Second Brain Workflows (Obsidian vs Craft for PKM)

Summary

在这段对话中，两位朋友Josh Madeski和Brandon Boswell探讨了他们如何使用各自的“第二大脑”系统来管理个人知识。Josh是Craft的用户，而Brandon使用Obsidian。他们讨论了个人知识管理的不同工作流程，如何开始使用这些系统，以及第二大脑与PKM系统之间的区别。他们分享了对于系统化和完美主义的看法，以及如何通过简化流程来提高效率和创造力。此外，他们还讨论了如何捕捉和组织信息，以及如何通过日常笔记和周/月回顾来进行反思和进步。

Takeaways

• 🧠 个人知识管理（PKM）和第二大脑系统是帮助人们管理和组织个人知识的有效工具。
• 🤖 使用第二大脑和PKM系统可以克服完美主义障碍，通过不完美的方式记录信息，从而提高效率。
• 📝 通过简化的笔记和系统，可以更好地专注于核心任务，而不是花费时间在工具上。
• 🚀 第二大脑系统的最终目标是产生创造性输出，如YouTube视频、博客文章等。
• 🔄 创意过程是循环的，一个想法可以通过不同的媒介转化为多种形式的内容。
• 📚 随着时间的推移，即使是简短的笔记也能积累成有价值的知识体系。
• 🧩 使用像Obsidian和Craft这样的笔记应用可以帮助人们在日常生活中捕捉和组织信息。
• 🔗 双向链接功能可以帮助人们在笔记之间建立联系，形成一个知识网络。
• 🗂️ 通过PARA方法（项目、区域、资源、归档）来组织笔记和信息可以提高工作效率。
• 📅 定期回顾和反思笔记内容对于个人成长和知识积累至关重要。
• 💡 个人知识管理系统的选择应基于个人需求和偏好，没有一成不变的规则。

Q & A

什么是第二大脑（second brain）？

第二大脑是一种个人知识管理系统，它帮助用户捕捉、组织和回顾日常生活中的信息和想法。这个概念由Thiago Forte提出，旨在通过非程序化的方法，让用户能够更好地管理个人知识，提高创造力和生产力。

个人知识管理（PKM）系统和第二大脑有何不同？

个人知识管理（PKM）系统是一种更广泛的概念，它涵盖了个人收集、整理、分享和使用知识的各种方法和工具。而第二大脑是PKM的一种具体实现，特别强调了非程序化和接受不完美的原则，以及通过链接和网络化的方式来组织信息。

Josh Madeski和Brandon Boswell在个人知识管理方面使用了哪些工具？

Josh Madeski使用了Craft作为他的笔记应用，而Brandon Boswell则使用Obsidian作为他的个人知识管理工具。他们都利用了这些工具的双向链接功能来构建自己的第二大脑。

为什么说接受不完美对于第二大脑的工作流程很重要？

接受不完美可以让个人知识管理系统更加灵活和易于使用。它鼓励用户快速捕捉想法和信息，而不是花费过多时间在追求完美格式或组织结构上。这样可以减少启动障碍，提高效率，并允许用户随着时间的推移逐渐完善和扩展他们的系统。

在个人知识管理中，如何避免陷入完美主义的陷阱？

避免完美主义的陷阱可以通过以下几个方法：首先，从粗糙的起点开始，不要担心一开始就做得完美；其次，专注于核心内容而非形式，将注意力集中在笔记和完成任务上；最后，定期回顾和反思，通过实践和迭代来改进系统。

第二大脑系统如何帮助提高创造力？

第二大脑系统通过提供一个灵活且易于访问的知识库，帮助用户捕捉和连接不同的想法。这种连接可以促进创新思维，因为用户可以轻松地回顾和整合过去的思考，从而产生新的见解和创意。此外，系统的非程序化特性也鼓励用户接受不完美，从而减少因追求完美而导致的拖延。

Brandon Boswell为什么选择Obsidian作为他的个人知识管理工具？

Brandon Boswell选择Obsidian是因为他看重长期日记记录的实践，并且希望拥有对自己数据的完全控制权。Obsidian允许他拥有文件的所有权，并且文件格式是标准的，这意味着他可以将数据迁移到任何其他系统。此外，Obsidian支持Markdown格式，并且提供了数据视图（Dataview）插件，这使得他能够以编程方式改进工作流程。

