My 2026 Obsidian Setup
๐ **Source:** [My 2026 Obsidian Setup](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57BQPcObwG0)
> [!note]+ Document Notes
> tags: [obsidian, note-taking, productivity]
> author: Curtis McHale
> source: YouTube
> reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57BQPcObwG0
> date created: 2025-01-27 10:00
>
> # ๐ท๏ธ Title: My 2026 Obsidian Setup
>
<!-- deep-read:sections start -->
## ๐งฐ Action Inbox
- [H1] Review theme settings โ Anna Poutine theme exploration #obsidian
- [H2] Implement folder structure โ minimize to essential folders #productivity
- [H3] Configure plugins โ focus on book tracking and templates #setup
## ๐งญ Table of Contents
- [๐ Summary](#-summary)
- [๐ Main Content](#-main-content)
- [๐๏ธ Notes](#๏ธ-notes)
- [๐ References](#-references)
- [๐ฃ๏ธ Paraphrase](#๏ธ-paraphrase)
- [๐ฐ Newsletter](#-newsletter)
- [โ
Action Items](#-action-items)
- [๐งช Hypotheses](#-hypotheses)
- [๐ Methodology](#-methodology)
- [โ Questions](#-questions)
- [๐ฎ Future Research](#-future-research)
- [๐ก Implications](#-implications)
- [๐ง Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment)
- [๐ Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment)
- [๐ DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment)
- [โ
Logical Validity](#-logical-validity)
- [๐ก๏ธ DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis)
- [๐ฏ Conclusion](#-conclusion)
### ๐ References
- [Curtis McHale Channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjhJL3WQF0W5fKK3UBVHFig)
- [Curtis McHale Website](https://curtismchale.ca)
## ๐ Summary
- Curtis McHale demonstrates his comprehensive Obsidian setup for 2026, covering theme, folder structure, plugins, and workflows
- Why it matters: Provides practical insights for optimizing personal knowledge management systems
- Key stakeholders: Obsidian users, note-taking enthusiasts, productivity-focused individuals
- Risks and tradeoffs: Complex setups can become maintenance burdens vs. powerful capabilities
- Bottom line takeaway: Successful Obsidian setups prioritize essential folders and proven plugins over complexity
## ๐ Main Content
Curtis walks through his mature Obsidian vault setup, emphasizing a "if it's not broken, don't fix it" philosophy. His configuration centers on book tracking, writing projects, and minimal folder structures. Key components include the Anna Poutine theme, essential folder organization (inbox, sources, notes, templates), and carefully selected plugins for book management, templating, and content creation. He demonstrates practical workflows for capturing external content, managing reading lists, and organizing long-form writing projects.
## ๐๏ธ Notes
#### โฑ๏ธ [00:00](https://youtu.be/57BQPcObwG0?t=0) โ [H1] Introduction and Theme Setup
- Key idea: Complete vault walkthrough covering theme, folders, and configuration
- Evidence: "We're going to take a dig through my entire Obsidian vault"
#### โฑ๏ธ [01:23](https://youtu.be/57BQPcObwG0?t=83) โ [H2] Anna Poutine Theme Configuration
- Key idea: Uses Anna Poutine theme with light mode and stock settings
- Evidence: "I use Anna Poutine. I don't use any custom fonts. I pretty much always use the light theme"
#### โฑ๏ธ [03:45](https://youtu.be/57BQPcObwG0?t=225) โ [H3] Essential Folder Structure
- Key idea: Minimal folder structure focuses on inbox, notes, sources, templates, and assets
- Evidence: "I think you need your inbox, my thoughts, sources, templates, and ZZ assets"
#### โฑ๏ธ [06:12](https://youtu.be/57BQPcObwG0?t=372) โ [H2] Vim Mode Integration
- Key idea: Vim key bindings enabled for consistent editing experience
- Evidence: "I turn on Vim mode. Vim keys are important to me because that's just how I edit"
#### โฑ๏ธ [08:30](https://youtu.be/57BQPcObwG0?t=510) โ [H3] Daily Notes for Weight Tracking
- Key idea: Daily notes used only for weight lifting tracking, not comprehensive journaling
- Evidence: "The only thing I use them for is I open up a daily note when I go lift weights"
#### โฑ๏ธ [12:15](https://youtu.be/57BQPcObwG0?t=735) โ [H1] Sources Folder Organization
- Key idea: Sources contain books, clippings, and external content with structured metadata
- Evidence: "All of my book notes, anything that you see on my shelf behind me are cataloged in that books area"
#### โฑ๏ธ [18:45](https://youtu.be/57BQPcObwG0?t=1125) โ [H2] Tag Notes vs Traditional Tags
- Key idea: Tag notes allow aliases and summaries unlike traditional tags
- Evidence: "Tags originally don't have aliases, but all of these COVID-19 variants can be the same thing with aliases"
#### โฑ๏ธ [22:30](https://youtu.be/57BQPcObwG0?t=1350) โ [H3] Writing Project Organization
- Key idea: Writing folder uses numbered prefixes for workflow stages (ready, working, published)
- Evidence: "020 working, just so they sort to the top. Ready is articles ready for final edit"
#### โฑ๏ธ [28:15](https://youtu.be/57BQPcObwG0?t=1695) โ [H1] Core Plugins Selection
- Key idea: Selective use of core plugins focusing on essential functionality
- Evidence: "I'm not sure how you use Obsidian and don't use backlinks"
#### โฑ๏ธ [32:00](https://youtu.be/57BQPcObwG0?t=1920) โ [H2] Graph View Skepticism
- Key idea: Questions the practical utility of graph view for knowledge work
- Evidence: "I honestly just don't get it. I don't get what this view does for me"
#### โฑ๏ธ [35:45](https://youtu.be/57BQPcObwG0?t=2145) โ [H3] Workspace Management
- Key idea: Workspaces save layouts for different project contexts
- Evidence: "This lets me have a bunch of notes open and remember how that was placed"
#### โฑ๏ธ [40:20](https://youtu.be/57BQPcObwG0?t=2420) โ [H1] Book Search Plugin Workflow
- Key idea: Book Search plugin automates book note creation with templates
- Evidence: "I use this all the time to create a new book note and it adds with my template"
#### โฑ๏ธ [45:30](https://youtu.be/57BQPcObwG0?t=2730) โ [H2] Data View for Book Tracking
- Key idea: Data view creates dynamic lists of current and completed books
- Evidence: "Data view is what gives me this view with my current books and all the books I've read"
#### โฑ๏ธ [52:15](https://youtu.be/57BQPcObwG0?t=3135) โ [H3] Read It Later Plugin Challenges
- Key idea: Web clipping functionality has technical issues but provides content capture
- Evidence: "In practice with Firefox, it's just not working. There's a mismatch between templating tags"
#### โฑ๏ธ [58:00](https://youtu.be/57BQPcObwG0?t=3480) โ [H2] Tracker Plugin Limitations
- Key idea: Tracker shows promise but implementation challenges limit practical use
- Evidence: "I would love to record my books with pretty graphs, but I spent tons of time and decided I'm not doing that anymore"
## ๐ References
- [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/)
- [Anna Poutine Theme](https://github.com/SlRvb/Obsidian--ITS-Theme)
- [Curtis McHale Membership](https://curtismchale.ca/membership)
## ๐ฃ๏ธ Paraphrase
- Curtis demonstrates a mature Obsidian setup focused on book tracking and writing projects
- The system prioritizes essential functionality over complex features or extensive customization
- Key workflows center on capturing external content, managing reading lists, and organizing writing stages
## ๐ฐ Newsletter
Curtis McHale shares his refined Obsidian setup after years of use, offering practical insights for knowledge workers. His approach emphasizes simplicity and proven functionality over complexity - using minimal folders (inbox, sources, notes, templates), selective plugins, and structured workflows for book tracking and writing projects.
