How to Properly Organize and Manage Notes in Joplin?

benten · 2024-07-24T17:11:37.396Z

Hello everyone,

I am new to Joplin and really like it so far! But I am having trouble getting my notes organized. I want to use Joplin the best way possible. Can anyone help me with this?

When should I use each one? What works best for most people?
How do I make templates for notes I use a lot? Are there tools to help?
How can I find what I need quickly? Any tips?
What's the best way to keep my notes on all my devices? Are there any problems I should know about?
How can I make sure my notes don't get lost?
Are there any helpful tools or extra features for Joplin?
How do I keep from getting lost in all my notes?

Could anyone suggest me the best solution for this? and any advice or personal stories would be great!

Thanks in advance!

Respected community member

arnest · 2024-08-12T20:25:21.771Z

How to organize your notes is highly personal. Begin to write every day. Review your notes on a regular basis.
You may want to create reference notes and will discover internal links right clicking on a note (link that you can paste in others).

Several methods exist, the most beginner friendly seems to be PARA (forte labs.com).

Create template is possible with Joplin, by using some plug-in (https://github.com/joplin/plug-in-templates).
Extremely important is to backup your notes. The backup plug-in is now integrated in standard, configure it as early as possible.

Write your first notes first on the desktop. Later you may want to come back to check the great synchronization features of Joplin that allow to get your notes on your phone or another computer.

Good luck!

zimmer · 2024-08-12T22:39:21.540Z

As has been said, workflow is highly subjective but here are a couple of suggestions that might help:

Utilise Table of Contents ie [toc] on each note. This will make it very easy to jump to note headings - invaluable on mobile
Create a Joplin/markdown/html cheat sheet. I named mine "01 Joplin cheat sheet" so it's easy to find as it's always at the top of my notes tree. In here keep useful reference notes for anything that might come in handy such as Joplin tricks & html codes for making collapsible paragraphs, forcing a line break within .pdf, how to link directly to a heading in a other note etc etc
I added an emoji/icon to each parent note in the note tree. This gives me a visual reference when quickly looking l for specific notes topic (i found it becomes a mess if icons are added to every note). Hint: you can add icon pack logo's not just emoji
Add a couple of useful plugins. Some i find invaluable are Tabs, Enhancement, Admonition
I personally prefer to always use portable version on desktop
Enable backups (Settings >Plugins >Backup. Toggle on). Remember to set the backup frequency. I recommend setting it to back up all notes as this maintains links between notes. Should the need arise you can simply import your "all notes backup" into a new portable instance of Joplin then from there export your required note for import into your main instance of Joplin.
Some plugins are now compatible on mobile. Tabs is one. I like to have a "General" note for miscelleneous items - links to stuff, quick lists, a movie that someone recommended, a news story to read later etc. I set this General note as a pinned tab on all my desktops & mobile so it's always instantly accessible on every device.

You'll soon find your preferred way of doing things. Enjoy!