How I Capture & PROCESS using Readwise & Obsidian

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Get a full 60 days Readwise free trial : geni.us/IxsV7tp
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// Links/Videos Mentioned In The Video (in order of appearance)
My readwise Config - geni.us/cbUssS
Eleanor's config - geni.us/F3Ez4
Readwise Reader Video - • Readwise Reader - How ...
Graph View Video - / z8wialfgaa
// Timestamps:
00:00 - Readwise VS Readwise Reader
01:06 - Why Bother?
01:28 - Setting up Obsidian
01:54 - Readwise to Obsidian Config
03:43 - Setting up Readwise Reader
04:18 - My Use cases
07:27 - Processing
09:58 - Is it worth it?
Some of the above are affiliate links which means I get a small commission at no extra cost to you, which helps support the channel.

[@FromSergio]

To try everything Brilliant has to offer-free-for a full 30 days, visit brilliant.org/FromSergio . The first 200 of you will get 20% off Brilliant’s annual premium subscription.

[@hazadus]

Omnivore is free, and very similar in features. It also works very well with Obsidian.

[@netneutrality2024]

Today I watched your older video about Readwise Reader and you inspired me to create an account and test it. And I can say, that it is the second most useful app right now for me after Obsidian. And what a coincidence - you publish another video about Readwise. Thank you so much again.

[@FromSergio]

What a coincidence! I'm glad, thanks for the kind words, it really is an awesome tool :)

[@mikejaydavies]

I am absolutely going to move my newsletters over to my Readwise email, I hadn’t thought of that!

[@FromSergio]

One of the best features!

[@fatboy3033]

Hi! Great video, but I manage to send my kindle highlights using other way. I just read the book and highlight it... later, I go to Clipping, use my mobile camera with Google Lens, capture the text, and send it to a note into Obsidian. No cost!

[@RobPickeringITVP]

Issue with the YAML Frontmatter customization on the sync, the templates aren't being populated properly, any way to fix that?

[@tyteachestech]

idk is this will help your case but this worked for me: up: author: {% if author %}{{author}}{% endif %} type: {{category}} date: {{date|date('l j F Y')}} {% if document_tags -%} tag: {% for tag in document_tags %} - {{tag}} {% endfor %} {% endif -%} {% if url -%} url: {{url}} {% endif -%}

[@NicoLargi]

Great video ! Really appreciating your content on Obsidian right now as I want to move away from Notion and get more serious with my note taking. Thank you !

[@FromSergio]

Just saw this, happy to help :)

[@Seevawonderloaf]

This is such a good video sergio. Thank you soo much. Unfortunately my highlights formatting looks really weird and i don’t know why though i copied the code you pasted :/

[@massaglia]

What an excellent video, Sergio! Thanks so much for this great process.

[@FromSergio]

Thank you! Apreciate it! Happy new year!

[@davel3895]

Hey Sergio, You're still killing it. Thank you. I copy/pasted from you. Author and Tags come through great. What do I need to fix for "Note Created" and "Last Modified"? Below is what I get. Thanks so much. Note Created: Last modified:

[@JuracyOliveira]

Same here

[@koikahin]

In Obsidian > Preferences > Templater there is a setting "Trigger Templater on new file creation". Turn that on.

[@koikahin]

@@JuracyOliveira see above

[@JuracyOliveira]

Nice @@koikahin thank you so much

[@Highway89Studios]

@@koikahin you're the real MVP of the comment section. I couldn't figure out what plugin setting I had missed, and that's an easy one lol

[@tomer.nosrati]

Since using Reader/Readwise through your link for the first time, I have been a highly satisfied customer and cannot imagine my life without it. Regarding Obsidian, unfortunately I fell in the same whole many before me did and I've created something so complicated the usage friction went >9000 hahaha, so for the first time in ~3 years (and ever since I found Obsidian), I've created a new vault and I'm starting my PKM system from scratch and I actually was going through your videos (again haha) and yesterday (!) I was watching the other Reader video and I was missing exactly what this video today adds. So my man -> 10/10 KEEP ON GOING !

