This is the best 20 minutes of procrastinating I've had in awhile.

This video is exactly what I needed to hear. I've fallen into the trap of constantly looking for the perfect app and system at the cost of actually creating something meaningful. Thank you!

5 Rules/Principles To Adopt 1. Stick with one tool for the next 6 months 2. Trust your brain more (and relax) 3. Be project-based with your note-taking 4. Improve Your work capacity and output first 5. Set clear boundaries

No fluff, no background music, no distracting images in a desperate attempt to keep the most distracted of us entertained, just clear and useful thoughts. Thank you from France, sir. This video is a gem. You've earned a new newsletter & youtube subscriber.

Zettelkasten (aka Obsidian) may not work for you because you don't operate with really complicated things. Content creation, online business and internet marketing is not what zettelkasten was built for. This system was developed for scientists working with huge amount of knowledge, abstract ideas and data. Second mistake is that zettelkasten is not about knowledge storage. It is about finding new unexpected connections and ideas within your knowledge graph. It is a working research tool, not note-taking app. You literally pick up nails with a microscope and tell that it is a bad tool. Yes, that's true. Just pick right tool for specific work.

I procrastinated 20 minutes learning why I shouldn't procrastinate taking notes. Now I feel real smart

If you are lost after this video - try to do next: - set up your goals. It's crucial. It's the most important thing you should do right now - to be more productive, become a programmer, or something else - if you have no idea what notetaking app to choose - take Obsidian - if you don't have a framework - take GTD and PARA with links. No need to go further - just start with Obsidian and the framework for the next 6 months. After 6 months you will see, what works, and what doesn't and you can improve your system more precisely - Atomic habits - just read it - Dopamine detox - just do it - work hard on your goals. Don't look for new info or something. Just do the work. - If you see you lack something - sleep, energy, or motivation - consume new info every day, but only up to 30 minutes. Don't procrastinate consuming info or tweaking your system - After 6 months you can abandon these rules - you should have habits. You should have strong ground for your goals. And motivation to go ahead, without procrastination.

I agree with you on the rabbithole of optimization of note taking and the glorification of note taking apps. But at the same time, as a researcher working in academia, I've gotten lost in my notes and optimization would do a lot for my sanity and comfort. Because here, personal knowledge management *is* work. I went from being the person who puts everything on paper and then literally surrounds oneself with the notes and arranges and rearranges them to a point where this system just can't work anymore because I have too much stuff. And parts of my work still involve writing ideas and connections on paper. but a part of my work also relies on being able to call up all the papers I have in my "knowledge database" for a particular topic and also being able to branch out from them and complete them with further notes. But also for the more "creative" part of my work: I use quantitative methods in novel ways, which includes implementing methods from different fields to work in mine. And for this, again, a good set-up does wonders for sanity.

This video reminds me of an idea, I think it was from Atomic Habits, that says that preparation can be a trap because it gives you the illusion of progress without the risk of failure. So true! Thanks for a thought-provoking video!

One caveat: Note-Taking (or rather: Note-Making) is both: The very act of writing itself and thinking. What you describe is the issue when you disconnect the thinking from the writing and the writing from the producing. The solution I propose is to set up the system in a way that you merge back what is disconnected. When I want to understand something, I go into my Zettelkasten and start thinking on the canvas which is a note. When it gets to big, I break it up and let a structured note collection emerge (this one aspect of the bigger bottom-up principle). When I am finished thinking about something, I already got 70% of the learning, 50% of the writing and 10-20% of the editing (the numbers are just a rough metaphor for my intuition) done. That means, however, to take each note seriously instead of just jotting down some keywords that you'd have to decipher later on. There is a false dichotomy present: You don't have to settle for a good enough system because there are people who crush it with a bad system. My grandparents crushed life on malnutrition (in soviet communism) and there are high-level athletes who live on pasta. That does not mean that I should throw away my fishoil and ignore my needs for micronutrients. Putting in the work is the deciding factor. But constant improvement of the backend is still valuable. (However, I agree with you that quite a lot of people are believing that it is the system and not doing the work that is the bottle neck) To make it more tangible: If I dedicate two session per week to just working with my Zettelkasten I will generate 3--4 major break throughs in my work. Then having material to write is never the bottle neck which is a an issue for many people: > Maybe you have writer's block because you don't have a damn thing to say. - Guy Kawasaki > It's not that I'm blocked. It's that I don't have enough research to write with power and knowledge about that topic. I always means, not that I can't find the right words, [but rather] that I don't have the ammunition.... I don't have the goods. I have not gone into the world and brought back the goods that I'm writing about, and **you never want to solve a research problem with language.** -- Sebastian Junger The twist: I agree with most of your practical implications. :D

