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Practical PKM

A weekly newsletter where I help people apply values-based productivity principles and systems for personal growth, primarily using Obsidian. Subscribe if you want to make more of your notes and ideas.

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🧹 An Automated Way to Keep Your Notes Organized

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: How I use automation to keep my Obsidian writing projects tidy 😎 Something Cool: A plugin that gives the Obsidian outline superpowers πŸ“š My book notes from The Courage to Be Disliked If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: File Automation Can Help Keep Your Notes Organized β€” But Only After You Decide How You Want to Group Things Together People ask me all the time about how I organize my file folders...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: How device-specific workflows can give your PKM system a boost 😎 Something Cool: An Obsidian plugin that enables linking to Canvas files (πŸŽ‰) πŸ“š My book notes from Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Trigger Intentional Focus with Device-Specific Workflows Last week, I shared some PKM tips from using Obsidian for the last 5 years. One of those tips was on...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Some essential PKM tips from spending 5+ years in Obsidian 😎 Something Cool: A big update to The Productivity Field Guide πŸ“š My mind map book notes from Atomic Habits by James Clear If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: 10 Practical PKM Tips From Using Obsidian for the Last 5 Years Last week, I passed 5 years using Obsidian πŸŽ‰ As I reflect on my time using Obsidian, I recognize that I’ve made plenty...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘The Big Idea: A tutorial on how to keep tabs on collaborative tasks in Obsidian πŸŽ‰ Last call for the Practical PKM Cohort! 😎 Something Cool: System-level Obsidian notifications on Android?!? πŸ“š My book notes from Poor Charlie's Alamanack If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: I Built a Custom System for Keeping Tabs on Collaborative Tasks in Obsidian If you work with a team, you already know that effective task...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Overcoming Limiting Beliefs to Do Your Best Creative Work 😎 Something Cool: System-level Obsidian reminders on Android πŸ“š My book notes from The Creative Act by Rick Rubin If you want to view this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘The Big Idea: How to Leverage A Simple Framework to Unlock Your Creativity Believe it or not, I used to think that I just wasn't creative. Other creators seemed to be able to just pull something fully formed...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: How I'm Using Morgen as a Block Priming tool 😎 Something Cool: A Discbound version of the Ugmonk Analog system πŸ“£ The Practical PKM Cohort is now live! πŸ“š My book notes from Anti-Time Management by Richie Norton If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: An Interesting Twist to My Time-Blocking Routine Time-blocking is the simple practice of budgeting your time. Start by putting your meetings and...

a room with a desk, chair and two windows

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Leveraging Your Environment to Boost Your Productivity (& Creativity) 😎 Something Cool: Arc-style tabs in Obsidian πŸ“š My book notes from The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Don't Underestimate the Impact Your Environment Has on Your Productivity & Creativity I mentioned in the last newsletter how I tend to be more creative when I go to my co-working space, and...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Questions to help you learn from 2024 and hit the ground running in 2025 😎 Something Cool: A HUGE update for an already great quick capture tool for iOS users πŸ“š My book notes from Free Time by Jenny Blake If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: A Simple Reflection Framework for Reflecting on the Past Year and Planning the Next One For better or for worse, 2024 is just about over. Maybe for you, 2024...

red and blue book on white shelf

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: The 8 productivity books worth reading from 2024 😎 Something Cool: A Core Plugin that lets you open external links inside Obsidian πŸ“š A collection of my mind map book notes from the best productivity books of the year If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: These are the 8 Best Productivity Books from 2024 I read a lot of books. Almost all of them fall into the self-help or personal development genre....

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: A simple strategy for planning your perfect week 😎 Something Cool: Nerdy Obsidian Widgets for your iOS Home Screen πŸ“š My book notes from The One Thing by Gary Keller & Jay Papasan If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Plans Are Worthless, But Planning is Everything I just got back from my quarterly Personal Retreat. Every quarter, I go to one of these tiny cabins in the middle of the woods and spend...