Getting Things DONE in Obsidian ✨ my stress-free life management system

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David Allen's 5 steps to mastering your workflow are as follows:
1. Collect things that grab our attention
2. Process what they are and what to do with them
3. Organize them
4. Review them
5. Do them
In this video, I explain how I use this system, more or less, in Obsidian. I seriously found this book hugely useful. If you have any productivity book recommendations that actually help - let me know in the comments!! If you want more GTD Obsidian content, here's Nicole van der Hoeven's video on the topic: • Actually getting thing...
I also publish lots of content on Medium! When you buy your membership through my link and/or read any of my stories, I get part of your monthly subscription fee: / membership
✨TIMESTAMPS✨
0:00 - intro
0:46 - problems GTD solves
2:40 - GTD summary-ish
3:17 - daily notes plugin
4:56 - checklist plugin
7:18 - consider templates
7:56 - capture. every. task.
11:16 - organize tasks
15:05 - make collecting a habit
16:52 - DO THINGS!!! what? when?
20:45 - review tasks
21:33 - make it up. make it happen.
22:52 - try Shortform! the end
#obsidian #gettingthingsdone #productivity

[@Irrlichtwinter]

just quickly dropping a Useful Shortcut: strg+L / ctrl+L creates a checkable box right away, to shorten the hyphen+brackets typing ; ) And now continuing to watch the video!

[@morganeua]

Ah, no way, thank you! Just tried it, works like a charm! I'll have to add that to the description box for others to reference

[@timbushell8640]

@@morganeua And make sure you confirm it to the Cdm-C option shortcuts and that you haven't over ridden it with something else...

[@rsresuwan]

thank you

[@chuanpham1335]

Thank you sooo much!

[@adrian10k5k]

What is strg+L?

[@arikgray]

there is also a plugin called Periodic Notes, which, in addition to daily notes, has an option to have weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly notes as well. great for reviewing. enjoying your video, thank you!

[@cloudyycat]

I've recently been trying to migrate my notes from Notion to Obsidian and your videos have been the absolute best! Obsidian can be so overwhelming (for me at least) because it feels like there's so much I can do in terms of plugins and customising, but I'm realising that just because I can do something doesn't mean I should. I'm just trying to keep things simple and build my system up over time, and your videos have been essential in helping me wrap my head around Obsidian, so thank you!!! I really enjoy your content

[@morganeua]

The checklist plugin is the first and only community plugin I've started using 😅 I am also easily overwhelmed by new software (Notion, for instance, confuses me...), so I've avoided too many plugins. I'll integrate them slowly as I feel comfortable. For now, I'm focusing on the notes themselves and building a knowledge base!

[@timbushell8640]

@@morganeua Absolutely... baby steps. Grow as your use case expands. Obsidian is a huge change in terms of how it operates compared to most other notes or other 'office' type software.

[@EliffOzkan]

Thank you for sharing all these precious information with us! Unlike many other vidoes I came across, you're very easy on the ears too!! You have such a calming voice

[@TheCyberSpidey]

Yay more Obsidian content from Morgan. Thanks for putting one this together, I've switched from Notion to Obsidian since your first zettelkasten video and take notes completely differently.

[@morganeua]

That's awesome (I hope!) After migrating all my note-taking to Obsidian, I started asking how I could migrate the rest of my life in there. So, this video represents my earliest attempt to do so! Working pretty well so far!

[@TheCyberSpidey]

@@morganeua Yeah that's exactly what I'm trying to do as well, since I don't need to do much more academic writing (thankfully) :P Thanks again!

[@SanditaDattani]

Great video! I loved the practical tips on using hashtags for better task management. #ToDo/HomeOffice #ToDo/Online #ToDo/Appointment #ToDo/Calls #ToDo/Meeting #ToDo/Health #ToDo/GroceryShopping #ToDo/Chores #ToDo/Errand #ToDo/Wishlist #ToDo/Waiting #ToDo/2MinTask

[@Denis-wf4bl]

What a great video and so many awesome advices! thank you ❤

[@mageprometheus]

You have a super expressive face when you talk. Your expressions are mostly symmetrical which is why they are so good, but mine are asymmetric and I look goofy. 😄 I'm glad you have clear diction so that after the intro, I can listen at 2x speed. I know this messes up the KZbin stats so I'm rerunning it muted at x0.25 speed. A little-known algorithm hack!

