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This week I’m on one of my regular interstate trips to visit family, and loving how the simple lists I prepared earlier are making things easier.
This trip has a project page, linked to at the top of my OBTF. Once it’s over the link will be deleted, but the file will live on in the Short Trips section of my EDEX — my version of Johnny Decimal’s Life Admin system.
The project page for this trip follows a template with these headers:
Every evening I get out my paper notebook and write an achievable list of things to get done the next day. At the top of the list are my top two tasks: even if I get nothing else done, seeing ticks by those two items means I’ll end the day with a smile. Next on the list come a few additional things I’d like to get done.
Today’s list is very simple.
Right now I’m up early getting the first three things out the way so I’ll have the rest of the day to sit with Mum and work through her list. Can I just say how good it feels to mark tasks off by turning them into a plus sign! It’s a tiny pat on the back and I love it.
Mike Schmitz has an attractive, inviting system for tracking pretty much everything in Obsidian. But it’s complicated, and essentially useless outside of that app. I’m happier when not fenced in, so I prefer to forego some of the benefits of a more complex system and use queries instead.
Recently I realised that when a file has a name that is the same as the beginning of a file with a longer name, both files will appear in a search for the shorter file name. For example, a search for Master Task List will also show results from the file Master Task List Queries and Master Task List Demo.
This is my updated query to show items I’m waiting for across two specific files, excluding a file in my vault with a similar name to one of them:
file: "2024 OBTF" (content: "ø " OR "/w." OR "@waiting" -line: "-[x]") OR file: "Master Task List" line:@waiting -path: "Master Task List Queries"
This problem can be avoided by making file names unique. When that’s not something you can or want to do, excluding a specific file with -path: "File Name" is a good solution.
Obsidian has unique features that make using queries easier. Plugins like Query Control, Bookmarks, embedded queries. Good news: each of these can be part of your process without locking you into the app! They’re based on the premise of searching for specific strings of text, something any reasonable text editor can do blindfolded.
Next week: an allegorical plain text accounting progress report, with principles that apply to personal knowledge management in general.
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