> [!infobox] ## [[Using Obsidian's graph as a class companion]] ### A story about *graph anxiety* Early this year I started do a self-paced online course created by [[Dr. K]] about [[meditation]], [[depression]], and [[anxiety]]. I have been watching [[Dr. K]] for a little over a year and I already had plenty of [[evergreen notes]] relating to these subjects, so this course offered an opportunity to expand my knowledge in those areas. I downloaded the glossary as markdown and used a little bit of [[Regex]] and [[Note Refactor (plugin, obsidian)|Note Refactor]] magic to turn all of the terms into their own [[topic notes]]. This enabled two things. One, I know had editable definitions that I could use as jumping of points for writing and could connect together to start to form a little [[web of thought]]. Second, as I started to take notes on all the videos, [[Various Complements (plugin, obsidian)|Various Complements]] was able to autocomplete all of those terms and link those notes at the same time. This made the actual note-taking process more streamlined and contributed to the [[web of thought]]. At this point a completely new form of [[anxiety]] overtook me, *graph anxiety*. Suddenly, this graph that I had been slowly gardening and tending for months was infested with notes that weren't mine. To most people this wouldn't be a problem, but for graph obsessed person like myself this was suddenly a problem. In a panic I tried to find meaning in the nodes, to make them mine, my own, my preciouses. I frantically went through and created files for all the videos, using the terms that were linked in the description. This failed fantastically, ballooning and dense ball of nodes into a tumor almost half the size of my graph. Not realizing my error, I then started sifting through each of the terms. Linking them together and creating new [[stub notes]] for commonly used words like [[body]] and [[mind]]. This didn't solve my problem of feeling like the graph wasn't mine (not a real problem anyways), but it did have a side effect. As I was linking terms together and looking for key words and concepts, I was familiarizing myself with the material of the course. This definitely isn't the most efficient way to learn terms, but for somebody who has always hated flashcards, this was a much more enjoyable way to review terms. [[Productivity tools are often most useful in how much work they inspire you to do]], and this *graph anxiety* did push me to do work. With my first two options failing to cure my *graph anxiety*, I did the unthinkable, I actually did the course. Over the next month or so I watched through most of the [[meditation]] module and started to create connections and insights. This as I did this I finally felt my [[anxiety]] lessen as I connected old notes within the [[source notes]] I was taking for the videos, and as I made new [[evergreen notes]]. You can see the effect of this on my [[Graph Timeline#January]] ##### Conclusion 1. The graph may not make insights for you, but it can reflect your growing [[understanding]] 2. Making connections *just for the graph* isn't helpful, but the graph can encourage you to make the connections that [[learning]] requires. 3. You should use your notes as an interactive learning tool, and the graph can be part of that ### <hr class="footnote"/> **Status**:: #EVER/SEED *edited 7:35 AM - July 08, 2022* **Topics**:: [[Obsidian (software)|Obsidian]], [[knowledge management]], [[learning]]