Josh Madeski的个人知识管理流程是怎样的？

Josh Madeski的个人知识管理流程开始于每日笔记，他会记录当天的计划和完成的任务。他还使用项目、区域、资源和档案（PARA方法）来组织信息。他会将信息捕捉到笔记应用中，然后在Finder和Google Drive中以PARA方法组织文件夹。此外，他还强调了从信息中提取和整理出自己的观点的重要性。

在个人知识管理系统中，如何进行周回顾和月回顾？

Brandon Boswell进行周回顾的方法是查看过去一周创建的所有新文件，并评估哪些内容需要进一步审查或已经审查过。他还做年度回顾，通过查看每周的亮点来编制一年的成功和高点。Josh Madeski则通过在Obsidian中查看去年同一天的笔记来进行日常回顾，以此来观察自己的进步和变化。

如何使用Obsidian的Dataview插件来改进工作流程？

Dataview插件允许用户在Obsidian中创建自定义的查询和视图，从而以编程方式展示和组织笔记。例如，可以创建一个视图来显示过去一周创建的所有新文件，或者显示所有标记为“需要审查”的文件。这有助于用户更有效地管理和回顾他们的个人知识库。

Outlines

00:00

🤝 与好友Josh探讨第二大脑和个人知识管理

在这段对话中，作者与好友Josh Madeski讨论了他们如何使用各自的第二大脑，以及他们不同的工作流程。Josh是Craft的用户，而作者使用Obsidian。他们探讨了个人知识管理（PKM）的入门经历，以及第二大脑与PKM系统之间的区别。作者提到，尽管有系统试图提供一些结构化的建议，但最终每个人都是从零开始，需要找到适合自己的系统。他们讨论了如何捕捉日常工作和个人生活中的有趣信息，以及如何通过不完美的方式将信息输入系统以获得更多好处。

05:02

📝 Josh的第二大脑和PKM系统

Josh分享了他是如何通过日记开始接触第二大脑的。他最初使用Stoic应用进行日记写作，但随着时间的推移，他开始寻找更适合自己的日记方式，并最终发现了Obsidian。他通过Obsidian和Readwise的结合，开始构建自己的第二大脑和PKM系统，这帮助他将日记中的主题转化为原则和思想。Josh还讨论了他如何使用PARA方法（项目、区域、资源和档案）来组织他的笔记，并分享了他如何通过这种方式捕捉和存储信息。

10:04

📱 作者的笔记应用和工作流程

作者介绍了他使用的笔记应用Craft.do，并解释了为什么选择这个应用。他强调了应用的美观性和与iOS设备的同步功能，以及双向链接的重要性。作者展示了他的文件夹结构，包括项目、区域、资源和档案，并解释了他如何使用数字和表情符号来保持组织。他还讨论了他的日常工作流程，包括如何通过每日笔记开始一天，并如何将Google Drive和其他存储解决方案整合到他的系统中。

15:04

🔍 深入探讨PKM和第二大脑

在这一段中，作者和Josh深入探讨了PKM和第二大脑的概念，以及它们如何帮助他们专注于重要的项目和目标。他们讨论了PARA方法如何帮助他们管理项目和资源，并如何使用档案来存储已完成的项目。作者还提到了他如何使用Obsidian的ARC方法来管理在线资源，并如何通过上下文来进一步组织他的笔记。他们讨论了如何通过这些系统来提高创造力和产出。

20:07

📅 笔记和日记的回顾与反思

作者分享了他如何通过Obsidian进行日常笔记和日记写作，以及他如何使用这些笔记进行回顾和反思。他提到了他在每日笔记中包含的内容，例如感激之事、每日亮点和成功的定义。作者还讨论了他如何通过将过去的笔记与当前的笔记进行对比来观察个人成长。此外，他还提到了他如何进行周回顾，以及如何通过这些回顾来设定目标、记录成就和学习经验。

25:09

🌟 总结与未来展望

在视频的最后部分，作者和Josh总结了他们的第二大脑和PKM系统的使用经验，并分享了他们对未来的展望。Josh提到了他的YouTube频道和他在Dorsada的工作，而作者则谈到了他在Obsidian中的设置和他对Vim仿真功能的兴趣。他们都表达了对这个话题的热爱，并鼓励观众订阅他们的频道以获取更多相关内容。

