I’ve been using TiddlyWiki regularly, and I enjoy how flexible it is with managing personal notes. But lately, I’ve noticed that as I add more and more tiddlers, I start to lose track of things. I’m not talking about a few scattered entries—I mean when the number gets into the hundreds, and I can’t remember what I’ve already written or where to find it. I feel like I need a better method, but I’m unsure how others handle this.
I use tags, but not always consistently. Sometimes I tag by topic, other times by purpose or even mood. But when I try to go back and look for something, it’s not always obvious where to start. I’ve seen people use “index” tiddlers or “table of contents” styles, but I’m not sure how sustainable that is as things grow. Is it something you do manually each time, or is there a smoother way?
At one point, I even started naming my tiddlers with short phrases or keywords to make it quicker to create new ones. But now I’m realizing that the naming isn’t really helping me find things later. I don’t want to spend a lot of time organizing each entry, but I also don’t want to scroll forever to find what I need. Do you keep a system for naming or summarizing your tiddlers?
Something that gave me a bit of inspiration was trying out an online notepad. It was very minimal, and that helped me think clearly. It was just a simple, accessible notepad for free, no sign-in, no formatting—just a space to write freely. I noticed how useful it was for raw thoughts or quick writing, and it made me think about how I could create that kind of space within my TiddlyWiki too. Maybe a place where I can just throw in quick notes without structure, and later decide what to do with them.
Do you use any fields beyond tags and titles to help with organization? I saw some people using custom fields like “status” or “type,” but I’m not sure if it adds complexity or if it actually helps. And what about built-in views or plugins—are there any that really help you keep the whole thing from becoming too scattered?
I’m just looking for real methods from others who’ve faced this issue. How do you keep your TiddlyWiki organized when your tiddlers start to grow fast and things get harder to track?