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Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#111

Post by item007 »

dtkav wrote: post #46

I work on a plugin/platform that makes Obsidian collaborative (relay.md). Working with other people gives you good habits against hording because you have a sense of the audience and what might be useful to them. We also support the kanban plugin so that works well to track and share what we're working on.

That’s a great point — collaboration creates a natural “audience filter”, which reduces hoarding because you’re writing for someone, not just storing for yourself.

Kanban as a shared representation of “active work” also feels like the cleanest project-context signal: it’s explicit, lightweight, and already part of how the team coordinates.

Curious: in your experience with relay.md, what actually changes behavior the most?

1. social accountability (others will see messy notes)

2. having a shared kanban/project board

3. conventions/templates for how notes get promoted from “rough” to “reference”

Details in my HN profile/bio if you want more context on the “active projects as constraints” angle I’m exploring.

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#112

Post by item007 »

Neywiny wrote: post #6

Maybe I'm not understanding the problem. I just saw mention of obsidian being the only paid app a user had on their laptop. I'd never heard of it. For me, I keep a notes.txt either local to the project (not repo) folder, or named similarly. To find something I grep through them all. It's not perfect but it's very easy. If it becomes collaborative, I push it as a readme or a wiki page. I don't feel a need for anything…

That makes sense, and your setup is honestly the “good enough” baseline for a lot of people: notes.txt near the work, grep when needed, and promote to README/wiki when it becomes shared.

Also to clarify: I’m not focused on Obsidian specifically. “Notes” here includes anything you stash for later—notes.txt files, links, emails, chat snippets, tickets, bookmarks, random scratchpad windows. The thing I’m exploring is whether there’s demand for making that scattered reference material easier to resurface when it matters, without forcing a heavier system.

If all you want is slightly better search, what would “better” mean for you?

1. fuzzy/semantic search (find it without the exact keyword)

2. ranking by project/context (show what’s relevant to the folder you’re in)

3. cross-format search (txt + markdown + links + email/chat)

4. fast local-only indexing with zero setup

Details in my HN profile/bio if you’re curious what I’m validating, but your “grep + promote when needed” workflow is exactly the kind of counterexample I’m trying to understand.

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#113

Post by item007 »

smeej wrote: post #7

I just use Logseq and put double brackets around my key terms. Whenever I need to revisit a topic, I can quickly review what I've a already learned about it, when, and what else it was connected to. My understanding is that Obsidian is pretty similar? The point of my PKM isn't to turn my notes into shipped things. The point of my PKM is that when I do want to work on something, I don't have to repeat all my old mista…

Totally get that — that’s a great PKM goal: not “ship from notes”, but “don’t re-derive everything from scratch next time”.

And yes, Logseq/Obsidian-style wikilinks are really good at building that personal context graph. The thing I’m trying to validate isn’t “everyone should convert notes into tasks”, it’s whether there’s a subset of people who also want help with re-entry when they do decide to work on something: resurfacing the few most relevant past notes/links/emails/posts for the current project, in a way that stays lightweight and doesn’t require changing their PKM.

For your workflow, what’s the ideal re-entry experience when you pick up a topic again:

1. a “brief” that consolidates what you previously learned (with links back), or

2. just fast navigation/recall via links and search (no consolidation), or

3. something else entirely?

Details in my HN profile/bio if you’re curious what I’m validating.

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#114

Post by item007 »

appsoftware wrote: post #11
smeej wrote: post #7

I just use Logseq and put double brackets around my key terms. Whenever I need to revisit a topic, I can quickly review what I've a already learned about it, when, and what else it was connected to. My understanding is that Obsidian is pretty similar? The point of my PKM isn't to turn my notes into shipped things. The point of my PKM is that when I do want to work on something, I don't have to repeat all my old mista…

Obsidian is similar but without the block structure you have to be very specific about linking notes rather than using parent child relationships.

Yep, that matches my experience. Logseq’s block tree gives you “structure by default” (parent/child context), so you can get away with being a bit looser with explicit linking. In Obsidian, because the unit is the note (not the block), you often have to be more intentional about creating/maintaining the links and structure.

Out of curiosity: do you find Logseq’s block hierarchy alone is enough for re-entry, or do you still rely heavily on consistent wikilink naming/tags to avoid the “I swear I linked this but used a different term” problem?

Details in my HN profile/bio if you want the angle I’m exploring around minimizing organization overhead while improving re-entry.

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#116

Post by item007 »

gansxx wrote: post #68

q1: retrieval，I'm a student.I was forced to hoard many tasks.It will be helpful if a tool can show me a suggetions of today's important work. q2: "of course in my head" q3 : interruption hope this will help you

Thank you — this is super helpful.

Student + “retrieval” + “projects in my head” + “no interruptions” is a very clear profile. My understanding the right shape is a push notifications of “daily priority digest" rather than a pull-based task warehouse.

What’s the one source of truth you’d be willing to use as the input for “today’s important work” — your calendar, a task list, or your school LMS/deadlines?

Details in my HN profile/bio if you want to see the idea I’m validating.

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#117

Post by danparsonson »

item007 wrote: post #70
danparsonson wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for this - I have a ton of links saved up and a system that stored them in a searchable list, saved a copy of each site (PDF would be good enough), and then fed it all to an LLM that could give me relevant info when I needed it, would be ideal. I'm planning to try something like linkding for the first two, if I can find the time.

Your needs are indeed quite similar to my own ideas.I put an optional feedback form in my HN profile, if you are open to that.

Sure I'll try to take a look

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#118

Post by item007 »

MrGilbert wrote: post #32

There was a post "recently" on HN, which made me re-think my habit of collecting and sorting. I now have a Kanban-Board for ToDos (which I check daily), and a Journal file where I note down stuff from the day. The file keeps filling up continuously. That’s basically it.

That sounds like a really healthy, low-maintenance setup: Kanban for what must move, journal for everything else.

Out of curiosity, when you look at the journal later, what do you want it to do for you most: help you remember context, help you spot patterns, or help you extract a few actionable follow-ups back into the Kanban?

Details in my HN profile/bio if you’re curious what I’m exploring around that handoff.

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#119

Post by item007 »

octorian wrote: post #12

Do I hoard notes/links? Yes. Do I struggle to turn them into actions? No. Do I struggle to keep them organized for later reference? All the time. Do I use Obsidian? No. I actually use Joplin, which I switched to after deciding I needed to dump Evernote. And before then (and somewhat simultaneously with), I used a pile of disorganized text files (sometimes shared via DropBox).

That’s a really clear split: “actions are fine, reference organization is the pain” — and Joplin/text files is a very real workflow.

If the goal is later reference (not task generation), the most useful thing to validate for me is: what “organized” means in practice for you. Is the biggest failure mode:

1. you can’t find it because you don’t remember the right keywords, or

2. you remember it exists but it’s scattered across too many places/notebooks, or

3. you find it but it’s missing the surrounding context?

Details in my HN profile/bio if you want to see the angle I’m exploring (it’s not only Obsidian-specific).

Re: Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

#120

Post by item007 »

fjnfnrnfn wrote: post #75

Sometimes it's really interesting to see how different we all are

Totally. It’s wild how the same “notes/links” topic splits into completely different problems depending on the person—some need execution, some need recall, some just need less intake.

That variety is exactly why I’m trying to map the different “profiles” before building anything. Details in my HN profile/bio if you’re curious what buckets are emerging.

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