Key takeaway: Successful personal knowledge management systems benefit from restraint and focus on workflows that actually get used daily.
Resources: [Learn WordPress](https://learn.wordpress.org/), [Developer Docs](https://developer.wordpress.org/), [WP-CLI](https://wp-cli.org/)
## โ
Action Items
#### DevRel
- Developer education: Create Obsidian workflow tutorials, demonstrate knowledge management practices
- Documentation: Develop setup guides for technical teams using Obsidian
- Community engagement: Share plugin recommendations and configuration best practices
#### Community
- Knowledge sharing: Document folder structures and plugin configurations for reproducible setups
- Mentorship: Guide new Obsidian users through essential vs. optional feature decisions
- Best practices: Establish templates and workflows for consistent team knowledge management
## ๐งช Hypotheses
- Minimal folder structures reduce cognitive overhead and improve note-taking consistency
- Read-later systems have limited long-term value due to low revisit rates
- Graph views provide limited practical utility for most knowledge work tasks
- Plugin restraint prevents system complexity from becoming a maintenance burden
### ๐ Methodology
- Longitudinal case study tracking folder usage patterns over time
- Comparative analysis of simple vs. complex Obsidian configurations
- User behavior studies examining graph view engagement and utility
### โ Questions
- How do different folder structures impact knowledge retrieval and creation patterns?
- What metrics effectively measure the ROI of personal knowledge management systems?
- Which Obsidian features provide genuine productivity benefits versus novelty appeal?
### ๐ฎ Future Research
- Investigate automation opportunities for book metadata and reading tracking
- Explore AI integration for content summarization and connection discovery
- Study optimal plugin combinations for different professional workflows
### ๐ก Implications
- Practice: Focus setup decisions on daily workflows rather than potential capabilities
- Education: Develop training materials emphasizing sustainable knowledge management practices
- Tool design: Consider complexity tradeoffs in personal productivity software development
### ๐ง Learning Styles Assessment
Reading level estimate: 10th Grade
#### ๐ Visual learners
- Present: Screen recordings showing folder structures, plugin interfaces, and workflows
- Improve: Folder hierarchy diagrams, plugin relationship maps, workflow visualizations
#### ๐ Aural learners
- Present: Detailed narration throughout video demonstration
- Improve: Audio-only setup guide, podcast discussion of knowledge management principles
#### ๐ฃ๏ธ Verbal learners
- Present: Clear explanations of plugin purposes, folder naming conventions, workflow descriptions
- Improve: Glossary of Obsidian terminology, comparison charts of similar tools
#### ๐งฉ Kinesthetic learners
- Present: Step-by-step configuration demonstrations, hands-on plugin setup
- Improve: Configuration checklists, practice exercises, sandbox environments
#### ๐ง Logical learners
- Present: Systematic folder organization, plugin selection criteria, workflow logic
- Improve: Decision trees for setup choices, comparison matrices, optimization metrics
#### ๐งโ๐คโ๐ง Social learners
- Present: Community references, sharing workflows with others
- Improve: Discussion forums, collaborative setup sessions, peer review processes
#### ๐งโโ๏ธ Solitary learners
- Present: Individual customization focus, personal workflow emphasis
- Improve: Self-assessment questionnaires, reflection prompts for setup choices
#### ๐ฟ Naturalistic learners
- Present: Organic system evolution over time, natural workflow development
- Improve: Growth pattern analysis, ecosystem metaphors for knowledge management
### ๐ Accessibility Assessment
#### Screen reader semantics
- Present: Clear heading structure in video description
- Improve: Detailed alt text for visual elements, structured navigation aids
#### Keyboard navigation
- Present: Vim keybinding demonstrations, keyboard shortcuts shown
- Improve: Complete keyboard workflow documentation, navigation guides
#### Contrast and readability
- Present: High contrast theme demonstration, readable font sizes
- Improve: Color accessibility analysis, text scaling examples
#### Text resizing and reflow
- Present: Font size adjustments shown in settings
- Improve: Responsive layout examples, zoom compatibility testing
#### Media and captions
- Present: Spoken narration throughout video
- Improve: Detailed captions, transcript with timestamps, visual descriptions
#### Forms and interactions
- Present: Clear plugin configuration steps
- Improve: Error handling examples, validation feedback demonstration
### ๐ DEIB Assessment
#### Cultural breadth
- Present: Book examples from diverse authors and topics
- Improve: Global knowledge management practices, multilingual setup guides
#### Inclusive language
- Present: Neutral technical terminology, accessible explanations
- Improve: Plain language alternatives, jargon definitions
#### Neurodiversity support
- Present: Multiple organization methods, customizable interfaces
- Improve: ADHD-friendly workflows, sensory consideration documentation
#### Representation
- Present: Individual perspective from experienced user
- Improve: Multiple user story examples, diverse use case scenarios
#### Psychological safety
- Present: Non-judgmental approach to different organizational styles
- Improve: Validation of various knowledge management approaches
### โ
Logical Validity
#### Strong reasoning
- Inductive strength: Personal experience over years builds general principles about effective knowledge management
- Causal reasoning: Links specific plugin choices to workflow outcomes and productivity benefits
#### Fallacies
- Survivorship bias: Only shows features that worked, not failed experiments or alternative approaches
- Anecdotal evidence: Single user experience may not generalize to different work contexts
#### Tone of voice
- Overall tone: Practical and experienced, emphasizing pragmatism over perfection
### ๐ก๏ธ DARVO Analysis
- No DARVO patterns detected
- Content focuses on technical demonstration rather than conflict resolution
- Maintains objective perspective on tool capabilities and limitations
## ๐ฏ Conclusion
Curtis McHale's Obsidian setup demonstrates the value of restraint and focus in personal knowledge management systems. After years of refinement, his configuration prioritizes essential workflows - book tracking, writing projects, and content capture - over feature complexity. The key insight is that successful knowledge management depends more on consistent usage patterns than comprehensive tool mastery, suggesting users should optimize for daily workflows rather than theoretical capabilities.
## ๐งฑ Refactor Appendix
### ๐ Literature Split Pad
### [H1] Minimal folder structures improve knowledge management efficiency
> [!quote] My 2026 Obsidian Setup by Curtis McHale via YouTube. Published 2025-01-27. Accessed 2025-01-27.
> "I think you need your inbox, my thoughts, sources, templates, and ZZ assets."
Demonstrates focused approach to organization reducing cognitive overhead.
[view highlight](https://youtu.be/57BQPcObwG0?t=225#H1) #productivity #knowledge-management ID:rw_001
### [H2] Graph views provide limited practical utility for most users
> [!quote] My 2026 Obsidian Setup
> "I honestly just don't get it. I don't get what this view does for me."
Questions common assumption about visual network value in note-taking.
