaultand I'll show you what I don't use that often.We're starting with what I use the least, and that's tags.So this is my main Obsidian vaultand I'm going to show you my tags here.You might be tempted to thinkthat because I have a lot of tags that I use them a lot. I don't actually.I think that at times I have tried to usea tag-based structure.I personally don't like it.There are a few that I do use.I use this TVZ tag, which means to verzetteln.It is just my way of saying that these thingsare not processed.And yes, that is a huge inbox.I also use these k6 and nvdh ones.K6 is one of the open source projects that I work onand I do track things like feedback for it. So that sometimes I will, you know, go to a conferenceand I'll want to quickly jot down what people sayeither it's a feature request or a bugor a question about it,because that helps me understand what to create content on.And that is also the same principle I havefor the nvdh stuff.I have a feedback tag hereand I also try to separate itbased on like a rough categorization.So just so you see how that might work, I'm gonna create a new noteand let's say that this is a daily note,and I'll say Anna really likesour new test comparison feature.Okay, so I might write something like thatand then I'll just put a hashtagand I'll say k2/feedback.And then as I'm typing,I'm just adding a slash to it to nest those tags.And what that means is that the feedbackand anything else I put on thereare going to be nested under k6. They're going to roll up into k6.So let's say that that is analysis.I also really like that as I'm typing,I can see the categories that I've chosen before.So I'm gonna hit Enter to that one.Now here on the tag pane,I can go into k6, feedback, analysis.There's six on there and if I click it,it opens up on the left here.And here's that note where I saidAnna really likes her new test comparison feature.So that is really handy because that means that I don't have to createa separate note.I usually put this like within a daily note.Sometimes I'll put it within a meeting notewherever I happen to hear the feature.And then this is a prompt from methat maybe I should talk moreabout this test comparison featureor create videos or blog posts about that.So as you can see,I am in a situation where I really should clean these upbecause they don't really mean anything. However, I'm not too worried about it.I don't use it, but it's not like they do any harm.I just kind of pretendfor the most part that this tag pane doesn't exist.That's because pretty much every other thingI'm gonna talk about in this videois better for my use casesfor organizing my notes than tags is.So in previous videos, you may have noticedthat I call people who like foldersas their primary organizational structure, folder heathens.That's really tongue in cheek.Okay, I don't really think you're a heathen. If you like to use folders,you use whatever you want to use.However, I do think that for my use case,folders just don't cut it.They go against every single thingthat I was talking about in the philosophy before,not the least of which is that you can't put a notein more than one folder at the same time.But I do think that there is one thingthat folders are really good atand that's to establish some sort of namespace.A namespace in programming is like a bucket. Sometimes it's for an environment or something.It's basically a way to collect like items.And it also is a way of restricting scope.So that if you are in one namespace,then you're not touching the other namespaces.And for that, I use folders.So I do use folders more than I use tagsbut you might still be shocked at how few folders I have.I have an assets folder and this is just like good practice, I think.Anything that is not a markdown fileor a script, I put here.So mostly these are graphics, but sometimes they're PDFs.And I put them all in this one folderso that I don't have to worry abouthaving assets in different folders.And I know everything else that's not in the assets folderis a markdown file.I have a databases folder hereand then I have two different kind of databases that I track in Obsidian.One is kickstarter or crowdfunding projects.I'll show you that a little bit later.I also have this video databasewhere I'm trying to keep trackof all of the videos that I createfor this channel but also for work.It's kind of weird because I realized not too long agothat I never take notes on my own stuffand I'm trying to make all of that searchablethrough my notes as well.So I have those two in databases.I do have a bunch of notes on Obsidian. Now I kind of put them in an obsidian-playbookwith a goal of maybe packaging it upinto something later on.I'm not entirely sure how I'm gonna handle that.For now, it is its own folderand this section is more heavily structuredbecause the intention is for other peopleto go through this structure,and that is something that folders are good at.They are better for when you're sharing itwith somebody else.It is much more recognizablebecause people are familiar with this concept. Then