Obsidian, TTRPG, ADHD and Johnny Decimal of course

J.D Concepts 14 Build your system
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Hi everyone, I think this is only the second time I post here.

First I am french, second I have ADHD and third I use Obsidian as a replacement for Evernote when the subscription prices increased after Bending Spoon evernote purchase.

My issue here could be the same if I was using Evernote, Notion, OneNote, you name it.

I don’t manage to keep a method for too long and I change my structure regularly.

Since the 25th of June I have found my dream job: a better salary, a better manager, better colleagues and I can afford going back to Evernote which would be easier because the app is more user frlendly but I like Obsidian for qualities I think, have been already written on these forums so maybe I should stick to it.

JD method appeals to me somehow but I never keept it for long because my brain always find it’s too rigid for it…but that may be not the case, maybe I should better define my areas/IDs etc. I considered using PARA but don’t know if it’s better for my ADHD…

TTRPG for instance, is my primary hobby and I don’t know if this should be its own Area (let’s say for instance 40-49 RPG) or a Category in an Hobby Area (40-49 Hobby > 41 RPG) .

In the former case, it would look like “40-49 RPG > 41 Campaigns > 41.01 Campaign A” and each file of the campaign A would be there.

In the latter case, it would look like “40-49 Hobbies > 41 RPG > 41.01 Campaign A” : it seem to work the same.

In the former case, 40-49 RPG would have all my campaign in the same folder but I don’t have 100 Campaigns to store there even including past and finished ones.

In the latter case, 41 RPG would include not only campaigns but also, notes on specific RPG, notes on GM Ideas etc.

What would be the best for my ADHD and considering JD Method ?

1 Like
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Hey! :slight_smile:

Couple questions that come to mind:

  • How many other Hobbies do you have that you could keep within 40-49 Hobbies?
  • Are all RPG files directly related to a campaign? So if you use 40-49 RPG / 41 Campaigns what would 42, 43 etc be. Maybe there are worlds, characters, etc that are bigger than one campaign?
  • How big is one campaign? If a campaign is one note, it could be an ID, but if a campaign contains a lot, it should be a category maybe? 40-49 RPG / 41 Campaign A
  • Where would you look yourself? What would be more calm for you?
    If a campaign is really big, you would almost need another system within your ID, which does not bring a lot of calm I could imagine?
  • If you have a lot of campaigns you could also make your standard/overarching files 40-49 and start your first campaign in the same folder with 400.

Just some thing to think about, please give me moreeeee, I love these kinds of brainstorms.
The ultimate goal is: What makes you worry less and makes you find your files more easily.

If you want some quicker back and forth, I am @FJ on the Discord, feel free to tag me :slight_smile:

3

Hi and thanks for your answer.
I have several hobbies : RPG (main), video games, Series and movies on paid streaming services, I also like to do playlists on Spotify or go to a walk to take fresh air and I am also intested in everything related to Information.

How big is one campaign? Well that depends in fact. Usually several notes but how many, that depends, betweed 1 and 50 notes maybe.

Honestly if I want to find my campaign folder, I would like to have it with the less friction possible.

I don’t have a lot of campaign. I have two as a GM and three as a player.

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hi there! I’m not at all acquainted with role-playing games. But I’ll make the following observation. My brain would have a hard time mixing campaigns up at the same level as other aspects of game play. I would want to do this, inside an Category 41 RPGs:

41.00 RPG Management and Meta
[41.01-09 -- standard zeros]
41.10 Campaigns
    2025-07-01 Game XYZ -- Campaign 'Dark Forest Trails'
    2025-10-20 Game ABC -- Campaign 'Goldmines of Gologon'
    ...
41.11 Game Notes and Ideas
41.12 Character development
...

It’s perfectly OK make subfolders for campgains, because they have a predictable name, and presumably they all have a similar internal structure for which you could make a template at 41.02 Templates for RPGs (see here for the standard zeros).

My brain can now relax because everything which is at the same level seems to me to have the same level of abstraction/concreteness. As an aside, I wil note that in my system, I actually have a completely flat single folder and I type-to-filter a particular topic – but the tags which I use to identify topics and subtopics still map strictly to a carefully thought out hierarchy. In your case, I assume you want to stick to normal JD practise and have a two-level hierarchy.

Now, this presumes that Area 40-49 would be dedicated to Hobbies. If you map out everything in your life, and determine that you can easily dedicate a whole Area to RPGs, then this can all move up one level:

40-49 RPGs
    40 RPG Management and Meta
    41 Campaigns
        41.02 Template for Campaigns
        41.10 2025-07-01 Game XYZ -- Campaign 'Dark Forest Trails'
        41.11 2025-10-20 Game ABC -- Campaign 'Goldmines of Gologon'
        ....
    42 Game Notes and Ideas
    ....

This saves you one level of folder navigation, but whether it is feasible depends on whether you can afford an Area for RPGs alone. Based on your other information, I’m guessing you easily could. You could then use 41.01 etc for the ID, or some other identifier like the date, game name, and campaign name – following the rule that if things naturally have an ID already, use that.