ADHD - zero tech literacy - want to learn Obsidian. Any help?

vanveen, 6 months ago

Thanks for the answer!

BearOfaTime, 6 months ago

So many great comments on addressing the ADHD stuff.

I believe you can sync Obsidian using Syncthing.

It runs on every OS, Android, Windows, Linux, and iOS (as Möbius)

Mr_Vortex, 6 months ago

There are some really great answers here already that I think are perfect starting points for you. I’ll offer a bit of what I know because everyone’s experience is different.

I don’t have ADHD, but my girlfriend does. She uses Trello to keep track of her school work like assignments, due dates, class information, important links, etc. She also uses Obsidian for her research notes. Between those two and her calendar, she manages to stay pretty organized as long as she looks at them regularly. As another commenter said, having an app on your phone for quick reminders is probably a good idea too.

As for me, I like Obsidian and use two vaults for different purposes. One is for my roleplaying game notes to plan for running games of D&D and others. To organize it I use the Johnny Decimal system because it’s good at separating different projects within one space. I can look at the folder number any time I search or link a note and immediately know if I’ve got the right version of a monster or the right NPC called “Alice” for example.

My other vault is my general knowledge base for all other notes. I recently came across the work of Nick Milo and have adopted his ACE method with some tweaks to tailor it better for how I think and work. It’s a well thought out system and I am starting to see the benefits more and more.

I hope you find the systems and methods that work for you even if Obsidian doesn’t become part of your workflow!

Emotional_Series7814, 6 months ago (edited 6 months ago)

I also have ADHD.

When you first download Obsidian, they put you in the Obsidian Sandbox vault which is full of "how to use Obsidian" tutorials and is made for you to play around and experiment with. Read as much of it as you think is relevant to you. You can always go back to their tutorials to learn more when you need it. I find the official tutorials good enough to not need to look elsewhere for the basics on "how to use Obsidian". It's cool to read elsewhere for different ways to organize, but I know that I'll end up suffering from organizational/decision paralysis so it's better for me to just go and write. Organize later. Yes, not the best for "staying organized" but at least I'll be writing important stuff down in an area I can use a search function on which is better than nothing at all.

Part of how I stay organized is that everything has a designated place and must always be put there when not in use. This extends to information. "Where did I put my tax returns?" "Well, you always write information of that nature down in Obsidian, use the search tool in Obsidian and search for 'taxes' to find the answer."

My actual Obsidian files are not the prettiest or the most well organized, but I do manage to actually keep all information of a particular nature contained within. This helps a lot.

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A few other ADHD tips:

When I put any of my physical belongings down and I don't have a particular place they go in (so this happens less at home, but in the museum I visited for the first time and do not expect to be a regular at? I am definitely not going to have a designated spot for each item the way I do at home), they need to be physically near each other. This has cut down so much on umbrella loss for me.

Also, I am personally an Apple Reminders person. Every time I think of something that must be acted on at a particular date or time that I might forget, I put it in Reminders for that day and/or time, which is set up to send me notifications. For example, I sing in a choir and I usually do not take my music folder home after I finish rehearsal. If I decide I want to take the folder home, there is a good chance I'll forget to do that, so I set a reminder to go off at 7:00PM, when rehearsal ends.

So how does Obsidian play into remembering information if I already use Apple Reminders? I use Obsidian for information I'll probably forget that doesn't have a particular date/time associated with it (like recipes I particularly liked that I don't want to forget, or the difference between three musical terms that I always forget the difference between).

vanveen, 6 months ago

Thanks a lot very kind, as also the others ‘lemmitors’ who have answered me! 😘 😘

rs137, 6 months ago

Any help? Sure! As someone who also has ADHD and mastered Obsidian, let me tell you that Obsidian is not your friend. It’s a dumb app in a sense you have to constantly take care of your system. And oh boy, you will over engineer your system.

If you want to stay organized, live in the moment, you need an app that can take care of itself. Like calendar and todo app. Please don’t repeat my mistake and turn around. Learn GTD. Find GTD Nordic podcast and listen to the first six episodes. You can thank me later.

BleakBluets, 6 months ago

I don’t know about the Obsidian-specific stuff for linking notes and such, but I know it uses Markdown for the text of the notes, which is a common standard.

Here is a guide for Markdown basic syntax. Here is a guide for Markdown extended syntax for things like tables and footnotes.

princessnorah, 6 months ago

This is their guide for formatting. There’s also the Obsidian Hub’s guides

Ludrol, 6 months ago

To sync notes I use syncthing.

I assume that ADHD and anexity is diagnosed by a professional. The obsydian won’t help you with being more organised and less forgetful. If your current meds don’t work, talk with your psychatrist to change them.

I still need to remeber to check my notes instead of remebering 10 things I need to do today. Notes are a optimisation of memory, not the delegation to external system.

Being organised isn’t about the system or the method of keeping notes but wholistic view at internal system of mind. Being fit and active,sleeping and eating properly, having your emotions regulated, having your believes and biases challenged, having a reason to live.

There is propably some deeper reason why you are disorganized. Switch off all the distractions. Sit and close your eyes. Ask yourself what did you forget to do today? How is making you feel. WHY did you forget? What were you doing instead of remebering?

Ask similar questions as long as you can.