How I Run My Whole Life Out of Obsidian — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:00Most people's digital lives are [music]
- 0:02a jumbled mess. Meetings in one app,
- 0:05tasks in another, journal entries
- 0:06somewhere else, habit tracker in a
- 0:08fourth place, and none of them connect.
- 0:11Every [music] area is technically
- 0:13organized, but none of it talks to each
- 0:15other. And that's the part that actually
- 0:17matters, because PKM isn't just about
- 0:19storing information, it's about
- 0:21connecting it. And you can't do that
- 0:23when your life is scattered across a
- 0:25dozen apps that were never designed to
- 0:27integrate with one another.
- 0:28Now, I spent years running exactly that
- 0:30kind of fragmented setup, and after
- 0:32trying just about every combination of
- 0:34tools that you can possibly imagine, I
- 0:36eventually moved my entire life into a
- 0:39single Obsidian vault. I run my entire
- 0:41life, journaling, personal retreats,
- 0:43multi-scale planning, habit tracking,
- 0:45Bible reading, task management, writing,
- 0:47all of it off of plain text files, all
- 0:49in one place.
- 0:51>> [music]
- 0:51>> And in this video, I want to show you
- 0:52exactly how and why that works. Now, I
- 0:56have to address something up front here,
- 0:57because some of you are already typing
- 0:59in the comments. Mike, you literally
- 1:01made a video saying, "Don't try to make
- 1:02Obsidian do everything." And that's
- 1:04true. I still believe that. Just trying
- 1:07to use Obsidian for everything out of
- 1:09the box is still the wrong approach. So,
- 1:13why am I making the opposite argument in
- 1:16this video here? Because there's a real
- 1:18difference between cramming everything
- 1:20into Obsidian for the sake of it and
- 1:22running the things that actually benefit
- 1:24from being connected in the same place.
- 1:28That is a completely different
- 1:29conversation. When my journal entry is
- 1:31linked to the habits I'm trying to
- 1:32build, and those habits feed into the
- 1:34quarterly personal retreat where I
- 1:35reflect on whether they're actually
- 1:36creating the change I want to see, and
- 1:38that retreat shapes the projects that I
- 1:40commit to, and those projects produce
- 1:42the writing that I publish, and the
- 1:43writing pulls from the journal entries
- 1:45that I started with, that's not Obsidian
- 1:48being an everything app. That's the
- 1:50connections doing the heavy lifting, and
- 1:52the connections are the entire point.
- 1:56This is the PKM stack idea in action,
- 1:58which I've talked about in a few other
- 2:00videos. And if you want to dive deeper
- 2:01on that framework, I recommend this one
- 2:04where I get into the importance of
- 2:05hiring each app for a specific job.
- 2:08Until you get clear on the jobs to be
- 2:10done in your PKM system, no app is going
- 2:13to be able to provide you the clarity
- 2:14that you're after. But, when you are
- 2:16clear on the jobs to be done, then you
- 2:18can make an informed choice about the
- 2:20right apps for you and your workflow.
- 2:23And for most of the jobs that make up my
- 2:24life management system, the right tool
- 2:26for the job happens to be Obsidian.
- 2:29There are tradeoffs in taking this
- 2:31approach, but because I'm clear on what
- 2:33I want out of my PKM system, it works.
- 2:36So, let's actually look at what each of
- 2:38those jobs is. The first workflow I want
- 2:41to share here is the one I use every
- 2:43single day. If I had to pick just one
- 2:45workflow to use in Obsidian for the rest
- 2:47of my life,
- 2:48this is the one I would pick. Journaling
- 2:50with daily questions. The daily
- 2:52questions idea comes from Marshall
- 2:54Goldsmith's book Triggers. And the key
- 2:56is just to ask yourself, "Did I do my
- 2:58best to" and then fill in the blank. The
- 3:00important difference here is that these
- 3:02prompts focus on the effort, not the
- 3:05result. And instead of using words to
- 3:07answer, you use a 10-point scale where
- 3:1010 is great and one is terrible.
- 3:13Now, this idea immediately resonated
- 3:15with me when I first came across it, so
- 3:16I've applied this daily questions format
- 3:18to the areas that are important to me.