[@morganeua]

Omg, you're amazing! Hahaha :P I've never thought about symmetrical vs asymmetrical facial expressions. I feel like I'm going to start noticing that everywhere now... :P

[@mageprometheus]

@@morganeua All the people most sensitive about their funny faces will notice you staring at them! 🤣

[@outtasight8276]

It's such a great tutorial . Thank you

[@kimorourke9988]

This is fascinating, I'm immediately thinking of ways to incorporate this into my long-standing use of a physical bullet journal

[@mschweers]

From one Morgan to another, this was super-useful, and helped really point out to this newcomer to Obsidian some details about why folks use it; it seems like the plugin community is really important. I really enjoy your videos; your enthusiasm comes through, but also you teach the material incredibly clearly. Thanks for this!

[@morganeua]

Hello fellow Morgan! Thanks for commenting!

[@Etnoosfera]

Wow super useful your tips and tricks !!! Thanks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@SergeyHudiev]

Thank you!

[@Irrlichtwinter]

Really enjoyed this! I worked along with the video to include some of your to-do tips into my Obsidian (and figuring out how to pretty it up a bit (^_^) ). The Checklist plugin seems amazingly useful, looking forward to experimenting with it in my daily workflow! David Allen's "Getting Things Done" is next on my non-fiction to read list (after Atomic Habits, which I'm chipping away at right now). Learning about productivity advice, comparing and contrasting different methods, and allowing myself to extract the parts that are helpful for someone in my current life situation (=someone dealing with chronic illness) has helped me a lot getting my life back on track. And I'm so thankful I happened upon Obsidian through your videos, that really was a godsend. It's such a valuable, adaptable tool!

[@morganeua]

I still need to pick up Atomic Habits. I haven't found the time to read it yet, even though everyone says it's literally life-changing! Definitely keep adapting these tools in a way that works for you - I think that's the most important part, remixing them to suit your own needs. Your Obsidian is not going to look similar to anyone else's and it shouldn't! We all need different things!

[@timbushell8640]

@@morganeua A good addition... but it is a toss up with The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg as which is the better support of GTD. Atomic Habits covers of course Atomic notes even - a good thing in Obsidian, but both cover formation of habits and that process. As does BJ Fogg with Tiny Habits, a short replacement for Atomic habits - but no note advice there - just habits

[@_AshishKumar-jk9uh]

Nice video actually, I have been using my mobile's notepad to keep my tasks in check, and literally my past few months have been the most stress free times of my life.

[@morganeua]

It's amazing what a simple checklist can do if you keep it up!

[@AmeeliaK]

What was missing for me at the end is the view when you're doing the planning. Entering the todos is self evident. When you plan do you search for a specific tag? Or do you have a dataview query to show all open tasks in one file? Or do you copy over each day from yesterday? For me it seems cumbersome to have all to-dos scattered in different files.

[@zuko9085]

Definitely would want a dataview query to consolidate for a specific project or context. I have been doing this while working on finishing my basement. I'll add a todo with the basement tag and then all my incomplete basement actions are pulled into a specific note.

[@chloe_steward]

"Just decide!" Damn! I need to tattoo that 😂❤

[@morganeua]

Lol, don't we all 😂

[@InstrumentalVibe]

great video.

