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How I Built the Ultimate Book Notes Library in Obsidian — Transcript

by Mike Schmitz · 5,730 words · 794 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00I read a lot of books, usually somewhere
0:02between 40 and 50 every year, and I've
0:05always dreamed of a way to keep and
0:07connect all of those notes inside of
0:10Obsidian. But the real trick is to
0:13connect them in such a way that they
0:15actually help inspire you when creating
0:19something new. So, in today's deep dive,
0:22I'm going to walk you through my entire
0:23reading workflow from choosing which
0:25books to read to taking effective notes
0:27on those books to moving things into
0:29Obsidian and then finally building a
0:32library from those notes that creates
0:33ondemand inspiration for your own
0:36creative process. But first, let me show
0:38you the payoff because seeing this will
0:40help the rest of everything I'm going to
0:42say make sense. So, jumping ahead,
0:44here's my BookNotes library in Obsidian
0:47using the Basis core plugin. It has all
0:49my booknotes from over 220 books, the
0:52author, the year published, the number
0:53of pages, my own rating of the book from
0:56one to five stars, and inside each of
0:58these booknotes, there's a three-s
0:59sentence summary, a mind map of the key
1:01ideas from the book, and a textbased
1:03version of those notes, which contain
1:05links to atomic notes mentioned in the
1:07book, and uses emoji to create these
1:10colored list callouts to make reviewing
1:12my notes easier. I know it's a lot. I'm
1:14going to walk through the whole system
1:16step by step, but I've got chapters in
1:18this video, so you can jump to the spot
1:20that you want. This video will be a bit
1:22longer than normal, so if you just want
1:24to see the fancy new Obsidian Basis
1:26stuff, you can go straight there if
1:27you'd like. And if you want this exact
1:29system for yourself, it's all part of my
1:30Life HQ vault, which also contains all
1:33my prepackaged productivity and
1:34creativity workflows. If you just want
1:36the connected booknotes, I have
1:38something new for you that I'll mention
1:39at the end of the video. But the goal
1:42here is to explain everything well
1:44enough that you could just set up this
1:46system for yourself after watching this
1:48video. It's basically a reading master
1:50class with some text setup at the end.
1:52We've got a lot to get through, so let's
1:55dive in. Now, the first thing I want to
1:56talk about here is how to never run out
1:58of interesting things to read. Now, most
2:00of the books that I read tend to be
2:01productivity, self-help, or business
2:03books, which may not seem all that
2:05interesting to some people, but the
2:08trick is to stay curious about things
2:09and pick books that will help you
2:11understand how things work. And if you
2:13do that, reading can actually be a lot
2:15of fun. The key is choosing what to
2:18read, not being told what to read. That
2:21happens a lot in school, so people tend
2:23to dislike reading, and it becomes
2:24harder to pick back up that habit later
2:27in life. This happened to me, too. But
2:29when I started picking books that helped
2:30me understand something that I was
2:32already interested in better or possibly
2:36contained an answer to a problem that I
2:37was facing, it was easy to get through
2:40those books. I also found that reading
2:42regularly made it easier to create,
2:44which is important for me because I used
2:46to think that I just wasn't creative.
2:48Seems kind of silly now that I've got a
2:50YouTube channel, three podcasts, a
2:52newsletter, and I make my living as an
2:54internet creator. But at one point I was
2:57convinced creativity was a genetic trait
2:59I just was not born with. And it wasn't
3:02until I read Steel Like an Artist by
3:04Austin Cleon that I realized nothing's
3:05completely original. So when someone
3:07creates something, they're simply
3:09connecting dots in new and interesting
3:11ways. And that's when I realized that if
3:13I wanted to get better at creating, I
3:15just needed to collect better dots. So
3:19for me, that's what reading does. It
3:21gives me more and better dots to
3:22connect. So, when picking something to
3:24read, I use two specific questions. The
3:28first is, "What am I curious about right
3:30now?" And the second is, "What is a
3:33problem that I'd like to solve?" If I
3:35can find a book that connects to either
3:38or even better, both of these questions,
3:40I am motivated to complete that book and
3:43it's easy to finish. Another tip for
3:45finding books to read is to build your
3:48anti- library. An anti- library is
3:50basically a bunch of books that you
3:52haven't read yet. Building an anti
3:54library makes sure that you always have
3:56something that's prevetted to read when
3:58you get done with the book that you are
4:00currently reading. And it serves as a
4:02reminder of all the things that you
4:04don't know yet. So when building my anti
4:07library, I have a simple rule. If
4:09someone that I look up to recommends a
4:11book, I open up the Amazon app and I
4:14instantly buy it. The book shows up the
4:16next day and I have something ready to
4:18go. So, I never run out of interesting
4:20things to read. I have built quite a
4:22collection over the years following that
4:24method. I probably buy three or four
4:26books a month this way, but I consider
4:28this to be a very worthwhile investment.
