PTPL 026: Obsidian is an App For Productivity Obsessives
Plus: Full-screen Mac clock screensavers, and the value of being able to access your vault via more than one app
Thought of the week:
The last time you wrote a note in your app of choice, was your attention more on the topic of your note, or on the interface of the app itself? One way to know an app is a good fit for you is when you realise that the act of using it almost always takes a backseat to the work you do there.
Today I’ll be talking about —
The turning of the tide toward simplicity, including plain text
Plain text files: from Google Docs, and apps to edit them on iOS
The value of being able to access your Obsidian vault via more than one app
Obsidian plugin: Double-click on tab to rename
Productivity Inspiration
Published in the past week
Meet the Mac App That’s Connecting Knowledge Like No Other Can
How to Go Back to Productivity Basics (Before Embracing That Shiny New App)
What You’re Really Saying When You Get My Name Wrong (this one is not overtly productivity related)
Is the plain text internet coming?
David Pierce from Protocol thinks the web is being overrun with junk. He points to Plain Text Sports as one site that’s rebelling against the norm by providing complex sports results, completely in plain text! No Markdown, no nothing, except the plainest of plain text. It’s strangely refreshing.
In general, we’re starting to see developers and designers rebel against the general overwhelm of the internet, as sites and apps ditch their cruft and complications for things that load faster and work more intuitively. Social networks are bringing back chronological feeds; reading modes are now everywhere in browsers. Even apps like Obsidian, a favorite among productivity obsessives, are based primarily on plain text. They don’t look like much, but that’s kind of the point. — David Pierce
Point to ponder: What might it mean to be a productivity obsessive? Is it possible to use Obsidian extensively without being one?
Productivity Tips and News
Full-screen clock Mac screensaver
You’ve probably seen the Fliqlo full-screen clock in stock photography without realising it. It’s simple, looks great, and does the job. The Padbury Clock is a more subtle alternative. I like how the Padbury has options for light or dark mode, and for displaying the time in red at night, but I wish they’d let us turn off the seconds and take up the whole display with hours and minutes.
Plain text file from a Google Doc
You can export a Google doc to a plain text file. I can’t think why you’d want to do that, but I suppose it’s nice that you can! Once your Google Doc is created, go to File > Download > Plain Text (.txt). You can format the Google Doc with Markdown, if you want, but you’ll need to change the file extension from .txt to .md once it’s downloaded.
⚠️ Warning: Don’t turn on the Google Docs Markdown editor and expect your exported text document to retain the formatting — it won’t.
How to edit .txt files on iOS
You can edit .txt files on iPad and iPhone with Pages, but my favourites are iA Writer and Editorial. iA Writer can edit iCloud files without moving them, something a lot of apps insist on doing. Editorial requires Dropbox for syncing between devices.
Siri to Respond to Just ‘Siri’ Phrase Instead of ‘Hey Siri’
According to one source, Apple is in the process of training its digital assistant to respond to “Siri”, and not just “Hey Siri”. Another step in the process of simplifying our use of AI. I can’t help but think this will trigger more false requests. I’m siri-ous about that concern as I sit here looking at a map of As-siri-ya, eating my crunchy nut siri-al.
Adventures in Obsidian
Double-click on tab to rename
This plugin is what I’ve been looking for! Solves the problem of a too-long breadcrumb obscuring the file name, and thus making it impossible to click to rename. That was a feature I took for granted in the previous version. Double Click Tab is still in beta, so you’ll need to install it via the Obsidian BRAT plugin.
Note: It won’t work until you turn off the following in your Mac’s Setting: Dock & Menu Bar > Double-click a window’s title bar to zoom/minimise.
Inline Title — I never thought I’d say this
It’s true: I’ve brought back the inline title, but only for times when I’ll be doing a lot of file renaming. Without Style Settings, I’d keep it off for good. I’ve changed the size to .9 em, and the colour to barely readable grey in both dark and light modes.
The value of being able to access your vault via more than one app
I’ve made some changes to file and folder names in my Obsidian Bible vault; ones that were linked in a lot of other places. We’re talking tens of thousands of notes here! Obsidian understandably hung for a few minutes, while sorting through and updating all those links. The good news: I was able to seamlessly switch over to iA Writer and continue the rest of my work!
⚠️ Warning: when working on your vault in another app in situations like this, make sure you keep well away from the files Obsidian is working through. It’s fine to access different parts of your vault from more than one app, but you don’t want to mess with specific files one app is currently processing.