Prefer to read (or listen to) this newsletter in your browser? Click here. Social media has a tendency to make us feel anxious & upset, like this 3D mad face emoji. 💡 The Big Idea: Curate Your Information Sources to Avoid the Slippery Slope of Terribleness. In a recent episode of his Deep Questions podcast, Cal Newport introduces an idea he calls the slope of terribleness for curated conversation platforms (i.e., social media). He describes three common harms people complain about with...
11 days ago • 4 min read
Next week, I'll be kicking off my Creator Business Accelerator program, where I will work closely with a small group of creators to help them get attention online, build an email list, create a digital product, and make their first sale. I'll share everything I learned from building and launching LifeHQ, my epic done-for-you Obsidian vault (which did $65k in 3 months with a waitlist of less than 500 people 🔥). But I get it if you're not sure if this program is for you. That's why I've decided...
17 days ago • 3 min read
Prefer to read (or listen to) this podcast in your browser? Click here. 💡 The Big Idea: True Productivity = Choosing What to Optimize For. There are lots of definitions for the word productivity. My favorite comes from Chris Bailey (who the TED organization describes as “the most productive man you’d ever hope to meet”): “Productivity is accomplishing what we intend to do.” It’s not cranking widgets. And it’s not crushing your goals. It's not a certain number of zeros in your bank account....
18 days ago • 3 min read
Just wanted to give you a quick update on the Creative Coaching Accelerator I mentioned a while back (you're receiving this email because you originally said you were interested in this program). For the last 6 months or so, I've actually been doing bi-weekly coaching with a few people who want to build their creator businesses. This has allowed me to work one-on-one with a small beta group as I figured out where the obstacles were for them, and more importantly, how I might be able to help...
21 days ago • 3 min read
Prefer to read (or listen to) this newsletter in your browser? Click here. Dataview has been a popular Obsidian plugin for a very long time, with over 3 million downloads since its initial release back in January of 2021. But it's always been slow and a little tricky to use. It's also in the process of being replaced by its work-in-progress successor (Datacore), which brings additional features but a whole new syntax. Bottom line? Now is a great time to migrate from Dataview to Obsidian...
25 days ago • 5 min read
📣 The Practical PKM Newsletter is changing a little bit. TL;DR - I'm going to try splitting up the content into multiple emails. You will still get the same content, just not all at once. I plan to share the Big Idea on Mondays, Something Cool on Wednesdays, and Book Notes on Fridays. As a result, today's email won't have the typical 3 sections. I plan to send a Big Idea email every week, but will likely be a little more selective about when I send the others. That way I can be a little more...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
In this edition of Practical PKM: 💡 The Big Idea: A detailed look at the Personal Retreat Process 😎 Something Cool: An analog planner to help you with your Personal Retreat 📚 My book notes from How to Think Like a Roman Emperor by Donald J. Robertson Prefer to read (or listen to) this newsletter in your browser? Click here. 💡The Big Idea: Thinking Time is Critical if You Want to Make Progress on What's Important. Back when he was CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates used to do what he called “Think...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
In this edition of Practical PKM: 💡 The Big Idea: Leverage the chaos to do your best creative work 😎 Something Cool: An Obsidian plugin to add colorful properties to your Bases 📚 My book notes from Published by Chandler Bolt Prefer to read (or listen to) this newsletter in your browser? Click here. 💡 The Big Idea: Why Creativity Needs a Little Disorder Having lots of ideas shouldn’t make you feel confused. But if you’re a perfectionist like me, it often does. The urge to order and organize...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
In this edition of Practical PKM: 💡 The Big Idea: A soup-to-nuts walkthrough of how I built my Book Notes library using Bases 😎 Something Cool: A major speed upgrade to Obsidian Search 📚 My book notes from Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy Prefer to read (or listen to) this newsletter in your browser? Click here. 💡 The Big Idea: Bases is the Perfect Tool for Building Your Personal Book Notes Library I read a lot of books. Usually between 40 and 50 every year. Almost all of them are non-fiction and...
about 2 months ago • 9 min read