4:32Sometimes I don't read these books for
4:33years, but then I'll be browsing my
4:35bookshelf and that book will jump out to
4:36me, so I'll pick it up and read it. You
4:38really never know when that inspiration
4:40is going to hit. And so, having those
4:42things at your disposal is important.
4:45Okay, so that's how to pick books to
4:47read. Next, we need to discuss analog
4:50versus digital books. There's a lot of
4:52advantages with digital books. I get it.
4:54You can bring your whole library with
4:55you anywhere you go. They're always
4:57accessible. You can sync your highlights
4:59easily. Personally though, I always read
5:03physical books. I have over 1,600
5:06physical books in my house. And they not
5:08only serve as environmental cues to
5:10actually read, but they also provide the
5:12ultimate distraction-free reading
5:14experience. You can't multitask when
5:16you're reading a physical book. That's
5:18how I got started reading. Actually, I
5:19brought a physical book with me wherever
5:22I went. And then I always had something
5:24I could pick up and read a page or two
5:25here or there instead of reaching for my
5:27phone and scrolling social media. But
5:29the best argument for reading physical
5:30books that I've come across comes from
5:32researcher Maryanne Wolf, who has
5:34studied this stuff extensively. and she
5:36found that screens, even e-readers,
5:38encourage skimming, lack a spatial
5:40dimension that is useful when
5:41sensemaking, and ultimately cause our
5:43brain to feel a little bit like this is
5:46fake because the digital page isn't
5:48really there. In her book, Reader Come
5:50Home, she says that the more that we
5:51read digitally, the more our underlying
5:54brain circuitry reflects the
5:56characteristics of that medium. So, if
5:59you really want to get the most out of
6:01the books that you read, physical books
6:03are probably your best bet. Whatever you
6:05decide on though, the one thing I would
6:07caution you about is using audiobooks.
6:09Listening to an audiobook is not the
6:12same as reading the words for yourself.
6:15The audio just keeps advancing whether
6:17you understand it or not. Part of the
6:20reading process is struggling with the
6:22words. Your brain doesn't engage with
6:25the message when it's just on in the
6:27background and it's easy to get
6:28distracted by something else that's
6:29going on when you're just listening to
6:31something. You might be listening
6:32intently for a little while and then all
6:34of a sudden 5 minutes go by and you
6:35realize you can't recall a single word
6:37that the author has said. So this is
6:39okay for some types of books, especially
6:41fiction, stories, biographies, but if
6:44you want the cognitive payoff that comes
6:46from wrestling with the big ideas, you
6:48have to put in the work. So generally I
6:50would not recommend audiobooks for this
6:53type of reading. The exception to this
6:55would be if you are listening to the
6:57audiobook and reading the book at the
6:59same time. This is actually the ideal
7:01combination if you really want to mine
7:03as much as you possibly can from the
7:06books that you read. You get the benefit
7:07of hearing the author read the book in
7:09their own voice and it keeps you from
7:11jumping ahead in the text. It's a great
7:12way to really focus on the words which
7:15results in higher retention of the big
7:17ideas that are being discussed. Okay, so
7:19next let's shift our focus to how to
7:21read books in a manner where we get the
7:23most out of them. One of the most
7:25influential books I've ever read was How
7:28to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler. He was
7:30the editor-inchief for the Encyclopedia
7:32Bratannica back in the day and a
7:33seriously smart dude. How to read a book
7:36is basically a system for working a book
7:38in order to get more out of it. I
7:41actually didn't like this book when we
7:43originally read it for the Bookworm
7:45podcast, but it has forever changed the
7:47way that I approach reading and it's
7:49helped me get more out of the books that
7:50I read. So, over time, I've really come
7:52to appreciate the fact that I've read
7:53this one. Now, one of the big ideas from
7:55this book is that our job as a reader is
7:57to receive the message that the author
7:59is sending. He uses the analogy of a
8:02catcher receiving a pitch from a
8:03pitcher. So, as the reader, we are the
8:05catcher. It is our job to receive the
8:07message that the author is sending. And
8:10some authors, like some pitchers, have
8:12more skill in sending their message, but
8:15we still have to do what we can to
8:16receive it and understand it correctly.
