ExecuteIT-Consulting/MANUAL_SETUP_INSTRUCTIONS.md

Manual Setup Instructions for ExecuteIT Consulting Vault

✅ Vault Structure Created

The complete folder structure and templates have been created automatically.

🔌 Recommended Community Plugins Setup

Step 1: Enable Community Plugins

1. Open Obsidian
2. Go to Settings (gear icon) → Community plugins
3. Click "Turn on community plugins"
4. If prompted about safe mode, click "Turn off Safe Mode"

Step 2: Install Recommended Plugins

Essential Plugins

1. Dataview

• Click "Browse" in Community plugins
• Search for "Dataview"
• Click Install, then Enable
• Purpose: Dynamic tables and queries for job tracking
• Configuration: Settings → Dataview → Enable JavaScript Queries

2. Templater

• Search and install "Templater"
• Purpose: Advanced template functionality with dynamic dates
• Configuration:
  • Settings → Templater → Template folder location: 07-Templates
  • Enable "Trigger Templater on new file creation"

3. Calendar

• Search and install "Calendar"
• Purpose: Visual calendar navigation for daily notes
• Configuration:
  • Settings → Calendar → Dot threshold: 1

Highly Recommended Plugins

4. Kanban

• Search and install "Kanban"
• Purpose: Visualize job pipeline as a kanban board
• Usage: Create a kanban board in 02-Jobs to track application stages

5. Advanced Tables

• Search and install "Advanced Tables"
• Purpose: Better table editing experience
• Usage: Auto-formats tables as you type

6. Tag Wrangler

• Search and install "Tag Wrangler"
• Purpose: Easier tag management
• Usage: Rename tags across all notes easily

Optional but Useful

7. Periodic Notes

• For advanced weekly/monthly note creation
• Works with Calendar plugin

8. Graph Analysis

• Better graph view with more options
• Useful for seeing connections between jobs, skills, projects

9. Excalidraw

• For drawing diagrams and architecture sketches
• Great for technical interviews prep

Step 3: Configure Daily Notes (Already Done)

The daily notes configuration is already set up, but verify:

• Settings → Daily notes → Date format: YYYY-MM-DD
• New file location: 01-Daily
• Template file location: 07-Templates/Daily Note

Step 4: Configure Templates (Already Done)

The templates configuration is already set up, but verify:

• Settings → Templates → Template folder location: 07-Templates

📊 Setting Up Dataview Queries

Once Dataview is installed, add these queries to your Home.md dashboard:

Active Jobs Table

TABLE 
  status as Status,
  priority as Priority,
  applied-date as Applied,
  company as Company
FROM "02-Jobs/Active"
WHERE contains(tags, "job-application")
SORT priority DESC, applied-date DESC

Recent Daily Notes

LIST
FROM "01-Daily"
SORT file.name DESC
LIMIT 7

Skills by Category

TABLE 
  proficiency as Level,
  category as Category
FROM "04-Skills"
WHERE contains(tags, "skill")
SORT proficiency DESC

🎨 Appearance Settings (Optional)

Theme Recommendations

1. Settings → Appearance → Themes → Manage
2. Try these popular themes:
   • Minimal: Clean, professional look
   • Things: GTD-inspired theme
   • Blue Topaz: Feature-rich with good color coding

CSS Snippets (Optional)

You can create custom CSS snippets in .obsidian/snippets/ for:

• Custom callout styles
• Better table formatting
• Tag coloring

📱 Mobile Setup (Optional)

Obsidian Mobile App

1. Download Obsidian from App Store/Google Play
2. Open existing vault from iCloud/Dropbox/local storage
3. Same plugins available on mobile

Sync Options

• Obsidian Sync (paid, official, most reliable)
• iCloud (free for Mac/iOS users)
• Dropbox/Google Drive (free, works cross-platform)

⚙️ Additional Configuration

Graph View

Settings → Graph view:

• Enable "Show attachments"
• Groups: Create color groups for tags (jobs, skills, reflections)
• Forces: Adjust for better layout

Hotkeys

Set up custom hotkeys for frequent actions:

• Settings → Hotkeys
• Recommended:
  • "Open today's daily note" → Ctrl/Cmd + T
  • "Insert template" → Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + T
  • "Quick switcher" → Ctrl/Cmd + O

File & Links

Settings → Files & Links:

• Default location for new notes: 00-Inbox
• Automatically update internal links: ON
• Default location for attachments: 08-Resources/Attachments

🎯 First Actions Checklist

After setup is complete:

• Open vault in Obsidian
• Install Dataview plugin
• Install Templater plugin
• Install Calendar plugin
• Create first daily note (Ctrl/Cmd + P → "Open today's daily note")
• Review and customize Home dashboard
• Fill out Skills Inventory
• Create profiles in 03-Profiles/:
  • Data Architect profile
  • Backend Developer profile
  • Technical Architect profile
• Move existing job applications to proper folders:
  • SEB application → 02-Jobs/Active/
  • Vattenfall application → 02-Jobs/Pipeline/
  • Svenska Kraftnät → 02-Jobs/Pipeline/
• Document 2-3 major Tieto projects in 05-Projects/
• Create first weekly reflection

📚 Learning Obsidian

Quick Start Resources

• Obsidian Help Vault (Help → Open help vault)
• Official Documentation
• Obsidian Hub Community

Key Concepts

• Double brackets : Create links between notes
• Tags #: Categorize and filter notes
• Frontmatter: YAML metadata at top of notes
• Backlinks: See what notes link to current note
• Graph view: Visualize connections

Markdown Basics

• # Headers
• **bold** and *italic*
• - [ ] Checkboxes
• Tables with |
• > Blockquotes

🆘 Troubleshooting

Dataview not showing results

• Check that plugin is enabled
• Verify frontmatter YAML is correct (no typos)
• Check query syntax

Templates not working

• Verify template folder path in settings
• Check that Templater plugin is enabled
• Ensure template files exist in 07-Templates/

Sync issues

• Check sync service status
• Verify folder permissions
• Try manual sync/refresh

💡 Tips for Success

1. Start simple: Don't try to use every feature immediately
2. Daily notes are key: Build the habit of daily journaling
3. Link generously: Create connections between related notes
4. Review weekly: Use weekly reflections to see progress
5. Customize gradually: Adjust system as you learn what works
6. Backup regularly: Your vault is just a folder - back it up!

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Need help?

• Obsidian Forum: https://forum.obsidian.md/
• Obsidian Discord: https://discord.gg/obsidianmd
• Reddit: r/ObsidianMD

Ready to start? Open Home and begin your consulting journey!