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How I Run My Whole Life Out of Obsidian — Transcript

by Mike Schmitz · 4,761 words · 694 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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  1. 0:00Most people's digital lives are [music]
  2. 0:02a jumbled mess. Meetings in one app,
  3. 0:05tasks in another, journal entries
  4. 0:06somewhere else, habit tracker in a
  5. 0:08fourth place, and none of them connect.
  6. 0:11Every [music] area is technically
  7. 0:13organized, but none of it talks to each
  8. 0:15other. And that's the part that actually
  9. 0:17matters, because PKM isn't just about
  10. 0:19storing information, it's about
  11. 0:21connecting it. And you can't do that
  12. 0:23when your life is scattered across a
  13. 0:25dozen apps that were never designed to
  14. 0:27integrate with one another.
  15. 0:28Now, I spent years running exactly that
  16. 0:30kind of fragmented setup, and after
  17. 0:32trying just about every combination of
  18. 0:34tools that you can possibly imagine, I
  19. 0:36eventually moved my entire life into a
  20. 0:39single Obsidian vault. I run my entire
  21. 0:41life, journaling, personal retreats,
  22. 0:43multi-scale planning, habit tracking,
  23. 0:45Bible reading, task management, writing,
  24. 0:47all of it off of plain text files, all
  25. 0:49in one place.
  26. 0:51>> [music]
  27. 0:51>> And in this video, I want to show you
  28. 0:52exactly how and why that works. Now, I
  29. 0:56have to address something up front here,
  30. 0:57because some of you are already typing
  31. 0:59in the comments. Mike, you literally
  32. 1:01made a video saying, "Don't try to make
  33. 1:02Obsidian do everything." And that's
  34. 1:04true. I still believe that. Just trying
  35. 1:07to use Obsidian for everything out of
  36. 1:09the box is still the wrong approach. So,
  37. 1:13why am I making the opposite argument in
  38. 1:16this video here? Because there's a real
  39. 1:18difference between cramming everything
  40. 1:20into Obsidian for the sake of it and
  41. 1:22running the things that actually benefit
  42. 1:24from being connected in the same place.
  43. 1:28That is a completely different
  44. 1:29conversation. When my journal entry is
  45. 1:31linked to the habits I'm trying to
  46. 1:32build, and those habits feed into the
  47. 1:34quarterly personal retreat where I
  48. 1:35reflect on whether they're actually
  49. 1:36creating the change I want to see, and
  50. 1:38that retreat shapes the projects that I
  51. 1:40commit to, and those projects produce
  52. 1:42the writing that I publish, and the
  53. 1:43writing pulls from the journal entries
  54. 1:45that I started with, that's not Obsidian
  55. 1:48being an everything app. That's the
  56. 1:50connections doing the heavy lifting, and
  57. 1:52the connections are the entire point.
  58. 1:56This is the PKM stack idea in action,
  59. 1:58which I've talked about in a few other
  60. 2:00videos. And if you want to dive deeper
  61. 2:01on that framework, I recommend this one
  62. 2:04where I get into the importance of
  63. 2:05hiring each app for a specific job.
  64. 2:08Until you get clear on the jobs to be
  65. 2:10done in your PKM system, no app is going
  66. 2:13to be able to provide you the clarity
  67. 2:14that you're after. But, when you are
  68. 2:16clear on the jobs to be done, then you
  69. 2:18can make an informed choice about the
  70. 2:20right apps for you and your workflow.
  71. 2:23And for most of the jobs that make up my
  72. 2:24life management system, the right tool
  73. 2:26for the job happens to be Obsidian.
  74. 2:29There are tradeoffs in taking this
  75. 2:31approach, but because I'm clear on what
  76. 2:33I want out of my PKM system, it works.
  77. 2:36So, let's actually look at what each of
  78. 2:38those jobs is. The first workflow I want
  79. 2:41to share here is the one I use every
  80. 2:43single day. If I had to pick just one
  81. 2:45workflow to use in Obsidian for the rest
  82. 2:47of my life,
  83. 2:48this is the one I would pick. Journaling
  84. 2:50with daily questions. The daily
  85. 2:52questions idea comes from Marshall
  86. 2:54Goldsmith's book Triggers. And the key
  87. 2:56is just to ask yourself, "Did I do my
  88. 2:58best to" and then fill in the blank. The
  89. 3:00important difference here is that these
  90. 3:02prompts focus on the effort, not the
  91. 3:05result. And instead of using words to
  92. 3:07answer, you use a 10-point scale where
  93. 3:1010 is great and one is terrible.
