How I'm Visually Organizing My Reading Habit in Scrintal

Try out Scrintal with a 10% discount through my affiliate link, or use the code MORGAN10 at checkout (valid for 4 weeks): scrintal.com/?YT&u...
Check out the simple version of my 2023 reading board: beta.scrintal.com/b/books-rea...
Thank you to Scrintal for sponsoring this video and continuing to support my channel :)
✨TIMESTAMPS✨
0:00 - Intro
1:03 - Reading Management in Obsidian
2:15 - Reading Management in Notion
3:09 - Visual Knowledge Management in Scrintal - SIMPLE
8:30 - Visual Knowledge Management in Scrintal - COMPLEX
13:02 - Tracking my Reading in 2024
13:52 - Scrintal Recommendations
14:56 - Try out Scrintal!
15:37 - My Scrintal Features Wish List
18:40 - The End!
PS. Happy New Year!! 🥳🎊🎉

[@johnnyragadoo2414]

Nice to see your enthusiasm. Even though Scrintal probably isn't for me, seeing how others use different systems helps me refine my methods. Please don't let nattering nabobs of negativity rob you of the joy of sharing tips. This is an enjoyable channel.

[@timbushell8640]

... and doing very similar within Osidian is possible with Canvas anyway.

[@morganeua]

Thanks! It's been really fun getting to explore a system other than Obsidian, which I wouldn't have gotten to do if they weren't sponsoring me. Although I also still predominantly use Obsidian, I do enjoy Scrintal, too!

[@sandymakesplans]

it's crazy you just posted this because i typed in organizing youtube playlists for research, projects and references. this was in the results, but not after all the cruft of sorting through people answering the most obvious question implied: how to organize playlists on a channel for one's content. it they weren't geared towards people using youtube for research.

[@realgouravverma]

You are very inspiring☀

[@kerropioff-brand8991]

Happy new year Morgan, I'm stoked to check out your 2023 book list and try out your method of using cards as tag nodes! I'm honestly a hardcore Excel fan but your Scrintal videos get me excited for its future development.

[@morganeua]

Oh wow, do you typically manage all your knowledge in excel?! My brother is an excel wizard, I'm jealous of those skills, I need to learn more about it!

[@kerropioff-brand8991]

I mostly use excel as a journal/habit tracker to structure my progress and goals! I'm trying to grow a maintainable knowledge system/second brain in Scrintal like you do though!

[@devinersoy]

This can be done within obsidian. Just use obsidian canvas, and the DB folder plugin for notion like databases.

[@morganeua]

Yeah, a lot of this is possible in Canvas! And Obsidian has the benefit of being free :P (Although, I think Scrintal will get a free tier as well when they're more established) Canvas doesn't have the automatically linked cards, but that's fine because in Canvas I'd find them annoying. In Scrintal it's just changed my workflow.

[@productivity8696]

how can you make non-matching items blur out in canvas/obsidian?

[@brianwitte3761]

Hey Morgan! Just a quick note about one of your feature requests… You asked for boards that are on boards to show the link to shared cards that are on the board that you are linking to. What you are showing in your video is a web link Cardoso it isn’t a direct like inside of Scrintal to that other board. Instead of doing a separate web link card and pasting the link to that other board, you can actually nest the other board right into another board. Meaning, it isn’t a web link to the board, but an actual board that shows up there in which case it will show the link to the shared cards!

[@russelllapua4904]

This is going to be a bit of a silly question, but on your cards I can see the image of the top of the book. Is that how you added it or is the card truncating that image? The reason I ask is that I currently do my mind mapping on Concepts where I can import a small image and then anchor it with text, it works in that regard because I can see the whole image. Is there a way to see the whole image on Scrintal without having to go in to the card?

[@mrd6869]

Happy New year. I started using obsidian for my workflow. I do a lot of prompt engineering now so it helps keep it organized. I feel guilty for abandoning Evernote lmao They started sending me emails like where you at homie? What happened ?🤣

[@morganeua]

Lolol, welcome to the Obsidian-side!!

[@timbushell8640]

Nice way to show reading, and definitely better over multiple years. Canvas within Obsidian aside, have you managed to sync the cloud Scrintal notes/card, etc., back into your Obsidian on your controlled drive? That I can see as being useful - if you find Scrintal better for you than Canvas.

[@morganeua]

I doubt I'll find Scrintal "better" per say, I like Canvas for brainstorming outlines of papers a lot. But Scrintal is a bit nicer for visualizing fun data.