- 3:19I've tried this in several different
- 3:21systems, but Obsidian is the place that
- 3:23it stuck. So, every day I answer my
- 3:25daily questions and I rate myself in the
- 3:27following areas on a scale from 1 to 10.
- 3:30Did I do my best to grow spiritually?
- 3:32Did I do my best to love my wife? Did I
- 3:34do my best to love my kids? Did I do my
- 3:36best to be a good friend? Did I do my
- 3:38best to learn something? Did I do my
- 3:40best to create something? And did I do
- 3:42my best to exercise? Now, I find this
- 3:45form of journaling is much easier to do
- 3:47consistently because I don't have to
- 3:48judge myself based on what I got done or
- 3:50what I accomplished.
- 3:52So, for example, if I'm training for a
- 3:53half marathon and I'm supposed to run
- 3:55like 12 miles, but I cut it short after
- 3:57six, I might rate myself a five. But, if
- 4:00I'm getting over a cold and I just don't
- 4:02feel like going, but I end up doing a
- 4:04slow 3-mile run anyways, I might rate
- 4:06that a 10. Remember, that rating is
- 4:09based on the intention, not the outcome.
- 4:12As long as I did my best, I'm going to
- 4:14give myself a good score. Since you
- 4:16can't really control the results anyway,
- 4:18I believe it makes more sense to focus
- 4:20on the effort. Control what you can
- 4:22control and be intentional about your
- 4:25actions. That's the daily questions
- 4:27format in a nutshell. Now, the whole
- 4:29workflow uses a custom shortcut that I
- 4:31run at the end of the day that writes
- 4:33these values to the properties in my
- 4:35daily note. I have a whole video on that
- 4:37workflow linked in the description below
- 4:39if you want to dig deeper on how that's
- 4:40set up. I also use a quick add macro to
- 4:43log wins, gratitude, and journal
- 4:44entries, which again live in my daily
- 4:47note. So, that means there are no
- 4:48separate journaling apps to remember to
- 4:50open. The daily note in Obsidian is
- 4:52phenomenal for journaling and I love
- 4:54having all those entries and the values
- 4:56tied to those daily notes.
- 4:58Now, here's where it gets interesting
- 4:59because the journal lives inside my
- 5:01vault, I can use my on this day basis
- 5:03query that again lives inside the daily
- 5:05note template that surfaces everything
- 5:08that I wrote about and captured a year
- 5:09ago, two years ago, three years ago,
- 5:10etc. all on the same day. And that is
- 5:14where journaling actually pays off for
- 5:16me. It's not the act of writing the
- 5:17entry, it's the act of bumping into your
- 5:19past self when you weren't expecting to
- 5:21and seeing how you've grown. So, the
- 5:23takeaway here is this, don't journal to
- 5:26record the past, journal to craft the
- 5:28future. Drop a marker that future you
- 5:30will find useful. Use your daily notes
- 5:33to capture what's important, to grade
- 5:35your effort, not your results, and keep
- 5:37it inside the same note that you're
- 5:39already opening every morning so it
- 5:40doesn't become yet another app that you
- 5:42forget to use. I've got a deeper dive on
- 5:44the daily questions set up in another
- 5:46video and a separate one on the quick
- 5:48add macro that I used for the journal
- 5:49entries. Both are linked below this one.
- 5:52Okay, so that's the daily layer. Now,
- 5:54let's zoom way out. Once a quarter, I
- 5:57take a full day off from regular work to
- 5:58do what I call a personal retreat. It
- 6:00is, without exaggeration, the single
- 6:02highest leverage day on my calendar, and
- 6:05the entire thing, every reflection,
- 6:07every plan, every decision, all lives
- 6:09inside of a single Obsidian note. The
- 6:12personal retreat process has a very
- 6:14specific format that I've honed over
- 6:16several years of doing these. So, first,
- 6:18you review your life theme and your
- 6:20personal core values to see if they
- 6:21still resonate. Then, you review your
- 6:23journal entries, which we just talked
- 6:25about. I've got queries that make this
- 6:26easy and a dashboard for the daily
- 6:28questions where I can spot trends.
- 6:30After that, you complete a wheel of life
- 6:32exercise where you rate your current
- 6:33happiness with the different areas of
- 6:35your life, and you figure out which one
- 6:37needs some attention over the next 90
- 6:39days.
