Table of Contents
Well, this is embarrassing. Just a mere two weeks after writing my previous post, I changed my mind on much of my organisational process yet again. So, in this post, I will write again on what programmes I am using to do what purpose, in another attempt to organise the interesting stuff in my life.
Obsidian
I decided to finally migrate away from UpNote, as I described in my previous post, but quickly found the process within Logseq quite not right. The main issue was with folders. While UpNote gave Notebooks to help organise sections, Logseq only likes pages, and I couldn’t overcome this problem I had reframing my mind to think differently.
However, Obsidian shows the full folders tree, so I have my notes nestled neatly into folders, and can navigate them with ease. I’ve kept the setup quite simple. Just adding Dracula Gemini as my theme, and the plugin Icon Folder to easily identify the folders within my setup.
Zettlr
But then what about the Digital Garden? As I’ve previously stated, I do not like the idea of hopping between Obsidian vaults, so I had to move these files elsewhere. Well, why not a platform designed for digital gardens or Zettelkasten type notes?
I had come across Zettlr before, writing how it seemed more for academic use and not good for every day notes. But, what I now had were not everyday notes, and while not academic, it should be a good choice for what I did want to use it for. Furthermore, as it is cross-platform, so I could access it in a similar way on my phone, it seemed like a good idea to try again.
I’m glad I did. It uses Markdown, accesses local files, creates backlinks between the files, and is easy to navigate with its three pane setup and full view of the file system and the folders I created.
Logseq
I was recently browsing Reddit, and came across this post discussing the merits between bookmarking applications Raindrop, Anybox and Goodlinks. Not a discussion that particularly interests me as I am satisfied with my bookmarking solution, but I went to read it anyway, and saw a comment recommending Readwise Reader. Already aware of Readwise, I looked into Reader and I love the idea of having one place to gather newsletters, RSS feeds, saved web articles, and being able to highlight interesting sections to save for future reference. However, I didn’t love the price, and would prefer something local as well.
I came across Omnivore sometime last year, an open-source Read It Later application similar to Pocket, and later I read a Reddit post with someone asking how Omnivore and a Logseq (!) plugin compares to Readwise, to which the developer replied:
“We don’t pull in highlights from external sources like Kindle and stuff. We are more a place to read your articles and documents, and do your highlighting/note-taking.”
So, highlighting and note taking articles is there, and poking around shows a way to subscribe to newsletters as well. I couldn’t find a way to pipe RSS feeds into it, but I can always add those individual articles in later that I wish to save.
However, despite speaking of a self hosted version, there currently, as I write this, no instructions on how to do this. There also is only an iOS app, nothing for Android, which makes accessing it on the go difficult, though they suggest a Progressive Web App will work.
Despite this, I thought I would give it a go, and set up a new graph in Logseq (with Catppuccin Mocha Green theme!), added the Omnivore plugin, and set up a connection to the account I created. It required a restart for it to show, but I soon had a few articles, and its highlights, I had added for testing purposes!
While I would have perhaps preferred the plugin to make new pages to each article with its highlights and notes, I still thought it did a really decent job at what it was trying to do, and liked how it also brought in the labels to become tags for easy browsing within Logseq. Now to populate Omnivore with more content and await instructions on self hosting…
Conclusion
Hopefully, fingers crossed, that should be me done for a while organising my interesting stuff. Though I have recently spotted updates to audiobookshelf which have caught my eye…
Tags: Applications Setup