  94. 3:13Now, this idea immediately resonated
  95. 3:15with me when I first came across it, so
  96. 3:16I've applied this daily questions format
  97. 3:18to the areas that are important to me.
  98. 3:19I've tried this in several different
  99. 3:21systems, but Obsidian is the place that
  100. 3:23it stuck. So, every day I answer my
  101. 3:25daily questions and I rate myself in the
  102. 3:27following areas on a scale from 1 to 10.
  103. 3:30Did I do my best to grow spiritually?
  104. 3:32Did I do my best to love my wife? Did I
  105. 3:34do my best to love my kids? Did I do my
  106. 3:36best to be a good friend? Did I do my
  107. 3:38best to learn something? Did I do my
  108. 3:40best to create something? And did I do
  109. 3:42my best to exercise? Now, I find this
  110. 3:45form of journaling is much easier to do
  111. 3:47consistently because I don't have to
  112. 3:48judge myself based on what I got done or
  113. 3:50what I accomplished.
  114. 3:52So, for example, if I'm training for a
  115. 3:53half marathon and I'm supposed to run
  116. 3:55like 12 miles, but I cut it short after
  117. 3:57six, I might rate myself a five. But, if
  118. 4:00I'm getting over a cold and I just don't
  119. 4:02feel like going, but I end up doing a
  120. 4:04slow 3-mile run anyways, I might rate
  121. 4:06that a 10. Remember, that rating is
  122. 4:09based on the intention, not the outcome.
  123. 4:12As long as I did my best, I'm going to
  124. 4:14give myself a good score. Since you
  125. 4:16can't really control the results anyway,
  126. 4:18I believe it makes more sense to focus
  127. 4:20on the effort. Control what you can
  128. 4:22control and be intentional about your
  129. 4:25actions. That's the daily questions
  130. 4:27format in a nutshell. Now, the whole
  131. 4:29workflow uses a custom shortcut that I
  132. 4:31run at the end of the day that writes
  133. 4:33these values to the properties in my
  134. 4:35daily note. I have a whole video on that
  135. 4:37workflow linked in the description below
  136. 4:39if you want to dig deeper on how that's
  137. 4:40set up. I also use a quick add macro to
  138. 4:43log wins, gratitude, and journal
  139. 4:44entries, which again live in my daily
  140. 4:47note. So, that means there are no
  141. 4:48separate journaling apps to remember to
  142. 4:50open. The daily note in Obsidian is
  143. 4:52phenomenal for journaling and I love
  144. 4:54having all those entries and the values
  145. 4:56tied to those daily notes.
  146. 4:58Now, here's where it gets interesting
  147. 4:59because the journal lives inside my
  148. 5:01vault, I can use my on this day basis
  149. 5:03query that again lives inside the daily
  150. 5:05note template that surfaces everything
  151. 5:08that I wrote about and captured a year
  152. 5:09ago, two years ago, three years ago,
  153. 5:10etc. all on the same day. And that is
  154. 5:14where journaling actually pays off for
  155. 5:16me. It's not the act of writing the
  156. 5:17entry, it's the act of bumping into your
  157. 5:19past self when you weren't expecting to
  158. 5:21and seeing how you've grown. So, the
  159. 5:23takeaway here is this, don't journal to
  160. 5:26record the past, journal to craft the
  161. 5:28future. Drop a marker that future you
  162. 5:30will find useful. Use your daily notes
  163. 5:33to capture what's important, to grade
  164. 5:35your effort, not your results, and keep
  165. 5:37it inside the same note that you're
  166. 5:39already opening every morning so it
  167. 5:40doesn't become yet another app that you
  168. 5:42forget to use. I've got a deeper dive on
  169. 5:44the daily questions set up in another
  170. 5:46video and a separate one on the quick
  171. 5:48add macro that I used for the journal
  172. 5:49entries. Both are linked below this one.
