If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. ๐ก The Big Idea: Feeling Overwhelmed? Time Surfing Might Be Able to Help.I recently read an interesting book called Iโve Got Time by Paul Loomans. In the book, Paul introduces an idea called time surfing, which he defines as using intuition to decide what to do when. Itโs an intentional time management strategy designed to combat the time pressure we all feel from the pace of life continuing to move faster and faster. While I donโt necessarily agree with Paul on everything (Iโm not about to throw away my lists just yet ๐), there were some powerful ideas that he shared which really got me thinking about my own relationship with time. As I continue to process the book (and the conversation with Paul for an upcoming Focused episode), I realize there are a couple of big takeaways for me for the Actions level of my PKM Stack framework: Here are three big takeaways from the book that you can apply to your own PKM Stack to help you do more of what matters.
If you want to dive deeper, check out the full blog post here. (The vast majority of the feedback I got last week was that people preferred shorter summaries here with a link to read more. Let me know if you prefer the whole essay here in the newsletter instead!) Am I a Time Surfer Now?I donโt think so. I still like my lists too much ๐ But this book did give me a lot to chew on. Paul is a Zen Buddhist monk from the Netherlands, so some of his descriptions and terminology were a bit difficult for me, but thereโs one quote in particular that really resonated with me: โWhen you do nothing, all kinds of things happen. When you donโt fill in the blanks, anything is possible.โ I think we all could probably benefit from riding the wave a little bit more. ๐ Something Cool: Obsidian Tasks Raycast ExtensionThis week, a Library member (thanks Jeremy!) introduced me to a Raycast extension that integrates with the Obsidian Tasks plugin. Itโs a pretty cool extension that gives you commands to list, add, or edit tasks straight from Raycast without even opening Obsidian. Thereโs even a menubar item that you can use to show tasks from a specific file in your vault. If you are a Raycast user and you manage your tasks in Obsidian, you should check out this extension. ๐ Book Notes: Iโve Got Time by Paul LoomansIf you want to dig deeper into time surfing, Iโve Got Time by Paul Loomans is a short book with some interesting ideas about time and task management. It's a short read, and it gave me a lot to noodle on. If you want to download my mind map book notes, click here. โ Mike P.S. Wanted to let you in on a little secret project ๐ I've been working on a brand new Practical PKM Hybrid Cohort. It's a combination of self-paced videos + live Q&A calls (so you can go through it at your own pace but still get live feedback). The last live cohort was great but a bit much to keep up with live, so I believe this will be the best version of the Practical PKM cohort yet! Click here if you'd like to be the first to know when it's ready. |
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In this edition of Practical PKM: ๐ก The Big Idea: What I'd Do if I Was Starting in Obsidian Today ๐ Something Cool: A fun little text scratchpad for your Mac ๐ My book notes from AI Snake Oil by Arvind Narayanan & Sayash Kapoor If you prefer to read (or listen to) this newsletter in your browser, click here. ๐ก The Big Idea: 5 Things Iโd Do if I Were Coming to Obsidian for the First Time in 2025 Most people who try Obsidian quit within the first two weeks. Not because the app is bad, but...
In this edition of Practical PKM: ๐ก The Big Idea: How I added an On This Day feature to my Daily Notes template Obsidian ๐ Something Cool: A modern Obsidian plugin that lets you customize icons and colors ๐ My book notes from Lean Learning by Pat Flynn If you prefer to read (or listen to) this newsletter in your browser, click here. ๐ก The Big Idea: Adding an On This Day Feature to Your Daily Notes with Bases After a bit of a rocky start, Bases continues to improve. Now that the syntax is no...
In this edition of Practical PKM: ๐ก The Big Idea: AI makes things easy, but sometimes the value is in the struggle ๐ Something Cool: An Obsidian plugin that lets you set rules for forcing note view modes ๐ My book notes from Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks Prefer to read (or listen to) this newsletter in your browser? Click here. ๐ก The Big Idea: Sometimes Difficult Things Are Worth Doing I recently came across a great How I Write podcast episode where David Perell interviewed Ezra Klein about...