Keywords

💡第二大脑

第二大脑是指个人知识管理系统，用于存储、组织和回顾个人的想法、笔记和信息。在视频中，两位主角讨论了他们如何使用第二大脑来管理自己的工作流程和个人知识。

💡个人知识管理（PKM）

个人知识管理（Personal Knowledge Management）是一种方法，通过收集、整理和分享个人的知识资源来提高个人效率和创造力。在视频中，两位主角讨论了他们如何通过PKM系统来提高自己的工作效率和创造力。

💡工作流

工作流是指完成特定任务或一系列任务的预定步骤或过程。在视频中，两位主角比较了他们各自的工作流程，探讨了如何通过第二大脑和PKM系统来优化这些流程。

💡Obsidian

Obsidian是一款知识管理和笔记软件，它允许用户以Markdown格式创建和链接笔记，形成一个个人知识库。在视频中，Brandon提到他使用Obsidian作为他的第二大脑和PKM工具。

💡Craft

Craft是一款设计精美的笔记和任务管理应用程序，支持Markdown和双向链接，适用于iOS设备。在视频中，Josh提到他使用Craft作为他的第二大脑工具。

💡PARA方法

PARA方法是一种组织笔记和信息的框架，代表项目（Projects）、区域（Areas）、资源（Resources）和档案（Archives）。在视频中，Josh和Brandon都提到了他们如何使用PARA方法来管理他们的个人知识。

💡知识共享

知识共享是指将个人的知识、见解和信息与他人分享的过程。在视频中，两位主角讨论了通过创建内容（如YouTube视频、博客文章）来分享他们的知识和经验。

💡创意产出

创意产出是指通过创新和创造性思维产生的成果，如艺术作品、文学作品或新的想法。在视频中，两位主角讨论了他们的第二大脑和PKM系统如何帮助他们提高创意产出。

💡完美主义

完美主义是指追求完美的性格特征，有时会导致过度关注细节而阻碍进展。在视频中，两位主角讨论了如何克服完美主义，通过接受不完美来提高效率和创造力。

💡增量学习

增量学习是一种学习方法，通过逐步添加信息和技能来构建知识，而不是一次性掌握全部内容。在视频中，两位主角讨论了他们如何通过增量学习来管理他们的个人知识，并逐渐构建他们的理解和创意。