8:19So while reading, we're constantly
8:20trying to figure out what is this book
8:22about as a whole? What is being said in
8:25detail and how? Is this book true in
8:27whole or in part? And the most critical
8:29question, what of it? Or what does this
8:32mean to me? So to help us figure all
8:35that stuff out, Mortimer Adler shares
8:37four levels of reading that we can use
8:39to help make sense of things. The first
8:41level is elementary reading and this is
8:43where you simply ask what does this
8:46sentence say? Basic reading. Level two
8:48is inspectional reading. This is where
8:50you figure out what is this book about.
8:53The third level is analytical reading.
8:55This is where you ask a bunch of
8:56clarifying questions about what the
8:57author is actually saying. And then the
8:59fourth level is copical reading. And
9:01this is where you compare the book in
9:03relation to the other books that you've
9:05read. So once we understand the message
9:08the author is sending, the next step is
9:09to decide for ourselves what do we
9:11actually think about it. So for example,
9:13do we agree or do we disagree with the
9:16author and more importantly why? The
9:19goal is not to be convinced to adopt a
9:21system or a framework. You want to
9:23figure out what you think about things.
9:25Collect the bits and pieces that are
9:27useful and then discard everything else.
9:30So the key here is not to create the
9:32entire book when we're taking notes.
9:34That was a mistake that I made at the
9:36beginning. I'd read a book like Getting
9:37Things Done by David Allen who is the
9:40productivity guy, right? He's the expert
9:42and I would try to capture everything
9:43that seemed important. The problem with
9:46this is that you end up with a bunch of
9:48information that really doesn't make any
9:52bit of difference. So personally, I
9:54think the purpose of capturing
9:55information from the books that you read
9:57is to take action on it. And that is
10:00reflected in these three levels of
10:02knowledge where the first level is
10:04information. That's just something that
10:05you have. If you just capture things and
10:07stick them in a digital filing cabinet
10:08or archive, they sit there and they add
10:10no value until you have the thought and
10:13then you go dig up that note and you
10:15find it in the folder or the place where
10:17you put it. And this is what happens
10:19with a lot of the potentially
10:21life-changing ideas that we encounter in
10:22these books. The next level of knowledge
10:25is revelation. And this is something
10:27that you know. So this information you
10:29can recall without having to go look it
10:31up. And being able to recall this is
10:33great. This is kind of like being able
10:34to recall the answers on the test, but
10:36you're not really applying them to your
10:39life yet. And that leads us to the third
10:41level of knowledge, which is where we
10:42really start to get value from things.
10:44That is application. So, this is where
10:46you take action on what you've read, and
10:48it's where the rubber really hits the
10:50road. The greatest ideas have very
10:52little practical value until you take
10:54action on them. So, with these three
10:56levels of knowledge in mind, you can see
10:57how important it is to not just take
10:59notes on what the author tells us we
11:01should do. Instead, we want to capture
11:02the things that resonate, that peak our
11:04curiosity, and inspire us to do
11:06something with what we just read. That's
11:09the kind of stuff you want to take notes
11:10on. In the age of AI, you can always get
11:13a summary of what the author wrote.
11:15There are even services like Blinkist
11:18that try to condense the book down into
11:20a couple of big ideas. But those ideas
11:22mean nothing unless you put in the work
11:25to wrestle with them. Which is why I
11:27think you have to put in the effort to
11:29actually read the book. and you only
11:30capture the things that you believe are
11:32really useful. Let me give you an
11:34example by showing you my own
11:35note-taking workflow. So, going back to
11:38how to read a book by Mortimer Adler, he
11:40proposes a specific way for approaching
11:42a physical book that you're going to
11:43read. I'm not going to go through the
11:45whole thing, but basically you're
11:46looking at the front cover, the back
11:47cover, the table of contents, etc.