[view highlight](https://youtu.be/57BQPcObwG0?t=1920#H2) #visualization #productivity ID:rw_002
---
### ๐ Atomic Split Pad (Zettel Candidates)
#### [Z1] Essential folders reduce decision fatigue in note organization
- Applies to personal knowledge management contexts
- Evidence at 03:45 timestamp
- Links: [[Knowledge-Management]] [[Cognitive-Load]]
#### [Z2] Plugin restraint prevents maintenance burden in productivity systems
- Relevant for long-term tool sustainability
- Evidence at 58:00 timestamp
- Links: [[Tool-Management]] [[Complexity-Theory]]
---
### โ๏ธ Fleeting Queue
- [F1] Research Anna Poutine theme features โ customize appearance #fleeting #setup
- [F2] Test Book Search plugin integration โ automate reading workflow #fleeting
---
## Full Transcript
[00:00] Welcome. Today we're going to take a dig<br>[00:01] through my uh entire Obsidian vault,<br>[00:03] like kind of everything and my theme, my<br>[00:05] folders, all that stuff. Uh if you have<br>[00:08] any questions, please leave them in the<br>[00:09] comments. I will do my best to answer<br>[00:11] them or to do a follow-up video to show<br>[00:14] you what I do. So, here's my vault, and<br>[00:16] let's start with the easy stuff. We'll<br>[00:18] get it out of the way. What theme I use,<br>[00:20] if we go to appearance, you can see my<br>[00:22] theme, and I use Anna Poutine. I don't<br>[00:24] use any custom fonts. I pretty much<br>[00:26] always use the light theme um just<br>[00:28] because that's what I do. very rarely,<br>[00:30] although occasionally I do use a dark<br>[00:33] theme. Just it depends. Sometimes I'm<br>[00:35] like, "Oh, dark feels better here."<br>[00:36] Other than that, I may have increased<br>[00:38] the font size, but it was so long ago. I<br>[00:39] have no idea. And otherwise, I think<br>[00:42] this is stock, although I've been on<br>[00:43] Obsidian since before it was publicly<br>[00:45] released. So, that's entirely possible<br>[00:47] that I just don't remember what I've<br>[00:49] changed in here. You can take a quick<br>[00:50] look, right? Inline titles, tab bar,<br>[00:52] ribbons get shown. You can configure the<br>[00:55] ribbon menu if I want which is I guess<br>[00:57] up here but I haven't touched anything<br>[00:59] because nothing has been a problem for<br>[01:01] me. After that um we can look at my<br>[01:04] folders. So I have a bunch here but I<br>[01:05] really don't think you need a few. I<br>[01:06] think you need your inbox right here<br>[01:08] which is where all your notes would<br>[01:09] start. If you need notes, my thoughts,<br>[01:12] my thoughts on what other people uh have<br>[01:14] said or on other articles or uh not<br>[01:17] necessarily a book note because that<br>[01:18] goes in another spot which we'll talk<br>[01:19] about, but a spot where we um you know,<br>[01:22] maybe you've broken out a book note to<br>[01:23] think of something on our own. Uh and<br>[01:26] you need your sources. So, expand this,<br>[01:29] right? Sources. I have a few things in<br>[01:30] here which we'll talk about. This is uh<br>[01:32] external sources coming into my uh<br>[01:34] vault. And templates where I have<br>[01:36] templates for things that I'm going to<br>[01:37] just, you know, continue to uh reuse.<br>[01:41] And then assets right here, ZZ assets.<br>[01:43] This is just where you put in I'm going<br>[01:45] to go into our settings files and links,<br>[01:48] right? New notes start in my inbox and<br>[01:50] in the folder specified below for any<br>[01:52] new attachment. So if it pulls in an<br>[01:54] image or anything like that, it goes<br>[01:55] into ZZ assets. ZZ is there just to sort<br>[01:58] it to the bottom. That's it.<br>[02:00] That's the only reason probably one<br>[02:02] other thing we can look at while I'm in<br>[02:03] the editor here is here's Vim mode in<br>[02:05] here.<br>[02:07] So I turn on Vim mode. Here Vim key<br>[02:09] bindings right here is turned on. It<br>[02:10] actually asks you to save uh with the<br>[02:12] standard Vim commands. I use Vim a lot.<br>[02:14] Uh that's like my standard editor. I use<br>[02:16] it in Emacs. I use Evil mode in Doom<br>[02:18] EMAC. So Vim keys are important to me<br>[02:21] because that's just how I edit how I'm<br>[02:23] used to editing. Now you'll see I have<br>[02:25] some other folders in here. I have<br>[02:26] clients. I'll actually just walk through<br>[02:28] each folder individually. Clients. This<br>[02:29] is for clients that I had. I really have<br>[02:31] been working for one company for the<br>[02:33] last uh almost 5 years now. So, I'm not<br>[02:35] sure that I really need this anymore,<br>[02:36] but this is where I kept my client<br>[02:37] notes. Um, previously I have daily<br>[02:40] notes. I use daily notes for a while,<br>[02:41] but I really don't now. The only thing I<br>[02:43] use them for, and I can actually use the<br>[02:45] calendar plugin for this. I can come<br>[02:47] back in and say last Wednesday I lifted<br>[02:49] weights. That's it. That's all I use it<br>[02:51] for is I open up a daily note when I go<br>[02:52] lift weights and I play with it. That's<br>[02:55] it. I add in my what I did and that's<br>[02:57] it. I don't do any else with it. I don't<br>[02:59] keep a daily note. I don't keep any of<br>[03:01] the other things. Nothing like that.<br>[03:03] Inbox, literally what it says. My inbox,<br>[03:06] everything that I have kind of coming in<br>[03:08] that hasn't been sorted yet. And there's<br>[03:11] usually stuff in there that needs to be<br>[03:12] sorted for me. Uh I'd love to say I do<br>[03:15] uh better at that, but I don't. Uh long<br>[03:19] form, we'll come to that. That's a<br>[03:20] plugin. Notes. Again, this is for any<br>[03:22] external sources that I have um<br>[03:26] or any thoughts that I have, I suppose.<br>[03:28] Six figure income and childcare, right?<br>[03:29] So, you can look and this is a note that<br>[03:31] came out of a book and just my thoughts<br>[03:33] on the book and that or we'll grab<br>[03:35] another one. American male income has<br>[03:37] been stagnant for 50 years, the tyranny<br>[03:39] of merit that came from uh page 197. And<br>[03:43] then I have, you know, some notes on it,<br>[03:45] some summary, and then I have some of my<br>[03:47] own thoughts and relating it to other<br>[03:48] books as well. Right? All right, that's<br>[03:50] what was in my notes. Uh, I was doing<br>[03:52] some watch research. This is chorus<br>[03:54] paste 2, which is a watch that my wife<br>[03:56] has. This is education reinforcing<br>[03:59] fallacy. That's what I use in the case<br>[04:01] against education. That's what I use uh<br>[04:03] in my notes folder. It's my thoughts on<br>[04:06] external sources. Uh, Obsidian Tracker<br>[04:09] examples. Come to that when we talk<br>[04:10] about the tracker plugin. It's really<br>[04:11] just the example folder from there so<br>[04:12] you can see what it does. Uh,<br>[04:15] no, it looks like it's even empty for<br>[04:17] me. I'm going to delete it because I<br>[04:19] don't use it. Research dashboards.