|||

PTPL 096 · Content Over Tools, Files Over Apps, Internal Observation Over External Inspiration

Plus Cal Newport’s plan.txt, and the Plus, Minus Next method

Plan.txt and the Plus, Minus, Next method can help you make sense of the week that’s been and the one to come. Define your priorities to keep Obsidian the tool you need it to be.


Tools are not the answer, but do you know the question?

Cal Newport wrote about plan.txt back in 2008, eight years before I started taking my own first steps toward simplified productivity.

Each week Cal writes what he intends to do, and how he intends to do it. There’s no template, no rigid rules. He might write a paragraph, or several pages.

My plan.txt file…allows my brain, each week, to do what it does best: figure out a very workable short-term plan for making progress on what’s important. This is freestyle productivity in action.

— Cal Newport

It’s taken me a large portion of the past eight years to move my focus from tools to systems, so I imagine that even if I’d known about Cal’s approach back then it wouldn’t have helped me skip the queue. I had too much inner work to do and would not have been ready for it.

These days I simplify wherever I can to keep myself focused. Plain text and simple paper-based systems are my attempt to avoid the kind of overthinking that gets in the way of actually achieving my goals, instead of just placing them on (yet another) to do list!

At the end of each week I write a review of the past 7 days. Achievements, memorable moments, frustrations, joys, failures, observations. I write this on paper, preceding each point with a dash. After I’m done I’ll read it back, and change the dash as needed:

  • A vertical line changes the dash to a plus for positive points
  • An arrow head added to the right of the dash marks future plans
  • The dash stays as it is for things that didn’t go so well

And there you have it — a freeform Plus, Minus, Next exercise done and dusted, without having to think of which category I’m writing about before putting pen to paper!

When I’m running paperless, the Plus, Minus, Next review goes at the beginning of my weekly note in Obsidian.

More about Plus, Minus, Next from Ness Labs

Relative Priorities, and Obsidian

Three important relative priorities I’ve adopted since beginning this journey in 2016, and one guiding principle:

  • Content of my notes and plans first, tools (digital or analog) I use to create them, second
  • Files (that I own and control) first, apps that can read and change them, second
  • Self-observation (i.e. via interstitial journaling) first, inspiration from other people’s systems, second
  • Have as few capture points as possible, and review them at least weekly

There’s irony in the article that Steph Ango, the CEO of Obsidian, wrote on the topic of files over apps. His points are valid and his writing is, as usual, stunningly concise, but his app has 1000 ways (plugins) to bind the unsuspecting user to it!

I’m only half kidding here.

Obsidian is my favourite Markdown app — it’s where I’m creating these words right now — but it takes informed, intentional effort to keep my files free from plugin-generated cruft that won’t work anywhere else.

The good news is that keeping your files independent and portable between apps is not hard to do! Plugins are great, I love them, but I encourage people to use them on top of their files; as clothing that can easily be changed or discarded, not as a beneath-the-skin digital skeleton you can’t live without.


Follow my RSS feed, or sign up to receive posts in your inbox  

 

My posts cost you nothing to read, but a goodly amount of effort on my part to put together. If you’ve found value here I invite you to share this post with someone you think will appreciate it, or to make a contribution to my support jar

Up next PTPL 095 · Markdown Smart Bookmarks, Portable and Plugin Free PTPL 097 · Informed, Intentional Note Makers Value Processes Over Apps
Latest posts PTPL 129 · Live Out of Your Notes the Way Tom Lives Out of His Car Inktober 2024 PTPL 128 · Keep Your Content Separate From the Container in Which It Lives PTPL 127 · On Backing Up Paper, and Static Websites for Tiny Archives Efficient App Agnostic Tasks in a Single Plain Text File (Obsidian Optional) PTPL 126 · What the Dash-Plus System Looks Like in My OBTF and Analog Notes Word Puzzles (that aren’t Wordle) PTPL 125 · Choosing Between Digital and Analog, and a Plain Text Accounting Update How to Keep Your Wheels Turning Smoothly Despite the Automation Paradox PTPL 124 · Saving Safari tabs as Markdown links, and Mono Fonts in Obsidian Looking Through Windows (From the Outside In) PTPL 123 · ‘Analog Office’ Blog and Tomoe River Planner Recommendations Mastodon and the Fediverse — Social Media’s Brighter Future Celebrating Independent Indie Blogs PTPL 122 · Aligning Your Task List with Your (Changing) Values PTPL 121 · Getting Focused With a 4-Quadrant Weekly Planning Matrix PTPL 120 · Quick Add vs Text Expansion in Obsidian Touch Typing For Classic Book Fans Your Name in Landsat Psst — They Don't Know What You're Talking About PTPL 119 · Yes, You Can Be Plain-Text Enlightened and Still Use Apple’s Reminders! PTPL 118 · My Simple, Sensible Plain Text to Proprietary App Workflow PTPL 117 · Oh, You Like Making Notes! Why Not Use… ? PTPL 116 · Plain Text Accounting Level 1, Complete! PTPL 115 · There’s Something New at the Top of My One Big Text File PTPL 114 · Obsidian, Silver Bullet, and Org-Mode—3 Different Approaches to Working With Notes PTPL 113 · Some Free Tools Cost Too Much PTPL 112 · Organise Your Stuff— Alternatives to Bartender and Hazel PTPL 111 · You Only Need 2 Calendar Categories For Effective Time Management PTPL 110 · How to Easily Type  macOS ⌘ Modifier Keys PTPL 109 · Households With Written SOPs Are More Resilient Than Those Without
... ... ... ...