11:50before you even start to read, so you
11:52can start to gro what this book is all
11:55about. So, I don't follow his format
11:57exactly, but I do like the idea of
11:59understanding the basic structure before
12:01you really dive into things. So, that's
12:03going to be evident as I get into the
12:04tools and methods that I use here in the
12:06next section of this video. All right.
12:08So, when I read, I always read physical
12:10books, as I mentioned, and I always take
12:12notes using my node on my iPhone. It's
12:15the best tool I found for modernizing
12:17the process of working a book that
12:19Mortimer Adler described when he wrote
12:21his book back in the 1940s. Now, you
12:23might be wondering why I use my iPhone
12:25to take notes when I just talked about
12:27how physical books are great because
12:29they minimize distraction. The phone is
12:31a distraction machine. That's fair. I
12:33get it. I've crafted my workflow to
12:36optimize for retention and recall of the
12:39big ideas that the books contain. So,
12:42while I believe physical books are best
12:44for me in terms of getting the most out
12:46of the books that I read, the iPhone is
12:48a device I always have with me and it's
12:50the best tool I have for taking notes on
12:52those books. The trick is to configure
12:55the device to support the intentional
12:57workflows I consider to be positive uses
13:00of the technology. I've actually done
13:02quite a bit to force myself down
13:04specific paths whenever I pick up my
13:06iPhone. So, for example, I use an app
13:08called Blank Spaces to eliminate the
13:10icons and the badges from my home
13:12screen. I only have apps listed here
13:14that I consider to be positive uses of
13:16my technology. With the way that I've
13:18set up my iPhone, I find that once I get
13:20some momentum by picking up the physical
13:21book and starting to read, the phone
13:23really isn't a distraction. Now, before
13:26I start reading, I always open up a new
13:27mind map and place a cover image from a
13:29quick Google search in the middle of the
13:31mind map. This isn't completely
13:33necessary, but I just like the way that
13:34it looks. Next, I look at the table of
13:37contents for the book and I recreate
13:38that in my mind map structure. If the
13:40book has parts, I'll create those as
13:42main nodes and the chapters as child
13:44nodes underneath. Then, as I read, I
13:48capture notes for the things that
13:49resonate. I intentionally try to keep my
13:51notes simple by focusing on what piques
13:54my interest instead of what the author
13:57says is important. That way, I end up
13:59with notes of things that are useful for
14:01me instead of trying to copy over
14:02everything from the book like I
14:03described earlier. I'll also take photos
14:06of important diagrams or visuals in the
14:08book with my camera on my iPhone and
14:10embed those photos in the mind map. So,
14:12here's an example from the book Tiny
14:14Habits by BJ Fog where you can see the
14:16graphs that illustrate the key ideas
14:18that the author is describing like the
14:20fog behavioral model. Having those in
14:22the mind map helps me understand the
14:24concepts a little bit better. I also
14:26have this emoji coding system I use when
14:28taking notes that acts kind of like a
14:30tagging system. I've been using this for
14:32years and it helps me easily locate the
14:34good stuff whenever I review my notes.
14:37So, here's the emoji coding system that
14:39I use when I'm taking notes in my note.
14:41The light bulb icon is for inspiration.
14:44This is basically the equivalent of an
14:45aha moment or something that is kind of
14:48surprising to me as I read. The key
14:50emoji is for key arguments. This is a
14:52key argument the author is making, which
14:54I use to gro the basic message later
14:56when I review the mind map. I use the
14:58speech bubble for quotes. This is for
15:00oneliners that stand out to me when I'm
15:01reading. And I make sure to capture the
15:03page number so I can roll these up into
15:05my quotebook note inside of Obsidian.
15:08The talking head emoji is for a talking
15:10point. This is something I want to
15:12discuss when we cover the book for
15:13Bookworm. And when I go through my mind
15:15my map and I locate these emoji, that
15:17makes it really easy to create the
15:19outlines for those episodes. And then
15:21finally, there's the mind blown emoji
15:23where every once in a while I'll come
15:24across a section or a statistic that
15:26just completely blows my mind. I use
15:28this very sparingly, but I do use it
15:30once in a while. Now, I could do all
15:32this using traditional tags, but they
15:33didn't exist in mind when I started
15:35using this system, and honestly, I just
15:37really like the visual nature of this.
