I Built the Perfect Content Calendar in Obsidian — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Every year at the end of the year, I
2. 0:01spend some time planning out my content
3. 0:03for the next year. And a master content
4. 0:06calendar is really helpful for this. So,
5. 0:08a couple of weeks ago, I set out to
6. 0:10create a calendar which had all of my
7. 0:11newsletters, broadcast emails, blog
8. 0:14posts, and video scripts on one calendar
9. 0:17view. Since [music] I have collaborators
10. 0:18on many of these projects, and they
11. 0:20already exist in Notion, I figured it'd
12. 0:22be easiest to build it there. The
13. 0:24problem, it's impossible to combine all
14. 0:27these separate calendars into one master
15. 0:29calendar without completely blowing
16. 0:31things up and moving everything into a
17. 0:34single database. So, I moved it all into
18. 0:37Obsidian instead. And in this video, I'm
19. 0:39going to show you how I created this
20. 0:40master content calendar view using bases
21. 0:42and a couple of additional community
22. 0:44plugins. But I have to admit, this is
23. 0:46not what I set out to build. This entire
24. 0:49project actually started with what I
25. 0:50thought would be a very straightforward
26. 0:52and simple task. make a master content
27. 0:54calendar in Notion. And I started there
28. 0:56because that's where a lot of my
29. 0:57collaborative content projects already
30. 0:59live. And I used it for years to manage
31. 1:01content calendars. When I worked with
32. 1:03the Blanc Media team previously, I
33. 1:04figured I knew exactly what I was
34. 1:06getting myself into. But I have several
35. 1:08databases currently in Notion, and
36. 1:10they're all shared with different
37. 1:11people, and I needed a way to bring them
38. 1:13all together. The YouTube calendar
39. 1:15database is shared with my video editor.
40. 1:17The Bookworm and Focus podcast databases
41. 1:19are shared with my co-hosts. And I also
42. 1:21have a general content calendar that I
43. 1:23use for newsletters before I move those
44. 1:24writing projects into Obsidian. But the
45. 1:27one thing I absolutely did not want to
46. 1:29do, the deal breakaker was to create a
47. 1:32new database, move everything over, and
48. 1:34then have everyone rejoin. So I tried to
49. 1:36create a calendar view in Notion that
50. 1:38pulled together all these databases. As
51. 1:40it turns out, you just cannot do this.
52. 1:42And after beating my head against the
53. 1:43wall for an hour or two, Jad GPT and I
54. 1:45both came to the same conclusion. This
55. 1:48just is not possible in notion
56. 1:50currently. So that was frustrating. But
57. 1:52then I realized that I already know how
58. 1:55to build this in Obsidian using bases.
59. 1:58The only thing I really needed to figure
60. 1:59out was how to create that calendar
61. 2:01view. And since I manage the actual
62. 2:02writing part of all my creator projects
63. 2:04in Obsidian anyway, I decided I may as
64. 2:06well try to create it there. So here's
65. 2:09how I put this together. First, I have
66. 2:10all my writing projects in separate
67. 2:12folders based on type. So all the blog
68. 2:14posts are in the articles folder.
69. 2:16Broadcast emails are in the emails
70. 2:17folder. The newsletters are in the
71. 2:18newsletters folder. And scripts for
72. 2:20videos like this one are in the video
73. 2:22scripts folder. I have another video
74. 2:24here where I walk through how I built
75. 2:26conbon boards to manage these writing
76. 2:28projects by status which is organized by
77. 2:30the value of the status property in
78. 2:32those notes. I also have a date property
79. 2:35which indicates the publish date. And
80. 2:36for my video scripts, I already had a
81. 2:38notion property where I pasted the link
82. 2:39to the video page where my editor and I
83. 2:42go back and forth on title and thumbnail
84. 2:43ideas. So everything was basically there
85. 2:46to build a simple basis view that used
86. 2:49these four folders as a filter and then
87. 2:51I knew if I could figure out the
88. 2:52calendar view the date property could be
89. 2:55used to display those notes on the
90. 2:57calendar. So let me show you how I built
91. 2:59this step by step. So first I created a
92. 3:02new base with a simple filter for all
93. 3:04views where any of the following are
94. 3:06true. Folder is articles, folder is
95. 3:08emails, folder is newsletters or folder
96. 3:11is video scripts. So, that gave me the
97. 3:14base, but I still needed a way to create
98. 3:16a calendar view. So, fortunately, I came
99. 3:18across a plugin called Obsidian Calendar
100. 3:20Bases that does exactly this. Now, it's
101. 3:23technically a beta plugin. It's not
102. 3:25available in the community plugins
103. 3:26directory. So, you do need to install it
104. 3:28via BRAT if you want to use it. Now, to
105. 3:30do this, you need to install and enable
106. 3:32the BRAT plugin from the community
107. 3:33plugins directory first. Then, go to the
108. 3:35BRAT settings and add the URL for the
109. 3:37Obsidian Calendar bases plugin here. The
110. 3:39link to both of these plugins can be
111. 3:41found in the description below this
112. 3:42video. This also needs the full calendar
113. 3:45community plug-in installed to show
114. 3:46things properly on the calendar view.
