I have been keeping a personal knowledge vault in Obsidian for a few years now. What follows are the principles I have settled on — not a system I designed upfront, but habits that survived contact with reality.
When to write
- In the writing window — the deliberate sessions set aside for it.
- When recognizing connections — while writing other notes, or when a real-life situation triggers an idea that already lives in the vault. This one rests on habits built outside the writing sessions: an intimate mental map of your own vault, and the reflex of spotting links between a fleeting thought and the ideas already living there.