- 6:39Next, there's a two-part retrospective
- 6:41where you look back at the previous
- 6:43quarter before looking forward and
- 6:45making a list of things that you can
- 6:46potentially start, stop, and keep doing.
- 6:50From there, you set your intentions for
- 6:51the next quarter, and you review your
- 6:53ideal week, like I talked about in my
- 6:55last video, to make sure that you have
- 6:56time set aside to consistently take
- 6:58action on the things that are important
- 7:00to you. Now, you can do this whole thing
- 7:02on paper if you want. You don't need a
- 7:03special app. But, if you do it in
- 7:05Obsidian, all your past personal
- 7:07retreats now become linkable. So, when
- 7:10I'm sitting down to do this quarter's
- 7:12retreat, I can pull up the one from Q2
- 7:142024 right next to it, and I can
- 7:16instantly see whether I'm actually
- 7:18changing or just rewriting the same
- 7:21goals with slightly different wording
- 7:22every time. That feedback loop is
- 7:24brutal, but in the best possible way.
- 7:27You can't lie to yourself when your own
- 7:28writing from 2 years ago is staring you
- 7:30in the face. Now, I won't walk through
- 7:32the whole template here because I've got
- 7:33a dedicated video on my entire personal
- 7:35retreat workflow. It's actually one of
- 7:37the ones that I'm most proud of on my
- 7:38channel. But, I do want you to
- 7:40understand this. You do not need to go
- 7:42to a cabin in the woods. What you need
- 7:44is a few hours, a single document, and
- 7:46the willingness to actually answer the
- 7:48hard questions about whether your life
- 7:50is going where you want it to go. The
- 7:53personal retreat is the bridge into the
- 7:54third workflow, which is what Cal
- 7:56Newport calls multi-scale planning. The
- 7:58idea here is that the real magic happens
- 8:01when you align your daily, weekly, and
- 8:03quarterly plans so that you are
- 8:05consistently taking action on the things
- 8:07that you decided were important when you
- 8:09did your personal retreat. So,
- 8:11multi-scale planning actually begins
- 8:13above that by considering what Cal calls
- 8:14your roles and values. In my version of
- 8:16this, I start with my life theme, which
- 8:18is a personal mission statement that
- 8:19encapsulates what my life is all about,
- 8:21and my personal core values, which are
- 8:23both individual notes in my Obsidian
- 8:25vault that I review every 90 days when I
- 8:27do my personal retreat. But, the
- 8:29important thing here is that you know
- 8:31what's important to you before you sit
- 8:34down to do any sort of planning. Now,
- 8:36once you get clear on that big picture
- 8:38stuff, then you can start planning using
- 8:40different time scales. So, Cal
- 8:42recommends quarterly, weekly, and daily
- 8:43planning, which I think is a pretty good
- 8:46cadence. I personally do not do annual
- 8:48plans. I think that's too long, and it's
- 8:50impossible to get right. So, I do my
- 8:52personal retreat on quarterly basis, and
- 8:54then I reevaluate my intentions every 90
- 8:56days. In my opinion, that's the sweet
- 8:59spot because a quarter is long enough to
- 9:01make some significant progress, but it's
- 9:03also short enough that you have these
- 9:05built-in periods where you can reset and
- 9:07make adjustments if things don't go
- 9:09exactly according to plan. Now, each of
- 9:11these multi-scale layers lives in its
- 9:13own note, but they all connect using the
- 9:16periodic notes plugin. I have separate
- 9:18template files for my quarterly, weekly,
- 9:20and daily notes, but they all connect,
- 9:22and that's what helps me make sure that
- 9:24these plans all stay in alignment. Now,
- 9:27I've got another video on Cal Newport
- 9:29style multi-scale planning in Obsidian
- 9:31if you do want to go deeper on that.
