PTPL 030: How to Get an Analog Sense of Accomplishment From Completing Digital Tasks
Plus - Why I'm keeping separate daily notes again, and a summary of my new plain text task management system
Today I’ll be talking about —
How I get an analog sense of accomplishment from completing digital tasks
The beautiful typography and illustrations of Maggie Appleton’s digital garden
Keyboard shortcuts for jumping between headings in Obsidian
Why I’m now keeping both daily notes and a monthly log — but not weekly notes
My new plain text task management system
Productivity Inspiration
Analog productivity: a record of what you’ve achieved
In a digital tool, once you complete the task it disappears into nothingness. There is no record of accomplishment to reflect upon. With paper and pen, all the items you completed remain right there, representing an honest day’s work. — Ben Darfler
I understand the sentiment Ben is expressing, but only partially agree with it. I’m not going to tell him or anyone — that marking off a digital task — and leaving it there as a record — will feel the same as its analog counterpart, but for me, it comes close.
In my simplified plain text task management system, the DONE folder (2022 DONE, to be precise) is my record of an honest day’s/year’s work. In there live all the single task files that are now complete, as well as an index page with a query listing every ticked checkbox under its corresponding daily, weekly, or monthly note title.
I can browse through the things I’ve achieved this year, and it’s also a good record of things I might have forgotten I’d done.
Maggie Appleton’s illustrated notes
On the off chance you haven’t already seen these, do take a look at Maggie’s wonderful illustrated BASB notes. There’s plenty more to discover on her site, like this discussion on The Dark Forest and the Cosy Web, and this one on Keyboard Maestro. It’s worth checking out for the beautiful typography and illustrations alone.
Productivity Tips
The Code Editor Shortcuts plugin in Obsidian lets you define a hotkey for jumping between headers. Super helpful when wading through long documents. Yes, the outline pane lets you do this too, but not without taking your fingers off the keys.
Thomas Oppong suggests that keeping only one browser tab open at a time is a good way to increase productivity. “Open a second tab only when it is absolutely necessary and helps you get the main work done.”
If music is an important part of your productivity routine, you need to know about SomaFM. Here’s the best run down of it you’re ever likely to find, thanks to oldtowneast.
Adventures in Plain Text
The monthly log experiment: update
Last week I asked a question I didn’t have an answer for: What’s the benefit of keeping multiple daily note files, rather than one monthly log?
For the past week I’ve been looking for the answer, and on one level, it feels like I’ve found it!
What I’ve done:
Started keeping daily notes again (in their own separate files)
Transcluded daily notes onto my monthly log page
Why it works:
I’m using a simple template for my daily note page, containing just the date. This simplicity is helping me stay focused on my notes, rather than distracted by tweaking all the bits.
The date on my daily page links to itself, making it easier to click on as a transclusion on the monthly page.
The Hover Editor plugin makes it easy to add to or edit each day’s entry, while maintaining a sense of the monthly picture (which I’ve come to value).
This setup works great in iA Writer as well, something that’s becoming increasingly important to me.
When it comes to daily, weekly, and monthly notes, it seems that for me, it’s a case of choose any two. When I was focusing on daily and weekly notes, the monthly notes were neglected. Now that I’m focusing on daily and monthly notes, I can’t see a need for weeklies.
A new, plugin-free task management system
This week I’ve taken a new approach to plain text task management, and so far I’m loving it! In a nutshell, every simple task/project gets its own file, and flows between folders depending on its priority. While it doesn’t need plugins to work, I’m using one to automate the movement of notes to different locations in my vault. I like this system because —
The Must, Should, Could way of prioritising works with my brain
Creating a new task is as simple as pressing ⌘N to create a new file
Everything has a place, and I know where to find it! This is big!
It has an analog feel, and that sings to me.
Read all about it here.