I consume a lot of articles, podcasts, and videos each week but I would never take action on this content.
I would read something that sparked an idea for me and think "this is a good idea to try out". Then I'd finish the article, take my notes, and never go back to try out the idea.
It wasn't until I saw this Tweet from Sam Williams that I realized I was missing something:
https://twitter.com/iamsam_williams/status/1520799214086799363
I realized I was missing a system for taking action. After replying to Sam's tweet, I decided to set up a system for this in my Obsidian vault:
https://twitter.com/MishaCreatrix/status/1521086152031281155
This article outlines the current process I've set up in Obsidian for taking action on the content I consume.
The Power-Ups Concept
Essentially, this system is a way for me to track initiatives I want to try based on the inspiration I get from articles I read, videos I watch, and so on.
Some examples of potential initiatives include:
- Add a section to my weekly note for work I've published
- Review/audit my Twitter lists to make sure they're up to date
- Try morning pages
In my current system, I use the term Power-Ups instead of Initiatives.
If you didn't already know I'm a big video game nerd so whenever I can turn something into a game I do. I find it helps to keep me interested and motivated in what I'm doing. It's like my kind of gamification.
In my Obsidian vault, a Power-Up is a task item with #powerup at the end.
Here's what it looks like:
Power-Ups Note
As I have Power-Ups spread out across my notes, I wanted a way to collect them in one place to view them.
To do this, I created a Power-Ups note that lives in my Life OS directory.
Within this note I have 2 sections:
- To Do - For items I want to do
- Done - For items I've done
As it turns out, I didn't need any fancy plugins or complicated code snippets to achieve what I wanted. All I needed was an Obsidian query.
Here's the query I used for the To Do items:
tag:#powerup task-todo: "#powerup"
Here's the query I used for the Done items:
tag:#powerup task-done: "#powerup"
Here's the end result:
You might notice that each query embed is missing the heading section. I used the following CSS code snippet to remove it:
/* Hide the query text */
.internal-query-header-title, .internal-query-header-icon {
display: none !important;
}
Weekly Template Power-Up Embed
To keep this list of Power-Ups top of mind, I needed to resurface them on a regular basis.
Checking in with this daily would be too much so I settled for a weekly basis and added a new section to my weekly note.
The Power-Ups section in my weekly note is simply an embed that links to the To Do section of the Power-Ups note.
Here's the code:
Here's the end result:
Each week I review this list and see which Power-Ups I will try out in the next week or so.
My Key Take Aways
- If you don't have a system, you're relying on your own mind to remember things. This is a recipe for failure as our minds can only remember so much.
- Basic Obsidian queries are more powerful than you think. Give it a try before you jump into Dataview or something more complex.
- Having a habit of regular reflection allows you to check in with yourself, see where you are, and course-correct if you need to.
- Take time to check in with your systems and tweak them. I honestly had a lot of fun implementing this system and learned a lot about Obsidian in the process.
If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing it with someone else who might find it useful ๐ค
This article was originally published over on my website: How I Use Obsidian To Take Action On The Content I Consume
Top comments (1)
Cool workflow love using Obsidian.