115. 3:48So, you'll need to install and enable
116. 3:50that plugin as well from the community
117. 3:52plugins directory. Now, once you have
118. 3:54this set up, you can go into your base,
119. 3:56go to the configure view settings, and
120. 3:58select the calendar layout. You probably
121. 4:00won't see anything at first because the
122. 4:02date property isn't set yet. So, next,
123. 4:04click on date properties and select the
124. 4:06property you want to use for the start
125. 4:07date. In my case, this is the date
126. 4:10property. You can also configure an end
127. 4:11date if you want, but it's not necessary
128. 4:13and I like to keep things simple, so I
129. 4:15don't actually use this one. The other
130. 4:17option here is called calendar options,
131. 4:19but the only thing you can do here is
132. 4:20change the day that the week starts on.
133. 4:23So, once you have this configured, the
134. 4:24end result is a monthly calendar view
135. 4:26for your base that displays items based
136. 4:28on the date property that you set in the
137. 4:30view settings. So, after only about 10
138. 4:32minutes, I was able to create a master
139. 4:34content calendar view that shows all my
140. 4:36newsletters, articles, emails, and
141. 4:38YouTube videos on the same calendar. So
142. 4:41far, so good. But all these notes look
143. 4:43basically the same. Now, in a perfect
144. 4:45world, I would be able to choose
145. 4:46different colors for the different types
146. 4:48of events here like you can in full
147. 4:50calendar. But that requires some weird
148. 4:52file name formatting that I don't like.
149. 4:54So, I created a different way of
150. 4:56visualizing what type of note each of
151. 4:58these cards represents. And what I did
152. 5:01was create another property in all my
153. 5:03notes called platform that uses emoji to
154. 5:06denote where this note will eventually
155. 5:08get published. The mailbox emoji
156. 5:10represents an email that I'll send via
157. 5:12my email service provider, which is kit.
158. 5:14The globe emoji represents a blog post
159. 5:16that will appear on my website at
160. 5:17practicalpkm.com.
161. 5:19And the play button emoji represents a
162. 5:21video script for a YouTube video like
163. 5:22this one. So, I added these to my notes
164. 5:24in a property that I called platform.
165. 5:26And then I enabled that platform
166. 5:28property in the bases view. This added
167. 5:30the emoji in the line below the note
168. 5:32title on the cards, giving me a
169. 5:35minimalist visual way to tell what
170. 5:37platform the content would actually be
171. 5:39published to. So, this gave me my master
172. 5:41content calendar. That's really what I
173. 5:42was after. But I also ended up creating
174. 5:44separate calendars for the different
175. 5:46ways that I wanted to visualize my
176. 5:47creative projects. I can slice and dice
177. 5:49this a lot of different ways. So, for
178. 5:51example, I built one that shows just my
179. 5:53YouTube video projects. And I did this
180. 5:55by creating a new calendar view with the
181. 5:57same settings, but added an additional
182. 5:59filter just for this view that limits
183. 6:01the location to just the video scripts
184. 6:03folder. I have another view that shows
185. 6:05me all the blog posts I'm going to
186. 6:07publish on my website. But because those
187. 6:08projects could be in either the articles
188. 6:11or newsletters folders, I created a
189. 6:13filter for this view that looks for
190. 6:14notes where the platform property
191. 6:16contains that globe emoji. I have
192. 6:18another view that shows me all the
193. 6:20emails that I need to send, but because
194. 6:21these could be newsletters or broadcast
195. 6:24emails, they could be in either the
196. 6:26newsletters or emails folders. So, this
197. 6:28filter also shows the file tags, so I
198. 6:31know what kind of email this is. And
199. 6:33those tags are visible in the calendar
200. 6:35view as well. And I have one other
201. 6:37similar view which lets me see just the
202. 6:38newsletters that I need to write, which
203. 6:40has an additional filter that looks for
204. 6:42the newsletter tag and removes the tags
205. 6:44property from the view entirely. So now
206. 6:47I have a single base for all my content
207. 6:49and I have several different views that
208. 6:51I can use for content planning. It's way
209. 6:53better than anything that I used in
210. 6:55Notion previously for this purpose. The
211. 6:57one downside is that I do still need to
212. 6:59use Notion for parts of my creative
213. 7:01workflows, which means I do need to link
214. 7:03to the notion page for some of these
215. 7:05collaborative projects. It's really not
216. 7:07that big a deal though because I keep
217. 7:08different kinds of information on those
218. 7:10pages in Notion anyway. So in my mind,
219. 7:13Obsidian is for writing and now planning
220. 7:16and Notion is for going back and forth
221. 7:18about the video. So for example, when I
222. 7:21record the video, I take the text from
223. 7:22the Obsidian Note and I put it in the
224. 7:24Teleprompter Pro app when I record. But
225. 7:26in notion, Max and I collaborate on
226. 7:28title and thumbnail ideas, which often
227. 7:30have multiple image attachments and
228. 7:32comments. So the Notion page looks
229. 7:34completely different. So that's how I
230. 7:36built my master content calendar in
231. 7:37Obsidian. But there are a few caveats
232. 7:39here that you should be aware of if
233. 7:40you're wanting to build something
234. 7:41similar in your own vault. Now, as I
235. 7:43showed you, this workflow requires not
236. 7:45only the Obsidian Basis core plugin, but
237. 7:47also the full calendar community plugin
238. 7:49and the beta Obsidian Calendar bases
239. 7:51plugin. Now, beta plugins can be tricky
240. 7:53and as a general rule, the best
241. 7:55workflows are the simplest ones. So, if
242. 7:58you can pull off what you want to do
243. 7:59using core functionality only, you
244. 8:01probably should. So, the ideal scenario
245. 8:03here would be if I could do this all out
246. 8:05of the box using just bases built-in
247. 8:08views and features. What makes this
248. 8:10tricky in this video is that if you wait
249. 8:12a couple of months, you're probably
250. 8:14going to be able to do that. The
251. 8:16Obsidian team keeps a public road map
252. 8:17that shows what features are planned and
253. 8:19which ones they're actively working on.