15:39So, I've continued to use this system.
15:41They also make it easier to find once I
15:43move things over to obsidian, which you
15:44will see in just a little bit. All
15:46right, so once I'm done reading, I
15:48export my notes from my node on my Mac
15:50in two specific formats, both of which
15:52will end up in Obsidian. The first is a
15:55PDF of the mind map which will get
15:57embedded in the note. And the second is
15:59a markdown format of that mind map which
16:02gives me a plain text version that I can
16:04break into atomic notes and link
16:06together inside of my Obsidian vault.
16:08Now, unfortunately, the images don't get
16:10exported in that markdown format, but
16:12they do exist in the PDF mindmap, so I
16:14can still see them when I review my
16:15notes if I want. Now, jumping over to
16:17Obsidian, I have a booknotes template
16:19file, which has a couple of distinct
16:20sections and some specific property
16:22metadata. So, let's look at the contents
16:24of the note first. Each booknote has
16:26three headings. The first one is a three
16:28sentence summary where I condense the
16:30whole message of the book into three
16:32sentences at the top of the note. It's
16:34always difficult to condense a book down
16:35to three sentences, but I believe this
16:37helps me distill the big ideas. The
16:39second is the mind map, which is where I
16:40drag in the PDF of my mind map file that
16:43gets embedded in the note. I have my
16:45Obsidian settings configured to
16:46automatically store these inside of my
16:49files folder. And then the third heading
16:51is notes. And this is where I paste the
16:53markdown outline after I copy it from
16:55NOVA, which is my plain text editor of
16:57choice. So once these notes are added, I
17:00will go through them and I'll create
17:01atomic notes where I deem necessary by
17:04selecting text and putting double
17:05brackets around it. If it's a concept
17:07that appears in more than one book, I'll
17:09usually add a call out at the top of
17:10these notes with a succinct definition
17:12of the concept. And in the lower right
17:14corner in the local graph, you can see
17:15all of the books that mention this. I
17:18also use the list callouts plugin to add
17:21a colored background to every line in my
17:23plain text outline that has one of those
17:25emoji that I added when taking notes.
17:28You can configure this in the plug-in
17:30settings, but here's what it looks like
17:32inside of my notes. Now, most of these
17:34are just visual decoration for the note,
17:36but I do add some text to some of these
17:38as I process the note. So, for example,
17:41all of my quotes have a purple
17:42background, and I will add a tag of
17:44hashtag quote to the end of this line
17:46and put the author of the quote inside a
17:48double brackets so that it links back to
17:50the author's note in Obsidian. The
17:52hashtag quote is the basis of my
17:54quotebook note that I explain in this
17:56other video here, but basically, it just
17:58rolls up everything that matches this
18:00formatting, and it displays it by
18:02source. And I also use the Obsidian Task
18:04plugin for my task and project
18:05management. So, I will add a hashtag
18:08to-do to all of the lines that have an
18:10action item, which is the tag configured
18:12in the Obsidian task global filter
18:15section. This allows my action items to
18:17be rolled up inside of my Obsidian task
18:19queries, like on my task dashboard, as
18:21you see here. So, when I process my
18:24booknotes, I spend just a couple of
18:25minutes going through these textbased
18:27notes and adding things like I just
18:28described. I also have a bunch of
18:30metadata properties that I add at the
18:32top of the note. Those get added when
18:34the note is created. In the author
18:36field, I put a link to the note matching
18:38the name of the person who wrote the
18:39book. And I do this by putting the
18:40person's name inside of double brackets,
18:42even if that note doesn't exist yet. If
18:45there are multiple authors for a book, I
18:46will add both of their names as internal
18:48links like this. Next is the rating,
18:50which is my personal rating of the book
18:52from one to five stars. I use emoji
18:54characters for this. And when I click in
18:56the field, it gives me a drop down of
18:58all the values that I previously used in
18:59this field, like you can see here. So I
19:02just select the rating from the drop-
19:03down list and the rating gets applied to
19:05the book note file. Next is the year
19:08which is the year that the book was
19:09actually published. The pages which is
19:11how many pages are in the book and
19:13lastly is the cover property which is an
19:15internal link to an image file of the
19:17book cover that I have saved to my
19:19Obsidian vault. Now fortunately I don't
19:22have to do that part manually. In fact I
19:23automate adding most of this metadata
19:25using the excellent book search plugin.
