PTPL 059: Analog-Inspired Task Management in Obsidian—Does Your System Fit Your Needs?

PLUS Markdown flashcards that work in both Obsidian and Mochi

Jul 03, 2023

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

Welcome to a once-a-week taster of things that I’ve found helpful in my quest to create a simple, future proof, digital-analog workflow.

Productivity Inspiration

This Medium article from Theo Stowell encourages letting go of unrealistic task management expectations. What might happen if you embraced the messiness?

On Mastodon this past week, Epiphanic Synchronicity told me they have a task management workflow in Obsidian that doesn’t need plugins, or a special syntax like TaskPaper. Theirs is a straightforward approach of manually moving tasks from one day to the next. “Like analog, but faster.”

Whether or not you use a dedicated task manager, does your system embrace the spirit of this approach? Is the way you are currently handling tasks either more, or less complex than your needs require?

If you’re not sure, try this exercise.

Adventures in Plain Text (and a little paper)

Dark background with hand drawn elements. Largest text reads July 2023. There are two versions of a 24-hour grid with space in the middle for notes; one is rectangular in portrait format, and the other is circular. There’s a sketch of a thermos cup with a handle in the middle of the page. — Concepts app screenshot by Author

Early morning planning — using the Concepts app as a scratchpad

This past month I’ve been using my iPad for early morning planning. Fire up a dark background in the Concepts app, and get the brain blips down on virtual paper. Something that surprised me was to see how I’ve used the same infinite canvas for the entire month of June — and it’s worked well!

More details and pictures here. Download my free, dinky 24-hour templates here.

My flashcards are back in Markdown (and it’s about time, too)

I’ve been back into learning French in an organised way since the beginning of the year, flopping backwards and forwards between flashcard apps and plugins like nobody’s business. Should have guessed I wouldn’t be happy in Anki-land for long, solely because of no local-first storage of files in a human-readable format.

No spirit of plain text = not where I want to be.

So I’ve resurrected my old Markdown flashcards and am gradually adding the new ones to the list. The most exciting thing about this return to old habits is that I’ll be able to use the same folder of Markdown files with both Mochi, and the Spaced Repetition plugin in Obsidian, with the latter my backup for the locked-away Mochi files.

Hooray for future proof, local first storage, human readable files that some clever coding can turn into a language learning powerhouse!

I’ll be interested to see which I’m drawn to most: Mochi, or Spaced Repetition in Obsidian.