  173. 5:52Okay, so that's the daily layer. Now,
  174. 5:54let's zoom way out. Once a quarter, I
  175. 5:57take a full day off from regular work to
  176. 5:58do what I call a personal retreat. It
  177. 6:00is, without exaggeration, the single
  178. 6:02highest leverage day on my calendar, and
  179. 6:05the entire thing, every reflection,
  180. 6:07every plan, every decision, all lives
  181. 6:09inside of a single Obsidian note. The
  182. 6:12personal retreat process has a very
  183. 6:14specific format that I've honed over
  184. 6:16several years of doing these. So, first,
  185. 6:18you review your life theme and your
  186. 6:20personal core values to see if they
  187. 6:21still resonate. Then, you review your
  188. 6:23journal entries, which we just talked
  189. 6:25about. I've got queries that make this
  190. 6:26easy and a dashboard for the daily
  191. 6:28questions where I can spot trends.
  192. 6:30After that, you complete a wheel of life
  193. 6:32exercise where you rate your current
  194. 6:33happiness with the different areas of
  195. 6:35your life, and you figure out which one
  196. 6:37needs some attention over the next 90
  197. 6:39days.
  198. 6:39Next, there's a two-part retrospective
  199. 6:41where you look back at the previous
  200. 6:43quarter before looking forward and
  201. 6:45making a list of things that you can
  202. 6:46potentially start, stop, and keep doing.
  203. 6:50From there, you set your intentions for
  204. 6:51the next quarter, and you review your
  205. 6:53ideal week, like I talked about in my
  206. 6:55last video, to make sure that you have
  207. 6:56time set aside to consistently take
  208. 6:58action on the things that are important
  209. 7:00to you. Now, you can do this whole thing
  210. 7:02on paper if you want. You don't need a
  211. 7:03special app. But, if you do it in
  212. 7:05Obsidian, all your past personal
  213. 7:07retreats now become linkable. So, when
  214. 7:10I'm sitting down to do this quarter's
  215. 7:12retreat, I can pull up the one from Q2
  216. 7:142024 right next to it, and I can
  217. 7:16instantly see whether I'm actually
  218. 7:18changing or just rewriting the same
  219. 7:21goals with slightly different wording
  220. 7:22every time. That feedback loop is
  221. 7:24brutal, but in the best possible way.
  222. 7:27You can't lie to yourself when your own
  223. 7:28writing from 2 years ago is staring you
  224. 7:30in the face. Now, I won't walk through
  225. 7:32the whole template here because I've got
  226. 7:33a dedicated video on my entire personal
  227. 7:35retreat workflow. It's actually one of
  228. 7:37the ones that I'm most proud of on my
  229. 7:38channel. But, I do want you to
  230. 7:40understand this. You do not need to go
  231. 7:42to a cabin in the woods. What you need
  232. 7:44is a few hours, a single document, and
  233. 7:46the willingness to actually answer the
  234. 7:48hard questions about whether your life
  235. 7:50is going where you want it to go. The
  236. 7:53personal retreat is the bridge into the
  237. 7:54third workflow, which is what Cal
  238. 7:56Newport calls multi-scale planning. The
  239. 7:58idea here is that the real magic happens
  240. 8:01when you align your daily, weekly, and
  241. 8:03quarterly plans so that you are
  242. 8:05consistently taking action on the things
  243. 8:07that you decided were important when you
  244. 8:09did your personal retreat. So,
  245. 8:11multi-scale planning actually begins
  246. 8:13above that by considering what Cal calls
  247. 8:14your roles and values. In my version of
  248. 8:16this, I start with my life theme, which
  249. 8:18is a personal mission statement that
  250. 8:19encapsulates what my life is all about,
  251. 8:21and my personal core values, which are
  252. 8:23both individual notes in my Obsidian
  253. 8:25vault that I review every 90 days when I
  254. 8:27do my personal retreat. But, the
  255. 8:29important thing here is that you know
  256. 8:31what's important to you before you sit
