How I Use Maps Of Content (MOCs) // EP 5 Mastering Obsidian
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- čas přidán 23. 07. 2024
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Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:50 - What Are Maps Of Content (MOCs)
03:00 - Building a MOC If You Already Have The Notes
08:26 - Building a MOC If You Don't Yet Have The Notes
09:52 - Building A Home Directory
12:48 - Classifying Different Types Of Media
14:34 - Final Thoughts
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Thanks Sergio, I very much like the format and the content of your videos.
May I just add one comment that Nick Milo did not create the concept of MOC, the first reference to a MOC I am aware of dates back to 2003 in Lion Kimbro seminal free e-book "How to make a complete map of every thought you think" (easy to find as a PDF, but slightly outdated according to the author himself).
Thanks, Jerome, I appreciate your kind words! I figured as much, but he is the one I first heard it from. Many thanks for providing that info. Pinning your comment :)
Isn’t a MOC the same as an index page?
@@Tennisbull-match-statistics Pretty much
I thought Nick Milo's first 6 videos were helpful to getting into obsidian.
I saw him like a year ago, and he talked about so much stuff I put off learning how to use it. Coming back now I realize his made up lingo and jargon that used different words for things I already understood made it seem why way harder of a task than it was.
Its basically an index/table of contents.
Thank you. Of all the Obsidian-related content I found on CZcams, yours is the easiest to understand yet at the same time very helpful.
Thanks so much for the kind words! Much appreciated! :)
just wanted to tell you, you were my GO TO man when i had a hard time understanding MOCs. Love the way you explain things.
And I really liked "Highlight of the day" and adding quotes. As someone who has issues with focus and motivation I can really see myself adopting these techniques. I have felt the energy or the calm quotes can give you, but I failed to introspect and appreciate it enough to put it to use.
Thanks a lot for taking the time to throw in a life tip. Really shows you care about sharing what you know. respect bro.
Keep up the great work.
Wow! It feels great to hear you say this. I truly appreciate it and thank you for taking the time to type a positive message! Have a great week :)
Out of all the channels covering Obsidian, you're channel is the best out there for a user like me. There are many overcomplicated videos out there. Also, I like how you cover other topics that you introduce to us (e.g. Setting up my first NAS).
Just saw this, thanks a lot! Much appreciated :)
Your point about focusing making notes rather organising is so true👍
And easy to forget!
Running pressure-free about where to place new ideas, it's so underrated... Thank you so much bro great content
Such fantastic advice! There are some real golden nuggets in this one. So well done :)
Thanks a lot! Glad you enjoyed it :)
11:47 The system you're presenting here is simply WOW!
Your videos are fascinating. Im taking baby steps to learn Obsidian and it's my luck to find out your Channel at the beginning. I love the way how you structure your Vault and your files by using simple symbols (_ ~ $ @) so that you can easily and quickly find notes in related topics.
Before knowing your Channel, I was desperate to find my notes. Send my gratitude to you and your time for making such brilliant videos.
Big 👍👍👍👍👍👍 for you!!!
Thanks so much for the kind words :)) Made my day!
Thanks for the share.
This serie of videos is a must watch to get good habits and tips about using Obsidian
Thanks Laurent. Glad it was helpful!
This is the best MOC video I've seen, I don't understand why other videos can't explain it just as well. I mean it's not hard. Sigh, it's frustrating and hard trying to learn Obsidian but I know it'll be worth it in the end.
Your explanations are clear and very helpful. Thank you for everything.
Thanks tony :)
Interesting, I’m realizing I’ve organically adopted a similar concept for my work notes. So, I’ll have a common note page for things like a specific team or project and then link that to any other note that concerns a given team or project.
I also do this with people, which also lets me keep notes about people and link people to meeting notes, conversation notes, etc.
When it's done organically it's even better :)
2 minutes into your video and I'm already sold. thanks for this amazing content :))
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it :)
Tanks for sharing Sergio 🙏
how did you move your map to the right column to have it viewed as you view a note to see the relations?
Very useful tips. I used to be messed up since my vaults getting larger and larger. Great tips
Glad you enjoyed!
10:43 The 'Highlight of the day' is collapsed (to be expanded by clicking on >), what feature did you use to achieve that please?
Super helpful. Thanks king
Glad you liked it! More on the way!
Very nice work. When you are listing the active and non-active topics in your MOCs, is there a way to have a date listed to the right that shows that most recent activity date for any notes in that group? Thx
if I understand your question correctly, you could use a tp.file.last_modified_date for the file in question
Obsidian Os is a dream
Great stuff, Sergio! I was waiting for you to say: "Families are not just parents. You have siblings, aunts, and strange uncles nobody talks about during the holidays!" ;) Thanks for some good content! Much appreciated. If you are taking suggestions, I'd love to see a video on Obsidian's use of tables.