I have ADHD and the following has been helpful. If you can do something in a few minutes just do it when you think about it and don't add it to the do list. Try and make the to do list for things that will take at least 30 minutes / decisions you aren't allowed to make on your own (If you have a business partner, etc.). Also, if anything you have to do has to do with messaging / emailing someone JUST DO IT! Don't put it on your to do list!

Thank you for putting into words that feeling I had in the pit of my stomach. As a coder I tend to do this with my desk, workstation, apps, themes… trying to make everything look picture perfect, minimalistic and refined. I tell myself I’m creating a space where I can focus and be more efficient when really I’m just decorating when I should be coding.

As someone who struggles with ADHD, working on tasks adjacent to something I'm struggling to engage with helps massively. That includes working in and on my Obsidian notebook. As a memory aid it is also invaluable

As a musician, when I stopped doing that search for the perfect creative system and stuck to the simple apple notes I went to write my full length album and now I’m producing my debut with some amazing people. That’s it :) I also use the apple notes to journaling and habit track. It’s not perfect but it is simple and that’s the best.

Dude, this hit so close to home. You put into words what I have been feeling about Notion. I definitely end up falling down the optimization procrastination hole.

PKM isn't only for work. I have really bad memory due to severe anxiety and ADHD. If it wasn't for PKM I wouldn't be able to keep track of anything. Because of PKM I'm able to keep track of meds/appointments for myself, my wife, and our two special needs kids. I also use it for work and skill building. Before PKM I wouldn't be able to tell you ANYTHING about a class I took a month ago and whatever notebook I took the notes in would be dust in the wind. I'm sure it's useful for people who create output like writers, etc. but for me my PKM system is the end product and literally my second (non-anxious/ADHD) brain. I'm not procrastinating, I'm actively interacting with and storing my thoughts to remember them better.

"The magic you're looking for is in the work you're avoiding." - heard on Chris The Modern Wisdom podcast. What you are speaking on is so true and is so clarifying!

This video has been a game-changer for me this year! Despite my procrastination habit, which led me to watch hundreds of videos on the topic, read dozens of books, and search incessantly, I never found the "perfect tool." I've tried every note-taking and to-do app out there, but nobody ever warned me about falling into the "perfect tool" trap. Finally, this insightful individual opened my eyes with a gentle metaphorical slap.

“But a second brain is not a replacement for your actual brain” 😂😂😂 This video is THE BEST video I spent time watching on UKposts for years! Thank you🎉

By far the best advice on UKposts. I have tried everything and end up just giving up on each system because I just end up "doing the work" and researching without having to write every single thing down or planning 40 steps ahead.

I normally don't comment on UKposts videos but just as I was starting to fall down the endless Obsidian-optimization rabbit hole I stumbled upon your video, and it is exactly what I needed to hear. It's ironic that for 3 days I've been reading and watching videos about how to use Obsidian effectively without writing a single note, but I watched this video and the ideas presented here made me think "Yeah, I have to write that down," and so my first note was born. Thank you.

110%!! So very, very glad to come across your video shortly after finding Zetterlkasten/Obsidian/the rabbit hole that is "build your second brain." What you are saying in the vid is spot on: We like to collect things but that's not really the work that matters most. It's totally non-work, but we (ahem... I...) can get totally wrapped up in it as an end in and of itself and lose sight of the reason I started out take the notes in the first place.