  257. 8:34down to do any sort of planning. Now,
  258. 8:36once you get clear on that big picture
  259. 8:38stuff, then you can start planning using
  260. 8:40different time scales. So, Cal
  261. 8:42recommends quarterly, weekly, and daily
  262. 8:43planning, which I think is a pretty good
  263. 8:46cadence. I personally do not do annual
  264. 8:48plans. I think that's too long, and it's
  265. 8:50impossible to get right. So, I do my
  266. 8:52personal retreat on quarterly basis, and
  267. 8:54then I reevaluate my intentions every 90
  268. 8:56days. In my opinion, that's the sweet
  269. 8:59spot because a quarter is long enough to
  270. 9:01make some significant progress, but it's
  271. 9:03also short enough that you have these
  272. 9:05built-in periods where you can reset and
  273. 9:07make adjustments if things don't go
  274. 9:09exactly according to plan. Now, each of
  275. 9:11these multi-scale layers lives in its
  276. 9:13own note, but they all connect using the
  277. 9:16periodic notes plugin. I have separate
  278. 9:18template files for my quarterly, weekly,
  279. 9:20and daily notes, but they all connect,
  280. 9:22and that's what helps me make sure that
  281. 9:24these plans all stay in alignment. Now,
  282. 9:27I've got another video on Cal Newport
  283. 9:29style multi-scale planning in Obsidian
  284. 9:31if you do want to go deeper on that.
  285. 9:32But, the big takeaway here is that all
  286. 9:35all notes connect, so I can make sure
  287. 9:38that I am making consistent progress on
  288. 9:40those things that I said were important
  289. 9:42when I was away on my personal retreat
  290. 9:44setting those intentions. The fourth
  291. 9:45habit is habit tracking, and I want to
  292. 9:47be honest about my history with this one
  293. 9:48before I show you the system. I have
  294. 9:51tried just about every habit tracking
  295. 9:53app out there: Streaks, Habitify,
  296. 9:55Strides, Way of Life. I cycled through
  297. 9:58them roughly every 6 months for years,
  298. 10:01and not a single one stuck. Not because
  299. 10:04they were bad apps, but because the data
  300. 10:06lived somewhere completely separate from
  301. 10:09the place that I was actually doing the
  302. 10:11reflection that would tell me why I
  303. 10:13missed a day. So, it really didn't stick
  304. 10:15for me until I moved my habit tracking
  305. 10:17into my daily note template file. Now,
  306. 10:19it's just another 15 seconds as part of
  307. 10:21my journaling workflow at the end of
  308. 10:22every day. The setup itself is almost
  309. 10:25embarrassingly simple. There are
  310. 10:26checkbox properties inside my daily note
  311. 10:29for the habits that I'm tracking this
  312. 10:30season. I check them off as I do them or
  313. 10:32when I'm capturing my daily questions at
  314. 10:34the end of the day. That's the entire
  315. 10:36data entry layer. There's no app, no
  316. 10:38notifications, and no streak shame.
  317. 10:40That's the most important part. The
  318. 10:42interesting part though is what happens
  319. 10:43on top of the data that I track using
  320. 10:45those checkbox properties.
  321. 10:47I actually created a custom dashboard
  322. 10:49that uses DataView.js code snippets to
  323. 10:51create a comprehensive habit tracking
  324. 10:52view inside of my Obsidian vault. The
  325. 10:55queries pull data from every daily note,
  326. 10:57looks at the checkbox properties, and
  327. 10:59then feeds the data into a dashboard
  328. 11:00that shows me streaks, gaps, and trends.
  329. 11:03So, I get all the visualization that the
  330. 11:05dedicated habit tracking apps gave me,
  331. 11:08but the habit sits right next to the
  332. 11:10journal entry, and it explains why I did
  333. 11:13or did not do that thing that day. That
  334. 11:16context is the difference between I
  335. 11:17missed 3 days in a row and I missed 3
  336. 11:19days in a row because that's the week
  337. 11:21that my dad was in the hospital.
