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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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πŸ”Ž A Simple System to Help You Focus on What Really Matters

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: How to Focus on What's Really Important 😎 Something Cool: Open Obsidian Links in New Tabs by Default πŸ“š My book notes from The Confident Mind by Nate Zinnser If you prefer to read (or listen to) this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘The Big Idea: The Eisenhower Matrix + The PKM Stack = Productivity Bliss We’ve all got too much to do and not enough time to do it in. Which is why just working off your task manager’s default list of things...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: A walkthrough of the new Bases Core Obsidian plugin 😎 Something Cool: A tool for converting Dataview queires to Obsidian Base files πŸ“š My book notes from The Organised Writer by Antony Johnston Prefer to read (or listen) on the web? Click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: The New Bases Core Plugin is an Easy Way to Turn a Set of Notes into a Database in Obsidian Last week, the Obsidian team released version 1.9 to Catalyst supporters with a long-awaited...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Lessons from the first ever LifeTheme Live event 😎 Something Cool: A plugin that gives Obsidian outlining superpowers πŸ“š My book notes from When by Daniel Pink Prefer to read (or listen) on the web? Click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: PKM Should Be Personal. Last week, we hosted our first-ever LifeTheme Live event! πŸŽ‰ We had lifelong learners of all ages join us for a two-day intensive workshop where a small group dialed in their LifeTheme (one-sentence...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: The critical role of desire paths in PKM 😎 Something Cool: Inline callouts in Obsidian πŸ“š My book notes from Put Your Dream to the Test by John Maxwell If you prefer to read (or listen to) this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Ditch the prescribed organizational structure & follow the desire paths. A desire path is "an unplanned route or path (such as one worn into a grassy surface by repeated foot traffic) that is used...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: How to use AI & PKM together effectively 😎 Something Cool: I built a PKM AI agent πŸ“š My book notes from Wild Courage by Jenny Wood If you prefer to read/listen to this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Small Language Models are the Key to Using AI in Your PKM System. AI is all the rage lately, and with good reason: it’s the most disruptive technology most of us have ever seen. It’s rapidly changing the way we work, and...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Get more from your ntoes by going from information to application 😎 Something Cool: An Obsidian plugin to help you identify and eliminate overused words πŸ“š My book notes from Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? by Dr. Julie Smith Prefer to read (or listen) to this newsletter in your browser? Click here. πŸ’‘ The Key to Getting More Out of Your Notes: Take Action! In the world of personal knowledge management (PKM), understanding the three...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: How I manage my writing projects in Obsidian 😎 Something Cool: A plugin that makes it easy to publish to Ghost from Obsidian πŸ“š My book notes from The 5 Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ 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,...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: A slightly unconventional approach to riding the productivity wave 😎 Something Cool: A Raycast extension for editing Obsidian Tasks πŸ“š My book notes from I've Got Time by Paul Loomans If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Feeling Overwhelmed? Time Surfing Might Be Able to Help. I recently read an interesting book called I’ve Got Time by Paul Loomans. In the book, Paul introduces an idea called time...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: An honest review of Obsidian in 2025 😎 Something Cool: A Pomodoro timer in your Obsidian status bar πŸ“š My book notes from Keep Going by Austin Kleon If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Where Obsidian Shines (and Where it Struggles) as of April 2025 A few weeks ago, I read Jason Snell's Apple Report card for 2024. It's a post he does every year where he collects feedback from others in the Apple...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: How a LifeTheme can help bring your ideal future into reality 😎 Something Cool: A great quality-of-life plugin for desktop Obsidian users πŸ“š My book notes from Inner Excellence by Jim Murphy If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Chase Your Dreams, But Abandon Your Goals. I’ve been reading Inner Excellence by Jim Murphy for an upcoming Bookworm episode (the book made famous by A.J. Brown reading it on...