<br>[04:22] This isn't anacronism for me at the<br>[04:25] moment. Uh I it's just around. I'm not<br>[04:28] doing anything with it anymore. Uh in<br>[04:31] fact, this could just probably go into<br>[04:32] notes.<br>[04:35] Best research app, right?<br>[04:38] I was going to do a long thing looking<br>[04:39] at all the research apps. I haven't done<br>[04:41] it. Bullet journal. Again, I'm doing<br>[04:43] nothing. Canadian privacy rules. I've<br>[04:46] done really nothing on that. So, this in<br>[04:48] theory was going to be like a hold hold<br>[04:51] all for like long-term research projects<br>[04:53] and I really don't do anything with it<br>[04:54] anymore. All right, pens. Don't need<br>[04:56] that anymore. I was into pens like many<br>[04:58] people for a while and I'm not so into<br>[05:01] fountain pens and stuff. I'm just not. I<br>[05:03] just do stuff. Right. iPad. Uh I was<br>[05:05] going to do an iPad thing again, but uh<br>[05:06] I really only use my iPad for zifting<br>[05:08] and for watching YouTube while I'm on<br>[05:10] Zift.<br>[05:11] Nothing there. Snippets.<br>[05:14] So, this is for my code snippets. This<br>[05:15] is probably not something you would use.<br>[05:17] If I look at my snippets, and this is<br>[05:19] just literally how to add WooCommerce<br>[05:22] theme support to a theme. That's it. Or<br>[05:25] how to do CMB2, which is a WordPress<br>[05:27] thing. So, this is a code snippet<br>[05:29] library for me. Uh, I don't think you<br>[05:31] need this. Uh, I there's lots of code<br>[05:33] snippet editors out there that I could<br>[05:34] have grabbed and then I could I played<br>[05:36] with lots of them and I switched back<br>[05:37] and forth with lots of them and what I<br>[05:38] found was I just never stuck with it. I<br>[05:41] never went back to it. I abandoned it<br>[05:42] when I moved to something else. And so I<br>[05:44] just keep them in Obsidian now so that I<br>[05:46] just have them there. Right. And there's<br>[05:47] some naming here for some of them. Uh<br>[05:50] Genesis, this is right. This is for the<br>[05:51] Genesis theme. Uh get how to track a<br>[05:54] remote branch. WP is all WordPress<br>[05:57] stuff. That's it. I don't have a lot of<br>[05:59] snippets because there's not a lot of<br>[06:00] stuff. I reuse lots. Sources.<br>[06:04] Okay.<br>[06:06] So, first off, I have books. Uh so you<br>[06:08] can see we'll just the first book 12<br>[06:10] rules for life. Uh terrible book. my<br>[06:13] thoughts. But uh this is one I owned. I<br>[06:16] still own it. In fact, I'm gonna get rid<br>[06:18] of it, but I own it. Uh and you see I<br>[06:21] track owned it in hard cover and I you<br>[06:24] have read it although I don't have my<br>[06:25] date started and date ended there. Let<br>[06:27] me see what have I read<br>[06:30] anything in the be the beginning<br>[06:32] beautiful place on earth. Maybe that's<br>[06:33] one. Yeah, I read that one. So I<br>[06:35] actually read this on Kindle. What you<br>[06:37] can see here is it's actually an<br>[06:40] embedded note, right? So, this links to<br>[06:42] the uh original Kindle highlights and I<br>[06:44] can scroll through them right here<br>[06:45] easily.<br>[06:47] So, this was read and I borrowed it as<br>[06:49] an ebook and I read it from what is this<br>[06:52] uh 2025<br>[06:55] 2025 that's when I read this I guess<br>[06:58] from the 5th to the 12th of January in<br>[07:00] 2025. That's what goes in the books. Uh<br>[07:03] and as far as my sources go, so all of<br>[07:05] my book notes, anything that you see,<br>[07:07] let me show this on my shelf behind me.<br>[07:10] All these books are actually cataloged<br>[07:12] and they'd be in that books area now uh<br>[07:14] as an over as a an owned book clipping.<br>[07:17] So my clippings folder should work with<br>[07:19] the read it later plugin uh which we'll<br>[07:21] talk about and this is just clippings<br>[07:23] from uh other again from online sources.<br>[07:26] This will be a read later list or a<br>[07:31] something I've linked to something I<br>[07:32] have thoughts on and I just want to keep<br>[07:34] a record of it myself. Right? Blogging<br>[07:35] is alive and well. So, this allows me to<br>[07:38] find it later, link to it, and also to h<br>[07:41] have an internal link when I've written<br>[07:42] about it.<br>[07:45] Omnivore. I used omnivore for read later<br>[07:47] at one point. And this is the<br>[07:48] highlights. Should be the highlights of<br>[07:49] it. I think it just synced everything.<br>[07:52] So, I don't even see any highlights in<br>[07:53] here.<br>[07:56] So, in some ways, this is old,<br>[08:01] but I can go back here and dig through<br>[08:03] these notes if I want to or find these<br>[08:05] things that I want to read. Now, here's<br>[08:06] the thing. I found I said this in a<br>[08:08] recent um video post that I think read<br>[08:11] later is a little bit of garbage cuz I'm<br>[08:13] almost never going to go back to this<br>[08:14] stuff. I look at it and say, "Oh, I<br>[08:15] totally love to go read those." Right?<br>[08:17] Those are some Vim articles I<br>[08:18] highlighted at the end and I want to go<br>[08:20] read them, but I'm probably never going<br>[08:22] to get back to it. Which is one of the<br>[08:23] reasons I think Read Litter is a little<br>[08:25] bit of garbage. Um I could probably<br>[08:27] delete that entire folder and be none<br>[08:30] like and lose nothing in it.<br>[08:34] reads folder. There's two in here. Uh so<br>[08:37] books is books I've read and highlighted<br>[08:39] in. You can see 20 things I've learned<br>[08:40] as an entrepreneur. Atomic habits has<br>[08:43] some highlights and this is just<br>[08:45] automatically synced uh from Kindle or<br>[08:47] from Coobo uh to my books. Now it's only<br>[08:50] the Coobo books that I've purchased<br>[08:52] through the Coobo store, downloaded<br>[08:54] directly onto my Coobo from there in<br>[08:55] from them. if it's a book that I've<br>[08:57] sideloadaded because I unlocked all my<br>[08:59] uh Kindle books, right? Uh a while ago,<br>[09:03] uh actually just before they announced<br>[09:04] they were going to make it hard, uh and<br>[09:07] um those I have to export on my device<br>[09:09] and import as text into here. Articles.<br>[09:12] This is the articles I've highlighted<br>[09:14] from Rewise uh from Read Wise Reader,<br>[09:17] the Read Later service. And the rest of<br>[09:18] this stuff is just old articles I took<br>[09:21] notes on.<br>[09:25] sources tags. So I've talked about tag<br>[09:27] notes before and was there good. So life<br>[09:30] expectance even in this right here is a<br>[09:31] tag note. Do I have it started? I don't.<br>[09:34] So now I'd go tag note<br>[09:39] and I'd move it to tags. So now now if I<br>[09:42] want to talk about life expectancy or<br>[09:44] want to link to it in anything, uh you<br>[09:45] can see here I can literally just write<br>[09:47] life expectancy and link to it and then<br>[09:49] I can do write COVID 19 pandemic, right?