- 9:32But, the big takeaway here is that all
- 9:35all notes connect, so I can make sure
- 9:38that I am making consistent progress on
- 9:40those things that I said were important
- 9:42when I was away on my personal retreat
- 9:44setting those intentions. The fourth
- 9:45habit is habit tracking, and I want to
- 9:47be honest about my history with this one
- 9:48before I show you the system. I have
- 9:51tried just about every habit tracking
- 9:53app out there: Streaks, Habitify,
- 9:55Strides, Way of Life. I cycled through
- 9:58them roughly every 6 months for years,
- 10:01and not a single one stuck. Not because
- 10:04they were bad apps, but because the data
- 10:06lived somewhere completely separate from
- 10:09the place that I was actually doing the
- 10:11reflection that would tell me why I
- 10:13missed a day. So, it really didn't stick
- 10:15for me until I moved my habit tracking
- 10:17into my daily note template file. Now,
- 10:19it's just another 15 seconds as part of
- 10:21my journaling workflow at the end of
- 10:22every day. The setup itself is almost
- 10:25embarrassingly simple. There are
- 10:26checkbox properties inside my daily note
- 10:29for the habits that I'm tracking this
- 10:30season. I check them off as I do them or
- 10:32when I'm capturing my daily questions at
- 10:34the end of the day. That's the entire
- 10:36data entry layer. There's no app, no
- 10:38notifications, and no streak shame.
- 10:40That's the most important part. The
- 10:42interesting part though is what happens
- 10:43on top of the data that I track using
- 10:45those checkbox properties.
- 10:47I actually created a custom dashboard
- 10:49that uses DataView.js code snippets to
- 10:51create a comprehensive habit tracking
- 10:52view inside of my Obsidian vault. The
- 10:55queries pull data from every daily note,
- 10:57looks at the checkbox properties, and
- 10:59then feeds the data into a dashboard
- 11:00that shows me streaks, gaps, and trends.
- 11:03So, I get all the visualization that the
- 11:05dedicated habit tracking apps gave me,
- 11:08but the habit sits right next to the
- 11:10journal entry, and it explains why I did
- 11:13or did not do that thing that day. That
- 11:16context is the difference between I
- 11:17missed 3 days in a row and I missed 3
- 11:19days in a row because that's the week
- 11:21that my dad was in the hospital.
- 11:22Tracking honestly is more important than
- 11:24tracking perfectly. And a habit tracker
- 11:27is only useful if it actually changes
- 11:30your behavior. So, putting it in the
- 11:32place that I already open every single
- 11:34morning is the single biggest behavior
- 11:36change lever that I have found. Again,
- 11:38I've got a full setup video for the
- 11:40Habit Canvas dashboard. It's linked
- 11:42below, and the whole thing is available
- 11:43for free inside of my free Obsidian
- 11:45Starter Vault if you want to play around
- 11:47with it. You can download it at
- 11:48vault.practicalpkm.com.
- 11:51The next workflow I want to talk through
- 11:52is my daily Bible reading, which is not
- 11:55only the oldest habit that I track, it's
- 11:57also the workflow that taught me why I
- 11:59keep everything in one vault in the
- 12:01first place. Now, this is actually a
- 12:03pretty technical setup, and again, I've
- 12:04got a video below where I walk through
- 12:07how I do all of this. But for now, just
- 12:09understand that I actually have two
- 12:11types of Bible texts in my vault. Note
- 12:13as chapter and note as verse. So, for
- 12:16the daily Bible reading that I build
- 12:18into my daily note template file, I use
- 12:20the note as chapter format. I have a
- 12:22separate file that has my chronological
- 12:24Bible reading plan with repeating tasks
- 12:27for each chapter assigned to the day
- 12:28that I'm supposed to read it, and that
- 12:30shows up in a custom callout in my daily
- 12:32note called Bible reading. When I open
- 12:34my daily note at the beginning of the
- 12:35day, I get that day's daily Bible
- 12:37reading there. But I also have each
- 12:40verse as its own atomic note, and that
- 12:42may sound extreme. And I'll tell you,
- 12:44when a friend wrote me a script years
- 12:46ago to break the King James Version into
- 12:48over 30,000 individual files, I
- 12:50genuinely wondered if I was doing
- 12:51something insane.