Wow! You are the first person to accurately describe what I do. I have so many bookmarks, notes (in onenote & on paper, then on my whiteboard in case I forget) that I don't get anything done. I start and never finish anything. Now I understand why. I'll be watching this again and more of your videos! The ironic part was I wasn't searching for you, your video just started playing after my 4th video of comparing onenote app alternatives! Thank you for opening my eyes. Now, I may actually get something done!

Thank you. I didn’t know I needed this dose of honesty, but I certainly did. “Knowledge Management is not work” is a mantra that belongs on my office wall.

I’m into a super sophisticated form of procrastination watching your video about my procrastinative PM tools.

It felt like you’re speaking directly to me, everything you said fits incredibly what I’ve been and still going through. Thanks for the advice, I’ll try to follow it.

Getting your workflow “good enough” is the simple handle I needed to hear. I need to be content with good enough, then I can imagine tweaking my system without stress.

As someone who was just in the midst of a "which productivity tool should I use?" youtube procrastination wormhole. This was the exact advice I needed. Thank you!

Once you've stuck to a single tool for a long while and notice that you are making little to no progress, then the problem is you, not the productivity tool. This is a great video man! It serves as an eye-opener for a lot of us.

Im so glad these types of videos pop up. Like, say, note taking and productivity got so popular around, say, 2015-2022... and people have slowly been noticing how NOT to do it, and then "counter videos" like these ones are made! Amazing! I love it. And this one got to me personally. Ive been one to always enjoy making systems for managing tasks and documentation but then it all sorta doesn't change much in the end. Id say like 30-50% of the time I actually use it to make a checklist and knock down tasks! But not so good for like long term planning.

Thank you for the video and the reality check. I spent the weekend going down a rabbit hole (one full of task apps, note taking apps, PKMs, etc.) instead of doing the work I want to do: writing. I needed this wake up call. I am grateful you suggested to work with my current system for six months and to set boundaries around the additions I want to make. These reminders will help keep me focused on the WORK and not only the apps I use. Excellent advice.

This is SO spot on, my friend. My instincts kept poking me and saying, 'You're procrastinating!' every time I started learning about Obsidian instead of studying. Thanks for the affirmative video!

I really like how honest and straightforward you are in talking about this. This actually really helped me stop constantly searching and changing apps and systems

- Principle one: Stick with one tool for the next 6 months. - Principle two: Trust your brain more (and relax). - Principle three: Be project-based with your note-taking. - Principle four: Improve your work capacity & output FIRST. - Principle five: Set clear boundaries.

Thank you so much for taking the time to articulate this. I’ve fallen into this trap many times before and I soon understood that it was a form of procrastination, but a “nice” one. I bet a lot of people will relate to this and learn something. Keep it up!!

You just described the last 3 year struggle in my study/reading life. I’m taking all 5 of those points to heart. Thank you.

This is one of the better UKposts videos I've watched in a while (pace, tone). I felt called out through the entire video. I'm 2+ years into my PKM journey and it's all painfully true. "Sophisticated procrastination" and "found the meaning of life" had me cracking up. Thanks for putting the time and effort into this! PS: 100% watched this embedded in Obsidian Canvas 100% while taking notes (video notes on paper)

When using apps like Notion, I always get caught up in all the features and never actually get started working. Apple Notes and other apps like it are simpler, and that’s a good thing. I have nothing else to do in the app but start working. No unnecessary features.

At some stage in the last several months, I reached some of these conclusions myself and decided to take a different approach than I had been. I'm currently learning to use Obsidian, but I have not moved my notes from where they reside now. I'm using it and learning a bit at a time, mostly on weekends or on my rare 'days off'. It's been far more enjoyable for me this way and the guilt I used to feel isn't there any more. Eventually I'll move notes over, but I don't feel any compulsion to so, as I have in the past. I've noticed since taking this route that I'm getting much more work done. Some people are really going to disagree with you, but I think you really hit the nail on the head.

What a great video. I actually came to those conclusions several months ago after years of changing systems. I probably had a bunch of notes about making such a video as you did. But I never got around to it. Hahaha. You did a great job of putting in words what I had been thinking. And it makes so much more sense hearing it from you, therefore I think I'll be able to heed my advice through you. Thanks again and Happy New Year.