  338. 11:22Tracking honestly is more important than
  339. 11:24tracking perfectly. And a habit tracker
  340. 11:27is only useful if it actually changes
  341. 11:30your behavior. So, putting it in the
  342. 11:32place that I already open every single
  343. 11:34morning is the single biggest behavior
  344. 11:36change lever that I have found. Again,
  345. 11:38I've got a full setup video for the
  346. 11:40Habit Canvas dashboard. It's linked
  347. 11:42below, and the whole thing is available
  348. 11:43for free inside of my free Obsidian
  349. 11:45Starter Vault if you want to play around
  350. 11:47with it. You can download it at
  351. 11:48vault.practicalpkm.com.
  352. 11:51The next workflow I want to talk through
  353. 11:52is my daily Bible reading, which is not
  354. 11:55only the oldest habit that I track, it's
  355. 11:57also the workflow that taught me why I
  356. 11:59keep everything in one vault in the
  357. 12:01first place. Now, this is actually a
  358. 12:03pretty technical setup, and again, I've
  359. 12:04got a video below where I walk through
  360. 12:07how I do all of this. But for now, just
  361. 12:09understand that I actually have two
  362. 12:11types of Bible texts in my vault. Note
  363. 12:13as chapter and note as verse. So, for
  364. 12:16the daily Bible reading that I build
  365. 12:18into my daily note template file, I use
  366. 12:20the note as chapter format. I have a
  367. 12:22separate file that has my chronological
  368. 12:24Bible reading plan with repeating tasks
  369. 12:27for each chapter assigned to the day
  370. 12:28that I'm supposed to read it, and that
  371. 12:30shows up in a custom callout in my daily
  372. 12:32note called Bible reading. When I open
  373. 12:34my daily note at the beginning of the
  374. 12:35day, I get that day's daily Bible
  375. 12:37reading there. But I also have each
  376. 12:40verse as its own atomic note, and that
  377. 12:42may sound extreme. And I'll tell you,
  378. 12:44when a friend wrote me a script years
  379. 12:46ago to break the King James Version into
  380. 12:48over 30,000 individual files, I
  381. 12:50genuinely wondered if I was doing
  382. 12:51something insane.
  383. 12:53But here is exactly why I wanted each
  384. 12:55verse as its own note. You see, I take
  385. 12:58sketch notes of every sermon that I
  386. 13:00hear. And when I bring those sketch
  387. 13:01notes into my vault, I link to each
  388. 13:03verse that was mentioned. Now, I have
  389. 13:05all my sermon sketch notes going back to
  390. 13:072017, which means that I can now use the
  391. 13:10local graph to navigate my own
  392. 13:12cross-reference library inside of my
  393. 13:14Obsidian vault. But I can also link
  394. 13:16other notes to those Bible verses as
  395. 13:18well. So, maps of content, topical
  396. 13:20Bibles, my Bible college notes, all link
  397. 13:23back to those individual verses. I also
  398. 13:25added all my highlights from my paper
  399. 13:27Bible as note level tags, so I have
  400. 13:29multiple ways of finding verses based on
  401. 13:31subject or topic. And that cross-domain
  402. 13:34connection is something that no
  403. 13:36dedicated Bible app can give me, because
  404. 13:38no dedicated Bible app also holds my
  405. 13:41sermon notes, my book notes, and my
  406. 13:42journal. That's why everything lives in
  407. 13:45one vault, so it can all be connected.
  408. 13:48The Bible reading workflow is the
  409. 13:50cleanest example of this principle. And
  410. 13:52if you're a Bible reader, you've never
  411. 13:54tried it this way, you are sitting on
  412. 13:55top of one of the highest yield linking
  413. 13:57exercises Obsidian can do. So, in
  414. 14:00addition to the video where I explain
  415. 14:02how I set all this up, I also have a
  416. 14:05link below to my own Bible resource
  417. 14:06files that you can download and drop
  418. 14:08into your own Obsidian vault, if you'd
  419. 14:10like. Okay, on to the workflow that
  420. 14:12probably generates the most "But what
  421. 14:13about?" comments: task management.
  422. 14:16Again, I have used just about every
  423. 14:18dedicated task manager out there:
  424. 14:20OmniFocus, Todoist, Things, TickTick,
  425. 14:22Asana. Honestly, there are a ton of
  426. 14:25great task managers available today.
  427. 14:27They are all genuinely good apps, but
  428. 14:29for the kind of work that I do, Obsidian
  429. 14:31has replaced every single one of them.