19:27With this plug-in installed and enabled,
19:29you can run a command, search for the
19:31book that you want using the title or
19:32the ISBN number, and the plugin can
19:34automatically pull in the associated
19:36metadata that you choose based on the
19:38plug-in settings. So, here are the
19:40settings that I use. For new file
19:42location, I always put my booknotes
19:44inside of my booknotes folder. For the
19:47new file name, I simply use the title of
19:49the book, which can be automatically
19:50applied using the title token inside of
19:52double curly brackets. Next, I configure
19:55the template file location to use my
19:57booknotes template file inside of my
19:58templates directory. And by the way, my
20:00template file is available inside of my
20:02Obsidian Starter Vault. So, you can
20:03download it for free by going to
20:05vault.practicalpkm.com.
20:07The other important settings here are to
20:09show the cover image in the search. This
20:10helps me make sure that I select the
20:12right book. I turn off the enable cover
20:14image edge curl effect option because I
20:17just want the book cover when I see it
20:18displayed instead of the cards view. I
20:20don't want to see the page curling up. I
20:22also toggle on enable cover image save
20:24and I've chosen the files directory for
20:26the cover image path but you can put
20:28these in a separate folder if you'd
20:29like. So now I can invoke the command
20:32pallet when I want to create a new
20:33booknote file in my vault. Run the book
20:35search col create new booknote command.
20:38Select the book that I want to add from
20:39the list. Hit enter and the note is
20:42automatically created in the correct
20:43folder with the template applied. The
20:45cover image is downloaded and added and
20:47the number of pages and the year
20:49automatically are updated in the
20:51metadata properties. Now, I don't use
20:53book search to find the author simply
20:55because I want a link to the author's
20:58note and it gets tricky when there are
20:59multiple authors. Now, this metadata
21:01that we just covered here is important
21:03as this is the information that bases
21:05will use when creating the cards for all
21:08the books in my library. So once that
21:10template is applied and everything is
21:12set up, I drag in the PDF, I paste in
21:14the markdown and I've got a new booknote
21:16now that is added to my library. So I'll
21:18go through, I'll add some links, I'll
21:20clean up the quotes, I'll create the
21:21action items. Takes a couple of minutes,
21:23but then it's done. And now it's time
21:25for the fun part where we get into
21:27configuring this with Obsidian Bases. So
21:29as I mentioned, I keep all my book
21:31ratings in a folder called booknotes. So
21:33the library is going to be a single base
21:35file which I have named book
21:37ratings.base base and it has a simple
21:40filter that only shows files where the
21:42file path begins with booknotes. To
21:45create the base, invoke the command
21:46pallet with command P or control P on
21:48Windows and select the bases colon
21:50create new base command. This will
21:53create a new base file. So, click on the
21:54name to rename it to something like book
21:56ratings and then click the filter
21:58button. The first filter we want to
22:00apply to all views. So, make sure that
22:02you toggle that carrot. Then under all
22:03of the following are true. Click to add
22:05a filter and choose where file path
22:08starts with booknotes.
22:11This will now show all of the files that
22:13are in that booknotes folder plus any
22:15that happen to be in subfolders inside
22:17of that folder if you have any. The
22:19default view will now show a table that
22:21looks something like this. All right. So
22:24now let's create a new view by clicking
22:27on this button in the upper left and
22:29choose add new view. Let's name this
22:31view cards. Choose the card's layout.
22:34Select cover as the image property. And
22:36for the image fit, I want to choose
22:38contain as this option will display the
22:40whole cover file in the card. You can
22:43also configure the card size and the
22:44image aspect ratio if you want. But
22:46that's basically all we need to do. So
22:48let's close the settings for this view.
22:50So that gives us cards for all the books
22:51that we have in our booknotes folder.
22:53But we want some additional information
22:55to be displayed on these cards. So next,
22:57click on the properties button for this
22:59view. And check the boxes for all of the
23:01properties that you want to display.