[@skipangel]

Hi Morgan, First of all, I’ve really enjoyed your videos especially those around PKM. They have been very helpful and inspiring. I’ve been exploring use of an infinite canvas beyond what Obsidian provides. I still want to use Obsidian to store my notes, but ready for some other tool to help with my thinking and quickly brainstorm, capture and connect notes. I’ll then decide what I want to bring back into Obsidian for my future self. I did try Scrintal when your first videos came out about it, but at the time (this was back in the fall last year) I felt the product was still new and didn’t want to commit to a yearly subscription so I canceled within the 7 day period. I then tried Heptabase which has similar functionality, but it is quite expensive ($12 USD/month). It’s a more mature product than Scrintal but they have been around a year longer and have a jump on the feature development. I think I want to go back to Scrintal, but now I noticed that the early bird subscription is gone (now $6.99 instead of $5) which was disappointing but I get costs go up as the produce progresses. Still almost half the price of Heptabase. But then, I read on Medium that they’ve been having a lot of performance and security issues and are “working on those in the next several months”. That doesn’t give me a warm and fuzzy feeling to come back to them right now. So, I’m wondering how it’s going with you in using Scrintal, have you run into any issues that concern you, and if you are happy with it fitting into your PKM workflow. Also, curious if you bring any of that work back into your Obsidian and how that is working. Appreciate your feedback in advance and keep creating great content!

[@callmejobson]

Congratulations on the sponsor!! I enjoy the visual of Scrintal. I feel like I would use it maybe If I was working on a team or a project. I think the visual aspect can lead to more connections and gives you a bird's eye view. Kind of like the graph View on obsidian just way more focused in

[@morganeua]

I definitely think it would be cool for corporate project collaboration, which I do not do. And thanks for the congratulations :) It's very cool to get paid to test out knowledge management software!!

[@Goodpsychiatry]

Noob question: what is the benefit of creating cards/notes for genres instead of using tags for genres?

[@flowingblaze]

Hi!! I've only watched 0:29 into the video so far but I didn't know you used notion? Would you ever do a video on how you use notion someday? That would be cool! I know this video will be great as always!

[@morganeua]

Maybe one day I'll talk about how I use notion! I organize the different areas of my life and work in there. So, my KZbin content plan, my contract work for other companies, my volunteer work, etc.

[@CIONAODMcGRATH]

All of these features are in Obsidian, aren't they? I create visual boards in Obsidian all the time.

[@morganeua]

Like, in Canvas? Yeah, you can do a lot of it in Canvas, for sure. The thing Canvas didn't have last time I was using it was the connecting lines between linked notes, like I had to add connections manually. Which I also like, and wouldn't change about Canvas, it's just slightly different functionalities.

[@productivity8696]

this is how obsidian canvas should have been.

[@jankarl5269]

Would be great if they have a free tier of some sort

[@morganeua]

Yes, absolutely

[@Ch4rl3s00]

promo code doesnt work with lifetime subscription.

[@SalsabilAlmaniya]

I tried to write several comments, but unfortunately they are not displayed. Sad.

[@sandymakesplans]

what were you trying to say? 😢

[@SalsabilAlmaniya]

@@sandymakesplans how you could use the projects plugin and the built-in canvas in "the competitor" to achieve sth like that without using another paid app.

[@morganeua]

You're looking for a cool infinite canvas to play in that is free? My recommendation would be Obsidian with their Canvas view. It doesn't automatically create the links between notes, but you can move things around from your notes "vault" and change their colours and stuff, like in Scrintal. I think Scrintal will have a free tier once they are more established, too, but I'm not 100% on that.

[@zoar8558]

this video is PAID!!!!

[@morganeua]

Yes, that is correct, Scrintal paid me for the creation of this video. I accept sponsors that I'm excited to use myself!

[@Joe29587]

You’ve become a Scrintal sellout :(

[@morganeua]

I was paid by Scrintal to make this video, yes. I was excited to accept the sponsorship because I think the app is very cool and they've given me access to try it out. But I hope that others only purchase it if they genuinely like the way it aids their workflow!

[@Joe29587]

It's just hard to trust reviewers of note-taking apps when they get paid by one note-taking app to advertise its features. Shu Omi has long become an Amplenote sellout and now you have made several videos promoting Scrintal. I just can't watch your content anymore if you lose your objectivity just because you get paid by a minor note-taking company. @@morganeua