- 12:53But here is exactly why I wanted each
- 12:55verse as its own note. You see, I take
- 12:58sketch notes of every sermon that I
- 13:00hear. And when I bring those sketch
- 13:01notes into my vault, I link to each
- 13:03verse that was mentioned. Now, I have
- 13:05all my sermon sketch notes going back to
- 13:072017, which means that I can now use the
- 13:10local graph to navigate my own
- 13:12cross-reference library inside of my
- 13:14Obsidian vault. But I can also link
- 13:16other notes to those Bible verses as
- 13:18well. So, maps of content, topical
- 13:20Bibles, my Bible college notes, all link
- 13:23back to those individual verses. I also
- 13:25added all my highlights from my paper
- 13:27Bible as note level tags, so I have
- 13:29multiple ways of finding verses based on
- 13:31subject or topic. And that cross-domain
- 13:34connection is something that no
- 13:36dedicated Bible app can give me, because
- 13:38no dedicated Bible app also holds my
- 13:41sermon notes, my book notes, and my
- 13:42journal. That's why everything lives in
- 13:45one vault, so it can all be connected.
- 13:48The Bible reading workflow is the
- 13:50cleanest example of this principle. And
- 13:52if you're a Bible reader, you've never
- 13:54tried it this way, you are sitting on
- 13:55top of one of the highest yield linking
- 13:57exercises Obsidian can do. So, in
- 14:00addition to the video where I explain
- 14:02how I set all this up, I also have a
- 14:05link below to my own Bible resource
- 14:06files that you can download and drop
- 14:08into your own Obsidian vault, if you'd
- 14:10like. Okay, on to the workflow that
- 14:12probably generates the most "But what
- 14:13about?" comments: task management.
- 14:16Again, I have used just about every
- 14:18dedicated task manager out there:
- 14:20OmniFocus, Todoist, Things, TickTick,
- 14:22Asana. Honestly, there are a ton of
- 14:25great task managers available today.
- 14:27They are all genuinely good apps, but
- 14:29for the kind of work that I do, Obsidian
- 14:31has replaced every single one of them.
- 14:34So, the pieces of my task management
- 14:35workflow are pretty simple. I use the
- 14:37Obsidian task plugin for inline tasks,
- 14:39and most of the time I capture them all
- 14:41to a master task list file that I never
- 14:43ever look at. If I want to add tasks to
- 14:46a project, I do that by adding a tag,
- 14:48and I use queries to surface the right
- 14:49tasks at the right time. For example, I
- 14:52have notes in my vault for people that I
- 14:53regularly meet with. Each person has
- 14:55their own people note with custom
- 14:57queries, so I can quickly see what's
- 14:58relevant when I look at that person's
- 15:00note. If I want to make sure I remember
- 15:02to talk to someone about something, I
- 15:03can capture a task with a discuss tag
- 15:06and a tag for the person's name, and
- 15:08that task gets rolled up into a discuss
- 15:10query that I can reference before I go
- 15:11into a meeting with the individual. Same
- 15:14thing for projects. And I even have a
- 15:15task dashboard note that queries all of
- 15:18the tasks across my entire vault and
- 15:20surfaces what I should be looking at
- 15:21today. So, this beats a dedicated task
- 15:23manager for my type of work for one
- 15:25reason. Every task is one click away
- 15:28from the context that explains why it
- 15:30exists in the first place.
- 15:32I'm not staring at a flat list of action
- 15:34items with no memory of why I added
- 15:36them. I'm seeing tasks attached to the
- 15:38projects they belong to, surrounded by
- 15:41my notes about that project, linked to
- 15:43the people who care about that project.
- 15:46Now, I want to be honest because I made
- 15:47this point in another video and I think
- 15:48it bears repeating here.
- 15:50If your work involves location-based
- 15:52reminders or you're managing 50 client
- 15:55projects with strict service level
- 15:56agreements,
- 15:57my system is probably terrible for you.
- 16:00That's completely fine. Your task system
- 16:03should be optimized for your work, not
- 16:05for mine. And one more important thing
- 16:07about this, Obsidian is where my tasks
- 16:09live, but it's not where my day actually
- 16:12gets executed. I use that task dashboard
- 16:14as a recommendation engine for the
- 16:17things that I should be considering
- 16:18right now. Then, I select the tasks that
- 16:20I'm working on and I time block them.
