PTPL 032: This Markdown editor puts your vault online at half the price of Obsidian Publish
Plus - Linear, Design, and Systems thinking, and a graphics capable clipboard manager
Today I’ll be talking about —
Linear, Design, and Systems thinking
A clipboard manager that effortlessly handles graphics
3 of my favourite ways to be generous
A new Markdown editor that can sync your calendar, and publish online at half the price of Obsidian
My monthly log performing well under pressure
Productivity Inspiration
Linear, Design, and Systems Thinking
Which type of thinking has the most impact on your productivity system — linear, design, or systems?
The answer you’ll get depends on who you’re asking!
Linear thinking defines important logical steps
Design thinking creates bespoke functionality in an appropriately beautiful form
Systems thinking zooms right out to see how the component parts work together on their own, and how they influence and are influenced by a wider context
I like this article by Houda Boulahbel, where she argues that we need a balance between all three.
If you only bet on the linear thinker, you might get bogged down in the minute details of a house, and miss the big picture.
If you only rely on the design thinker, you might end up creating beautiful, elegant solutions to the wrong problem, or create solutions that perpetuate the problem in the long-term.
If you only bet on the systems thinker, you may get paralysed by all the possibilities and all the considerations and end up doing nothing at all.
— Houda Boulahbel
Naturally, I’ve applied this to act of designing a plain text productivity system.
Linear thinking — hierarchical outlining
Design thinking — typographical details, functional interlinking of notes
Systems thinking — how a collection of notes affects the way you interact with other people, and with other document formats in various locations
As a digital note maker, you’ll generally be as effective as the balance between these three areas.
Productivity Tips
Paste Utility — save graphics into your clipboard manager
There are more clipboard utilities than you can count on both hands (probably), but how many of them can also save graphics? From screenshots and icons to simple graphic elements in the Affinity suite, Paste keeps them ready for action. I like being able to copy all the elements I need, separately, then access them in any order I like via Paste, without having to go back to the source.
You can access Paste as part of the Setapp subscription (affiliate link).
Being generous can make you more productive
It’s the smiley end of the year (or it should/could be), so I’m going to stretch the definition of productivity to include things that can make you feel so good you’ll get more done in less time just so you can try out these generosity ideas.
This post lists 50 ways to feel good by being generous. Here are three of my favourites:
Give a compliment to three strangers: a child, someone your own age, and an elder. Try to share a compliment that’s not related to their body or physical appearance. Instead, praise their inner qualities and skills. Say, “You’re amazing at riding that tricycle!” “You have the most calming voice. I could listen to you speak all day long.” “You inspire me to be more courageous.”
Tell a teenager: “You are so brilliant. I can’t wait to see who you become. And I love who you are right now.”
Set a boundary and actually enforce it. This might be, “Actually, I don’t work on weekends.” “No, I don’t offer discounts for my services.” “I’m not available to meet until 2 weeks from now.” “My phone will be off for the rest of the day.” “I can deliver this project next Friday, but not before then.” Why is it generous to enforce a boundary? Because when someone witnesses you doing this, they will realize, “I can do this, too.” They’ll be inspired by your behavior and feel permission to set their own healthy boundaries, too. You’re leading by example.
— Alexandra Franze
Adventures in Plain Text
A new editor for your Markdown files: Acreom
Acreom has positioned itself as a local first Markdown editor for developers, with optional web access via a cloud vault, and mobile apps. I’m no developer so I don’t know how useful Acreom will be for me, but it sure is exciting to find yet another app that can work with my Markdown files!
Here’s the feature list:
lightweight but powerful markdown editor enabling the knowledge base to be executable and easily organized
capture-first organise-later interface
local-first
deeply integrated with devtools
community driven, open-source and extensible with high quality plugins any 3rd party engineer can develop
IDE-like assistance to offload organisational hassle
While I’ve only taken a cursory glance at Acreom, so far its superpower seems to be calendar integration, and a publish option that’s less than half the price of Obsidian’s. I’ve yet to see what advantage there’d be in paying for their publish service, compared with Obsidian-centric digital garden options like Flowershow.
The monthly log experiment: it’s settling down (at last? for now?)
No changes to the monthly log setup this week. I like this because it means my system is working well under pressure. (I’m a serial system-changer in the moment when there’s friction, even when crazy-busy.)
Plain text task management needs refining, especially as the number of them grows and priorities need to be set. So far I’m happy with the system, but can envisage scenarios that will require a different approach.