Man this feels so targeted towards me, great reminder and solid reality check, thanks!!! ❤️❤️❤️

Summary for the very productive people: The video discusses personal knowledge management and how it can be a sophisticated form of procrastination. It explains that tools such as Obsidian, Roam, Logseq, and Notion can help people take notes in a more organized and interconnected way. However, some people use these tools to avoid doing actual work by collecting information and optimizing their note-taking systems without producing any tangible output. The video suggests that recognizing personal knowledge management as a form of procrastination and treating it as non-work can help people avoid falling into this trap. The goal is to use note-taking apps to produce something productive, not just to feel smart or stay on the cutting edge.

Exactly what I needed, thanks Sam! I am less focussing on finding the right tool and now trying to get into the habit of doing my daily and weekly reviews of my lists. No matter the tool, it will fail if you don’t have the essential habits to use them regularly.

What a brillant lesson to stop procrastinating. I totally recognise myself when you describe people seeking to have the perfect system. Thank you so much for giving us your thoughts and tips to escape from these traps. Really appreciate.

I learned this lesson in college, where I found myself putting more thought into making beautiful, comprehensive notes and being organized than I was actually doing the work. At that point I ditched the multi-colored pens and cornell notepads for good old engineer paper and digitizing them into .pdf when I was ready to archive them.

I've just started a PhD and had started falling into this optimisation trap of "what's the best way to do this? Can I do this with the tools I get for free from my university?" thanks to social media. Part of my issue has been looking for information on the combination of the specific apps that I use. Everyone is promoting paid note-taking apps which I legitimately can't afford to purchase which both makes me feel bad for coming from a low-income background and thinking I'm missing the "best way" to manage all my reading and notes because of my socio-economic background. I am going to relax as he says in the video and trust that my methods have gotten me this far. I will focus on doing better work and actually doing the work, as I was before falling into this internet quicksand of optimisation. Thank you so much for this video!

You are absolutely right about “sofisticated procrastination”!!! Thanks for pointing it this way so clear. Took a look to some more of your content and I became a follower! I love your intellectually honest approach.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. You did a great job explaining how taking notes can lead to procrastination and its resolution. I've put down the key points in this video into my Obsidian vault, linking to 100 other notes and it took me 3 hours.

This is so right. I was down this rabbit hole. I was so busy planning work I didn't actually do any

One should work hard to use one's "first" brain to get the work done, not try hard to set up the "second brain" just to make one feel good . Thanks Sam for your valuable thought! It hit the point right!

You took a topic that's been beaten to death and you revived it with originality. Keep making videos like this!

Thank you Sam for creating such an insightful video. I am in that "finding the perfect note taking app" phase, without even realising (though subconsciously at the back of mind I do) that I haven't been taking enough notes to even start organizing them. And yeah, I do procrastinate a lot. PS: You're doing a great job, please keep doing what you are doing. Most of the UKpostsrs just give in to the temptation of "views" / "virality" and just give up on the quality of their content. Have a great day! :)

I definitely agree with you for the most part that note management can be a form of procrastination, however I work as an engineering manager in manufacturing and this requires me to maintain a great amount of data in my head to be able to make quick decisions. I have been using the Brain version 13 for the past year and I have definitely found it helps increase my recall so I can make quick decisions to help the business. As I get older, my recall is getting worse and having something like note management I feel it is helping me stay on top of my game.

I used so many apps - then realized I was just wasting time. I have accepted that things will always be messy and to go with the flow

Thank you for saying what most of me knew intuitively, but convinced myself otherwise. I hope you realize the impact of this video.

Very good video. Absolutely not restricted to Note-Taking. So many smart people destroy their carriers by overoptimising instead of doing actual work. You have a new follower.

There is so much value in this video. I personally got stuck in this trap for months. In my retrospection, I realized the suffering from Collectors Fallacy is deeply rooted in fear of failure. It’s the logical brain’s attempt to shield the future you with random “knowledge”, so you will never feel unprepared. I found it helpful to purposely introduce friction and overhead when saving things, so that you feel the pain of collecting useless things.