I have plugins here.There are a few plugins I have that generatekind of their own notes.So this is from Initiative Tracker.I have lots of different combatsfor my tabletop role playing game sessionsand I put them here.I have some canvas stuff, some textgenerator templatesand Excalidraw draw stuff in there as well.I have private, I'm not gonna show that to you.But basically I have anythingthat I definitely don't want published. So meetings, notes on people and that kind of thing.Readwise is its own separate bucket for now,just because there are a lot of them.Actually, I'm going to turn on a pluginso that you can better see how things are organized.So this novel word count plugin shows how many wordsand how many notes are in each bucket.I just thought it might bea good way for you all to see how I kind of break it up. I have scripts, however, they are all JavaScript files.And so although I have themas a separate folder in Obsidian,they don't actually show up in Obsidianbut I think I have like 10 or something like that.Then I have sources.These are for the most part from people other than me.So me going to a conference or reading a bookor reading an article, this is one of those thingswhere this is the structure that I started withand I haven't yet quite migrated it. Because in many ways, this is also reiterated in Readwise.So lots of things that I have to fix there.I also have a system folder.Now I do have a data modelfor all of the frontmatter that I usejust to help me with consistency.And this is separatedbased on different templates that I use.And then I have a projects fileand those are both Kanban boards,actually one for Grafana Labs and one for my own personal stuff.And I have things that are relatedto like keeping this system maintained and running.So reviews and projects.Cards are mainly like video ideas or content ideas.So blog posts would go into this as well.And then templates,I'll probably go over in a separate videobecause that's its own thing.And then I have a ttrpg folder,and this is a good example of namespace.These are all of the campaigns or one shots or separate worlds that I play or have played in.And some of them are actually in the same world,like when it's been a published world.And having folders helps me distinguishbetween this world's version of one placeand that world's version of the same place.And now this might still seem like a lot of folders.I never said that I don't use folders at all.However, it might be interestingto note that with these folders, when I click on it there are actually no sub folders here.everything goes in here.Whether they're session notes or NPCsor places or factions, they're just kind of all in there.And when you look at my folders,it's the ttrpgs that have the most notes at 2,700out of the 8,620 notes that I've got.So if you add all these up, you'll see that about6,000 of the 8,000 files that I have in this vault are actually within one of these folders.And the rest of themare kind of just all in the root directory.Now this is the part that people are surprised by.I use some other methods of organizationthat make more sense to me.The first is links.One of the things that I said earlierin my general philosophy about organizationis that I prefer to be able to add contextto whatever organizational structure I use. You can't really do that with foldersbecause you just put them in thereand that's it and tweak endlessly.So instead, I use something that you might have heardbeing referred to as a map of content.I think it could also be like a parent note or something.When you go to my Obsidian publish site,this is the starting page for it.It's called Fork My Brain.And I try to keep this fairly updated.I look at the topics that I write a lot about and I try to make sure that they're represented here.So just to show you the outline, I've got Tech and Software,Taking notes and making stuff, TTRPGs.And then within each kind of subsection,I have specific notesthat are also like maps of content in themselves.For example, if I click on performance testing here,there it defines performance testingbut it might also have a video that I createdand it links to other pages.A map of content is basically a list of these pages and other notes.So you might think that I could have hadjust like a performance testing folderand then I could have had all of these links within it.And while that's true,I wouldn't be able to add some nuance to it.So let's look at, for example, this page ops tools.On this page, I have a bunch of notes linkedand I'm not only linking them,I'm also adding the sitebecause I know that when I'm looking for different tools to use for software operations and DevOps.I'm going to probably want to check out their site.And in some cases I also say like,oh, this one is deprecatedbut I'm just still putting it here for completeness.And I'm able to separatedifferent kinds of operations tools.I can embed other maps of content, like in this case,monitoring tools is a separate pageand I'm embedding it within the ops tools page as well. So here