Highlights

两位知识工作者分享了他们如何使用第二大脑和个人知识管理系统（PKM）来优化工作流程。

Josh Madeski 使用 Craft 应用程序作为他的第二大脑工具，而对话者则使用 Obsidian。

个人知识管理的入门是个人决策，需要找到适合自己的系统。

第二大脑系统的创始人 Thiago Forte 提倡接受系统的不完美性，让信息以不完美的方式输入，以获得更多益处。

第二大脑和 PKM 系统帮助人们克服完美主义，从粗糙的起点开始，逐步提升质量。

创造性输出是第二大脑系统的最终结果，不仅仅是为了制作完美的笔记。

创作过程是循环的，可以从一条推文发展到博客文章，再到 YouTube 视频和书籍。

随着年龄的增长，人们学会了更多地接受生活的混乱，这使得生活变得更容易。

通过使用第二大脑和 PKM 系统，人们可以避免从头开始，而是在现有的基础上建立。

个人知识管理的关键在于能够捕捉和组织信息，然后将其转化为创造性输出。

Josh Madeski 通过使用 Stoic 应用程序和 iPad Pro 开始了他的第二大脑之旅。

Obsidian 和第二大脑的概念帮助人们将日记中的主题转化为思想和原则的网络。

在个人发展领域，有许多方法和工具可以帮助人们管理知识和提高生产力。

Thiago Forte 的第二大脑课程帮助 Josh Madeski 走出创作低谷，进入个人知识管理领域。

个人知识管理系统应该是开放的，允许人们管理与工作相关的所有个人知识和资源。

使用第二大脑和 PKM 系统可以让人们更容易地回顾和反思过去的工作和成就。

Brandon Boswell 和 Josh Madeski 分享了他们如何使用不同的工具和方法来捕捉、组织和表达创意。

Transcripts

I recently got an opportunity to sit

down with my good friend Josh madeski to

look at how we each use our second

brains it was a really interesting

conversation and we compared our

different workflows with him being a

craft user and me using obsidian we talk

about how we each got into personal

Knowledge Management and is there a

difference between a second brain and a

PKM system I hope you enjoy the

conversation go check out Josh's Channel

I'll have a link down in the description

and with that out of the way let's jump

into the conversation with software

engineer Josh madeski we have about 40

minutes to talk so we'll we'll just go

back and forth and I'm not overly

programmatic in my second brain workflow

I'm using some apps that work well for

me and so I thought it'd be useful to

where that setup is and how it works for

me and my mental model through the day

and how I'm capturing

all the interesting stuff that comes in

through my work day and even my personal

stuff and the YouTube life and break it

down and I want to see your system as

well yeah and I think the interesting

thing with all of this is everyone kind

of starts from scratch there's

definitely some systems that try to

apply some opinionation but what I found

is it's a very personal decision and you

have to climb what works for you and I

think similarly to what you were saying

about being overly programmatic what I

found is if I try to be too programmatic

it actually becomes a barrier and it

keeps me from doing what I need to get

done and so I've definitely tried to

strip it down and build the simplest

thing I can that has me focus on my

notes and getting things done instead of

playing around with my tool

yeah and Thiago Forte the guy who came

up with the second brain system he very

much Embraces like the imperfectionism

of the system he's just let it be

imperfect let it be messy because it's

meant for internal use meaning you as an

individual

you can put as much information in as

you want and in fact

I would argue the more you learn to put

into your system in an imperfect way the

more benefit you get out of it and so it

is incremental like you're not going to

be able to just go everything that ever

comes through my life is going to go

into the system but over time you'll be

pretty surprised how powerful

a random email with some unexpected new

project that comes into your life you're

like oh I know exactly where to put it I

know exactly how to organize this just

to The Sweet Spot where I get it get the

work done and can recall all the

important informations about the project

without like spending

hours every week trying to keep it all

in the right place yeah I mean that that

perfectionism has always been a barrier

for me I remember being in school and to

be given a writing prompt and to just

spend way too much time trying to figure

out what the broader story was and that

just became this barrier to actually

getting started if I was given an hour

and a half to do the writing prompt I'd

spend 45 minutes trying to figure out

what it is and not only have half the

time to actually write it and I think

where the second brain system and the

PKM systems have really helped me is

just start with some rough really awful

outline some really awful starting point

and you'll be really surprised how much

quality you actually get out of that

it's more of just a mental thing more

than it actually being tangible it's

just the mindset that you come at it

from

at least that's what's worked yeah

totally and I think the end result at in

the second brain system the end result

is creative output yeah and it's

creative output isn't

good meticulous notes that you can

reference later a good creative process

is we're both YouTubers so creating

YouTube videos and giving our unique

perspective to others by sharing those

videos blog posts or even as small I've

learned that this creative process is

very cyclical and so it can look like a

tweet that turns into a blog post that

turns into a YouTube video that turns

into a YouTube series it turns into a

book it's like you're right your

creative ideas will Compound on top of

each other and so it really only matters

that you start

sharing your experience and knowledge

back out with the world and then over

time let that thing grow don't just

think oh I'm going to write a book in

five years so let me do everything I can

to make this perfect note-taking system

so that in five years I have a book no

every blog post every YouTube video

every conversation you have with a human

is your stepping stone toward that

bigger goal so that that has helped me

like disassemble that perfectionistic

quality that I also had dealt with in

younger years I feel like just getting

older I've learned to embrace the chaos

of life a little bit more which makes

life a little bit more easy

yeah that's where I'm at I I have the

fortune of being very brief and succinct

naturally not necessarily that I like

communicate everything I meant to

communicate but I just I write very

briefly so like this idea of writing a

book is so intimidating to me but the

idea of writing zettels or figuring out

your principles has been really nice

because I can write these one or two

sentence statements and then build upon

them over time and then I realize oh

there actually is a lot more there it's

