Right, I wanted to make a video about using Obsidian only on my computer for seven days. The point was simple: you can still get a lot of work done if you have a good system in place. So I set up Cold Turkey Blocker and started building the intro, the bit where I click the button to begin. Then I realised I had locked myself out of System Settings, Wispr Flow, and a surprising number of other things. And Cold Turkey as a Mac app is really damn strict, as in insurmountable - I went into this more recklessly than I thought and now I'm paying the price. But it has accidentally made the demonstration better, at least in some way... The manuscript for the Minimal Note-Taking book is all inside Obsidian, so I can still get on with proper work. I have Obsidian's web browser, and I had the foresight to open my password manager before it got blocked, so I should be okay. That is the point I wanted to make in the first place: a good system is not one you enjoy tweaking when everything is available. It is one that still lets you do productive work when you cannot get to the internet. I'm still here if you need me, but if I'm a little quiet for a week or so, at least you know the reason! -- Theo P.S. My Codex limit has been reached as well, for Hermes' Codex subscription, so it's going to be a very manual few days...

That's it! PARAZETTEL Foundations wraps up with today's lesson - https://www.skool.com/parazettel-community-4498/classroom/38433b8f?md=80450ab862fc45058317dd1e68d32370 What we talk about here is less about the Minimum Viable System and more about the inevitable truth that we have to expand the system at some point. it's not as though we can simply build out a new configuration every time we've got a new project. So here we talk about Minimal Note-Taking, how building things up in the simplest possible way for maximum return means that you can stay sane and focus on the real work rather than your system taking up all of your attention. And we touch upon how changing your system should be a process of evolution really, rather than one of transformation. Learn about the Irish elk, and why small changes over time beat big and powerful features. It's in contention for the most important lesson in the entire program, and it's no surprise given that it tells you the bits and pieces that you need to keep in mind for these lessons to apply heading forward. Tomorrow I'm going to tell you the next stages - how else you can work with the Community, and what you can expect from me going forward! It's been a pleasure to have you come with me on this journey, and I hope that it's shed some light on how to take notes in a way that serves you. -- Theo

I've just posted a new article over on Medium... https://medium.com/obsidian-observer/my-pkm-took-off-when-i-started-using-periodic-notes-in-obsidian-95baa89aa911 It's all about how I'm managing periodic notes in my workflows at the moment, because they've become a very substantial 'paper trail' for work done alongside context about the rest of the day. It's streamlined and seamless, like my inbox-capturing etc., as all good elements of a system should be. The piece also has some real examples from very recently, so if you want to see legitimate notes from my Obsidian vault, it's a good one to read!

I read this piece the other day https://brennan.day/what-have-note-taking-pkms-accomplished-really/, that I found from checking the analytics on the parazettel.com website. It argues that PKM education doesn't really provide much except more discourse around PKM. PARAZETTEL was mentioned very, very briefly, and no points of note were really made, but it got me wondering... PKM is what I've got to thank first and foremost for my degree, my audience on the internet, and my smaller projects and apps. It's also largely what's lead to me teaching about it too, but notice that I didn't bring it up seeing as that's the first point that the piece is trying to make. Either way, it's hard to measure the amount of 'productivity' that PKM systems provide, but it's self-evident that they contribute to more than just the PKM discourse. Either way I've not formulated an entire response to this piece but one person who has weighed in is Steph Ango, Obsidian's CEO. You can check out the piece if you like, I thought it a somewhat interesting counter-argument to the practice that we all believe in. Talk soon!

⬇️ Scroll past program intro to find the first lesson ⬇️ The PARAZETTEL Foundations program works by giving you a small lesson each day over about the span of two weeks. You unlock the lessons gradually, and then once you're at the end, you unlock everything else in the community (if you haven't already). The process... I. The Minimum Viable System II. The Idea --> Output Pipeline III. Expanding + Compounding We go through all of these through daily video lessons and resources, and you'll go from zero to working and personalised system during that time. I'll be coming with you, using vanilla Obsidian at the start, so that you can see how I'd set things up (and so I don't have to deal with the overhead of building a custom template again 😅). You'll have emails (if you're on the list) to guide you through the process and ensure that you're not having to log into Skool and keep an eye on the classroom to stay up to date, and there'll be posts like this one that you can go through as well if you'd like. --- https://www.skool.com/parazettel-community-4498/classroom/38433b8f?md=9ad3dee232664272b69c11b345a5b586 As for today's lesson ^^ , as we said in the video and in the classroom, as a comment on this post, comment one or two things that you're working on right now that would genuinely benefit from a more dialled in PKM system -- one that works for you rather than competes for your attention. Your job is to decide before tomorrow which one of these goals it is that we're going to be working on together throughout the rest of the course, so that we can start with a clean slate and crystal sharp focus tomorrow. I await your comments, and see you soon for day 2! -- Theo