This video is amazing. It should be added as a reminder under every PKM video out there, because many people, me included, have a tendency to fall down this rabbit hole. Particularly resonating was the idea that people from earlier times and centuries did immense work without any notion or obsidian or whatever the new apps are, without even any phone. Just get up and do the work. Thanks !

Insanely useful and transparent video. SO easy to fall into the rabbit hole of study aesthetics, (specially here on YT), switching to better systems, comparisons, only to end up realizing that these softwares are meant to work for us and just take as minimal effort to dive into them and get the real stuff done. We fixate on what can enhance the view of perspective of the things we should get done but without addressing the real core issues: Maybe lack of clarity on the goals we want, not understanding subjects/chronic fea to fail on them (and therefore thinking that it all depends on a broader system that can save us)... I'm sure there are people who benefit from these at the right amount, but you've certainly confirmed my idea that lowkey, as long as you are first consuming the work and then you try to polish it and personalize it to your very own unique mind, then you will be just fine. Thank you so so much!!!

Exactly what I needed to hear! I just started learning PKM systems and Obsidian and you saved me from spinning my wheels in that GREAT pit of procrastination. This is giving me a much better balance between leveraging technology and accomplishing the actual work needed.

Bang on Sam! As much information as there is out there to consume; the best way to learn is through action; so the idea which you touch on towards the end of centring any research, note-taking or knowledge building exercise around a project is a great way to action the input for more deeper/richer learning;

I liked that. This is the missing meta-perspective. Great to have the general system (BASB) by Tiago Forte, an overview of the apps by Franceso D'Alessio, details about Obsidian by Nick Milo, beautiful concepts like digital gardening by Maggie Appleton and all those excellent and inspiring guys. But if you want to get real work done, you have to lean back, look at your procrastinating self, rethink and follow those principles. Good to start with this in 2023 :-) Thanks!!

Well worth taking the time and listen, hit the nail on the head keep it old school ..have been spending time to find something that's not there, stuck on the roundabout

It is so easy to fall into this trap. This is a message that most people desiring productivity but not necessarily achieving it after spending too much time learning how to use obsidian etc need to hear.

This is a wake-up call. I wasted weeks on my PKM optimizing it to perfection, Spending hours on plugins, and in the end, no real progress is made. I came to realize that for the past month but I needed to hear this. It confirms everything I was thinking. Funny how good our brains are at fooling us to avoid discomfort in ways we don't even realize lol. Great Lesson! Thanks!

I am a PKM and tool-optimization addict. The first step is admittance, right? I can spend hours and hours working on my note taking system and cultivating my ideas in pure bliss. However, as is stated in the video, I was not recognizing that this was getting to a point where it was little different from playing videos games or watching tv. A dangerous thing is an idea which you think you know. I *thought* I knew that research, note taking, and pkm can be a procrastination trap and because of that I was blind to see that it's exactly what I was doing. I thought that I was being focused with my research efforts. I would structure a few video ideas and then start doing research. However, the video *ideas* alone were not enough to keep my research focused and productive. The thing that I was really procrastinating on was writing out a rough draft of a script (or at least an outline). Instead I just kept researching more and more thinking that somewhere along the way a script would magically be conjured up in my brain. I'm going to start to take steps to change that! No more aimless research without an explicit idea of what I am trying to find and why! I genuinely enjoy research and tool-optimization for its own sake, however, I do think I could greatly benefit by seeing it as a reward for doing work and not a part of the process. I'd like to share a story of mine on my recent move to Obsidian from all the other PKM apps that I had been dabbling in. In the past I tried Evernote and then Notion. I was stuck in the PKM-tool gerbil wheel. I found Obsidian in December of last year and have been using it ever since. I'd like to share the benefits and PKM pitfalls that I have encountered a long the way. I hope my story helps some people to find what I would call the "Goldilocks" zone of optimization. First, I love Obsidian. I am a software developer and just for the ability to use vim in the app, I was won over. Obsidian makes me want to learn new things. It makes them enjoyable. I have found a legitimate productivity increase in my video production by using Obsidian. It integrates well with another app, Zotero so that I can easily keep track of sources which is very important to the work I do and also a huge challenge that I have faced in the past. In short, I finally found a system that works well *enough* for me. Then I started to go a bit too far. I had previously kept all my in-progress projects in Notion and had developed a really helpful system to me with it. Obsidian works beautifully for PKM and Notion works just as beautifully for project management. Thinking that "there must be a better way" in Obsidian, I spent hours and hours trying to get my already-clean-and-efficient system in Notion ported over... This video has finally let the message sink in that... I do not need to do that! Why take a system that is already working very well and spend hours tinkering with it because it *might* (and probably won't) be better another way? Thinking about it now, it seems silly that I would try. Sam, you are a great creator. I hope you continue. Thanks again for this video! tl;dr - PKM is candy, don't eat too much. Use your tools for work, don't work for your tools!