just incremental time with the idea you

don't have to get all the way there in

that first setting which has been really

eye-opening for me I think in embracing

PKM and not building from scratch each

time I think that's been one of the

really key things for me is I think

previously because I didn't have a great

place to put this to dump my brain out

on a table or a digital workspace

every time I started from scratch on an

idea and now I can pick up where I left

off and I go wow there's actually a lot

more here than I thought or it's really

amazing when you can come back to an

idea and go I don't remember this at all

but I really like what I put here and

now I can build upon it further so how

long have you been doing this second

brain thing in Normal

decision yeah so sure yeah we should

probably Define yeah like the formal

piece here because my introduction to

second brain I think is a little

different and a little unique I actually

came to the second brain through

journaling so like February of 2021 I

got an iPad Pro because I thought it

would be helpful in Focus thinking turns

out it's not but what it did give me is

like a different perspective in how I

interact with computers and exploring

all those apps there and it got me into

this focused mindset where I would

journal and so I started using this app

called stoic and I started journaling

against these prompts and I am not a

journaler like that is not like in my

historical character at all but I

started journaling daily

and eventually after about a month or

two I had figured out what I really

wanted to journal about and I'd start to

get annoyed when the stoic prompts would

get too far away from what I had decided

I now want to journal about I came into

journaling not knowing what to journal

about systemic was amazing for that and

then after a few months I figured out

what I wanted to get out of it and so

when I started getting out of stoic I

had to figure out where I wanted to keep

my journal entries and so I started

exploring everything there and then I

came across obsidian and that's when I

think PKM and second brain really

started to become a thing I could see

these ideas together I could pluck out

the themes from my journals and start to

get this web of ideas and eventually

into principles and thoughts and then

yeah so that's how I got into second

brain

I started layering in read wise and

pulling out my highlights and I think

around that time is when I first started

to interact with thiago's work I guess

it's probably worth talking about like

where do we draw the line between a

second brain and PKM and like what is

that Venn diagram in our terminology so

I guess when you say second brain do you

mean specifically Tiago or do you mean

personal Knowledge Management and like

how do those interact yeah I'm about a

decade into this personal development

world like I remember Life Hacker and

what's his name there's all sorts of

development productivity people that I

followed over the years so I've always

been interested in this topic but I

think about two years ago I was like I

use Evernote but I don't use it very

well and it's just a fallen to the

Wayside and my I was in a creative rut

and so I went a different path I

actually found thiago's course and I was

I'm a graduate of the building a second

brain cohort I believe I was in cohort

11 I think and so what are they up to

nowadays because they're on like 13 or

14. so okay it's about once or twice a

year yeah and so I'm about a year and a

half into this process so I'm more of a

formal graduate and proponent of using

his system the way he designed it it did

bring me into PKM and I would say for

now especially between me and you having

this conversation those things are

probably pretty interchangeable in that

just having a system in place where you

can manage all of your personal

knowledge and

collect any and all resources and

information tied to the work that you do

so it is a pretty open-ended thing but

as we talk more about our systems you'll

see like mine is very prescriptive to

his methodology because I have found

that structure

has helped has worked for me like it's

creating boundaries and structure in the

way that he's already suggested doing it

is great this is going to work for me

I'll just lean into this and do it this

way but I would say for now the things

that that I want to think about and

things I want to start talking about is

just like

how are you capturing information so for

those that don't know there's this

workflow for capturing your information

organizing information distilling it

down and then expressing it and so code

is the acronym he's come up with and so

basically

I think for the next few minutes we're

just going to dive into this and

show what our system looks like yeah

yeah you want to go first you want me to

go first yeah let's do it at least for

me everything starts with a note-taking

app yep and I have craft.do this is the

note taking app I use it is

definitely not the most popular but it

is very pretty as you will see it's just

very aesthetically appealing and it

syncs with all of my iOS devices

and those are the big proponents for me

and they also have bi-directional links

which I know obsidian does something

similar this is my second brain projects

areas resources and archives is the para

method you'll see resources is empty

because I'm just still experimenting

with how

my note taking would have resources

we'll see the para method actually gets

repeated so if we go to my finder and we

go to iCloud we see projects areas

resources archives I've decided to put a

number in front of them so that they're

always sorted in this order and then

I've added these little emojis we can

match here so just a nice little touch

that works for me and and this thing

gets applied everywhere so

just as an example I'm just going to

throw these things out dscript is a

video editing software and so in the

drive the way you organize videos in

this software also projects areas

resources archives same emojis same

numbered format and so for me it's just

