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.

Inspiration for the naming of projects comes from todo.txt; each begins with a number that starts with +. Referring loosely to my version of the Johnny Decimal system, I’m using the +200s for Home (personal), and +500s for Work (business).

Using Johnny Decimal With Obsidian Solved My Organising Woes
The granular system I swore I’d never touch turned out to be the missing half of my paperless equation medium.com

I’m currently using several apps to interact with my Projects and Tasks 2023.md file. This is to make sure the format I use is broadly compatible with most plain text apps, while still conforming to the TaskPaper syntax.

Mac:

• TaskPaper

• Obsidian (with a nice set of saved searches)

• Sublime Text (+ PlainTask package)

iPad and iPhone:

• iA Writer

• Taskmator (with extreme caution because of iCloud sync issues)

I’m pleased to have worked out how to get Hazel to back up my task file to Dropbox each time it’s modified in iCloud! Keeping everything in one potentially losable/corruptible file doesn’t feel so dangerous now.

Waxing philosophical, keeping it real

It’s interesting, where the plain text path is taking me. At the beginning I was all in on Obsidian; couldn’t get enough of plugins and complexity and endlessly tweaking every part of the system. The more I wrote about the ins and out of what was fast becoming the Markdown flavour of the month, the more reads I got on my articles, and the more money I made.

In many ways it was an awesome time, supplementing my income while writing about my obsession.

But things have changed; I’m following a simpler path now. One that steers away from focusing on features unique to single apps, and instead prioritises broad spectrum compatibility on the plain text level. I’m theorising that this (along with more tech-minded players in the Obsidian-is-awesome market) is why reads have gone down, and income is less than half what it was at its peak, but I’m more determined than ever to pursue an app and platform agnostic system for project and task management, as well as note taking. It’s freeing, I tell you! I’m focused on the path, not the reward. On what I’m blessed to have, not what I wish I had.

This article helped to clarify the bigger picture:

Areas of Focus: The Foundation Of All Solid Productivity Systems. — Carl Pullein

The concept is an old one, but I suppose it stood out to me now because I’m ready for it. It’s an idea whose time has come!

This week I’ll be making a list of my values in — I was going to say Obsidian, because that’s where I do most of my writing, but I don’t want to highlight an app over the process. So, yes, I will almost certainly write up my values in Obsidian, on my Mac, but I could just as easily do them in any plain text app.

Even before completing the exercise myself, I can say that identifying and quantifying our values is vital! Without this kind of self-awareness, this sense of where our daily actions are rooted, any tech journey is just a shallow, directionless obsession.

Wishing you a week of mindful productivity, rooted in your own deeply held values.

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