My Obsidian vault now contains just under 50,000 notes (not including images & PDFs).

It is the center of everything I do creatively. I honestly couldn't do what I do without it.

Here's a few of my favorite uses for this incredible app (with detailed threads for each). 👇🏼🧵 #1: A Cross-Reference Library for my Sermon Notes

This is what got me into Obsidian. I create a new note for each sermon, embed my sketchnote, and link to every verse mentioned. Then I can use the local graph to navigate from note -> verse -> note in my personal study.

https://twitter.com/16885487/status/1701973580274098423

Obsidian is more than just a note-taking app. It's actually a pretty phenomenal plain text editor if you know how to set it up right.

Here's a few tips for turning @obsdmd into the ultimate writing app 👇🏼🧵 First, make sure you have the Editor settings set up right. Here are a few I recommend:

- Make Editing View the default
- Toggle Auto pair Markdown Syntax ON
- Toggle Smart Indent Lists ON
- Toggle Fold Heading & Fold Indent ON

These will make writing in Obsidian MUCH easier.

Confession: The first time I opened Obsidian, I immediately quit and deleted the app. It felt too complicated.

But I gave it another shot.

The thing that made it stick? Using it to create a linked cross-reference library for all my sermon sketchnotes.

Here's how I do it 👇🏼🧵 I've taken digital sketchnotes of all my pastor's sermons since September of 2017 in @GoodNotesApp.

The more I do it the better I get, but I'm still not an artist. But that's ok, because the real goal of sketchnotes is to help me capture and remember ideas.

Here's an example:

Obsidian is the ultimate digital journaling app for personal growth.

There are better apps for capturing memories, photos, etc., but @obsdmd is the best if you want to improve yourself.

Here's a breakdown of my Obsidian-based digital journaling workflow. 👇🏼🧵 It all builds on the concept of Daily Notes, which are single notes that are created at the beginning of my day. They're intended to be a scratchpad to capture things to, but I use them exclusively for my journal.

You can toggle Daily Notes on in the Core Plugins section.

About 5 years ago, I was reading books but not getting much out of them. So I completely changed the way I took notes.

Not only did it 10x my learning, it also helped me connect ideas between books & spark new insights.

Here's the framework I use to read better.

🧵👇 Step 1: Read physical books, but take digital notes.

My number one tip for getting more out of what you read? Read physical books.

Even though I always read physical books, my iPhone is never far away so I can quickly open up @mindnode if I need to capture something.

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I use @obsdmd every day. It's the most important app in my productivity & creativity workflows.

But the first time I launched it, I felt intimidated & immediately closed it again.

Fortunately, I gave it another shot.

Here are the things that helped it click for me. 🧵👇 @obsdmd #1: I'm selective about what I let in.

In the past, I had large archives where I could go find something if I needed it. But I wanted Obsidian to surface things that were relevant without having to go find them.

The more I curated things, the more this naturally happened.

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Have you ever thought, "I guess I'm just not creative?"

That used to be me before I realized creativity is a formula. Now I have:

• 3 podcasts
• A blog/newsletter
• A book
• A YouTube channel

And I do it by leveraging what I call The Creativity Flywheel.

🧵👇🏼 Idea development is a process. But often we make it harder than it needs to be. I've noticed that whenever I get "stuck" creatively, it's because I've failed to follow these 5 steps. But when we just "connect the dots," creating comes easy.

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What can Greek mythology teach us about productivity, mortality, and living a life of purpose and meaning?

A thread with life lessons we can learn from the legend of Theseus' ship.

🧵👇🏼 In Greek mythology, Theseus is famous for slaying the Minotaur (half-man, half-bull creature that lived in the Labyrinth). His ship was preserved in a harbor, but over time, began to fall apart. As parts wore out, they were replaced to preserve the state of 'Theseus' ship.'

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Do you feel overwhelmed? It's probably from a lack of clarity.

Clarity comes when we have time to stop & think. But when we're too busy to stop & think, we just keep being "busy."

It's a negative cycle that creates a ton of stress.

The answer? A personal retreat.

🧵👇🏼 Several years ago, I noticed I wasn't making much progress on my goals.

So, I sped up by up by slowing down. I got away for 24 hours, just to think.

The results were incredible. The clarity & motivation I gained made things easy, & I've done it every 3 months ever since.

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Digital tools have made it easy to capture ideas, whenever and wherever you have them.

But if you never take the time to curate them, you end up with a bunch of ideas that provide you little future value.

Here's why you should keep LESS if you want to create MORE.

🧵👇🏼 Most of the things you captured probably seemed life-changing initially.

We overvalue ideas the moment we have them. The way to maximize the value of your ideas is to add intentional friction when adding them to your PKM system. Cut the good ones, keep the great ones.

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A couple of years ago, I read How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler.