254. 8:21And less than 24 hours after I started
255. 8:23building this, a calendar view for bases
256. 8:25was actually added to the plan section.
257. 8:28I have no doubt this will be a better
258. 8:30implementation when it's native and
259. 8:32hopefully will solve a few of the things
260. 8:33that annoy me about this workflow right
261. 8:35now. So for example, you can only use
262. 8:38the monthly calendar view and I'd love
263. 8:40to have a weekly view as well as a
264. 8:42longer quarterly or yearly view. The
265. 8:44road map also shows that a conbon view
266. 8:46for bases is also planned. So it's quite
267. 8:49likely I will be rebuilding my entire
268. 8:51content creation workflow with native
269. 8:53basis features at some point in the near
270. 8:55future. So, if you're not in a rush to
271. 8:57cobble something like this together, you
272. 8:59may just want to wait a little bit. But
273. 9:00that being said, the foundation of this
274. 9:02content calendar is simply note
275. 9:04properties that are being filtered using
276. 9:06bases views. So, even when I need to
277. 9:09rework all these views, I don't believe
278. 9:11what I've done so far is going to be in
279. 9:12vain, as all of the underlying data is
280. 9:15still going to be formatted correctly.
281. 9:17My guess is that it'll be pretty
282. 9:18straightforward and will likely just
283. 9:20require updating the view layout options
284. 9:21for each view instead of rebuilding them
285. 9:23from scratch. The bottom line here
286. 9:24though is this. Obsidian makes a killer
287. 9:27master content calendar. And this is not
288. 9:30exactly what I set out to build, but
289. 9:31it's perfect for what I want. Even
290. 9:33though my creative workflows currently
291. 9:35rely on beta and community plugins, I
292. 9:37absolutely love this. And I do think my
293. 9:40creative workflows will get simpler once
294. 9:41bases adds those compounded calendar
295. 9:43views that are currently on the road
296. 9:44map. And it's quite possible that bases
297. 9:46becomes the only plugin that I need to
298. 9:48manage my creative workflows in the
299. 9:49future. Bases is incredible. But for
300. 9:51now, I love having my content planning
301. 9:54calendar inside my Obsidian Vault. And
302. 9:56I've actually added this to the latest
303. 9:57version of Life HQ as well, which is my
304. 9:59epic done for you Obsidian Vault with
305. 10:01all my productivity and creativity
306. 10:02workflows built in. [music] It's a great
307. 10:04way to jump start your Obsidian journey
308. 10:05as all the plugins are pre-installed and
309. 10:07all the settings are preconfigured. I
310. 10:09also wrote over 60,000 words of
311. 10:11documentation so you can tweak it and
312. 10:13make it your own. You can find out more
313. 10:15about LifeHQ by going to the website
314. 10:17lifehq.practicalpkm.com.
315. 10:20And if you could use a little more help
316. 10:21getting up and running with Obsidian,
317. 10:23then check out my free practical PKM
318. 10:24starter vault. It contains some of my
319. 10:26best Obsidian tips, all broken down by
320. 10:28category, from basic PKM concepts to
321. 10:30essential core features to time-saving
322. 10:32keyboard hotkeys. There's also a
323. 10:34collection of my own personal template
324. 10:35files, a markdown cheat sheet, a couple
325. 10:37of shortcuts I built, even a habit
326. 10:39tracking dashboard canvas file along
327. 10:41with instructions on how to set it all
328. 10:43up. So, if you could use a little help
329. 10:44getting more out of your notes and ideas
330. 10:46in Obsidian, you should definitely check
331. 10:47this out. You can download it for free
332. 10:49right now by going to
333. 10:51vault.practicalpkm.com.
334. 10:53[music]
335. 10:54Thanks for watching and we'll see you in
336. 10:55another video.