like anywhere that I have to store

information I have those four folders

set up

I can tell you right now my general

workflow is

start with the daily note

I almost always start with the daily

notes so here's today I'm going to say

record

video with

Brandon and then I can say

second brain Deep dive

so this is something that I'm going to

do and I'm going to check it off it's

today and if I go into this I have

the first time me and you met I have

notes on when that happened this is

technically a project so today's there's

a project called second brain Deep dive

with you and so I had we had a Google

Drive Link

speaking of Google Drive if we were to

go back into my system

you'll see here as well how do I get to

folders all right here we go so I don't

go I don't do this all the time but when

I do need to reach for Google Drive

iwp para so here's para projects areas

resources archives I did deal with

someday maybe at some point I've dropped

that decision I'm sticking just straight

to Pera and then inbox

we didn't talk about this much yet but

there are you have to capture the

information first and so in my

note-taking app I'm going to always

capture things on The Daily note

in fact I can just say I can say Hey

Siri today

and it goes to the today note

so I'm just always that's my go-to I

always start there and then in my finder

it's going to be the downloads folder

and then in Google Drive I have to

create

an inbox folder because I just I need a

place to start and so yeah that's my

rough overview of the different things

that I'm using to capture and store

information and then the way that I'm

organizing it is everything's para and

so far that's working really well for me

nice yeah I think a lot of similarity I

think more technical differences on my

side but largely the same so here's my

desktop I think tactically similar I use

obsidian this is MySpace and then for

the most part what I do is I just have

my folders here on the left I've got my

calendar here on the right but as you'll

see what I was showing a second ago most

of the time it lives like this it's just

in Focus mode and I would argue that the

file storage side of things is not very

important in obsidian or any sort of

like graph Knowledge Management System

like how they're organized I would say

for most people is not incredibly

important I do have a folder structure

because I publish parts of my second

brain and I need to keep track of what

is public and what is not public because

in order to push me to try to share more

of what I'm thinking I'm naturally very

like wordish that's just my natural

personality is I'm careful of what I put

out there so the the second brain has

really helped me to get my ideas out

there and become more sharing in that I

do use Pera to a certain extent I use a

modified version of para because I find

that areas and resources have a rough

blend and I find that the distinction

between the two gets really subtle at

least for me so I thought it was really

interesting that you had areas that had

something and resources that didn't

because that's also the natural thing I

find myself doing but where I get value

out of para while we're on Pera is I

think the key value thing that I get

from Pera is enumerating what my active

projects are and especially from a PKM

perspective drawing Focus to those

things because you can spend hours in

your PKM system just gardening and I

think gardening is really cool and I

think people should Garden

but I will spend way too much time

gardening so I need a focus uh what are

we trying to hone what are we trying to

refine what are we hoping to actually

deliver to the outside world because

although I like refining my own thoughts

I think it's often much more valuable to

get it out there to the rest of the

world because they'll tell me everywhere

I'm wrong and it'll actually improve my

thinking instead of this Echo chamber

with myself and so I use projects for

that and I use the archive to put those

away when I'm done with them and areas

again I think is a little loose inside

of PKM because largely I think your

folder structure should be flat and so I

think it's more of a tag if anything but

I don't get a lot of value out of an

area tag for me personally but where I

do get a lot of value out of Pera is in

Arc so I use ARC as my browser and I use

a modified version of para here and

that's been really helpful for me

because most of collecting my resources

is not really done on a traditional file

system anymore having a folder with all

my assets is not the biggest thing

because most of my assets are online and

so this is where I don't think this is

how Thiago intended it to be used but I

think it's a really great use of Pera is

enumerating my projects putting all of

my resources associated with that

project in one place put your document

in there if you have some collective

document that you're writing and then

retire it to the archive when you're

done and then I do this

I had one more layer here which is

contexts I think para benefits from

context of this is my personal context

this is my work context and this is my

YouTube context and I do most of my para

in obsidian for YouTube but having them

separated in that way so that my work

projects are together my home projects

are together and resources and archives

together

so as far as actual daily notes and

things like that similar to you so I

have a keyboard shortcut inside of

obsidian that will pull up my daily note

I can also pull it from this right hand

sidebar and just click and get to it

from here but more often than not I will

just hit command shift d and that'll

bring me to my daily note along the

lines of what you had and then I have a

prompt here to help me get started and

so this is the simplified version of

where my journaling has gone is starting

with three things I'm grateful for one

highlight for today what would we call

today a success if achieved and then any

notes along the way of what happened and

then I have this today was good because

but I've largely retired that in