Thank you… Definitely fell into the sophisticated procrastination category. You simplified things for me.. And yes result I AM MORE RELAXED!

Exactly what I needed to hear right now! I have been in this trap of chasing the perfect system for months now… a ‘useful’ tool for avoiding the actual work and surrender to procrastination. A necessary wake up call for me. Thanks for this timely video, which made snap out of this pointless chase… and subscribe to your channel!

For me Obsidian was one of the weirdest niche communities lol. Everyone was so obssessed with optimization and organization but at the same time completely missing the point of note taking. ESPECIALLY in a classroom environment. Taking 10 minutes to format everything correctly and have a "perfect system" while missing 90% of the content being taught.

I really needed to hear this. Great advice! I was getting started on learning Obsidian and getting overwhelmed. I’ve tried so many productivity workflows but I keep returning to my Apple Notes and Google Docs and this video gives me the permission slip I needed to know that’s enough.

Just started looking for new apps and systems to manage knowledge and came across this video - happy I found this before it was too late

I stumbled upon this video as I was unconsciously procrastinating. Wow. I love the way you structured this content. The delivery was highly effective. I appreciate you producing this work. On that note - I will not watch another video tonight and I will get to work. You have my subscription now. Looking forward to exploring your page, at a later time :) Cheers all.

Very interesting video. There's 2 things to mention : First, personally I use a lot Miro (because I'm a very visual person) and I don't know about others but for me, I've probably increased my work speed by 2 or 3. Some tasks that always took me 5 to 6 days to finish before (for the last 5 years at least) now are taking me like 2 or 3 days to finish, I see a concrete improvement. But I always try to focus on efficiency and not spending hours and hours creating something beautiful but useless. And I can understand that for some people it can become a trap. I didn't suspected that it was THIS much of people that are actually stuck in this trap. So the problem is really not the tool, it's the user. It's the same with everything, a smartphone is a great tool if you use it efficiently but if you become the slave of your phone, then it's counter-productive and it's becoming your worst enemy. Second thing is that in this video your making a good criticism about the "second-brain" concept, and I agree with the point and idea. If you only see this second-brain through the lense of "helping productivity" then yes it makes sense to critizice the "procrastination" it creates because increasing productivity is the thing you're expecting from it. BUT what you forget is that a "second-brain" is a much larger concept, for some people it has nothing to do with productivity or efficiency, and it's only about MEMORY. In the idea, for some people, I don't know like a doctor or a historian for example, they can use obsidian for example, not in a "task-management" or "project-management" way... but in a "database" / "memory-way". If I would like to create a huge data base of documents and archives with connections between them, to be able to remember them precisely in 20 years from now (my real brain can't do that) then Obsidian would be the PERFECT tool and it will be 100% on target about efficiency because it will do exactly what I want it to do : REMEMBERING STUFF FOR ME so I can clean my own brain with a lot of stuff that I will not need to remember. The problem is that "marketing" people believes that these type of tools is made for them or belong only to them.... it's not. This type of system like Obsidian for example, was developed specially for scientists, historians, journalists, etc... who are working with huge amount of knowledge, documents, archives etc... and who simply want to STOCK all this knowledge somewhere. That's when the "second-brain" concept find all his sense. A marketing guy who wants to simply finish his tasks for the week and is working as a community manager or instagram influencer etc... OF COURSE he is not going to even need Obsidian in the first place, Evernote or Notion will be fine and all the work done will be able to be deleted after a few weeks or months. That's not even possible for a researcher of any field who are doing research that are taking DECADES. So again, it's not about the tool, it's only about the user and how YOU decide to use the tool. The tool is perfect for what it's supposed to do.

