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Practical PKM

A weekly newsletter where I help people apply values-based productivity principles and systems for personal growth, primarily using Obsidian. Subscribe if you want to make more of your notes and ideas.

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🌲 Thinking Outside the Inbox

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: How to Host an Effective Personal Retreat 😎 Something Cool: An awesome Obsidian plugin for updating metadata πŸ“š My book notes from The Second Mountain by David Brooks If you would rather read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: How to Gain Clarity & Motivation from a Personal Retreat Back when he was CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates used to do what he called β€œThink Weeks.” He’d go to a cabin in the woods to get away from...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Time tracking is more important (and easier to do) than you may think 😎 Something Cool: An Obsidian plugin for slecting modal options from your keyboard πŸ“š My book notes from Busy by Tony Crabbe If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: When it comes to time, what doesn't get measured often gets wasted. When it comes to effective time management, there are 2 important things to be aware of: Did we have a...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Make more out of your limites time with time blocking 😎 Something Cool: A cool update to a fantastic mobile capture app πŸ“š My book notes from 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam If you prefer to read this newsletter in your web browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Time Blocking May Not Actually Give You More Time, But It Sure Feels Like It When it comes to effective time management, there are 2 important things to be aware of: Did we have a solid plan...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: How to develop your ideas with mind mapping 😎 Something Cool: A big improvement to repeating tasks in Obsidian πŸ“š My book notes from Mind Map Mastery by Tony Buzan If you prefer to read this week's newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Make More of Your Ideas with a Mind Map Great ideas are constructed, not discovered. And the process for developing my ideas usually includes mind mapping. I estimate that each hour I spend mind...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘The Big Idea: Asking better questions leads to better answers 😎 Something Cool: A helpful resource for journaling in Obsidian πŸ“š My book notes from Personal Socrates by Marc Champagne If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Clarity Comes From Asking Better Questions Marc Champagne is a fascinating human. He is the author of Personal Socrates (one of my favorite books), the host of the Behind the Human podcast, and a...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘The Big Idea: Creating can be easy (when you have a system) 😎 Something Cool: TWO Obsidian plugins for collaborative editing πŸ“š My book notes from The Laws of Creativity by Joey Cofone If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Creativity is a System. Here's How to Get More Out of It. For a long time, I believed that I just wasn’t creative. I thought creativity was a genetic trait I just wasn’t born with. But then I...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: The life-changing benefits of embracing your limits 😎 Something Cool: Custom callouts in Obsidian 😎 Something Else Cool: The Relay 10 Year Anniversary Show is available! πŸ“š My book notes from Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Thinking About Death Can Help You Be Happier & More Productive As humans, we usually try to avoid thinking about death. But that...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Zettelkasten my not be as crazy as I initally thought 😎 Something Cool: Animated gifs in Obsidian πŸŽ‰ πŸ“š My book notes from A System for Writing by Bob Doto If you'd prefer to read this in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Zettelkasten Isn’t Just for Nerds The zettelkasten concept swept the PKM world by storm several years ago with the release of How to Take Smart Notes by SΓΆnke Ahrens. This is where I first came across the story of...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Margin is a necessity, not a luxury 😎 Something Cool: A new book about zettelkasten I actually liked πŸ“š My book notes from Margin by Dr. Richard Swenson If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. The Big Idea: You Need Margin in Your PKM System We all have our limits. When we get close to those limits, our systems overload and things break down. The thing that keeps the train on the tracks? Margin. The Importance of...

In this edition of Practical PKM: πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: 3 Keys to Effective Journaling 😎 Something Cool: An Obsidian plugin for publishing Dataview πŸ“š My book notes from 30 Lessons for Living by Karl Pillemer If you prefer to read this newsletter in your browser, click here. πŸ’‘ The Big Idea: Journaling Can Be a Big Driver of Personal Growth Before I started journaling myself about 15 years ago, I thought of it as keeping a diary. My view of journaling was that it was a place for stream-of-conscious...