So you started collecting information and capturing ideas into your PKM system. But has it changed your life yet?

Probably not.

That’s because it takes a little while for things to sink in as information works its way through the 3 levels of knowledge:

• The first level is having something (information) where you can look it up if you need it, but it doesn't really add any value until you recall it
• The second level is understanding something (revelation) where you can recall it without having to dig for it and it inspires new ideas
• The third level is doing something (application) where you put that knowledge into action and it changes what you do day-to-day

These 3 Levels of Knowledge map perfectly to the lower 3 levels of the PKM Stack:

In summary: Lasting transformation may begin with new thought processes, but nothing changes until you take action.

There are 3 kinds of actions to collect in your PKM system:

• One-off tasks: The stuff that needs to be done today or later this week. Take the dog to the vet. Sign the permission slip for a school trip.
• Multi-step projects: These are things that require more time or effort than ordering a grocery pickup.
• Habits/routines: These are the important but not urgent things that are easy to ignore but if done consistently produce real, lasting positive change.

The tasks and projects are pretty straightforward: tasks are things we have to do, and projects are actions that have more than one step. Most people will keep their tasks and projects in a dedicated task manager (though I've been experimenting with keeping everything in Obsidian for the past couple of weeks and it's going really well).

But habits are the things we don't really think about all that often. Which is a shame because this is where a lot of progress can be made in flipping the script from a default life to an intentional one.

Habits are automated actions that shape who we are. According to James Clear, what we do consistently becomes a part of our identity.

For a long time, I used the Streaks app to meticulously track every single habit. Building a stream can be a terrific motivator when you're trying to establish a habit, but once you've banked something like 1,400 days of continuous repetition, it's probably something you don't need to track anymore. It’s become so ingrained it's a part of you.

So I’ve stopped tracking these ingrained habits and started focusing on creating new habits and routines inside my Daily Note in Obsidian.

When layering new habits into your life, it helps to keep three simple tactics in mind:

• Keep it small: The smaller the action required, the less friction there is do the thing. This is important while building momentum as consistency matters more than quantity.
• Don't do too much: When adding new habits, it's best to do it one at a time. If you try to change too much at once, none of it will actually stick.
• Chain one habit to another: Linking a new habit to one you already have makes it easier to adopt. Like going for a 5-minute walk after each meal to reach your step goal.

Routines Are Bundled Actions

Once you start to build some momentum with your habits, you can bundle them together. This allows you to complete several actions efficiently and in a short period of time.

I’ve found great success by combining my habits into morning and evening routines.

My morning routine starts immediately when I get up (usually between 6:30 and 7:00 am).

1. The first thing I do when I get up is read my Bible. I’ve gone back and forth with doing this analog and digital, but am currently reading a physical Bible in the morning to avoid the siren song of the screen as long as I can.
2. Next, I spend some time in prayer. I actually do use my phone for this because I have a shared prayer list with my discipleship group at church in an app called Echo. It takes some practice (and intentional Home Screen design) to develop the discipline to ignore all the other distractions on my phone, but once I launch Echo, the minimal app interface makes it easy to focus on my prayer time.
3. After that, I have some specific stretches that my physical therapist gave me a couple of years ago when I hurt myself while running that I make sure I do every morning. I used to deal with sciatic nerve pain, but as long as I’m consistent with my stretches I don’t have any issues.

After that, I shower, make some fancy coffee, and get to work following the plan I created the night before during my evening routine.

My evening routine begins with the next day in mind.

The first thing I do (most of the time) in my evening routine is plan the next day by blocking out what work I will do and when, and still meet day-to-day personal and household responsibilities. I like doing this the night before as it makes the mornings easier.

The next thing I do is set out my clothes for the next day in the bathroom. That way I don’t have to make the decision about what to wear when I get up and everything is ready to go for me.

Finally, I do my journaling in Obsidian using the Daily Questions format that I’ve developed over the years (I even have a special Shortcut I made that makes this as easy as possible.)

In addition to the daily questions, I also have a couple of habits that I keep tabs on in Obsidian. I don’t track the habits that are firmly established (like Bible reading and prayer), but I do track 3 things that I want to focus on right now:

Reading

As I mentioned last week, a lot of the ideas I curate are from books that I read. So I try to spend some time reading every day as a way to continually collect new ideas and connect with others that are already in my PKM system.

Writing

I’m a big believer in the idea that your PKM system needs an output. So I try to make sure that I write something every day as a way of synthesizing the ideas I’m collecting and creating something new with them.

Planning

While I do my best to plan my day the night before, occasionally I still miss on this. So I’m tracking it here until it really becomes second nature for me.

Taking Action

Remember, action is the natural result of knowledge. When you start collecting information and ideas, they will naturally inspire you to take action. If it doesn’t, there’s a disconnect somewhere.

If you really want to make the most of your notes and ideas, look for a way to put them into practice - whether that’s a big project you want to undertake or a new habit you want to add to your morning or evening routine.

Just be careful not to try to change too much at once.

Something Cool: Building a Quotebook in Obsidian

This week, I finally figured out how to do something I've been trying to do in Obsidian since I first downloaded it: build my own curated quote book in Obsidian.

There were a couple of things that made this difficult (i.e. not wanting to make atomic notes for each quote, getting a query that displayed the quotes in a way that I could use the Find command to locate when I needed them, etc.). But I finally figured out how to do it using 1) the built-in Search core plugin, 2) a beta community plugin called Query Control, and 3) a custom CSS snippet.

Installing beta plugins is pretty easy using the Obsidian BRAT community plugin, but it's not for the faint of heart. If you want to learn how to use the BRAT plugin, the author (TfTHacker) has put together a great guide here.

If you want a step-by-step guide on how to put it together, check out my latest YouTube video:

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You can download the CSS snippet directly here, or grab the latest version of the Obsidian University Starter Vault to see it in action.

Book Notes: Atomic Habits by James Clear

There’s a reason Atomic Habits has been atop the NYT best-seller list for more than 200 weeks. It’s a virtual handbook on how our habits and our identities intersect and how we change who we are by changing tiny components of what we do from day to day.

And if you want to download my notes on this phenomenal book, click this link.

Coming Soon

Last week I teased that I'm not only going to open up the next Obsidian University cohort soon, but I have some exciting new resources for implementing the PKM Stack model in Obsidian to share with those who join:

This time around, I'll be sharing some custom Obsidian resources I've been working on to help you manage knowledge at all 4 levels of the PKM Stack. I'm still working on finishing everything up, but it'll basically be a done-for-you system with the settings, plugins, queries, and dashboard configured for you so you can just plug in your information and start making more of your notes and ideas in Obsidian.

Eventually, I'll sell this as a standalone resource, but I'm giving early access exclusively to those who join this cohort.

If you want to be the first to know when the cohort opens up, click here.

—Mike

P.S. Merry Christmas! 🎄 Hope you all have a wonderful holiday. Unfortunately for us, my wife caught COVID so we're laying low but we're making the best of it. On the positive side, I do get to spend a lot of time with my kids and finally introduced my teenagers to Back to the Future. I'm not sure they enjoyed it as much as I did 😂