PTPL 096: Content Over Tools, Files Over Apps, Internal Observation Over External Inspiration

Also — Cal Newport’s plan.txt, and the Plus, Minus Next method

Plain text, Paper, Less (PTPL) Productivity Digest, text-based image by Author

This week: Plan.txt and the Plus, Minus, Next method for making sense of the week that’s been and the one to come. Define your priorities to keep Obsidian the tool you need it to be.

No AI input here; all words 100% human made. PTPL is now paywall free! Support through reading, sharing or becoming a paid subscriber is gratefully received.

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Tools Are Not the Answer, but Do You Know the Question?

Cal Newport wrote about plan.txt back in 2008, eight years before I started taking my own first steps toward simplified productivity.

Each week Cal writes what he intends to do, and how he intends to do it. There’s no template, no rigid rules. He might write a paragraph, or several pages.

My plan.txt file…allows my brain, each week, to do what it does best: figure out a very workable short-term plan for making progress on what’s important. This is freestyle productivity in action.

— Cal Newport

It’s taken me a large portion of the past eight years to move my focus from tools to systems, so I imagine that even if I’d known about Cal’s approach back then it wouldn’t have helped me skip the queue. I had too much inner work to do and would not have been ready for it back then.

These days I simplify wherever I can to keep myself focused. Plain text and simple paper-based systems are my attempt at avoiding the kind of overthinking that gets in the way of actually achieving my goals instead of just placing them on (yet another) to do list!

At the end of each week I write a review of the past 7 days. Achievements, memorable moments, frustrations, joys, failures, observations. I write this on paper, preceding each point with a dash. After I’m done I’ll read it back, and change the dash as needed:

• A vertical line changes the dash to a plus for positive points

• An arrow head added to the right of the dash marks future plans

• The dash stays as it is for things that didn’t go so well

And there you have it — a freeform Plus · Minus · Next exercise done and dusted, without having to think of which category I’m writing about before putting pen to paper!

When I’m running paperless, the Plus, Minus, Next review goes at the beginning of my weekly note in Obsidian.

More about Plus, Minus, Next

Relative Priorities, and Obsidian

Three important relative priorities I’ve adopted since beginning this journey in 2016, and one guiding principle:

• Content of my notes and plans first, tools (digital or analog) I use to create them second

• Files (that I own and control) first, apps that can read and change them second

• Self-observation (i.e. via interstitial journaling) first, inspiration from other people’s systems second

• Have as few capture points as possible, and review them at least weekly

There’s irony in the article that Steph Ango, the CEO of Obsidian, wrote on the topic of files over apps. His points are valid and his writing is stunningly concise, as usual, but his app has 1000 ways (plugins) to bind the unsuspecting user to it!

I’m only half kidding here.

Obsidian is my favourite Markdown app — it’s where I’m creating these words right now — but it takes informed, intentional effort to keep my files free from plugin-generated cruft that won’t work anywhere else.

The good news is that keeping your files independent and portable between apps is not hard to do! Plugins are great, I love them and encourage people to use them on top of their files; as clothing that can easily be changed or discarded, not as a beneath-the-skin digital skeleton you can’t live without.

Plan.txt and Plus, Minus, Next for making sense of the week that’s been and the one to come. Define priorities to keep Obsidian the tool you need it to be.

How am I doing?

I love hearing from readers, and I’m always looking for feedback. How am I doing with Plain Text. Paper, Less? Is there anything you’d like to see more, or less of? Which aspects do you enjoy the most? Let me know in the comments, or hit reply if you received this as an email.

No AI input: all words 100% human made (though I totally stole the above paragraph from @jayclouse). Download productivity goodies (including a soon-to-be-released updated Obsidian Planner demo vault) here.