Also, you may have forgotten to include Nick's Linking Your Thinking channel in your description. :)
Well spotted Ted thanks for that. I really thought I had! That would've been a fun one to put in! That one uncle that swings by on thanksgiving with seemingly opposing views to the rest of the family :). Need to get more comfortable on camera before I can crack a joke or two :D
@@FromSergio You're doing great! :) I'm still struggling between Notion and Obsidian. I like Notion's simple graphical interface and use of tables, but I like Obsidian for being abe to link blocks of text. Decisions, decisions.
I was right there with you as well. But the advantages of Obsidian that I mentioned on EP1 of these series were far too good for it to be a real competition for my workflow. I spend 4h of my day at least in Obsidian and feel right at home :)
@@FromSergio I appreciate the dialogue, Sergio! Yes, I think I'm leaning towards Obsidian. I joined the Discourd group and it seems very supportive. Also, they mentioned a tables plug-in that seems quite nice. :)
what plugin so you use for moc?
Thank you Sergio
:)
Thanks for the vid!
How do I get to have that handy map in the top right corner? A community plugin?
That’s just the local graph view. I made a video where i spend a lot of time covering it it’s titled “how i use the obsidian graph view”
The YT in front of everything sounds almost like, how I use tags for search. But a file can have multiple tags and that way it's more flexible. Kinda like folder vs links, I think.
Absolutely mad about Obsidian . THANKS 🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌
Glad you liked it! Have a great one :)
CMD-enter isn't working on my Mac. Did something change?
This is a hail marry but in one of your videos you selected and draged multiple notes at once into a folder, how did you do that? Multiselect with holding ctrl doesnt work
Evernote supports the concept of a tag. Tags can be used to establish relationships in content no matter where the content lives. You can also use them in Obsidian.
Great video. What is the purpose of the numbering system in the MOC notes like the three zeros in the home MOC?
It's just the way I've been accustomed to naming my files! 000 Home, 010 for another MOC, 020 for another one. This leaves me the option to add important notes as 011,012 etc. :)
Hello Sergio! Thanks for your detailed and prolific videos, are you using any templates for MOC notes right now (for example templates created by Templater plugin)?
Hi viktor! I rarely make an entirely new MOC but they do have a very rudimentary template applied to them! Nothing special but just so they all look the same :)
Awesome content thank you
Glad you enjoyed it! Have a great weekend!
So, my pseudo OCD kicks in when I add (semi-)colons and other symbols at the start of a title, so one could also add e.g., " | Tweet" at the end of a note, right?
of course!
Hei, Sergio. I'm reading the book "Smart Notes" and wondering
When will we have a Zettlekasten video tutorial, course, explanation, examples, projects, on the channel.
I really would like to see the thing addressed directly. It's very interesting.
Can you explain the reasoning behinf the '000' or '010' you put prior to the notes? I have seen it in other vaults, but I don't understand it.
It's just to organize my mocs for easy searching and so that I can place sub mocs (011) in between the actual mocs (010,020)
Thank you!
I have a bunch of pdfs in my vault. right now they are in folders..as i havent setup any mocs yet. should i rename them with a symbol in front for searching ? also is it ok to link to pdfs in a moc or is this just a dumb idea?
Sure if symbols work for you there's no wrong way of doing things, and yes! You can link pdfs!
Hello from New York City! What does your folder structure look like? How does your folder structure compliment your MOCs, tags and templates. It seems like the combination of these four component parts creates a unique PKM system. Once all 4 parts of the system are configured and integrated, it increases PKM efficiency, Thank you for this informative video.
Hi, i'll be doing a full tour of my vault soon :)
how you navigate inside MOC's? They can be MOC inside other MOCs etc?
Simply beautiful... and liberating from the FOLDER HIERARCHY COD... Thanks, Sergio😊
Glad you enjoyed it!
It's been a year since you uploaded this so idk if you respond but is it okay to connect some notes that arent in the same MOC? (Like how gaming on Linux has improved with Proton which was made by Valve so can I connect Valve to proton even tho they arent in the same MOC)
You add "YT" to the name of the file because they are related to the CZcams MOC. But how you do if a file is related to more than one MOC?
At 10:17 when you are showing the "Home" directory, why are some of the explanations in double {{ }} and some are in single { }?
That's a typo that I should've corrected! Apologies for that.