[@Maksim77ster]

Great video, thank you! A little advice. In the daily notes settings in the date format parameter it is better to specify something like "YYYY/MM/YYYYY-MM-DD". This way the plugin will create a structure of folders by year and month. Otherwise, after a while there will be very MANY files and browsing through one folder will not be so convenient anymore. This is also true for the more advanced Periodic Notes plugin. P.S. P.S. If you don't let the chair rotate, the joints of the frames after editing will not be so noticeable :)

[@halbrooks7517]

Fantastic video-thanks! You’ve just got a new subscriber. One practical question: it’s unclear what you are doing with each daily note. Are you compiling all of the residual checklists into a new note each day? Or are you just using the daily note for “todo/today” and maintaining another file for all of the other contextual lists?

[@halbrooks7517]

No need to respond! I just figured out that the checklist plugin allows you to add to each tagged list with a new daily note. I just missed that when I first watched the video.

[@jrRim]

Amazing, Morgane! Do you have any experience with obsidian projects plugin? I've been messing with it lately

[@ydherdn]

Thank You

[@studygoblin8180]

Time to check off my to do list one thing I`ve been meaning to do for a long time: thanking you for your amazing videos! I found you last year because I was already using Obsidian, but wanted to see how people applied it to actual academic research. Imagine my joy when I found you, especially because I was writing my masters thesis in Theatre Studies at the time! Your videos really helped me, especially your process in transferring reading notes to Obsidian Notes. It worked out great for me, I got top grades and am right now in the process of preparing for a PhD. I really credit Obsidian (and you) for that success. Also, I always like hearing about your research! My research area is costume design, but I have a lot of love and interest for the circus arts, I had a fascinating seminar on medieval clown practices during my MA and am still thinking about it. Juggling sounds like such an interesing topic where many things intersect, I look forward to hearing more. If you ever have a talk or something that is online accessible, I would love to come. So, keep up the great work, I will always try to convert people to Obsidian via your videos. Best wishes from Germany!

[@morganeua]

Ah, thank you so much for taking the time to comment! Congrats on finishing your MA and getting ready for a PhD! SO fun that you're also in theatre studies! What fascinates you about costume design?

[@hn29723]

As you mention that you add tasks when you are „on the road“ via a task app and transfer to Obsidian at home … why not use as task list App where you can sync your tasks automagically to Obsidian, e.g. like Todoist. Also here a plugin does the trick.

[@TheBigLou13]

12:21 How do you decide / solve the issue, when a topic fits into more than one category? I want to start using your principles to not only order my todos but also to sort my browser bookmarks - some are for projects, some are just useful information, some are online tools, some are todos - but some bookmarks would fit in multiple areas and I'd like to find them either way (e.g. by looking through the list of my online tools _and_ by looking through my folder for finance resources). Do you for example know of a good way to combine GTD with Zettelkasten or something like that?

[@rsresuwan]

thank you

[@timschafer2536]

Somehow I feel two ways when I think about gtd, I have only started reading the book, but listing everything you have to do seems kind of overwhelming. But then again just maintaining the list is a giant task for itself. But then I also want to have a system.

[@morganeua]

I think it gets easier as time goes on. Because it just becomes a habit, you might not even think about it anymore. I also will say that I doubt I capture EVERYTHING. That'd be too time consuming. Not everything is important enough to write down - some things are okay to forget, some things you can just immediately do

[@gulfwinds]

@@morganeua I have been using GTD for years. It helps, but it has shortcomings, too. The major one, in my opinion, is the differentiation between 'project' and 'to do.' Allen says that all to does that require more than one step are projects. However, virtually everything can be broken into smaller steps, if you think about that, and THAT can become really overwhelming (and a tad obsessive compulsive). To use a silly example, even brushing one's teeth can be seen as a project and not a to do...

[@heatherwoods528]

This method also works extremely well for those with adhd brains. 🎉

[@margot5796]

Hi:) thanks for your very useful obsidian content and your other lovely videos! I was wondering how you separate all this daily stuff (todo's and more practical tags/folder names) from your obsidian map. I am afraid that for example #todo/5min will clog up my knowledge map and decentre what is important. Is the only solution to use tags exculisvely for such todo's and not for knowledge themes, etc. to keep tags and knowledge map separate? For context, I am very much an obsidian beginner currently trying to understand the zotero integration, which has been a challenge..! Maybe you have tried this out yourself too (it seems to be quite useful for enabling links which open up sources in your zotero and incorperating up-to-date metadata) Please don't stress about answering, but thanks in advance

[@vikasgupta1828]

Thanks

[@BurOnOz]

Please in long run consider Buteyko Breathing Method 7/24 to increase control pause leading to efficiency and sleep less to gain more time for more to do. I enjoy and learn new things from your channel, will recommend to university students to follow.