- 16:22Different tools for different jobs. The
- 16:25computer is the brain, but the notebook
- 16:27is the list. And the so what here is
- 16:30simple. Tasks without context are just a
- 16:33list of guilt. Tasks living next to the
- 16:36project and the person they belong to
- 16:38changes the relationship that you have
- 16:40with your to-do list entirely. Okay, the
- 16:42last workflow and the one that ties
- 16:44everything together is writing. This is
- 16:47actually another type of task, but one
- 16:49where the text of what I'm writing
- 16:50exists in the note itself. So,
- 16:53newsletters, YouTube scripts, course
- 16:55content, book notes, articles, every
- 16:57piece of writing that I publish starts
- 16:59and ends in Obsidian. The reason this
- 17:01matters is not that Obsidian has some
- 17:03magical writing experience that other
- 17:05apps can't match. The reason this
- 17:07matters is that the source material and
- 17:09the draft live in the same vault. So,
- 17:12when I'm drafting a newsletter and I
- 17:13need that one quote from a book that I
- 17:15wrote in 2023, I don't have to leave the
- 17:18app, search a different system, copy,
- 17:19paste, and then reformat. I link
- 17:21directly to the book note, I embed the
- 17:22quote, and I keep writing. That's the
- 17:25goal, just keep writing. That sounds
- 17:27like a really small thing. It's not a
- 17:29really small thing. The friction between
- 17:31I had an idea I want to use and that
- 17:33idea actually ends up in a finished
- 17:35published piece is the thing that kills
- 17:37most people's writing, and the same
- 17:39vault writing fixes most of it. I also
- 17:42manage all of these writing projects by
- 17:44using Kanban boards inside of my
- 17:46Obsidian vault. I have separate folders
- 17:48for each type of writing project and
- 17:49separate Kanban boards for each type. I
- 17:51use quick add macros to capture things
- 17:53to the backlog of the appropriate Kanban
- 17:55board, then I drag that item from left
- 17:57to right as I work on it until
- 17:58eventually it gets published. The
- 18:00different types of writing projects each
- 18:02have their own template file with
- 18:03appropriate metadata, but the important
- 18:04thing for me is that all the writing
- 18:06happens in the note itself. That makes
- 18:08these tasks more like task notes as
- 18:11opposed to the inline tasks that I
- 18:12mentioned above, but it works great for
- 18:14these types of creative projects in my
- 18:16opinion. Now, once I'm finished, I
- 18:18export the markdown to whatever the
- 18:19platform needs. The YouTube scripts get
- 18:21sent over to my video editor in Notion,
- 18:23the newsletter goes through Kit, and
- 18:25articles published on Practical PKM,
- 18:27which runs on the Ghost platform. But
- 18:30the writing itself, from blank page to
- 18:32final draft, all happens in Obsidian.
- 18:35So, those are the big ways that I use
- 18:37Obsidian to run my entire life, but
- 18:38there is another aspect to this which we
- 18:40need to discuss before we wrap up this
- 18:42video. Because all of this is in the
- 18:45same app, I can actually create some
- 18:47pretty cool dashboards to visualize
- 18:49things using DataView JS that tie it all
- 18:52together. I previously shared a video
- 18:54about how I use Claude to help me create
- 18:56these new journaling dashboards, and the
- 18:58link to that explainer video will be in
- 19:00the description below. But I've been
- 19:01building on that concept for a couple of
- 19:03other dashboards, including a projects
- 19:05dashboard and what I call my Life OS
- 19:08dashboard. Now, the Life OS dashboard in
- 19:10particular is relevant for this video as
- 19:13it helps me make sure that I'm staying
- 19:14aligned with my vision and values.
- 19:17So, here's what it looks like. In the
- 19:18upper left is a wheel of life graph that
- 19:20is dynamically generated from this
- 19:22quarter's personal retreat file. That
- 19:24means I don't have to change that code
- 19:26block. It will just automatically pull
- 19:27from the appropriate file based on the
- 19:29date and the naming convention of my
- 19:32personal retreat files in my Obsidian
- 19:33vault. All the values are pulled from
- 19:35number properties in that personal
- 19:37retreat note and they're displayed here.
- 19:39To the right of that is a combined daily
- 19:41questions widget which shows the lines
- 19:43and averages of the daily questions
- 19:44properties it scrapes from my Obsidian
- 19:46vault. So, that means if I change the
- 19:48values in my daily notes template file,
- 19:50whatever it finds will actually show up
- 19:52here. I can toggle on or off the ones I
- 19:54want to see, select the time frame I
- 19:56want from the drop down in the upper
- 19:57right, and the graph updates
- 19:59automatically.