[@FromSergio]

Oh Tomer thanks so much man, so happy to see you here! I know exactly what you mean, every time I think I may be falling in that trap I check myself and go "do I NEED this?" usually that does it! Thanks for the encouragement! I needed that one :)

[@tomer.nosrati]

@@FromSergio I've discovered a new app called mymind which has almost zero friction in capturing content all over the place and naturally I started using it more and more just from being so easy and frictionless so I am now investigating my experience with it from the last few months to analyze what is working so good in their workflow to design an MVP workflow for my new PKM. "do I NEED this?" has become my second thought right now hahaha, starting with all of the endless plugins I installed and never used!

[@tomer.nosrati]

​@@FromSergio P.S I just saw 1.4 changelog - I should bet on the topic of your next video 😂

[@FromSergio]

I've heard of mymind, glad it works for you! As for 1.4 - It really won't be much of a shocker, I guess :(

[@tomer.nosrati]

​@@FromSergio It might not be much of a shocker my friend, but will probably be better than most if not any other video on the topic! 💪 Just do your thing naturally, you got it bro ;)

[@hadihadihadi]

This was super informative. Thank you! I tried Reader a while back. It still feels expensive, but now I want to give it a year to try and see if it's wort it.

[@FromSergio]

Glad it was helpful! It isn't cheap by any means! But it's convenience and UI is 100% worth it for me :)

[@matthewboston1570]

Excellent video, very helpful. There is no Yaml front matter in Eleanors config

[@musikkimies]

This is an epic video, Sergio. Thank you!

[@amanda-hibiscus]

Thanks for this! I tried to set up Readwise to sync with Obsidian using your suggested configuration, but with the new "properties" feature, the dates entered in the YAML weren't showing up right (they just show up as the code in a text property named "date created," "date modified"). Have you been able to make any adjustments?

[@ChristopherRosche]

Have this same issue and not a coder. Thanks much.

[@AaronDanielFilms]

I had this same issue, and I believe it's because you need the Templater plugin downloaded! This worked for me :)

[@manolousa950]

I have it installed, Do you have any templates setup? Or just having it installed worked?@@AaronDanielFilms

[@RichardBerry-wq3fg]

Great video One question I have set up the Readwise Inbox and started processing articles etc from reader. However some of the saved items cannot be deleted, despite me removing the hashtag links etc. They sit in the inbox, there is no linked file, if you right mouse click they just state “creat link”. I cannot seem to remove them - any ideas?

[@stefmyt5062]

Amazing video, as always! Keep up the great work, man.

[@FromSergio]

Thanks so much! :) I'm glad it was helpful!

[@YassFuentes]

This is a great one. Very similar ingest and cristallization from my side :)

[@FromSergio]

Good to hear from you Fuentes! Glad we're in sync :)

[@zensbikeshop]

Great video thanks. I’m new to both Obsidian and Readies so that’s super helpful. Which Obsidian theme is this?

[@FromSergio]

I'm glad! It's the minimal theme!

[@zensbikeshop]

@@FromSergio Thanks for the quick reply. Have you adjusted colours, mine looks rather grey in comparison. Thanks

[@richarde1142]

Does anyone know if it Is possible to use dynamic dates (created and last modified) in the front mater of an Obsidian template?

[@brittca]

hey - I've been trying to get this to work for Articles, and not just books... but it doesn't work with the 'pages' for highlight like in books. The code generated a random id with numbers afterwards (ex: id15565767) for all my highlights in articles. Is there any way to quickly fix this in the Highlight code?

[@manolousa950]

Hello Great video! I am trying the YAML front matter query and the Note Created and Modified is not working. Any recent update to this?

[@mattjparker]

Question my readwise highlight notes are showing up in readwise and being converted into a task automatically (task plugin installed). When i looked at source text, it looks like - [n] , this automatically convert to a task. How did you get around this?

[@Mger07]

I have a question regarding the code for highlights. While it's great that the code displays book locations, I'm curious about the need for ID numbers for articles. Can you please explain the advantages of using IDs for article highlights?