23:04I've selected file name, which is
23:05selected by default and shows the name
23:07of the note, as well as rating, author,
23:10pages, and year. Each property that you
23:13select will instantly be visible in the
23:15cards in the view. You can also choose
23:18how you want to sort this view if you'd
23:19like by clicking on the sort button. I
23:22have mine sorted by file name in
23:25ascending alphabetical order. The end
23:27result is a beautiful looking card view
23:29like this that shows all my booknotes
23:32with cover, author, rating, and page
23:34numbers. But you can take this even
23:36further by creating additional views
23:37from that same.base file. So let's click
23:40on the view button again and add another
23:42cards view named five-star books. The
23:45setting for this view will be the same,
23:47but for the filter under the this view
23:49option, let's add a filter where the
23:51rating property is five stars. So now we
23:54have a five-star books view that looks
23:56the same, but only shows the books that
23:58I've rated five stars. And this is one
24:00of the things that's really powerful
24:01about bases in my opinion. You can
24:03actually create multiple views from the
24:05same base. You can slice your
24:07information just about any way you want.
24:09And from any of these views, you can
24:11click on the card to open the note and
24:13access all of those booknotes. All
24:16right, so there you have it. A complete
24:17walkthrough of my entire booknotes
24:19workflow from physical books to obsidian
24:21bases. Are there ways that this could be
24:23more efficient? Absolutely. But
24:25remember, we're optimizing for making
24:27more out of our notes and ideas. That
24:30requires that we wrestle with these
24:31things and we figure out for ourselves
24:32what we really think about them. So, I'm
24:34not just trying to get the information
24:36into Obsidian as easily as I can. And
24:38I'm also not trying to create a complex
24:40system that looks fancy but doesn't give
24:42me any practical value when it's time to
24:44make something out of those notes and
24:46ideas that I've collected. I have
24:48developed and refined this workflow over
24:50many years of reading books. And I am
24:52constantly trying to optimize my system
24:54in order to make the act of creating
24:56something new from those dots that I
24:59collect easier and more effortless. So
25:03there you have it. That is my whole
25:05workflow. It may not be exactly how you
25:07would do it, but I love this and it
25:09helps me to create consistently and
25:12never feel stuck or like I don't have
25:14something to write about. Now, I have
25:16another video on a framework that I call
25:18the creativity flywheel. If you want to
25:20see how I take the seeds of the ideas
25:22that I read about in these books and
25:24then develop them into original content,
25:26there will be a link to that video in
25:28the description below this one. I've
25:30also linked to all the plugins, the
25:32books, and the resources that I
25:34mentioned in this video, so you've got
25:36everything you need to build this for
25:38yourself. And if you want to download my
25:40entire library of booknotes in Obsidian
25:42for yourself, I've actually packaged
25:43everything together. You can download it
25:45now by going to practicalpkm.com/notes.
25:49For a long time, this has been available
25:50inside of LifeHQ, which is my done for
25:52you Obsidian vault. And while I plan to
25:54keep it there bundled with all my other
25:56workflows, I've had several people ask
25:58me if I would create a separate product
26:00which just had my booknotes in it. The
26:02problem is I have no idea what to charge
26:04for this. So what I've decided to do is
26:06create a pay what you want version of
26:08this. This represents a lot of work. So
26:10I've set the recommended price at $20,
26:12which is less than 10 cents per book. If
26:14you happen to be in a position to help
26:15me out financially, you want to do that,
26:17I would certainly appreciate it. But
26:18I've decided not to have a minimum
26:20price. So, you can actually get it for
26:21free if you want or if you just can't
26:23afford it right now. That's cool. I get
26:25it. I've been there before. I want to
26:27make this as accessible to as many
26:29people as I possibly can. So, again, you
26:31can download it right now. If you go to
26:34practicalpkm.com/notes.
26:36All you have to do is unzip that, open
26:38it up as a new vault. You'll have the
26:39basis preconfigured and all the notes
26:41will be there. I'm also going to start
26:43adding the occasional booknotes to my
26:45Obsidian starter vault, which is a great
26:46resource if you're just getting started
26:47with Obsidian, as it contains a bunch of
26:49tips and resources to help you get more
26:51out of your notes and ideas. You can
26:52find out more about that by going to
26:54vault.practicalpkm.com.
26:56Thanks for watching and we'll see you in
26:58another

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