<br>[09:51] I have aliases for it. Go tags<br>[09:53] originally. I don't know if this happens<br>[09:55] now. Uh did have aliases, but all of<br>[09:57] these co coid9 coid9 without a dash co<br>[10:00] by itself is all the same thing and lets<br>[10:02] me put aliases in there whereas tags<br>[10:04] don't. Uh right, United States also I<br>[10:07] can put in here American Americans US<br>[10:09] USA as aliases. And then for some, do I<br>[10:13] have any here? Affordable housing. I<br>[10:15] don't. Let's just make that a tag note<br>[10:16] since I did it.<br>[10:18] But if I wanted to do a summary of it,<br>[10:21] then I can actually just write the<br>[10:22] summary in here. Uh, and I linked in the<br>[10:25] blog post. I'll try to link up above in<br>[10:26] the video an actual explanation of how I<br>[10:28] use tagnotes and a demonstration of it<br>[10:30] uh really well for you. Templates fairly<br>[10:34] self-explanatory bike packing list,<br>[10:35] right? What I need in there. Uh, I don't<br>[10:37] really have a lot in there. My book<br>[10:39] template. So, when uh the plug-in book<br>[10:41] search, which we'll come to uh creates a<br>[10:43] new book note, this is what it does. Uh,<br>[10:46] camping, right? So, this is just like a<br>[10:48] general camping list.<br>[10:50] Content template. I don't use this<br>[10:51] anymore. Course notes section template.<br>[10:54] I don't use this anymore either. Daily<br>[10:56] notes. So, this is my daily note<br>[10:58] template. I can change that. I should<br>[10:59] probably just change this now. Wait,<br>[11:01] since that's all I use it for.<br>[11:05] And I should just delete the rest of it<br>[11:06] because I don't use it anymore. And now<br>[11:08] I've updated that. So, next time I<br>[11:10] create a new daily note, it will just<br>[11:11] use this template. Uh, what I use most<br>[11:13] actually is the YouTube embed. Just<br>[11:15] gives me the iframe here. And I just<br>[11:18] change this code right here to whatever<br>[11:19] code is at the end of the YouTube video<br>[11:20] when I put it on my site. That's it.<br>[11:23] Writing.<br>[11:25] Okay. So, first off, I've got some<br>[11:26] numbers. You can see uh 0 1 0 for ready.<br>[11:28] 020 working. Just so they sort to the<br>[11:31] top. There's no big thing about that.<br>[11:33] All right. I have ZZ archive for things<br>[11:36] I'm just not even thinking about<br>[11:37] anymore. So, uh for a long time I was<br>[11:39] doing a bunch of Mac apps, but I'm on<br>[11:40] Linux now and I just am not reviewing<br>[11:42] Mac apps. So, they're all archived. I<br>[11:44] don't need them. And ZZ published is the<br>[11:45] things I published. So in ready is<br>[11:47] articles that I think are ready uh for<br>[11:50] you know the final edit and for uh<br>[11:52] putting up into a video. So this is one<br>[11:54] that should be coming on the unseen<br>[11:55] power of physical books in a digital<br>[11:57] world. And then working would be like<br>[12:00] this three modes of thinking something<br>[12:01] I'd like to write about framing mental<br>[12:03] models and good faith arguments. 15<br>[12:05] books that made a big impact on me right<br>[12:07] deep work no longer talking to white<br>[12:08] people race invisible women scarcity and<br>[12:10] I have some others there that I would<br>[12:12] like to do a video on that. Um, so this<br>[12:14] is things that are kind of in progress<br>[12:15] that have a little bit of meat to them<br>[12:16] but aren't uh ne often necessarily the<br>[12:21] next thing I'm doing. It depends. So<br>[12:22] there's a little again a little bit of<br>[12:23] fuzz in here. I don't like tablets was<br>[12:24] another one I was writing about.<br>[12:27] Tablets seem great, but I they're just<br>[12:30] not as great as we hope. Uh ideas is for<br>[12:33] like the just the random ideas that I<br>[12:36] have. Uh things that are not necessarily<br>[12:39] flushed out.<br>[12:41] um that. But yeah, I'm just working on<br>[12:43] they're there. If I'm looking for an<br>[12:44] idea, I go look in there. So, big ideas<br>[12:47] is the next one. Big ideas is uh at one<br>[12:51] point I was thinking of doing explainer<br>[12:52] videos. I don't know like uh Tom Scott<br>[12:53] is the name that comes to mind.<br>[12:54] Something that was bigger, deeper, and<br>[12:56] more involved. Uh and this is where<br>[12:58] those were going to be held. Uh right.<br>[13:01] Capitalism doesn't require scarcity is<br>[13:02] another one. Um<br>[13:05] and I honestly I just haven't had time.<br>[13:08] You know, at 45, it's a busy life with<br>[13:09] three kids that need to be driven. My<br>[13:11] wife works evenings and I got to do it.<br>[13:13] I got to do all that and and I got to<br>[13:14] work full-time and I'd like to ride my<br>[13:15] bike. So, hard to get back to some of<br>[13:17] these things. Courses. I did a bunch of<br>[13:19] courses. You can buy them. Uh I think<br>[13:21] you still buy them on my site. You can<br>[13:22] definitely find them on Skillshare. Uh<br>[13:24] and this is where the courses were. And<br>[13:26] the stuff here where it says K advanced<br>[13:27] obsidian workflows. I originally used to<br>[13:29] use the Conbon<br>[13:32] um plugin. don't use it anymore, but you<br>[13:34] can see this is all the things that I<br>[13:35] was going to do and I haven't done any<br>[13:37] of them in a long time. I kept saying<br>[13:39] I'm going to do courses, but play gets<br>[13:40] in the way. Ideas already covered. And<br>[13:43] finally, these easy assets. That's just<br>[13:44] where like the PDFs come.<br>[13:47] All right. There's an image for 6 a.m.<br>[13:49] office hours I was using for a while.<br>[13:50] This is a picture of my kids. Uh,<br>[13:55] yep. Graphs from an article. That's<br>[13:58] everything that's there. So next up we<br>[14:00] should look at our community or our core<br>[14:03] plugins. So we can just do that by<br>[14:05] bringing up uh settings. I command comma<br>[14:08] for that or control comma command comma<br>[14:10] on Mac will work for that core plugins.<br>[14:13] So I'm just going to show you what I<br>[14:15] use. I don't use the audio recorder back<br>[14:17] links. That is the back links between um<br>[14:19] articles. I'm not sure how you use<br>[14:20] Obsidian and don't use that. Uh bases.<br>[14:22] This is a new feature that I haven't dug<br>[14:24] into at all. I probably should dig into<br>[14:26] it. Uh I don't even know what this is,<br>[14:27] but I should look at it and see. It<br>[14:29] could possibly replace I think um data<br>[14:32] view in some cases or some of my other<br>[14:34] views that I have for data uh for<br>[14:36] tracker possibly. I have to look into<br>[14:37] that. Don't use bookmarks. Don't use<br>[14:38] canvas. Use the command pallet. So<br>[14:40] that's how you do stuff like I'll hit<br>[14:42] control p. And now I can do something,<br>[14:45] right? I did this uh move to another<br>[14:46] folder. You can see it even highlights.