How I use Vimwiki

I’ve been using Vimwiki for 5 years, on and off. There’s a multi year gap in between, some entries are back to back for months on end, while some notes are quarters apart.

Over those 5 years I’ve tried a few different lightweight personal wiki solutions, but kept coming back to Vimwiki due to my excessive familiarity with Vim and the simplicity of the underlying format (plain text FTW).

I used to store my Vimwiki in Dropbox, but after Dropbox imposed a three device free tier limit, I migrated to Google Drive for all my storage needs (and haven’t looked back!). I’m able to view my notes on any platform (including previewing the HTML pages on mobile).

I love seeing how other people organize their Wiki homepage, so it’s only fair to share mine:

I use Vimwiki as a combination of a knowledge repository and a daily project/work journal (<Leader>wi). I love being able to interlink pages, and I find it extremely helpful to write entries journal-style, without having to think of a particular topic or a page to place my notes in.

Whenever I have a specific topic in mind, I create a page for it, or contribute to an existing page. If I don’t - I create a diary entry (<Leader>w<Leader>w), and move any developed topics into their own pages.

I use folders (I keep wanting to call them namespaces) for disconnected topics which I don’t usually connect with the rest of the wiki: like video games, financial research, and so on. I’m not sure I’m getting enough value out of namespaces though, and I might revisit using those in the future: too many files in a single directory is not a problem since I don’t interract with the files directly.

Most importantly, every once in a while I go back and revisit the organizational structure of the wiki: move pages into folders where needed (:VimwikiRenameLink makes this much less painful), add missing links for recently added but commonly mentioned topics (:VimwikiSearch helps here), and generally tidy up.

I use images liberally ({{local:images/nyan.gif|Nyan.}}), and I occasionally access the HTML version of the wiki (generated by running :VimwikiAll2HTML).

I’ve found useful to keep a running todo list with a set of things I need to accomplish for work or my projects, and I move those into corresponding diary pages once the tasks are ticked off.

At the end of each week I try to have a mini-retrospective to validate if my week was productive, and if there’s anything I can do to improve upon what I’m doing.

I also really like creating in-depth documentation on topics when researching something: the act of writing down and organizing information it helps me understand it better (that’s why, for instance, I have a beefy “financial/” folder, with a ton of research into somewhat dry, but important topics - portfolio rebalancing, health and auto insurance, home ownership, and so on).

Incoherent rambling aside, I’m hoping this post will spark some ideas about how to set up and use your own personal wiki.