exchange for just integrating that into

my what am I grateful for the next day

once upon a time I tried to do this

where I started with what I'm grateful

for at the beginning of the day I set my

highlight and then at the end of the day

I reflected but it became too much of a

commitment time wise and I've since

rolled it in into the next day because I

know I can start my day right every day

but finding time to actually like close

it out I think has become a barrier and

so again similarly to what you said

I'll integrate what I'm doing in the day

throughout that daily note so my daily

highlight was this interview with you so

I actually keep people inside of here

too and then here so I guess let's put I

think it's yeah second grade interview

with Josh that would be the notes from

today's call and so if I by that I can

put that and aside and these were all of

my notes like prior to us talking and

then I'll link you and then we'll get

all those ideas and then if I wanted to

I could graph this all out that's

actually the graph for everything let's

just graph this so this will be all of

the like ideas that I touched on in my

notes preparing for this session cool

that's my system I'm curious right now

just as a thought how often have you

found doing the note taking in your not

note taking doing the journaling in the

note taking app

is that creating a useful like timeline

so when you do like audits or review

your life or review your work or we

haven't talked much about like monthly

reviews or weekly reviews or anything

like that but are you finding value in

doing that or is it just a useful place

to plop information it's huge huge I

think I mentioned this in one of the

videos I did where I got the bullet

Journal so I'm on paper for a lot of

what you're doing in obsidian for me

it's less quantitative and more

qualitative and so where it's been

really useful for me is in reflection

and being detached from the moment and

being able to look at my notes in a

different context and with a fresh

perspective yeah and so this isn't a

great example of it because I was

traveling last year on today so I didn't

actually do my note but what has been

really useful is just in my template for

my daily note it actually inter

interleaves my same note from last year

and so it's been really cool to see

where where I was a year ago and to go

oh wow I've actually progressed in a lot

of ways that aren't really obvious in

real time it's such a slow thing but

when you're you're detached from it it's

big the other piece and I don't

necessarily have a great way to show

this today because it gets a little way

too personal on the weekly side of

things but I do a weekly reflection okay

I dropped monthly reflection just

because monthly I think was too

challenging for me so I do daily weekly

and annually and annually is huge like

annually is amazing just compiling all

the successes and highs that you forget

about so quickly and I use it as these

daily notes see the weekly notes and

then the weekly notes see the annual

Note so I don't go through all my daily

notes to generate my annual review I

just go through the weekly highlights

yeah and here let's just I don't think

there's anything in this one yet so I

can at least show the template

so my goal for this week is I wanted to

prep and have this great discussion with

you and then at the end of the week so I

set a goal at the beginning of the week

sometimes a couple of goals but usually

not more than maybe two they're just two

tactically achievable things that I'd

like to get done at by the end of the

week and I find that if I set them at

the beginning of the week I'm much more

likely to get them done by the end of

the week because like me and myself

committed to this

and then if I don't achieve it it's

because I got lazy so if you do it at a

regular time for me it's like Sunday

mornings it's basically setting an

intention and if I set an intention then

I'll figure out how to do it if I don't

send intention then who knows what's

going to happen with the week yeah and

so at the end of the week I compile my

accomplishments and learnings my highs

my lows and a reflection of what should

I change

and then I have last week last year at

the bottom so I have another question

with obsidian

you you can attach images and have some

imagery but with it being marked down

it's not going to render those images by

default no numbers it could you show me

an example because that's one thing that

I'm like I'm such a visual person so I'm

going to take a screenshot of us right

now okay and I'm gonna paste it in here

Okay cool so you can show images in line

yep that's fantastic and it's all stored

so I've got it set where it puts the

images in a folder in the folder that

you're in okay and so I guess that gets

back to the like why I really obsidian

is when I was committing to obsidian I

was committing to long-term journaling

like I was basically committing to I

want this to be a practice that I

maintain and so a big part of that is

how do I find a system that I can use

indefinitely and where I have like

control over that and so the last thing

I want is one is the cost of what if I

found a tool I really loved and they

just ratchet up the price and what is

the the value is still there but I don't

like having lack of control over the

overall cost so this is something that

was really appetizing about obsidian is

I own the files I own the format it's a

standard format and I could move it to

any other system in the future so

actually a lot of these notes if I were

to rewind back to early 2021 stoic also

output markdown notes so like those

early 2021 notes where aren't even

written in obsidian but I can consume

them in obsidian just fine cool and so I

put this in the cloud just so that it's

safe and backed up

and can be accessed from different

devices and then it's available wherever

I want to go and if I decide I want to

change tools then I can change tools

totally

yeah I've been thinking I could switch

to obsidian but it's a it's better that

you stick with one system as best you