  430. 14:34So, the pieces of my task management
  431. 14:35workflow are pretty simple. I use the
  432. 14:37Obsidian task plugin for inline tasks,
  433. 14:39and most of the time I capture them all
  434. 14:41to a master task list file that I never
  435. 14:43ever look at. If I want to add tasks to
  436. 14:46a project, I do that by adding a tag,
  437. 14:48and I use queries to surface the right
  438. 14:49tasks at the right time. For example, I
  439. 14:52have notes in my vault for people that I
  440. 14:53regularly meet with. Each person has
  441. 14:55their own people note with custom
  442. 14:57queries, so I can quickly see what's
  443. 14:58relevant when I look at that person's
  444. 15:00note. If I want to make sure I remember
  445. 15:02to talk to someone about something, I
  446. 15:03can capture a task with a discuss tag
  447. 15:06and a tag for the person's name, and
  448. 15:08that task gets rolled up into a discuss
  449. 15:10query that I can reference before I go
  450. 15:11into a meeting with the individual. Same
  451. 15:14thing for projects. And I even have a
  452. 15:15task dashboard note that queries all of
  453. 15:18the tasks across my entire vault and
  454. 15:20surfaces what I should be looking at
  455. 15:21today. So, this beats a dedicated task
  456. 15:23manager for my type of work for one
  457. 15:25reason. Every task is one click away
  458. 15:28from the context that explains why it
  459. 15:30exists in the first place.
  460. 15:32I'm not staring at a flat list of action
  461. 15:34items with no memory of why I added
  462. 15:36them. I'm seeing tasks attached to the
  463. 15:38projects they belong to, surrounded by
  464. 15:41my notes about that project, linked to
  465. 15:43the people who care about that project.
  466. 15:46Now, I want to be honest because I made
  467. 15:47this point in another video and I think
  468. 15:48it bears repeating here.
  469. 15:50If your work involves location-based
  470. 15:52reminders or you're managing 50 client
  471. 15:55projects with strict service level
  472. 15:56agreements,
  473. 15:57my system is probably terrible for you.
  474. 16:00That's completely fine. Your task system
  475. 16:03should be optimized for your work, not
  476. 16:05for mine. And one more important thing
  477. 16:07about this, Obsidian is where my tasks
  478. 16:09live, but it's not where my day actually
  479. 16:12gets executed. I use that task dashboard
  480. 16:14as a recommendation engine for the
  481. 16:17things that I should be considering
  482. 16:18right now. Then, I select the tasks that
  483. 16:20I'm working on and I time block them.
  484. 16:22Different tools for different jobs. The
  485. 16:25computer is the brain, but the notebook
  486. 16:27is the list. And the so what here is
  487. 16:30simple. Tasks without context are just a
  488. 16:33list of guilt. Tasks living next to the
  489. 16:36project and the person they belong to
  490. 16:38changes the relationship that you have
  491. 16:40with your to-do list entirely. Okay, the
  492. 16:42last workflow and the one that ties
  493. 16:44everything together is writing. This is
  494. 16:47actually another type of task, but one
  495. 16:49where the text of what I'm writing
  496. 16:50exists in the note itself. So,
  497. 16:53newsletters, YouTube scripts, course
  498. 16:55content, book notes, articles, every
  499. 16:57piece of writing that I publish starts
  500. 16:59and ends in Obsidian. The reason this
  501. 17:01matters is not that Obsidian has some
  502. 17:03magical writing experience that other
  503. 17:05apps can't match. The reason this
  504. 17:07matters is that the source material and
  505. 17:09the draft live in the same vault. So,
  506. 17:12when I'm drafting a newsletter and I
  507. 17:13need that one quote from a book that I
  508. 17:15wrote in 2023, I don't have to leave the
  509. 17:18app, search a different system, copy,
  510. 17:19paste, and then reformat. I link
  511. 17:21directly to the book note, I embed the
  512. 17:22quote, and I keep writing. That's the
  513. 17:25goal, just keep writing. That sounds
  514. 17:27like a really small thing. It's not a
  515. 17:29really small thing. The friction between
  516. 17:31I had an idea I want to use and that
  517. 17:33idea actually ends up in a finished
  518. 17:35published piece is the thing that kills
