In this blog post, I will explain why you need to use backlinks in Obsidian by exploring their benefits. Then, I will guide you through the process of creating backlinks. Finally, I’ll demonstrate how I use backlinks in my Obsidian vault.
Obsidian is a note-taking application that can be used to create a Personal Knowledge Management system(PKM). You can discover more about Obsidian in our Obsidian review.
What makes Obsidian such a good application for a Personal Knowledge Management system is its ability to organise your notes with folders, tags, and, most importantly, for a Personal Knowledge Management system backlinks.
As I argued in a recent blog post, the importance of backlinks in Personal Knowledge Management, such as Zettelkasten, is to create a web of ideas.
Understanding backlinks in Obsidian
Backlinks are used to create links between one note and another, allowing you to link one related note to another, creating a web-like structure between related notes and knowledge. These links will enable you to navigate your notes along a path of associated thoughts, and this exploration could help you generate new thoughts and knowledge.
The biggest benefit of using backlogs is that they help you form unexpected links as you work on your notes.
Notes that have been linked to by a backlink will display details on the note which have been linked with that note.
Obsidian will also tell you if any notes mention it without linking to that note, giving you the ability to link the notes if warranted.
Obsidian also has what is known as a graph view, which is generated from these backlinks between your notes, creating a knowledge map for your vault, which gives you a way to track a way through your knowledge.
How to create backlinks in Obsidian?
To create a link in Obsidian type, the square brackets twice[[]]. Obsidian will try to predict what note you want to link to if the note currently exists. Select the appropriate note if one already exists in your vault. If no note currently exists, then continue to type in the full title for that note. This new note you are linking to doesn’t exist on the system until that note is created, but until then, it acts as a placeholder, which will appear on your mind map. Clicking on this note will create a new note.
I don’t always create a new linked note. I consider how important it is and whether I understand the topic of the note. This process has helped me identify gaps in my knowledge and gives me an idea of what subjects I might want to study.
It is okay to have incomplete or non-existent notes. Your Personal Knowledge Management system is always a work in progress.
Why shouldn’t I use tags or folders over backlinks in Obsidian?
One of the reasons that Obsidian is one of the best note-taking applications for a Personal Knowledge Management system is that it supports folders, tags and backlinks, as they all have their place in a Personal Knowledge Management system.
Folders help you define your basic Personal Knowledge Management system and an area for non-Personal Knowledge Management system notes. For example, in my personal Obsidian vault, I use two folders to define my literature and permanent notes in my Personal Knowledge Management system, another folder for my daily journals, and several for processing notes imported into my vault by Readwise.
I also use Tags to relate a note to a specific topic once I have a clear subject area in mind.
Tags, folders and Backlinks all have their uses, but you can get by in a system without folders or tags. The same doesn’t ring true for backlinks as they help define your web of thinking, and it is this web that allows you to navigate your way through your thoughts, ideas, and knowledge.
How I use backlinks in Obsidian
I use backlinks extensively in my Obsidian vault to create links between various notes, not just the notes in my Personal Knowledge Management system but in my journal, which is also part of my second brain.
As I create my notes or journal, I think about any notes I can link to. I also consider whether something is worthy of a note. I detail this in my blog post on how to create a Zetelkastin in Obsidian.
The important thing to remember is that backlinks create the underlying structure of a web of notes connected to other related notes. The interconnection of ideas is the real driving power in a Personal Knowledge Management system.
Conclusion
You should now understand why you should use backlinks in Obsidian and how you can use them.
Our Obsidian guides can be found in the Obsidian section of our website.
Last updated 05/05/2024.