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How to turn chaos into a system with MOC, PARA and CODE

8 min read

🧠 How to turn chaos into a system:

Using: MOC, PARA, CODE, Framework thinking, Zettelkasten and notebooklm in Obsidian

Obsidian offers unique possibilities for organising a note system.

But without the right approach it turns into a store of random, loosely connected and useless records. These notes lie around any old way, in unclear places — and they don’t work for you.

In this note you’ll learn:

  • How to create a control center for your notes through MOCs
  • How to connect the CODE, PARA and Zettelkasten frameworks
  • How to turn notes into a tool for thinking and action
  • How to use AI to create links, insights and even podcasts

CODE, PARA, Zettelkasten — as the foundation of the structure

In previous episodes I talked about three frameworks:

1️⃣ The CODE method

12 filters to figure out: is the idea worth your attention? Should you create a note for it?

Read more in The CODE method

2️⃣ Zettelkasten

  • All notes are divided into fleeting, literature and permanent
  • A fleeting one can become a literature one — and then a permanent one, once the thought takes shape

A fleeting note — our fleeting thoughts and ideas. A literature note — theory, frameworks, books.

A permanent note = fleeting + literature

3️⃣ The PARA method

Projects, Areas, Resources, Archive

When a note has matured — it lands in one of these folders depending on its role.

🔴 But a problem arises:

  • The notes just sit in folders
  • We don’t come back to them
  • No context — no links. No big picture.
  • Obsidian becomes an end in itself, not a tool

🗺️ What saves the day?

Map of Content — MOC

What is a MOC?

A MOC is a central note that gathers links to all the notes on a topic.

How to do it?

  1. You simply create a MOC in each PARA subfolder.
  2. You select the notes from the subfolder
    1. To do that, hold the “Shift” key
    2. Click the first and the last

How to select notes:

  1. Release shift and, with the left mouse button — drag them into the MOC you created:

You get this:

Examples of MOCs:

  • MOC - Productivity
  • MOC - Self-analysis
  • MOC - Health

One topic can have many subtopics, and accordingly many MOCs.

It’s all individual: the number of MOCs is unlimited, the main thing is that it’s convenient to navigate later.

Why?

  • Most importantly — you see the big picture, all the notes on this topic!
    • You visualise the topic
    • You see the gaps
    • You connect frameworks and practices

You can put a MOC on your home page using the Homepage plugin.

How does it look for me?

We see all the notes in one MOC, and what next?

And next.. We create our own template and framework for thinking and action out of it!

In the YouTube video, we turned the “Productivity” MOC into a template for action and thinking.

For example:

  1. A key question

    1. Sometimes this can be one of the 12 filter questions — CODE method For example: “What is my optimal system for progress and conserving energy, given my goals and my tendency to perfectionism?”

  2. The principles and pillars of the answer

    • time management
    • energy management
    • proper goal-setting
    • a note system
    • overcoming procrastination and perfectionism
    • recovery and rest

  3. Links to other MOCs For example, the “energy” principle is linked to MOC - Health, and “perfectionism” to MOC - Self-analysis

  4. Specific notes We link each principle to a specific note

  5. Tracking progress Through Areas — areas of life

⚙️ A practical example

  1. I create a fleeting note:

    “A good talk can only be created with unusual tricks” I add the tag #fleeting

  2. After a while — I see it in MOC - Inbox

How the "MOC - Inbox" note looks

How to create such a dynamic table of incoming notes?

  1. Install the Dataview plugin
  2. Enable the “Enable Javascript…” line in the plugin settings
  3. Create a note “MOC - Inbox”
  4. Paste the following code
dataviewjs
const allPages = dv.pages('"0. Files/6. Inbox"');

// Category 1 — with the #fleeting tag
const mim = allPages.where(p => p.file.tags?.includes("#fleeting"));

// Category 2 — with the #literature tag
const lit = allPages.where(p => p.file.tags?.includes("#literature"));

// Category 3 — with no tags at all
const noTag = allPages.where(p => !p.file.tags || p.file.tags.length === 0);

// Output
dv.header(3, "✔️ Fleeting");
dv.table(["Note"], mim.map(p => [p.file.link]));

dv.header(3, "📖 Literature");
dv.table(["Note"], lit.map(p => [p.file.link]));

dv.header(3, "📂 No tag");
dv.table(["Note"], noTag.map(p => [p.file.link]));
  1. In the code, change the path to the folder where your new notes are created (for me it’s the folder 6. Inbox, or “incoming”)
  2. And that’s it. When you create new notes, after assigning the fleeting or literature tag — the note will be shown in the “Inbox” MOC

*So, we created the note “A good talk…” 3. Now we open it again and develop our thought, turning it into a hypothesis:

  • I add the thought: it needs interactivity, the lecture format is outdated
  • I confirm it from the literature: gamification in presentations

  1. This way I turn it into a permanent note

  2. Now all that’s left is to choose which PARA folder it moves into: Projects, Areas, Resources or Archive.

  3. Obviously, this fits the Resources folder perfectly.

I automatically move the note to the right folder using a tag

  • For this I use the Auto Note Mover plugin

  • I set the folder to move to in the settings, and specified the tag condition

How the Auto Note Mover plugin settings look:

  • now automatically, when I write talks — the note will be moved to the “Personal brand” folder

  1. Then I link this note “A good talk…” to MOC - Personal brand

  2. I use the AutoMOC plugin to manually insert backlinks

  • The Dataview plugin doesn’t return a link, it only visualises it — which means I can’t just move a note somewhere and leave the dataview code.
  • The AutoMOC plugin lets you return a backlink anywhere — and then change it, move it.
  • For this, just install the AutoMOC plugin
  • Use the “Add missed links” command:
    • Either via CTRL + P (command palette) — “AutoMOC”
    • Or assign a hotkey via settings → hotkeys
  1. And the final touch — we use it in practice. For example, I have a project “Talk at the forum”:
  • I open the note with the talk preparation
  • in the next window I open the “Personal brand” MOC (or the “Talk” MOC)
  • And I simply use it as a template when preparing for the talk, to be sure to account for every nuance

This way, I linked the Resources and Projects folders without moving the notes themselves between folders

What if I don’t know how to make a MOC for myself?

What if I don't know?

Bringing in AI to solve the problem

  1. Export the 4 PARA folders to .md using the Advanced Merge plugin

    1. Install the Advanced Merge plugin
    2. Tick the “Include nested folders” box in the settings (2nd on the list)
    3. Right-click on the folders
    4. Choose “Merge folder”
    5. Done! You’ll get a note with all the notes inside your folder.
    6. Do the same with the other PARA folders (projects, areas, resources, archive)

  2. Upload them to NotebookLM

  3. Give it the prompt for generating MOCs and links between your notes

  4. You’ll get a detailed message from the AI with potential links and MOCs.

💡 You can also get a podcast based on your Obsidian vault. To do this, click “Customize” where the podcasts are and send it the prompt:

Conclusion

A properly built MOC isn’t just a list of links. It’s a living map of your thinking, which helps you see structure, not chaos.

It connects frameworks (CODE, PARA, Zettelkasten), topics, principles and goals — into one working system. You start not just hoarding notes, but thinking through them.

It all starts with a question. Then — principles. Then — links, practice, progress. And finally — review. Without it the system dies.

I regularly come back to all my MOCs to keep my system alive, adaptive, real. Because notes without review are like vessels without movement: knowledge stagnates in them.

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Coming up are videos about the graph in Obsidian, plus I’ll tell you how I review and refactor my notes

Keep going?