  519. 17:37most people's writing, and the same
  520. 17:39vault writing fixes most of it. I also
  521. 17:42manage all of these writing projects by
  522. 17:44using Kanban boards inside of my
  523. 17:46Obsidian vault. I have separate folders
  524. 17:48for each type of writing project and
  525. 17:49separate Kanban boards for each type. I
  526. 17:51use quick add macros to capture things
  527. 17:53to the backlog of the appropriate Kanban
  528. 17:55board, then I drag that item from left
  529. 17:57to right as I work on it until
  530. 17:58eventually it gets published. The
  531. 18:00different types of writing projects each
  532. 18:02have their own template file with
  533. 18:03appropriate metadata, but the important
  534. 18:04thing for me is that all the writing
  535. 18:06happens in the note itself. That makes
  536. 18:08these tasks more like task notes as
  537. 18:11opposed to the inline tasks that I
  538. 18:12mentioned above, but it works great for
  539. 18:14these types of creative projects in my
  540. 18:16opinion. Now, once I'm finished, I
  541. 18:18export the markdown to whatever the
  542. 18:19platform needs. The YouTube scripts get
  543. 18:21sent over to my video editor in Notion,
  544. 18:23the newsletter goes through Kit, and
  545. 18:25articles published on Practical PKM,
  546. 18:27which runs on the Ghost platform. But
  547. 18:30the writing itself, from blank page to
  548. 18:32final draft, all happens in Obsidian.
  549. 18:35So, those are the big ways that I use
  550. 18:37Obsidian to run my entire life, but
  551. 18:38there is another aspect to this which we
  552. 18:40need to discuss before we wrap up this
  553. 18:42video. Because all of this is in the
  554. 18:45same app, I can actually create some
  555. 18:47pretty cool dashboards to visualize
  556. 18:49things using DataView JS that tie it all
  557. 18:52together. I previously shared a video
  558. 18:54about how I use Claude to help me create
  559. 18:56these new journaling dashboards, and the
  560. 18:58link to that explainer video will be in
  561. 19:00the description below. But I've been
  562. 19:01building on that concept for a couple of
  563. 19:03other dashboards, including a projects
  564. 19:05dashboard and what I call my Life OS
  565. 19:08dashboard. Now, the Life OS dashboard in
  566. 19:10particular is relevant for this video as
  567. 19:13it helps me make sure that I'm staying
  568. 19:14aligned with my vision and values.
  569. 19:17So, here's what it looks like. In the
  570. 19:18upper left is a wheel of life graph that
  571. 19:20is dynamically generated from this
  572. 19:22quarter's personal retreat file. That
  573. 19:24means I don't have to change that code
  574. 19:26block. It will just automatically pull
  575. 19:27from the appropriate file based on the
  576. 19:29date and the naming convention of my
  577. 19:32personal retreat files in my Obsidian
  578. 19:33vault. All the values are pulled from
  579. 19:35number properties in that personal
  580. 19:37retreat note and they're displayed here.
  581. 19:39To the right of that is a combined daily
  582. 19:41questions widget which shows the lines
  583. 19:43and averages of the daily questions
  584. 19:44properties it scrapes from my Obsidian
  585. 19:46vault. So, that means if I change the
  586. 19:48values in my daily notes template file,
  587. 19:50whatever it finds will actually show up
  588. 19:52here. I can toggle on or off the ones I
  589. 19:54want to see, select the time frame I
  590. 19:56want from the drop down in the upper
  591. 19:57right, and the graph updates
  592. 19:59automatically.
  593. 20:01Next is a habits widget which again is
  594. 20:02dynamically generated based on what it
  595. 20:05finds in the checkbox properties for my
  596. 20:07daily notes.
  597. 20:08It shows the current streak, the best
  598. 20:10streak, the longest break, completion
  599. 20:11percentage, and total completions for
  600. 20:13each habit it finds, and also shows
  601. 20:15which habits were completed or missed
  602. 20:17over the last several days. This
  603. 20:19dashboard also shows my life theme, the
  604. 20:21Memento Mori widget I have in my daily
  605. 20:23notes template, and quick links to
  606. 20:24capture journal entries or jump to the
  607. 20:26appropriate multi-skill planning note.