<br>[14:48] I did this twice when I was creating tag<br>[14:49] notes. uh control altm uh and if I had a<br>[14:53] Mac one there it would show me like a<br>[14:55] second keyboard command there as well<br>[14:56] for me uh but I don't really use Mac so<br>[14:58] I don't have it because you can have<br>[15:01] multiple keyboard commands uh assigned<br>[15:02] to a task or to uh an event uh an action<br>[15:07] and then you can um it'll work on each<br>[15:09] platform. So like on my iPad I got<br>[15:11] different one have a different one or a<br>[15:12] you know command uh be command option M<br>[15:15] there and it work just fine not a<br>[15:17] problem. So that was the command bar. Uh<br>[15:20] daily notes I keep up again just for<br>[15:22] weights. I don't do anything else with<br>[15:23] it. File recovery. It was just on. I<br>[15:25] never touched it. Uh yeah, I don't use<br>[15:30] footnotes view. Uh I don't use the<br>[15:32] format comparator. Graph view.<br>[15:35] I am split on graph view. I don't even<br>[15:38] know how to get to it because I don't<br>[15:39] use it. Graph<br>[15:43] open graph view. So, lots of people show<br>[15:45] this off and it's, you know, as this,<br>[15:47] oh, look at all my notes. Look at<br>[15:48] everything I've done. And I honestly<br>[15:50] just don't get it.<br>[15:53] I I don't get what this view does for<br>[15:54] me. I clearly have a lot of notes are<br>[15:56] going out. Um,<br>[16:00] yeah, a lot of stuff's connected.<br>[16:02] Probably the only things I see that are<br>[16:03] useful is maybe this note over here,<br>[16:07] right? Oh, it says omnivore. again, not<br>[16:09] even that useful uh because it's a<br>[16:12] cluster. But so there was a while there<br>[16:14] where and I I looked at my notes and I<br>[16:16] said, "Hey, I hadn't read a lot about<br>[16:17] racism, um anti-racism or anything like<br>[16:19] that." There's a cluster like this and<br>[16:21] it just had one book I had read linked<br>[16:23] to another book and I had a big note on<br>[16:24] it. That's it. And now I don't even see<br>[16:26] that. So I I just don't get what people<br>[16:29] do. What's this here? What's this book?<br>[16:32] This is just like all the books I own. I<br>[16:34] I know you can do stuff with it. You can<br>[16:36] change right uh writing idea. I can find<br>[16:38] all my writing ideas in here. I can find<br>[16:41] my tag notes are green.<br>[16:44] I just don't find it that useful. So, I<br>[16:46] don't use it. And let's go to another<br>[16:49] note. Dashboard. We'll come back to what<br>[16:51] my dashboard is later. Okay. We're on<br>[16:55] graph view right note composer. Uh, this<br>[16:59] lets you merge and split notes. I don't<br>[17:01] know that I really use it. I use a<br>[17:03] different refactor notes, which you'll<br>[17:04] find in a minute. Outgoing links just<br>[17:05] shows me when the link is outgoing. I<br>[17:07] like that. uh outline. So on a note like<br>[17:11] this one is headings. Yeah, I have<br>[17:15] headings that I can look at the outline<br>[17:17] page preview. Uh I can see a page<br>[17:19] preview when I hover over an internal<br>[17:21] link. So I can look at this and I can<br>[17:23] see and scroll through a page preview of<br>[17:25] that.<br>[17:27] Honestly, now that I think about it,<br>[17:28] that might get in the way more than be<br>[17:29] useful to me. Quick switcher uh dump to<br>[17:33] other files. So that's when I you hit<br>[17:36] control O and I can choose different<br>[17:38] files<br>[17:40] and you can also search. That's I use<br>[17:41] that every day all the time. That's like<br>[17:43] I don't know how you'd use it without uh<br>[17:46] search. So you'll find that up here.<br>[17:48] We'll talk about how I use search uh in<br>[17:50] a bit. Uh when I look at random notes,<br>[17:52] this allows you to search has a bunch of<br>[17:54] operators and lets me you see here's my<br>[17:56] some of my old on systems need balance<br>[17:57] and buffer and it shows me the note that<br>[17:59] is right there with systems need balance<br>[18:01] and buffer. or if I need to find a note<br>[18:03] um that had I can't think of the name of<br>[18:05] exactly then that's how I would do that.<br>[18:11] All right, we were we search slash<br>[18:14] commands. I use slides sync. You know,<br>[18:16] obsidian sync is the best thing. That's<br>[18:18] it. And it helps tags you. Uh I don't<br>[18:21] really use tags, so I don't really keep<br>[18:22] that on, but it's there. Templates, uh<br>[18:24] has basic template formatting. We use<br>[18:25] templator to do better. Uh word count,<br>[18:27] it can be useful to see how many words<br>[18:30] are in something. So I can say, hey, how<br>[18:31] many words are in here and how many<br>[18:32] backlinks over here? That's useful<br>[18:34] mostly just just for my knowledge. Uh I<br>[18:37] write when it's done and I that's it.<br>[18:40] Workspaces. So this allows me to go<br>[18:44] workace<br>[18:45] and then I can save the layout, load a<br>[18:47] workspace layout or manage them, save<br>[18:49] and load another. So manage you can see<br>[18:52] these are all the workspaces I have. I<br>[18:54] have the default I have a random note<br>[18:55] one which will come to test. of writing<br>[18:57] which is the one I'm active in uh 20<br>[19:00] some other again big projects that I<br>[19:02] have man guide practice of productivity<br>[19:04] and so this lets me have a bunch of<br>[19:05] notes open and remember that how that<br>[19:07] was placed so I can come back to it<br>[19:08] easily later<br>[19:10] and that's it that's for my default<br>[19:13] plugins let's look at the community<br>[19:15] plugins now<br>[19:18] so community plugins uh if you're new to<br>[19:20] Obsidian you got to turn on and reload<br>[19:22] uh and then you can browse here to find<br>[19:23] more plugins if you<br>[19:26] So, book search. I use this all the time<br>[19:28] to create a new book note. We do that by<br>[19:30] here.<br>[19:32] And I would just type in Oh, I don't<br>[19:34] even know what to say. The faded sun.<br>[19:38] Then I would look for The Faded Sun<br>[19:40] right here. Now, I already know this<br>[19:41] book is here because I've already read<br>[19:42] it. And I would add this and it actually<br>[19:43] adds with my template for me. Uh, and<br>[19:45] then I can say when I read it and<br>[19:46] everything. You see the faded sun right<br>[19:48] there. I'm reading it. Next up,<br>[19:50] calendar. Actually, we already showed<br>[19:51] you that. I have a list up here on a<br>[19:52] secondary screen. Next up is calendar<br>[19:54] right here. Uh I only use it for weekly<br>[19:56] note. Uh so I can find things sometimes.<br>[19:59] I really don't use it a lot. Data view.<br>[20:01] Dashboard. Let's go to my dashboard for<br>[20:02] that.<br>[20:05] Data view is what gives me this view<br>[20:06] right here with my current books. So<br>[20:08] come in here. It allows me to with the<br>[20:10] three back text data view and like<br>[20:12] create a query of all my notes. So you<br>[20:13] can see I've got that. This is tracker.<br>[20:15] We'll come to those in a minute. And<br>[20:17] then I've got this one down here which<br>[20:20] is all of the books I have logged as<br>[20:22] read. So I've read more books than this.<br>[20:24] I have gone back in and filled in as you<br>[20:25] can tell here with some years. So I have<br>[20:27] more of the books I've read but<br>[20:28] certainly is not all of them. Easy bake.