At the time, I didn't like it. But having read hundreds of books since then, I now think it's one of the most impactful books I've ever read.

Here are the biggest lessons I learned from this classic book.

🧵👇🏼 #1: Reading a book is like having a conversation.

You don't have to blindly accept everything the author tells you. As the reader, your job is to understand their arguments, to think critically about what they said, and respond.

Decide for yourself what you agree with.

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If you're like most people, you probably have huge collections of notes that aren't helping you. You can find them if you need them, but until you search for them they aren't providing any value.

Here are the 4 biggest mistakes I see people make with their notes & ideas.

🧵👇🏼 Mistake #1: Keeping Everything.

Not every idea you have is worth adding to your collection. The problem is you won't know which ones are the good ones initially, so you need to let them marinate for a little while.

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Earlier this year, I went through #ship30 as a bit of a skeptic. But after writing and publishing for 30 days in a row, I'm a believer (even joined the Captain's Table mastermind it was so good).

A quick thread about my biggest takeaways I got from this phenomenal course:

🧵👇🏼 #1: There's no reason to ever run out of ideas.

In the course, @dickiebush & @Nicolascole77 walk through their Endless Idea Generator to help you:

• Choose your topic
• Choose your credibility
• Choose your path/proven approach

Sounds simple, but incredibly powerful.

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I used to feel pressure for every self-help book I read to completely change my life.

But the more books I read, the more often I felt confused by contradictory opinions on a topic.

So after reading over 200 books in the last couple of years, my process has changed.

🧵👇🏼 I no longer go into a book expecting to agree with everything the author says. Instead, I simply look to find something that resonates with me.

You don't have to agree with everything in a book for it to still have the ability to change your life.

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I've journaled off and on for ~10 years.

I've always understood the value, but occasionally struggled making it stick. I'd get frustrated when I had a bad day because the prompts always focused on outcomes.

The secret? Use Daily Question (from @coachgoldsmith) instead.

🧵👇🏼 I first heard about Daily Question in the book Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith. He explained that journaling prompts (passive) measure how we did, but daily questions (active) measure how we tried. They reinforce commitment & are a much better vehicle for behavior change.

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About 2 years ago, I downloaded @obsdmd to see what the hype was about and give it a spin.

Today, I have over 33,000 plain text notes in the app and it is the center of my creative tech universe.

A short thread on my use cases for this incredible app.

🧵👇🏼 #1: A Cross-Reference Library for my Sermon Notes

This is what got me into Obsidian. I create a new note for each sermon, embed my sketchnote, and link to every verse mentioned. Then I can use the local graph to navigate from note -> verse -> note in my personal study.

🧵/2

Many times, we feel overwhelmed because we don't have clarity.

Clarity comes when we have time to stop & think. But we're too busy to stop & think, so we just keep being "busy."

It's a negative cycle that leads to stress and overwhelm.

The answer? A personal retreat.

🧵👇🏼 Several years ago, I noticed I wasn't making much progress.

I decided to try speeding up by slowing down. I got away for 24 hours, just to think.

The result was incredible. The clarity & motivation I gained made things easy, and I've done it every 3 months ever since.

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I recently read The Messy Middle by @scottbelsky about finding your way through bold ventures. It occurred to me that a lot of the challenges in the book apply to creatives as well.

There's a lot to glean from this fantastic book. Here are my top 5 takeaways.

🧵👇🏼 Takeaway #1: No one likes talking about the hard part.

Everyone talks about starts & finishes. But no one mentions how hard it was in between.

Share your struggles. Normalize the struggle.

You never know who it might help.

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About 5 years ago, I noticed I wasn't getting much out of the books I was reading. I was putting in the time, but wasn't getting the results I wanted.

So I started taking notes using mind maps in @mindnode.

Here's the framework I use to get more from books that I read.

🧵👇 Step 1: Read physical books, but take digital notes.

I prefer reading physical books, but my iPhone is never far away so I can open up MindNode and capture something.

I put MindNode in the dock and remove all distractions from my Home screen.

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Ideas are magical things. But have you ever thought about where good ideas come from?

Good ideas are not flashes of cosmic inspiration. They are the result of a system. If you work the system, you'll get more (and better) ideas.

(A detailed thread on my creative process.)

🧵/1 Here's the process I use personally to develop my ideas. This process has helped me go from believing I wasn't creative to publishing hundreds of blog posts, podcast episodes, and screencast videos.

I call it The 5 C's of Creativity.

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We play a lot of board games at my house.

When COVID hit and everything got shut down, we made the decision as a family to start playing board games together every night. We even bought a board game table for Christmas last year. Over the last couple of years, we've spent thousands of hours playing board games. We play everything, from Uno to Axis & Allies.

Here's a shortlist of some of our favorites, with links if you want to pick one up yourself.