  608. 20:28All of this together in one place makes
  609. 20:30this note useful whenever I need to
  610. 20:32recalibrate and make sure that I'm
  611. 20:33moving towards my North Star. And
  612. 20:35because everything I do is dynamically
  613. 20:37generated, I don't have to touch a
  614. 20:39single line of code for this. It's all
  615. 20:42updated for me, which means it's always
  616. 20:44up to date. Okay, so that's the tour.
  617. 20:47Journaling, personal retreats,
  618. 20:48multi-skill planning, habits, Bible
  619. 20:50reading, tasks, writing, all running out
  620. 20:52of a single vault. And those dashboards
  621. 20:54connect everything so I can make sure
  622. 20:56that I am consistently moving in the
  623. 20:59right direction. Now, that LifeOS
  624. 21:01dashboard has always been my dream. I've
  625. 21:04been building toward this ever since I
  626. 21:06started using Obsidian back 2020. But
  627. 21:08those dashboards were not possible for
  628. 21:10me until recently. And that's really
  629. 21:13what brings this all together in my
  630. 21:14opinion, which is why I'm really excited
  631. 21:17to share that all of this is now
  632. 21:19available in one place inside of Life
  633. 21:22HQ, my epic Obsidian vault with all
  634. 21:24these workflows pre-built and all these
  635. 21:26dashboards set up and ready to use. All
  636. 21:29you have to do is start generating your
  637. 21:30data and the dashboards will help you
  638. 21:32visualize it in real time.
  639. 21:35But I don't really want you to just
  640. 21:36blindly use what I built either. Yes, I
  641. 21:38want to help shorten the learning curve
  642. 21:39for you, but I also want you to be able
  643. 21:41to make it your own. So, I've written
  644. 21:43over 60,000 words of documentation,
  645. 21:46included hundreds of screenshots, and
  646. 21:48explained exactly how I built every
  647. 21:51workflow so you can easily modify it to
  648. 21:53fit your needs. All of the plugins are
  649. 21:55pre-installed, all of the settings are
  650. 21:57pre-configured, but all the instructions
  651. 22:00are there to help you customize it and
  652. 22:02make it your own. So, if you want to
  653. 22:03check it out, head over to
  654. 22:05lifehq.practialpkm.com.
  655. 22:07But the big takeaway for this video
  656. 22:08really isn't about Obsidian at all. It's
  657. 22:10about reducing the number of seams in
  658. 22:13your digital life.
  659. 22:14Every time you context switch between
  660. 22:16apps, you pay a small tax. And over
  661. 22:18months and years, those small taxes
  662. 22:20compound. The fewer seams you have, the
  663. 22:23more compound interest your system
  664. 22:25earns. Now, that doesn't mean you should
  665. 22:27just dump everything into one app
  666. 22:29though. You need to be clear about where
  667. 22:31the friction is in your own workflows.
  668. 22:34Get it clear on what you're optimizing
  669. 22:36for and then build your workflows in a
  670. 22:38way that help you do more of what really
  671. 22:41matters.
  672. 22:42Also, I have to tell you what I showed
  673. 22:44you in this video took me over 5 years
  674. 22:46to build. Please do not try to copy the
  675. 22:48whole thing in a weekend. That's a
  676. 22:50fantastic way to bounce off of Obsidian
  677. 22:52entirely.
  678. 22:52>> [music]
  679. 22:53>> Pick one workflow, probably the daily
  680. 22:55journaling because that's the foundation
  681. 22:56that everything else sits on top of.
  682. 22:58Get that working for 30 days and then
  683. 23:00layer the next one on top of it. Layer
  684. 23:03your workflows one at a time if you
  685. 23:05really want them to stick and if you
  686. 23:06want to go faster by starting with some
  687. 23:08battle-tested PKM workflows, that's what
  688. 23:10LifeHacks is for. Again, you can find
  689. 23:12out more at lifehacks.practicalpkm.com.
  690. 23:14[music]
  691. 23:15Thanks for watching and we'll see you in
  692. 23:17another video.
  693. 23:20>> [music]
  694. 23:26[music]

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