PTPL 050: More on the Supremely Awesome TaskPaper Syntax in Obsidian, and 4 Other Apps

PLUS Folders in Photos, and allowing your own set of values to steer your notes

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

Welcome to the Plain Text, Paper — Less Productivity Digest! I’m Ellane, and this is a once-a-week taster of the unusual, the helpful, and the delightfully mundane, as well as the next instalment in my quest to future proof and simplify my digital-analog workflow.

This week —

• A new-to-me way of organising albums in Photos: folders!

• TaskPaper syntax in Obsidian, how I name my projects, and the 4 additional apps that work with my tasks file

• How the plain text journey is leading me to root everything in my core values, and why/how you should identify your own set of values if you haven’t already

Productivity Tips and Inspiration

Process always wins

Here’s an important quote from Curtis McHale :

The tools you use matter so much less than the process you have built around using them. The latest note app won’t suddenly make you a great thinker, if you never spend the time needed on thinking.

FYI this quote was shared by Curtis on Mastodon, but also appears on his website. An important lesson right there.

Apple Has Hidden Away the Best Way to Organise Your Photos | by Will J Murphy | Mac O’Clock | Apr, 2023 | Medium

Folders in Photos

I can’t believe I didn’t know about this! Well, better late than never. Collections of albums in folders will go a long way toward taming the crazy number of photos on my iPhone.

Adventures in Plain Text (and a little paper)

TaskPaper syntax in Obsidian — I love it!

This week I considered (not for the first time) pulling my vault out of iCloud in favour of Dropbox, but eventually decided against it; in no small degree because iA Writer is iCloud only. The TaskPaper syntax is flexible, and there are enough apps around that can read it, I’ll be sticking with it for the next few months to see how it goes in the heat of battle.

Screenshot of the TaskPaper app, by Author

So far I can say that switching from atomising to unifying my tasks (i.e. one task per file, to all tasks on one page) is giving me a better sense of the big picture. I very much like being able to scroll the list and feel the depth and breadth of what I’ve accepted onto my plate.