[@amiskyu]

what would you do if you want to access your note in pc in your iphone? paying for a feature as basic as device sync doesn't make sense when apps like notion do it for free. what is your take on this?

[@SamuelWebster]

Hair! (I've been going back and looking at old videos so I got a surprise with this one!)

[@SamuelWebster]

"David Allen says (on page 130 of the book)..." You're not an academic, by chance?

[@timbushell8640]

@@SamuelWebster ha ha ha... poor citation though, is this the first edition of the 2nd... tut tut tut. : ))))))) { and I haven't had to worry about that for more than 40 years.}

[@timbushell8640]

been so for a while... hairy that is... mind still kinda cute though. {ducks... }

[@SamuelWebster]

@@timbushell8640 :/

[@cybermats2004]

sometimes i spend the time i should get things done with prograstinating and on the next day I prograstinate about prograstinating and not having done it the day before

[@timbushell8640]

Excellent content... as is Nicola's content. But type faster ; ))))) The capture - is of course a Forth Bridge 'job', i.e. a never-ending process (carefully not to use the word task...). As I guarantee, new tasks aside - you will forget some things and or what felt like one task - once you fill it out becomes 2, 3 or 4 even. And pop during the regular review. BUT the other detail emphasis from Dave is, of course, to be full and actionable... and I find it useful to have a note that contains other details... which of course may also exist... and the ToDo/Today, tag can exist on notes within the project folders but more likely to be ToDo/Soon, and once you get to planning the week... they get 'a date'. So periodic notes (big brother to daily note) builds, the same type of page, but for weeks and months and quarters and years... So add the ToDo/ to the most appropriate... most of these will be within the next 30 days - so a week number (ensure to tick the display option in GCal to show week numbers) or an actual date, is easy and gets easier with practice. Plus as you use the Daily note as your opening page in Obsidian - tick that box too - it starts that habit for you BUT title is something like - in the settings YYYY-MONTH-DAY-DD, that gets your note, to be like 2023-March-Monday-06... and some might find time stamping periodically as in hh:mm at the start of new sections of the daily note - will add the time. Excellent stuff... and anything 'bigger' done that day is easy to backlink in the normal way so work on that 5th novel can be [[5th novel]] - might be in 200 dailies...

[@crossbowbeat]

ASMR 100%

[@suburbanyute340]

I'm surprised you didn't go the bullet journal route considering you're a fountain pen person

[@morganeua]

Haha, I can't compete with all those bullet journal KZbinrs. All their washi tape and coloured drawings are intimidating! 😂

[@suburbanyute340]

@@morganeua ugly bullet journals matter too! But hey, if your system isn't broken there's no reason to fix it. Mine is just a future log, a 4 week spread, and a running daily log. Once the day is over I migrate what didn't get done. then I just start the next day right under it and transfer any relevant tasks. No trackers of any kind. Any decorating I do is just filling blank space with stickers and doodles, but that's all done after the fact.

[@suburbanyute340]

@@morganeua kzbin.info/www/bejne/aJ-mqqeEbbOWj6s

[@chrisrockscode1202]

I feel like I’ve seen another video of yours, do your have a Ph.D?

[@morganeua]

I am working on my PhD, yes! I have about a year's worth of work left on it.

[@TvtvRgrbejj]

You are beautiful ❤️❤️

[@starmountpictures]

That nose ring 👹

[@JD-us7ns]

Chaotic explanation of the tool and workflow in my opinion. Realisation in obsidian becomes not clear.