Finally someone had to say it, and I am so glad that you didn’t just echo my thoughts but also gave some solid tips on how to overcome this sophisticated trap of PKM. I would like to ask to what extent do you use these tools now? Thank You.✌🏻

Incredible video! It’s a bittersweet feeling coming across your video as it was very much needed. I’m just finishing a rough research project that involved qualitatively analyzing hundreds of survey responses. I had spent so much time researching ways that I can do this “efficiently” in obsidian instead of doing the actual research itself. Safe to say I had to crunch it out at the end and made many MANY mistakes, but I also know I gained so much insight from making those mistakes and from being intimately involved with the data. I tried shuttling my important work into this ‘cool’ software instead of using the software to aide my important work. I still love the app but I’m definitely gonna be smarter about how I attempt to use it from now on haha

I’ve just met with pkm and began using obsidian. Before watching your video, I had been in an optimization trap for 15 days but you enlightened me! Thanks! I’ll use your tips! But before that I need to organize my obsidian folders and then take some notes from your words and try to connect them with my old notes… no just kidding! Thank you! You helped a lot

So wild that you once taught me how to make EDM and now you’re teaching me about PKM. You’re everywhere, mate.

I use obsidian differently than I see others use it and it made me feel weird because I procrastinated learning the features itself. :D I usually use it as a brain dump and brainstorming and problem solving and usually have a few central lists like "all ideas" but most of thebideas are there only to archive and not to lose the thought. It helps me tackle procrastination sometimes because the steps and solutions get clearer which is one of the most common reason for me to procrastinate on something.

Thank you for this video!! You got a new sub. I love the honesty and truth. I can't wait to watch more videos. 😊

This is a godsend for me as I get ready to start my MBA. Optimization by doing is better than optimization and THEN doing. Thank you!

The only use I've had for Obsidian is to put a large knowledge base in it for work. When a new employee comes in just give them the vault and they have a neatly done knowledge base. Other than that it takes more time to set it up than it does just to do the work, for the first time.

Depends. For some lines of work, organizing and structuring information both serves the purpose of studying the subject matter AND increasing creativity and insight within a certain topic

This video came out in my youtube feed at the right time in my life. Thank you for the input

Hi Sam, you are descibing me at every start of the timestamp marker, I'm definitely one of those who skip from app to app finding the perfect system for myself but missed the "doing it" part. Thank you for this reminder video, appreciate it!!

Excellent video! Well put! For reasons very similar to those you present I went the pragmatic route and entered OneNote as my daily note taking tool ten years ago. I cringed, but stuck to it for ten years, despite lots of shiny new objects on the way. For several reasons (new job and life situation) I now have a great opportunity to evaluate and can justify changing tools. Based on my quick research I think I'm potentially an Obsidian type of person who should try to avoid the Notion rabbit hole (although a part of me feel the attraction of the everything-app). I’d love to see how you use Obsidian with your wonderful pragmatic approach. Care to share? Please? :-)

Having a complex note-taking system that operates on top of my quick-note capture methods has been the most rewarding experience of my academic career. It's not about 'feeling smart'. It's about changing the way I approach research, documenting my progress but also structuring thoughts and ideas within the larger context of a subject. Designing this system takes time, and I have found it the most helpful when it is well organized, and when I revise the relationships, and structures between topics.

Fantastic and brilliant. Great spiritual advise. Biggest general challenge I find is needing to clear out small tasks and distractions to be able to do deep work with serious focus. Once in focus mode I am good. Also helpful to work collaboratively to get into deep focus mode.

