Outliner or not? – Arbor Cogitandi – Sat, 28 Jan

I’m an outliner; I’ve always preferred to write my notes using bullet points and expand the ideas or content below these bullet points. Outline tools like Workflowy, Dynalist, Roam Research, and LogSeq have become popular.

While outline tools help organize complex projects and break them down into manageable tasks, they can be less flexible. They may not be ideal for capturing the nuances of thoughts and ideas.

That’s when long-form writing comes into play. Apps like Obsidian, Ginko App, Ulysses, or Scrivener — among many others — fit in that category. They prioritize the free-flowing capture of thoughts and ideas, with less emphasis on structure, which can make the writing process more natural and intuitive. However, long-form tools can make it more challenging to navigate and organize content, especially when there are a lot of ideas to work with.

Ultimately, the choice between outline tools and long-form writing tools comes down to your personal preferences and the specific needs of your project. Both approaches have their strengths and weaknesses, and it’s worth experimenting with different tools to find the one that works best for you.

Obsidian is a middle ground between outlining and long-form writing tools. I can still outline and organize my thoughts in Obsidian, but it also makes it easy to share my notes with others.

So for the moment, I have decided to make Obsidian my home until I find something that better fits me.

I use the zoom plugin to focus on specific parts of my documents and Typora to add more document-like formatting when sharing my notes.

Overall, my experience with Obsidian has been very positive, but I am always looking for tools to improve my workflow even more.