How many of you use links between notes to organize your notes navigation? How do you use them, within the note text itself or grouping at top or bottom of the note? And how do you organize them, considering that too many links can be counterproductive and confusing?
I write both zettelkasten style short notes on various topics during research, and usually link to those in the text, and organizational notes for projects which I usually link in headings or at the beginning of notes
I consult to Copilot and it helped me design a linking system with inspiration from LCSH.
So I use links as tags (not “# tags” but LCSH style tags and subdivisions)
I have notes served as hub to store these tags.
One example is “[[New York University–IELTS Prize Class 2022–SP2024–Exam Invoice]]”
Let me explain more with this.
In this system, each “tag” is a combination of 3 or 4 subdivision types. They are
- Geographical: New York University
- Topical: IELTS Prize Class 2022
- Chronological: SP2024 (Spring Semester 2024)
- Form: Exam Invoice
Of course, sometimes I don’t need one or two of the four types. The key here is to use the link as a replacement for groups and smart groups
I am an obsidian convert, and I used MOC’s when I was there. I’ve been in the same process in bear, although it doesn’t work as fluidly.
I’ll have a ‘Work MOC’ and ‘Personal MOC’. Each of those will have links to common and important notes, and those notes will also backlink to the MOC. I treat MOC’s as a hub of sorts to access information quickly.
The search is so fast in bear, its almost redundent though.