can and so far this tool has worked very

well for me and so I'm like man I don't

think it's a smart idea to switch it's

very cool seeing your setup and seeing

how far obsidians come it's the last

time I looked at it was like

a couple years ago a year ago and so

it's come a long way since then yeah

it's definitely gotten a lot prettier I

remember like they just added this new

minimal theme as the default but it was

actually very similar to what I was

running before but I had spent a ton of

time making obsidian this minimalist

thing that is enjoyable to live in and

then they've now made it standard which

for me is annoying because I spent a lot

of time getting to it but I love that

people who are starting it today can

start from a much better starting point

than right people who were here a couple

years ago

as a developer have you thought to put

any time in like making a plug-in or

extending obsidian's feature set

um actually you can do a lot with

dataview and so like data if you that's

probably a good segue for that's a

powerful way to programmatically improve

your workflow yeah so like we were

talking about weekly reflection I think

another key part of my weekly reflection

is reviewing my notes from the past week

so

I don't use an inbox but I use a handful

of things that kind of function

similarly to an inbox so everything that

comes in from read wise gets tagged with

needs review and so at any point I could

look at all the things all the backlog

that needs a review but the key thing I

do is I have this file called new files

and it's in my dashboards and this will

pull up all of the files that were

created in the last week so if I'm doing

this week I think I have it doing nine

days in case I do my review like a day

late or something like that so this will

pull up everything I've created in the

last week and then on Sunday mornings

when I go through this I will just click

through all these it used to actually be

a little bit easier I used to just could

hold alt and click all of them and they

would all go out as tabs and then I just

run through each now it's a little bit

trickier and then I think I have to hit

command alt and then click

let's see will it yeah command alt and

click and then command alt click and

eventually you'll end up with all this

but I think it's just is it just command

yeah okay so you have to command and

then switch and then command and then

switch and then command and then switch

which

it used to be a little bit easier

because I just hit command and click but

this is still just fine and so I've

already reviewed this one but it would

have a status that comes in with

reviewed or needs review and then as I

write about it so if I read this

highlight I'll write about it and then

I'll have a little blurb and this will

be like a little zettel and then it

keeps the reference back to the original

Source document but that's separate so

like in here I have all of my sources

all of my stuff coming in from read wise

in the sources folder so this is like

every highlight I've ever highlighted

from read wise and those are separate

from my own opinions oh nice all those

topics and so I can tell is this my are

these my thoughts and my Pros on this or

is this just something I'm pulling from

someone else

that's smart

all right I forgot where it's going okay

yeah so new files so this is how I this

is my primary form of review and where I

start building up my own opinions on all

these things so I highlight it in one

context it comes in to obsidian and then

at some point later when I'm detached

from that feeling I had when I

highlighted it I then consume it figure

out does it still resonate does it

resonate differently and then write up

my opinions on it and that will build

sort of my own settle cost in my own

principles tree and that's what will

lead to those inner those packets and

then also ultimately lead to me writing

about things or doing videos creating

some content that I share with the world

we're almost out of time but I

definitely dive into this so much more I

know 40 minutes is not enough time but

very cool thanks for giving us an

overview of what it looks like yeah it

makes me want to switch especially since

I'm a big Vim guy and I know there's a

Vim emulation in obsidian like man that

would be be reason enough for me to

switch

is really nice I stopped using it

because I mostly just stopped using them

I went unfortunately I guess more the

emacs mindset but if you already know

them and you love them the mode is

wonderful inside of obsidian okay so are

there any other like final thoughts that

you want to share right now in this time

um we should do another video

I could talk all day with you about this

stuff yeah I guess the key piece is for

those of you who don't know me my name

is Brandon Boswell I like Josh mentioned

I'm formerly an engineer I I now Focus

predominantly on user experience but

programming is still very near and dear

to my heart during the day I lead user

experience at dorsada where we build

software that helps doctors deliver more

healthy babies and then at night I have

a YouTube channel where I focus on

productivity tips and tricks for

knowledge workers so anyone who thinks

for a living

that's fine yeah cool and I'm Josh

madeski I am a full stack engineer at a

startup in Austin called nutility we are

automating Utility payments for

consumers and property managers which is

I like taking

boring things and making them disappear

so that's a bit of what I do in my day

job and I'm also a YouTuber and I talk a

lot about my Vim

inal based setups for developers and I

do some second brain stuff and I do some

Mac OS productivity type things as well

and so yeah that's a bit about me

awesome it's been a pleasure thank you

so much for watching do hit subscribe if

you haven't already and if you enjoyed

the video give it a like and you'd

probably also be interested in my in

depth of city and Vault walkthrough I'll

have that linked over here on the side

thank you again for watching and as

always I'll see you in the next video