Thanks Sergio. Really helpful. I don't know if you have explored ever the P.A.R.A. method and tried to apply the Obsidian MOC concepts. I am a bit confused about the use of [[.....]] for Areas of Interest in a MOC or just ##...... as a Section Header where including the [[note links]].
Hi David, yes I am aware of PARA, Tiago Forte pioneered it if i'm not mistaken. I do not use it though I much prefer maps of content. For areas of interest both would make sense. If you use ## you're implying that you then would have individual MOCs for different areas of interest. Or you can use [[areas of interest]] as its own MOC of MOCs so to speak. It's all personal preference!
@@FromSergio Thanks! I ended up creating both using [[ ]]. A MOC of MOCs [[Areas]] and each MOC instance [[Area n]].
Sounds good glad you found a way :)
Thank you Sergio. I am brand new with my Boox Tab and Obsidian. I was overwhelmed until I found your series last week. You have the perfect pace, tone and examples to help me learn Obsidian. Each day, I learn more and I keep taking my daily notes that are building into a nice structure. Now on video 5, you threw me for a loop. You started assuming more knowledge and you started using task lists and check boxes and I have no idea how to insert those as you just use them from your prior files. Can you please send me the video where you explain how to create a list and a task list? I really need to capture tasks and due dates from my notes. I am sure Obsidian has a Task plugin for tasks, but I can't figure it out. I need your help please. Thank you. You are THE best.
Thanks! List and boxes and all markdown stuff have their own video titled markdown! :)
@@FromSergio aha, thank you. I will look for that video. I was simply going through your first playlist of 6 videos. I was completely hanging on until video 4/5 when you jumped to additional interesting areas, but started using elements that weren't in the earlier videos. I am going to finish your first series tonight and then I will look for the markdown video as the task list capturing and tracking are vital to my needs currently. Thanks for all you do, I would be lost without your series.
I dont know if I am just too stupid to get it, but why cant you link something from folder 3 to folder 5 of another folder structure? I mean you can just use [[link]], right?
awesome.. thank you
Glad you enjoyed it! :)
Thank you
How do you keep these updated as you add more notes over time?
How so? Are you referring to adding more notes to the vault that you then want to incorporate into a MOC? If so, then, if it's a note i know before beforehand that it's gonna go to a certain MOC the connection becomes natural as I can simply link it. If I don't yet have a link for it but I know it goes into that certain MOC I leave a tag and I go over this exact proccess on EP 9. Let me know if that helps!
Hi FromSergio, I m from Brazil, I like your vídeo, they help me very much a question how do you make links yellow?
Hey Emanuel! Just ==yourtexthere== but the color depends on the theme!
@@FromSergio thanks
I really like the concept here. I just prefer to put things in folders rather than have the file name formatted to find it. ie: MOCs/ instead of 000_YT_MOC. I like to keep folders for how I want to format the note, there isn't much thought on how the note connects to anything, but it helps me by knowing what I want to get out of the note.
Thanks for sharing! Folders are vilified, but I think they're great as well!
how do you make a bigger dot in that graph view?
It happens depending on how many links it has!
Hey Sergio, awesome vid. I have one question and its regarding the file naming you mentioned like Yt for youtube and such. Why not just use tags?
Hey, thanks! I'm actually working on EP7 and its all about tags. The reason I like to use something like "YT" is because of the easy search when you press CMD+O. If you press CMD+O and type "YT" you right away see everything related to YT. If you were to do tags you couldn't take advantage of this feature. Hope that helps!
@@FromSergio Got it, thx for answering
Thanks
He said "colon" for '";" *eye twitch*. It's a semicolon.
Loving the series though. This has defintely inspired me to start using Obsidian.
You're absolutely right and I appreciate being corrected! Trust me I eye twitch even harder!
If a MOC starts having too many notes, can I split it without having to do tons of manual work?
For example, my "psychology" MOC has too many notes now, and I'd like to split it into "cognitive psychology" and "developmental psychology".
It seems I have to go into each separate note and remove its link to "psychology" and add a link to the two new MOCs. It's so slow. :(
Late reply, but did you ever find a solution for this? I would've likely kept the Psychology MOC note, but use headers to further divide Cognitive and Developmental Psychology into subtopics on that same MOC.
@@FEZ_gg I probably would have done the same. I wonder if it would also be useful to go back into the Psychology MOC notes and also link them to Cognitive and Developmental MOCs. Might be useful in visualizing connections in graph view?
is there an option to automate creation of MOC with dataview?
There is actually. It's a plugin by the name of "Map of Content". Many like it, I prefer to create my own :)
I use a plugin called "Zoottelkeeper Plugin" and it's fantastic to automatically create moc in folders that are automatically updated when the content changes.