<br>[20:31] Let's grab notes on being a man. So some<br>[20:34] of my notes maybe not this one will have<br>[20:38] like things transcluded in them. What do<br>[20:40] you have that?<br>[20:43] Uh I can't even think of a book recently<br>[20:44] that has that really well. Uh maybe<br>[20:48] let's go Cal Newport<br>[20:52] keep work will have transclusions. Yeah,<br>[20:54] it does. So this is a transclusion right<br>[20:56] here. Uh where I have linked to a note,<br>[21:00] but I've also with the exclamation mark<br>[21:02] at the beginning included it. So easy<br>[21:04] bake lets me say easy bake. I can take<br>[21:06] this whole file and compress it into a<br>[21:08] single file. So it'll pull all my<br>[21:09] transclusions in into one spot. And I<br>[21:11] use that on my site when I share my<br>[21:13] booknotes with members of the site.<br>[21:16] Footnote shortcut is the next one. So,<br>[21:18] let's just open up uh even this one, my<br>[21:21] 20 26 obsidian setup. This is the note<br>[21:24] I'm working off of. So, say I had a<br>[21:25] note. I had a footnote here. So, I<br>[21:27] wanted to highlight something. I would<br>[21:29] hit shift control 6 for me. Uh, and it<br>[21:32] created a footnote right there. And I<br>[21:34] could put in whatever I want here. And<br>[21:37] then it created that footnote for me<br>[21:38] really easily.<br>[21:42] I use that all the time in my writing.<br>[21:44] Back to the top because I don't really<br>[21:46] need the footnote there. Graph analysis.<br>[21:48] So, this can be useful. Let's look see<br>[21:50] what graph analysis gives me here. So,<br>[21:52] it gives me over here. Uh, honestly,<br>[21:54] just different ways to view my note and<br>[21:57] see if there's other stuff that is<br>[21:59] related to it. So, there's not a lot in<br>[22:01] this. And this requires the natural<br>[22:02] language dates plugin as well,<br>[22:05] um, NLP plugin. So, I need to add that<br>[22:07] plugin back in here to try and add to<br>[22:09] try and get some of my uh searching in<br>[22:12] there. So, this can find other notes for<br>[22:14] me. Uh shows me different things that<br>[22:16] might be related if I want to find that<br>[22:19] long form. So, we talked about this<br>[22:21] folder already.<br>[22:23] Long form.<br>[22:25] And let's lo open up where is that's the<br>[22:28] long form view. So, this is the long<br>[22:31] form view. So this is for<br>[22:36] like book book length projects really.<br>[22:38] This helps you organize it into scenes<br>[22:39] into chapters and you can see I got<br>[22:41] right thing right now. So this is a look<br>[22:43] at all the books I read for book club<br>[22:45] last year uh and pulls all their notes<br>[22:48] into one spot. I would like to go back<br>[22:50] through and edit this and then publish<br>[22:51] it as a short book that people can<br>[22:52] purchase from me.<br>[22:55] Note refactor is another one.<br>[22:58] So, let me open up a note here.<br>[23:03] Long form my physical books. Go into a<br>[23:08] Oh, probably note.<br>[23:11] Let's look at this. So, note refactor.<br>[23:13] So, I'm not going to actually use this<br>[23:14] on this, but if I hit note refactor, it<br>[23:17] would let me split everything by heading<br>[23:19] ones, by heading twos, by heading<br>[23:21] threes. Split note here, but keep the<br>[23:22] content only. What I mostly use is<br>[23:24] because you see I have keyboard commands<br>[23:25] for it is to extract a selection. So<br>[23:28] I'll select a chunk of a note and say I<br>[23:29] actually want this often in a book and<br>[23:30] pull it out into its own note on its<br>[23:32] own. So it's its own thought uh and link<br>[23:34] back uh to the old one or I do it do the<br>[23:37] same thing but keep the first line as<br>[23:38] the file name. Um yeah that's really<br>[23:41] what I use it for. Those two right there<br>[23:43] for refactoring notes taking a book uh<br>[23:45] book line a book uh note or another note<br>[23:48] and extracting part of it out to be its<br>[23:49] own individual thought. Uh, so it's an<br>[23:52] atomic note. Paste URL into selection.<br>[23:55] This is I know honestly as it sounds.<br>[23:57] You can see right here I have Adams to<br>[23:59] astronauts.<br>[24:00] And what I did is I just grabbed the URL<br>[24:02] from the site. I highlighted this text<br>[24:05] and hit paste. And it pasted it as a URL<br>[24:07] into selection.<br>[24:09] Read it later. Okay. So in theory, this<br>[24:12] plugin lets me let me look at it. Read<br>[24:15] it later.<br>[24:17] Uh, let's takes it goes to sources<br>[24:18] clippings. Uh, any assets go into the ZZ<br>[24:21] assets folder. Uh, and it lets me copy<br>[24:24] different articles, different content<br>[24:26] from the web. Uh, and it lets me, you<br>[24:28] know, if it's a readable article, it has<br>[24:29] a different templating. If it's YouTube,<br>[24:31] it has a different templating. In<br>[24:33] practice with Firefox, it's just not<br>[24:36] working. That's to be honest, it's just<br>[24:39] not working.<br>[24:42] So, when I come in here, I should be<br>[24:43] able to say grab this, hit, uh, Obsidian<br>[24:47] Web Clipper, uh, add to Obsidian,<br>[24:53] and I should see Obsidian calendar<br>[24:55] plugin. Oh, too many folders open<br>[24:59] the sidebar. Toggle left. Yeah. So, you<br>[25:02] can see it didn't actually grab<br>[25:02] everything. Uh, and it appears when I<br>[25:05] dug into the settings and I did a a<br>[25:08] video on this recently that there's a<br>[25:09] mismatch between the templating tag used<br>[25:11] in the clipper now and a tabing tag that<br>[25:14] gets used in read later. One of them was<br>[25:15] looking for read later content and one<br>[25:16] of them is sending content and it's just<br>[25:18] not coming. So I have to come back in<br>[25:19] here again and then hit the arrow and<br>[25:21] then copy to clipboard and then I can<br>[25:24] paste<br>[25:26] in theory.<br>[25:30] In theory I can paste. There we go.<br>[25:33] So now you can see I actually pasted<br>[25:35] that in. Hide that sidebar. And I<br>[25:36] actually have my full content now in<br>[25:38] here.<br>[25:40] I don't actually need that. Nope. And<br>[25:41] you can see Oh, it's just went into the<br>[25:43] main clippings folder. So I need to<br>[25:45] again mess with that because I don't<br>[25:46] want it in the main. I want it in um<br>[25:48] here in my sources clippings is really<br>[25:50] where I want it. So I need to go play<br>[25:52] with that. Let's delete this because I<br>[25:54] don't even want to store that note.<br>[25:59] Someone's going to ask I use Fedora and<br>[26:01] Hyperland. That's how I'm moving windows<br>[26:03] around. Hyperland lets you do a bunch of<br>[26:04] stuff like that. If you want to see my<br>[26:05] hyperland setup, let me know.<br>[26:10] Read Wise Official is the next plugin.<br>[26:12] So, that again gave me uh Read Wise<br>[26:15] Official the things in sources and it<br>[26:18] gave me anything in Read Wise, the<br>[26:19] articles and the books. That's what I<br>[26:20] use it for.