- 20:01Next is a habits widget which again is
- 20:02dynamically generated based on what it
- 20:05finds in the checkbox properties for my
- 20:07daily notes.
- 20:08It shows the current streak, the best
- 20:10streak, the longest break, completion
- 20:11percentage, and total completions for
- 20:13each habit it finds, and also shows
- 20:15which habits were completed or missed
- 20:17over the last several days. This
- 20:19dashboard also shows my life theme, the
- 20:21Memento Mori widget I have in my daily
- 20:23notes template, and quick links to
- 20:24capture journal entries or jump to the
- 20:26appropriate multi-skill planning note.
- 20:28All of this together in one place makes
- 20:30this note useful whenever I need to
- 20:32recalibrate and make sure that I'm
- 20:33moving towards my North Star. And
- 20:35because everything I do is dynamically
- 20:37generated, I don't have to touch a
- 20:39single line of code for this. It's all
- 20:42updated for me, which means it's always
- 20:44up to date. Okay, so that's the tour.
- 20:47Journaling, personal retreats,
- 20:48multi-skill planning, habits, Bible
- 20:50reading, tasks, writing, all running out
- 20:52of a single vault. And those dashboards
- 20:54connect everything so I can make sure
- 20:56that I am consistently moving in the
- 20:59right direction. Now, that LifeOS
- 21:01dashboard has always been my dream. I've
- 21:04been building toward this ever since I
- 21:06started using Obsidian back 2020. But
- 21:08those dashboards were not possible for
- 21:10me until recently. And that's really
- 21:13what brings this all together in my
- 21:14opinion, which is why I'm really excited
- 21:17to share that all of this is now
- 21:19available in one place inside of Life
- 21:22HQ, my epic Obsidian vault with all
- 21:24these workflows pre-built and all these
- 21:26dashboards set up and ready to use. All
- 21:29you have to do is start generating your
- 21:30data and the dashboards will help you
- 21:32visualize it in real time.
- 21:35But I don't really want you to just
- 21:36blindly use what I built either. Yes, I
- 21:38want to help shorten the learning curve
- 21:39for you, but I also want you to be able
- 21:41to make it your own. So, I've written
- 21:43over 60,000 words of documentation,
- 21:46included hundreds of screenshots, and
- 21:48explained exactly how I built every
- 21:51workflow so you can easily modify it to
- 21:53fit your needs. All of the plugins are
- 21:55pre-installed, all of the settings are
- 21:57pre-configured, but all the instructions
- 22:00are there to help you customize it and
- 22:02make it your own. So, if you want to
- 22:03check it out, head over to
- 22:05lifehq.practialpkm.com.
- 22:07But the big takeaway for this video
- 22:08really isn't about Obsidian at all. It's
- 22:10about reducing the number of seams in
- 22:13your digital life.
- 22:14Every time you context switch between
- 22:16apps, you pay a small tax. And over
- 22:18months and years, those small taxes
- 22:20compound. The fewer seams you have, the
- 22:23more compound interest your system
- 22:25earns. Now, that doesn't mean you should
- 22:27just dump everything into one app
- 22:29though. You need to be clear about where
- 22:31the friction is in your own workflows.
- 22:34Get it clear on what you're optimizing
- 22:36for and then build your workflows in a
- 22:38way that help you do more of what really
- 22:41matters.
- 22:42Also, I have to tell you what I showed
- 22:44you in this video took me over 5 years
- 22:46to build. Please do not try to copy the
- 22:48whole thing in a weekend. That's a
- 22:50fantastic way to bounce off of Obsidian
- 22:52entirely.
- 22:52>> [music]
- 22:53>> Pick one workflow, probably the daily
- 22:55journaling because that's the foundation
- 22:56that everything else sits on top of.
- 22:58Get that working for 30 days and then
- 23:00layer the next one on top of it. Layer
- 23:03your workflows one at a time if you
- 23:05really want them to stick and if you
- 23:06want to go faster by starting with some
- 23:08battle-tested PKM workflows, that's what
- 23:10LifeHacks is for. Again, you can find
- 23:12out more at lifehacks.practicalpkm.com.
- 23:14[music]
- 23:15Thanks for watching and we'll see you in
- 23:17another video.
- 23:20>> [music]
- 23:26[music]
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