Using a dataview is great for viewing your links but not for internal linking (because links are not created, just displayed).
Personally , I've got (at least) 2 index files in the folders I want to have a MOC into: one generated with "Zoottelkeeper Plugin" and another with one ore more dataview inside, that can display links in several ways (sorting, filtering...)
I mean, Why having the YT prefix instead of a CZcams folder?
Hmmm. Going to have to watch again. lol maybe three times. Just finished and I still have no idea what the point of the MOC is, when the graph view already shows you connections. I believe you, I just don’t get it. 😂 These videos are so good but this one lost me. 😅
wow!
ty
About labeling your MOCs. In the video you used "_010 Programming MOC", "_020 Linux MOC", ... Does that mean that you have sub-MOCs for programming? For example: "_011 Python MOC", "_012 PHP MOC", "_013 SQL MOC", ... This also means that for programming or linux you can have a maximum of 10 sub MOCs. Or is this not how you use it?
Well spotted, it’s still a work in progress but the gist of it is that yes I like to have at most 10 small MOCs (js,php) in a big MOC (programming). I’m open to restructuring it but for my personal use case if I need more than 10 sub MOCs for 1 MOC i’m doing too much segmentation! Hope that helps!
Super helpful. please zoom in to your screen while recording otherwise mobile users like me can’t understand much.
Thanks for the feedback. I've had a few other people mention that so I'll be sure to get that done :)
@@FromSergio Im on two 27 inch monitors and it is hard to read, lol-old eyes!!!
@@geniebugs9577 Huge difference coming up on EP9 tomorrow. Let me know if it makes it better :)
Great content Sergio. One comment for improvement. The resolution of your screen od to high for the mobile viewers. I can not der the text on your notes
Hi! You are absolutely right, I have since fixed this :)
Excellent videos but I would have a suggestion. Dark theme is not good for CZcams videos. Why? Because it's not visible. We, the viewers, cannot see the content. Similarly, when you do a presentation, use light background. When you work in terminal, again, use light background. When you are not recording a video, you can use a dark background, of course. Thanks.
Thanks for the suggestion. It’s definitely interesting as the usual consensus is to have dark mode whenever possible on video. Curious if others feel the same way!
If the text is white, it is easier to view. Hard to see the blue text
so a Moc is like a template? im lost lol
Why use dollar signs and semi-colons and whatnot when that's what tags are there for? Just tag something as a video, article, etc.
The point of it is to use them for easy searching, nothing else.
@@FromSergio I assume you're using them for file naming characters, in which case my Mac is telling me "Filenames can't contain colons" :)
translation for command enter on windows isn't working... interesting...
first time something doesn't translate.
I'm sorry but I did not see the moment and method you created the MOC.
8:03 Instructions unclear. Accidentally built a fully functional MOP
Had almost forgotten about that blunder!
Ah Sergio, you have completely lost me on the MOC and Home Directory. When you simply paste in your prior work, I don't understand how it was created. I appreciate the time you save by not typing it out live, but it completely loses me when you just say, here's the shortcut and bam, your text appears. I don't see the links to it. Maybe I will have to come back and watch MOC and Home Directory again once I am more experienced. I love your video series.
Using community add-ins for Obsidian is crazy. They're a security nightmare. Obsidian has already stated that they don't do any checking to confirm that plug-ins are safe and don't have malicious code.
I agree that it is not bulletproof, however you are more than welcome to inspect the code yourself. That's what I do with the ones I use and I do not update them without checking the new additions. To be fair I hardly ever update them as I've had no need to do so.
Open source is the key here !
If a plugin is insecure, be sure that the community will point it
Just check the reputation and eventually the github repo (issues and PR) before installing a new plugin and you'll be good
Obsidian itself is closed-source, but plugins generally are not. If there's a concern for security, then you should account for that in your threat model. Calling it, "a security nightmare" is a bit of alarmist.
zettkian whatever its called method sucks, it makes no sense once you have tons of notes.
I agree actually. I call it ZK but I apply my own method to it which I'm making a video on it to be released in August
Sorry but I have NO idea what you are trying to present. When you fast-forward through the actual creation process you leave the noobs (like me) even more clueless than when you started… What does it mean to create a MOC and how do you do it?
Quite useless video for people that just start... When you say: if you already have bunch of notes and you see many links, then it could be a MOC.
But dude, those notes doesnt have any links. Youre excluding the actual most important thing of this videos. To build a MOC, the user first need to have anchor links.
this useless videos make me think that there is a bunch of opportunity area in this style
👍
Sbs kordo