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💡 The Big Idea: My Content Creation Workflow in Obsidian

In my opinion, Obsidian is vastly underrated as a writing app.

But getting words on the page is only part of the process. And it turns out, Obsidian is actually pretty great for managing the other aspects of creative projects as well.

So in this newsletter, I want to walk you through how I manage all of my creative projects in Obsidian.

If you'd like to read the full version on my website, click here.

Managing Writing Projects Using The Projects Plugin

The Projects plugin is the key plugin I use for managing all of my creative projects in Obsidian.

This plugin creates kanban-style board views that can visually show the status of your notes:

Each item on this kanban board represents a separate note in the project folder. I have separate folder-based projects set up for Articles, YouTube Videos, and Newsletters.

Each project is pointed at a specific folder in my vault, and the notes in that folder automatically show up in the project:

The notes that show up on the board view appear in separate columns (or swim lanes). These columns can be configured based on note metadata, which I have assigned to the status property. The columns that appear show the notes according to the value assigned to that status property in the note itself.

Here are the different statuses I use in my creative process:

• Idea - something that I might want to write about
• Backlog - something I will write about but haven’t started yet
• In Progress - something I am currently writing
• Published/Done - something I’ve finished writing about

I use the same four statuses for each type of creative project (Articles, Newsletters, and YouTube Videos). This creates consistency amongst the projects, and the simplicity helps me keep things organized.

When using the plugin, I manage projects by moving things from left to right (Idea → Backlog → In Progress → Done) as I work on them.

When I want to open a note (i.e., when it’s time to write the article), I ⌘-click the note title to open it in a new tab and simply start writing.

Enabling Project-Based Writing Templates

For each project (i.e., Articles, Newsletters, or YouTube Videos), you can select the specific template file you want to use when creating a new note via the Projects plugin:

But because these projects are based on folders, I also have a Folder template applied using the Templater plugin.

This ensures that whenever a file is created in the folder, the template gets applied. Even if I add a new note outside of the Projects plugin (i.e., creating a new note in the folder directly), I have a template to work off, regardless of how that note got added to Obsidian.

Here’s what my Newsletter template looks like:

There are a couple of things this template gives me:

1. The publish-date property allows emmeto visualize the notes in a Calendar view via the Projects plugin
2. The status property is used for the kanban board view in the Projects plugin
3. The notion property allows me to paste a link to the Notion page my assistant and I use for newsletter planning
4. The content of the note itself has second-level headers for the major sections of my newsletter

The only project that doesn’t use a template like this is the one for YouTube Videos. This is a much more involved process where I collaborate with my editor on all the additional stuff that goes into a good YouTube video (title & thumbnail, editing, screencasting, etc.). Since I only do the scriptwriting in Obsidian, I don’t need the extra properties, and a template isn’t really necessary.

The Last Mile: Publishing from Obsidian

Obviously, Obsidian is not the last stage in the creative process for some of these projects. For YouTube videos, I still need to actually record the video using a completely different medium.

But the process of idea development is completed in Obsidian using plain text.

For the newsletter, I then copy the Markdown from Obsidian and paste it into the Kit broadcast editor (what I use to send my newsletter). From there, I'll (usually 😂) double-check all the links and occasionally add some liquid text for personalization.

But for articles, I can actually send them directly to my website from Obsidian 🎉

I recently redid my website and moved from WordPress to Ghost. Using Matt Birchler’s Ghosty Posty plugin, I can edit an article note in Obsidian and then send it directly to Ghost as a draft.

Speaking of which…

😎 Something Cool: Ghosty Posty plugin

I upgraded to the Ghosty Posty plugin by Matt Birchler from the publicly available Send to Ghost plugin because it automatically processes and uploads any images in the note itself. This eliminates the need to manually upload the files later via the web.

Once you've configured the plugin, using it is incredibly easy. Just write your article, invoke the Command Palette, and select the Ghosty Posty: Publish current note as a draft or post command. A pop-up appears with a few options, and when you click Publish, your text is sent directly to your Ghost-powered website.

Note that this plugin isn’t available in the Community Plugins directory. You’ll need to install it using BRAT if you want to use it. Here’s a link that will guide you through the installation of beta plugins.

📚 Book Notes: The 5 Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom

I first heard Sahil Bloom speak at Craft + Commerce a few years ago, and I came away very impressed with his creator journey. Since then, he's really taken off, having grown his newsletter to over 800,000 subscribers and written an incredible book (The 5 Types of Wealth) featuring a blurb by Tim Cook.

We recently recorded a Bookworm episode on this, but (🚨SPOILER ALERT!) Cory & I both really enjoyed it. I love Shail's perspective, and this book is a phenomenal guide to cultivating more of what really matters.

If you want to download my mind map book notes from this incredible book, click here.

— Mike