Taking Notes on People

I spend a lot of time in conversations, and I started noticing how much context I was losing between them. To help with this, there are two types of notes I take related to a person. First, I note things I'd like to discuss with that person. Second, I want to be able to recall what I know about that person. In order to do these two things well, I've setup a template in Obsidian. ¹

# Noting things I need to discuss with people

I use Templater as a template engine, instead of the default. However, it may not be strictly necessary for my Person template. If you'd rather use Obsidian's builtin template engine, you need to update the templating syntax. My template also uses the Obsidian plugin: Dataview. Both of these plugins are very common, and should be considered as dependencies for my template.

Maintaining a list of what I need to discuss with a person has been the most useful addition to my notes. It gives me the ability to take the notes without leaving my current context, while also giving me a way to review what I need to discuss as it's needed. ²

# Create a tagged task

I'm often in a position when I need to remember to discuss something with someone. Most of the time, when I do speak with this person, I need to have the thought context of why I needed to discuss something with them in the first place. Because of this, I leverage tasks and tags in Obsidian to help create a list of things I need to speak with someone about. Here is an example of how I note something to discuss with someone (I'll use a fictional person, Matt):

- [ ] #todo/discuss/matt How would we test _this_? 

Tasks and tags help add context to the note when I write it. Here is what I know:

• I want to discuss this with Matt.
• I've not yet discussed this with him to complete this task.
• Based on where I put the note, I should have context for what "this" is (though I do typically write out enough context in the note so I don't have to return to the source).

# Viewing discussion tasks

When I am ready to have a conversation with a person, I need to be able to find the tagged tasks I've created. The Dataview plugin gives me the tools to query the tasks tagged to a specific person.

I use a codeblock with the type of dataviewjs and the following query:

const discussTag = "#todo/discuss/matt"
const incompleteTasks = dv.pages(discussTag).file.tasks.where(t => {
const isTaggedForCurrentPerson = t.tags.some(tag => tag === discussTag)
  return !t.completed && isTaggedForCurrentPerson
})
dv.taskList(incompleteTasks, false)

Beyond tracking what to discuss, I also keep a structured record of what I know about a person.

# Other things I note

There are a few other things I note about a person to help uniquely identify them and keep the note queryable:

• ID: A unique identifier for programmatically referencing the person in Dataviews and Bases.
• Aliases: Unless I know two people with the same name, I can often use just the first name of the person.
• Notes: A running list of things I learn about someone as I get to know them - things they like, links they've shared (a bookings page, their blog), books they've recommended, personal context (where they're from, their family), and any common ground we've found.

To setup the person's ID and aliases, I add the following frontmatter to the template:

---
aliases: <% tp.file.title.split()[0] %>
id: <% tp.file.title.split()[0].toLowerCase() %>
---

And I add the following content to complete the template:

# <% tp.file.title %>

## What do we need to talk about?

> [!info] Tag tasks with "todo/discuss/<% tp.file.title.split(' ')[0].toLowerCase() %>"

The dataview codeblock from earlier...

## Notes

- 

With these additional values on a person, I can automate the creation of the Dataview query on the creation of the note:

const personId = dv.current().file.frontmatter.id
const discussTag = "#todo/discuss/" + personId 
const incompleteTasks = dv.pages(discussTag).file.tasks.where(t => {
const isTaggedForCurrentPerson = t.tags.some(tag => tag === discussTag)
  return !t.completed && isTaggedForCurrentPerson
})
dv.taskList(incompleteTasks, false)