[@charlesbonfante9188]

Great integration.. totally agree. Love it!

[@FromSergio]

Glad you enjoyed it :)

[@Britney_76543]

I want to know whats the grand benefit for paying for a subscription when i can simply just use copy and paste or otherwise share to my note taking app?

[@guiga_melo]

Thx

[@igormitrovic2838]

@FromSergio Can you please make video that would explain how can I append a prewritten text from one note when I click a button to another note and the button is located in a third note.

[@FromSergio]

If I'm understanding you correctly you wanna check out the "note refactor" plugin :)

[@ernestojavierarmasmartinez4702]

Woow that's really cool, I have been using Reader since last year and for me is the best option for linking your highlights into Obsidian. I have a question for you Segio, is there anyway to record the last time you edited an Obsidian note, or maybe not just the last time, all the time you edit it 😃?. Thanks for your videos. ❤

[@FromSergio]

Thanks! There is, with templater! I made a video on it and included that part in it. This is the syntax for what you want: Last modified: Might be hard to replicate if you've never used templater so make sure to watch it if you haven't :)

[@ernestojavierarmasmartinez4702]

@@FromSergio Thank you so much! I'll definitely watch your video.

[@josephfkennedy5464]

Awsome video Sergio. I have a question. Have you tried the plugin DataLoom? And can you do a tutorial for us in the future, Thanks.

[@FromSergio]

Hi Joseph! I haven't yet, I use notion as well as Obsidian so I have no need for DataLoom!

[@vptrxvx]

This all looks great, but I will not be supporting Subscription based services anymore, I want product ownership and data privacy

[@FromSergio]

I agree, Readwise is one of my few subscriptions. 9 out of 10 subscription-based services really shouldn't be a subscription, as most of them have no ongoing cost and minimal development. Some services, readwise included, do have ongoing (server, API, dev) costs.

[@BrettTheresaBoe]

Thanks for the video! Are you nervous about editing Obsidian notes generated by Readwise? I can't tell if duplicates are created or if my changes are overwritten when Readwise syncs with Obsidian.

[@FromSergio]

That's a great question and one I should've touched on the video. I do try to not touch my notes from readwise, your changes are not overwritten once a note is created as far as I can tell but if you, accidentally or otherwise, remove your highlights from readwise they'll no longer be there. I'm touching on this exact topic on my next week's video but in short I try to not edit the readwise generated notes. At most I make a temporary note in there that will help me write a proper literature note afterward. I think this will make more sense after next week's video :)

[@BrettTheresaBoe]

Thanks for this insight! I look forward to your next video! I love your content! Keep it up!@@FromSergio

[@Magnusday]

Just a heads up, this is not 60 days worth of synch with obsidian as a limit has been set to 10 books, mildly infuriating to read up on how to use it and when you start synching the app you get the conditions. Might still use it, but it would've been better for readwise to be straight forward with this from the beginning as the trial is straight from an obsidian guru! :(

[@FromSergio]

Hey there, you're right! I should've mentioned that. My guess as to why they do it like that is that some people might just use it to get everything in Obsidian and cancel the trial and repeat the process whenever needed, which is fair. Also, not an Obsidian guru! But I get what you mean :)

[@Magnusday]

@@FromSergio Hey! I've been using Readwise ever since I left this comment and I totally love it, so i'll renew it without a doubt! :)

[@MondSemmel]

Yikes, you really should obscure all your forwarding email addresses at 4:52.

[@FromSergio]

Demo account, already deleted but thank you! :)

[@greenthumb2489]

Sergio please slow down. Most of us are newbies

[@FromSergio]

Even though I've done over 50 videos I still struggle with slowing down, nerves get the best of me I think :(

[@CraigOs49]

Sometimes I go to KZbin settings and slow Sergio down to a slower speed ;) it helps when I can’t quite catch something at normal speed.

[@keenmux5708]

Nice idea but 9€ for such a small service is completely insane. Subscriptions in general are just peak capitalistic greed but small purpose digital services like this really blow it away with their greed.