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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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🎩 How the Theory of Maximum Taste Can Help Boost Your Brain

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: How your information diet impacts your ability to think and focus 😎 Something Cool: A useful toolbar for Obsidian users who aren't Markdown masters πŸ“š My book notes from The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Curate Your Information Sources & Increase Your Upper Limit When it comes to your information diet, you are what you eat (consume). If you’re...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: How an Experimental Mindest helps you make more progress 😎 Something Cool: An Obsidian plugin that enables manual file sorting πŸ“š My book notes from Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Don’t Set Goals, Run Experiments. Last week, Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff was officially released. I got a sneak peek when we interviewed her for the Focused podcast...

A computer keyboard sitting on top of a desk

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: PKM Lessons from some of the Internet's most prolific creators 😎 Something Cool: My sketchnotes from the Newsletter Marketing Summit πŸ“š My book notes from The Catalyst by Jonah Berger If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: What I Learned Last Week from the Internet’s Most Successful Newsletter Creators Last week, I attended the Newsletter Marketing Summit in Austin, TX. It was hosted by Matt McGarry,...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: The tagging tutorial I wish I had when I started collecting notes 😎 Something Cool: A heat map plugin that helps you build writing momentum πŸ“š My book notes from Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning If you prefer to view this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Tags Are a Great Way to Keep Your Notes & Ideas Organized β€” If You Use Them Correctly Last week, I shared how I was using automation tools to help move...

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...