<br>[26:22] I got to think if I really need it at<br>[26:24] some point. Next up, smart random note.<br>[26:27] So, let me go to workspaces for this.<br>[26:29] And you can see<br>[26:31] uh load a workspace layout. I want to go<br>[26:33] to random note.<br>[26:36] Uh unfortunately it also killed my<br>[26:38] secondary notes up on top. And what this<br>[26:40] does is it uh I save the search path<br>[26:42] later. I save this as a workspace. And<br>[26:44] then I can come in here and I can choose<br>[26:46] the dice and get a random note that<br>[26:49] matches these parameters. Anyone can be<br>[26:50] good parent by the standard of 1950s<br>[26:52] from barking up the wrong tree. Right.<br>[26:55] Or<br>[26:57] Arwin Glowia competition. This is a note<br>[26:59] for my daughter Clawia when she was in a<br>[27:01] competition years ago. Don't need it<br>[27:03] anymore. That was years ago. Let's just<br>[27:06] delete that note.<br>[27:08] Delete current file. Done. That's how I<br>[27:11] use that one. And so let's go uh<br>[27:14] workspace again<br>[27:18] and load load writing. That brought me<br>[27:21] back to wherever I last saved my<br>[27:23] writing, which was not recently. And so<br>[27:26] now I can even go uh what is it? 20 26<br>[27:32] obsidian setup. And I actually want to<br>[27:33] open that<br>[27:35] in<br>[27:37] new window. Open current tab and new<br>[27:39] window. Pushed it to a new window. And<br>[27:41] then for my sake I'm going to push it up<br>[27:42] to uh shift control 4. So it's on my<br>[27:45] secondary screen. Templator. So<br>[27:48] templator works uh with my templates<br>[27:50] directory. You can find templator down<br>[27:52] here. Uh, and it really just allows me<br>[27:54] to do a bunch of extra form filling,<br>[27:57] extra information. Scripts can be run in<br>[27:59] it. I don't do a ton with it to be<br>[28:00] honest. I at the time especially, it was<br>[28:03] far better than the built-in template<br>[28:04] feature, if there even was one in<br>[28:06] Obsidian. And I just I'm a big fan of<br>[28:08] let's just not mess with it if it's<br>[28:10] working. So, I haven't messed with it.<br>[28:11] That's it. Tracker.<br>[28:16] Go back to dashboard for tracker. And<br>[28:18] that pulls in these right here. So, it<br>[28:20] lets me count how many books I've read,<br>[28:22] right? So, I can search type front<br>[28:24] matter. I'm finding the date finished,<br>[28:26] status of read, uh, X data set. Don't<br>[28:28] know what that means. Tracker seems like<br>[28:30] it has a ton of promise, and I have<br>[28:31] often had trouble getting it work. Books<br>[28:33] read in 2025, and it just I'm adding it<br>[28:35] up. So, it'll count through all my notes<br>[28:36] and tell me the books I've read in 2025,<br>[28:38] which is 52 so far because I keep them<br>[28:40] locked.<br>[28:42] Typewriter mode is the next one. You can<br>[28:44] see this line right here. So, if I was<br>[28:45] to start typing again, you can see it<br>[28:47] just centers my where I'm typing on the<br>[28:50] screen so I can see exactly where I am<br>[28:51] and it stays right in the middle all the<br>[28:53] time, which is more convenient. That's<br>[28:54] it. And finally, I have the WordPress<br>[28:56] plugin. So, the WordPress plugin lets me<br>[28:59] publish directly to my site. Uh although<br>[29:02] to be honest, I haven't used it in a<br>[29:04] while because I get more I have less<br>[29:07] formatting to do when I use uh copy and<br>[29:11] paste just to copy markdown and stick it<br>[29:12] in the block editor. that it just works<br>[29:15] better that way. So, I'm not even sure<br>[29:16] I'm using the WordPress plugin and I can<br>[29:17] probably delete it. That's really it.<br>[29:20] That's uh a walkthrough of all of the<br>[29:23] plugins, the theme, uh and even just a<br>[29:26] general review of the folders I use, uh<br>[29:27] what I do in my Obsidian Vault. If you<br>[29:29] have any questions, let me know below.<br>[29:32] Uh tips, tricks, anything you really<br>[29:34] think I need to do. Although, again, I<br>[29:35] am a big uh fan of if it's not broken,<br>[29:38] don't don't mess with it. Uh me messing<br>[29:40] with notes all the time doesn't help<br>[29:42] does just doesn't help doesn't help me<br>[29:44] get more done like at all. Uh I think<br>[29:46] I'm fairly settled on it. I I'd love to<br>[29:48] do tracker better. Uh and I guess I can<br>[29:51] even show you I have two I showed you my<br>[29:53] dashboard note which is kind of my only<br>[29:55] custom note. Uh and that's it. All it<br>[29:58] does is current books uh and read bread<br>[30:00] books and that. Now I do have a my<br>[30:02] library here. There's a bunch of stuff I<br>[30:06] want to do because tracker can do a lot<br>[30:08] of stuff. Uh, but it just doesn't do a<br>[30:10] lot of stuff at this moment for me. So,<br>[30:13] let's bring that down to shift 8.<br>[30:18] And if I go to<br>[30:22] tracker,<br>[30:25] in theory, you can get it to have all<br>[30:27] these pretty graphs like your weight in<br>[30:28] front matter, other stuff like that. I<br>[30:30] would love to be able to record my books<br>[30:31] and like is it fiction, is it<br>[30:32] non-fiction, is it whatever, what have I<br>[30:34] read and have like pretty graphs from my<br>[30:35] library, but I don't. Uh, all it does<br>[30:38] for me right now is listening to I<br>[30:41] prevail. Uh, all it does for me now, uh,<br>[30:45] is that, yeah, nothing. It counts the<br>[30:47] number of Kindle books I own and the<br>[30:48] number of Audible books I own. And then<br>[30:50] it says, "This doesn't work. We have a<br>[30:52] bunch of files, not in the right format,<br>[30:54] and I'm trying to find it. I want to see<br>[30:56] it by month in a graph, but it just it's<br>[30:58] never worked. I spent a ton of time<br>[30:59] messing with it. I decided I'm not doing<br>[31:00] that anymore. Maybe uh with some LLM, I<br>[31:04] could figure it out now. Uh but only if<br>[31:06] there's enough data on tracker for it to<br>[31:08] be worthwhile. That's it. If you like<br>[31:10] video, thumbs up below. If you didn't<br>[31:11] like it, why did you watch it so far? Uh<br>[31:14] otherwise, you can support the channel<br>[31:15] by becoming a member,<br>[31:16] curtismale.ca/membership.<br>[31:18] Uh or you can join the newsletter,<br>[31:21] curtismale.ca/book<br>[31:23] club, one word, if you want to get the<br>[31:25] emails on the books that we're reading<br>[31:26] every month. uh this month we're reading<br>[31:28] uh a book about feminism in Canada and<br>[31:30] how to organize feminist groups which I<br>[31:33] think can be useful even if you're not<br>[31:34] organizing a feminist group but just<br>[31:36] feminist uh but if you're just<br>[31:37] organizing groups in general uh in you<br>[31:39] know I guess in the society we have<br>[31:41] today and because it's a pain in the ass<br>[31:42] and it's really not working for a lot of<br>[31:44] the people. That's it. Have an awesome<br>[31:47] day.
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