Repository building in Obsidian (feat. ever-green notes)

At some point in life, we discover quirks we never knew were ours—one of mine is a strange obsession with building my own repository of ever-green notes. Whenever I read, learn, or imagine something, I hated the feeling of losing it instantly, as if my mind was constantly spilling breadcrumbs along the way.

Over the years, I’ve tried basic note apps on my iPhone, Evernote, Notion, the Kindle app, and countless physical notebooks, only to find that everything I wanted to remember was scattered across multiple platforms. It became frustratingly inefficient to retrieve information when I needed it, and eventually, I couldn’t even remember what I was trying to find.

There’re the constant ineffective moments, say, I’d come across a thought while reading on Kindle, perfectly linkable to an epiphany I had days earlier—but, too tired to grab my laptop from the other room, I’d jot it down in the Kindle memo. Later, when I was lucky enough to revisit that memo, I’d realize that the epiphany itself, supposedly buried in laptop wasn’t readily accessible. My ambition wanes a little.

"Wait, was it sth come up over the talk with GY, then maybe that should be on my weekly note(physical)? Nah, they are at home now, so later."

I’d add a quick memo to revisit it again when I got home to my to-do list, ready to be lost.

The network formed by the ever-green notes I've created. It's far along the way.

I needed a system—an information system (fitting, given my field!)—that connects the dots between ideas coming from reading, journaling, literature reviews, and inspirational conversations. For example, I needed a way to connect last week’s insights from a leadership seminar to the distinction between awareness and consciousness that I’d been contemplating a month earlier. I had to connect Oliver Sacks and Robert Oppenheimer with the term I formed, "physically clumsy, mentally sharp(innovative)".

In this age of information overload, why do I bother building my own system? Though I’ve compared it to Wikipedia, it isn't about objective knowledge per se. My notes mostly capture personal thoughts, insights from conversations, and comments I’ve heard from others (there are numerous pages dedicated to people in my repository. 😋 If you're my friend, you definitely have your own page.), all potentially linkable to concepts I’ve read or learned. The beauty of it all is that I no longer feel anxious about learning or building a knowledge map.

If something impresses me today but I don’t have time to delve into it, I create a concept page and link it to my daily note, which is automatically generated in my period notes each day. Since I keep everything in Obsidian, all I need to do later is explore my period notes from that time to uncover it. Or, if it slips my mind for a while and I later come across it again, I often get hooked once more. When I go to create a concept note, I’m delighted to find an existing one I had started in the past but never fully followed through on. In this way, a natural spaced repetition occurs, making it less likely that I’ll forget it going forward. An added bonus of keeping period notes in Obsidian is the ability to easily revisit and recall what was happening at the time by browsing through my archived notes.

One of the most important factors in forming this habit was to make it extremely accessible and simple. Keeping the notes as text files, it's very light to use, so switching from here and there on laptop, ipad, all quick and tidy.

This is far from a systematic or exhaustive description of the entire process, so I’ll likely revisit this for revision—or maybe my priorities won’t allow me to do so anytime soon.