Thank you! This was not what I wanted to hear, but needed to hear.

Good arguments. I’ve been guilty of changing note-taking app too many times myself. However, you’re missing on one use case for notes or one group of note-takers. The ones reading and note-taking for the pure pleasure of learning. Not everyone is (or wants to be) a creator. And I’m talking with some experience as an ex-content creator. I, and people similar to me, take notes for myself, for my pleasure of growing my knowledge and encountering serendipity on the way. So it’s not a procrastination for me as I do not see personal knowledge management as a stepping stone to better productivity.

Me: *watching this video while taking notes so I can put it in my second brain* The video: "Personal Knowledge Management is just a complex form of procrastination" Me: *Sweats profusely* Jokes aside, I love it when I come across vids that raise a valid point against my current knowledge. I never would've thought that PKM could lead me to complex procrastination if I focus on that too much. Thanks for the reminder :)

Thank you so much! I’m working on my doctorate but have been going down the rabbit hole of chasing shiny apps! I found this video just in time.

Thanks. I've watched a few people shilling about Tana. The way they are using it is hopeless, exactly as you described, just an endorphin/oxytocin fix. I'm a retired software engineer and have used a wiki for creating combined specifications/design/documentation for 20 years. I bring YAGNI with me to Obsidian. Only create the notes you need, create atomic notes if it's a true fundamental concept, keep other related data together, use excalidraw and excalibrain to cement the notes with your memory, aim for 80% of what you want then start using it and create output, use that as feedback to improve what you have. There is a take-on phase but once you reach critical mass you must start using it. It's also so easy to waste time getting the many excellent plugins working together in fabulously sophisticated ways. And don't get me started about the effort put into tinkering with themes. With so many things there is no way of ever getting a positive return on invested time.

Action creates progress. Progress creates momentum. Momentum creates motivation.

I clicked this video thinking I could stop procrastinating “with” note taking apps and realised while watching it that I should stop “procrastinating with” note taking apps. Man that hit me hard. Thanks for telling me what I needed to hear

God bless you, sir... you spoke a hard lesson to me, and I couldn't have agreed with you more. That statement of, "others in the past have been more than productive enough, without the need for such apps" really got to me...

Completely agree. However one key thing though for me PKM isn’t about productivity. It’s learning, thinking and action taking. How can I create an environment that allows me to learn better, think better and take action. I’ve set up in a way where it’s really about breaking things down in a way and organizing them in a manner where it helps me. It’s important to me to organize my notes because as a business owner, developing employees and transferring skills to others by passing on your knowledge is where you go from a good business to an extraordinary one. So yeah you make great points… But when you’re looking to master something and you’ve collected 5000 notes on courses, books you’ve read and digested but somehow you’ve forgotten about it? That’s when those little tweaks to your process make a huge difference. But personally for me I’ve had my life change because of this field. I’ve created my own methodology by taking what works and what doesn’t to fit my needs to get it to do what I want it to do. Learn, think, take action.

Such excellent timing for this video to appear in my feed! Procrastination is a sneaky thing and I think I was about to fall into this same trap of feeling productive and smart. I'm really excited to dive into obsidian (Coming from ah, having no real system for some time after my last one fell apart) but I will remember to set clear boundaries and prioritize the actual work that will get me results. Thanks for making this vid!

although I agree with you on how we can't really account for all the uncertainties that arises during work itself, I personally find Note-Taking apps to be very useful way to plan out how to deal, redirect, and satisfy my emotions ahead of time to prevent or minimize myself from doing unwanted actions by satisfying my emotions in ways that aren't productive. I find it to be a useful tool in the context of solving emotional problems and I've observed my productivity output like your video mentioned and my productivity seems to depend on how well I can understand my emotions and how well I can reinterpret work in a way that aligns my logical goals and emotional goals.

Thank you for this video, it really helped me to see why I wasnt getting the results that I hoped for being dependant on these note taking apps.

That's an absolute jam Sam, so relatable video and on point advice, thanks for sharing man!