I'm adding more context.Like I'm saying that Grafana look works well with Prometheusor that OpenTelemetry is the mergerbetween OpenTracing and OpenCensus.Those are things that you can't really add with folders.So that's links.The other thing that I use heavily for organizationare dataview queries.For example, I showed you the Kickstarters Databaseearlier in the folders.However, that's really just to keep everything in one place and market as a databaserather than like ideas on their own.So this is more for tracking purposes.That's how I use the folders.But this page is aboutactually bringing together those notes.This is kind of like a way of creating a map of contentwithout actually doing it manually'cause everything else was manual.And honestly, I still prefer the manual approachfor most of the time,because I think when you are just pulling in queries, a lot of times you don't really think aboutwhether that needs to be on this page.However, in this particular case,this isn't really about what's connected to what.It's just a tracking database.And so I find it really usefulto have a table of pending projects.So this is the dataview query.This is basically looking through that folderto see what projects I have backed that I'm still expecting.And then there are also handy linksand some other metadata about it. I use dataview queries in tabletop role playing games too.This is one of my campaigns.My most active oneis the World of the Temporary White Circle.And this is a Dataview query for PCs actually,including the ones that have retired.And I also do this for sessions.I'm using the minimal cards CSS snippetby Stephan Ango or kepano,who's also the CEO of Obsidian now.And this is the way that I am able to keep track of all of the sessions and also kind of have a fun AImid journey generated photo to remember the session by,as well as like a quick one sentenceor one phrase summary of the session.I do something very similar for meetings and people.I obviously can't show you that herewith a real meeting or a real person.But in the person template, I do have a dataview query that shows every meeting I've ever had with them.And the summary of that meeting.So I can tell at a glance where we talked aboutthe last time that we spoke.The other organizational structure that I've been using,and this one's fairly new because it was only releasedin a few versions ago, and that is bookmarks.So I have bookmarks hereand I really like to have My Core Principles first.So these ones are kind of like my review notes.So I start with My Core Principles and then my Year Ahead, which is like a snapshot of where I'm going to bein the year and the main milestonesor events that are happening within each month.And then I go through the year, quarter, monthand weekly notes for that.And as we take over to the new week, month, quarter or year,then I update these bookmarks.And that way they're always front of mind for meso that I can make surethat everything that I'm doing is going towards the goalsthat I set for myself. And then I have some other things here.There's NVDH stuff that's like YouTubeand I have some stuff on making things.And then those tags that I told you about.And I have business stuff here,like money and other company information.I have TTRPGs.These are the three games that I most often play.And this is the one that I'm running,and I have a bunch of other TTRPG related things.And then I have some graphs here. Actually, some of these other ones have graphs as well.I think the way that I organize notesin this hyperconnected kind of wayreally reflects how I think better,and it also reflects how I see the worldas things that don't always fit nicelyinto segregated little boxes.I also mentioned this earlier,but there's something about folders that makes my brain itchto look at thembecause I always think I didn't organize it the right way and maybe I should rejig it.I went down this path with Notionand I didn't find myself very productive with that tool,because that is a tool that really encourageshierarchical thinking, which I found outis not the way that I think.So for me, a hyperconnected note structureis actually more future proof because it has lastedmore than any sort of hierarchicalfolder type structure has.I like to structure my notes with a little bit of organizationand a lot of what others might see as chaos.But what I see as opportunities to spark serendipitycontinually challenge the way that I thinkand prompt me to apply ideas in different contexts.But what I've just shown is how I structure my notes,not the way that you should.In the end, your notes are about youand your organizational structureshould reflect the way that you think,the way that you process information,and the way that you make sense of the world. If you'd like to see more aboutthe differences between metadata, links, folders, and tags,then check out this video where I go into that.Thanks for watching.And by the way, do you listen to the girl in red?, How I Structure My Obsidian Vault, Nicole van der Hoeven, 01h3wcpnyj189e5maks7wjtx1b.