Hi all,
I am curious how you use your MOCs to organize your vaults.
Nick Milo’s LYT example is really nice, but seems super complex to me.
I think I get why MOCs are useful, but I am also looking from inspiration elsewhere.
Do you dump all your notes in a single folder and then make MOCs to help navigate them?
Have you been using tags?
Are there any tips/best practices on maintaining MOCs?
I’ve been using a directory structure based on the note’s subjects, but quickly bumped into a problem: some notes fit in more than one subject.
Tags have been of help, but it’s getting out of hand the way I use them.
I believe using MOCs might be the answer for me, but I also fear it might be too cumbersome to maintain.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
What is a MOC and a LYT?
Sorry for using acronyms; I hate when people do that and I just did…
MOC stands for Map of Content if I’m not wrong.
From what I understand, MOCs are notes that contain a table of contents that links to other notes.
You can open such a note to quickly access other notes by clicking on the links in it.LYT stands for Linking Your Thinking.
It’s just marketing for Nick Milo’s way of organizing obsidian vaults.
He’s an entrepreneur that teaches his organizational techniques.
He uses MOCs among other things, but I’m having trouble understanding his implementation.Hehe. Sorry if I put you on the spot; that wasn’t the intention, really. (And: IDMA. “I don’t mind acronyms”)
MOCs – I guess I use them all the time, but not in a systematic way. I’m a folder guy, so I use folder notes fairly consistently. I also try to use “landing pages” for specific projects, with links to all the various bits of contents, so that I have everything in one place. But again: fairly unsystematically.
In general all those kinds of systems tend to make me think that they require a whole lot of thinking about thinking rather than the thinking itself…
I’ve been doing too much thinking about thinking lately… To avoid thinking about thinking later. So far, it didn’t accomplish much.
The folder notes plugin is new to me and it’s neat. I’ll play with it. Thanks!
I have ADHD and I’m trying to find a balance between structure and maintenance requirements.
I think of MOCs as “topics” that naturally arrise through my notes. Let’s say I had notes for Kayaking, Snowboarding, Rooftop Parkour, Sky Diving, Hiking, and Rock Climbing all written months apart. I may later realize I should create a MOC called “Physical Activities” that captures all of them.
I try to utilize folders sparingly, but it’s a tough habit to break. The problem with folders is that they’re hierchal. I don’t want an “Physical Activities” folder, because that limits things. Perhaps I’ll have another MOC called “Fear of Heights” that also has Rooftop Parkour and Skydiving. It’s about creating maximum discoverability.
Tags I use to group things so I can find them with Dataview. For example, if I create a literature note, I’ll tag it “Source” and have a sub tag for type, like “Source/Newspaper”. As with MOCs, multiple tags can be used which helps with not seeing notes as a folder hierarchy.
So far I only use MoC for listing what comes in through Omnivore. Omnivore is a read it later app that has amazing integration with Obsidian. You can bring over whole articles or what you highlighted in Omnivore (that’s what I do) tagged and all. I have it set up so it drops all incoming into an omnivore folder in my vault and then I have MoCs (dataview) that list the articles/highlights per topic. For example in my leather craft folder I have a MoC that lists all links to articles saved and tagged with “leathercraft”. So I don’t have to search through my omnivore folder (which is structured by date saved).
Otherwise I think I don’t have enough content for a single topic to have a MoC yet. I might eventually if the folder gets so full you have to scroll far. But I link a lot within notes so I mostly jump around like that.
Ooooh that’s interesting!
I like the idea of using something like omnivore to import text and have dataview sort it automatically in a MOC.
I’ll definitely look into that, thanks.No problem. Works super well for me.
Actually just read this recent on HackerNews and might start using it for my Obsidian organization.
I use folders and tags for organisation (Auto Note Mover puts my notes where I want them based on how I tag them. But I use AutoMOC to make a big list of connections that I then reorganise into categories. It’s a really good way to make sense of things after I’ve built up a good bank of ideas on a topic. But I don’t use them for navigation; I’d much rather go through search or quick switcher.
I don’t use MOC’s. Folders and tags.
