How to process notes in Obsidian // Readwise Official Obsidian plugin
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- čas přidán 9. 07. 2024
- How do you process notes in Obsidian? I demonstrate how to use the Readwise Official Obsidian plugin to go from raw content to notes in a Zettelkasten-like Obsidian vault. Sign up for Readwise: readwise.io/nicole
// OTHER THINGS MENTIONED IN THE VIDEO
My blog post on this: nicolevanderhoeven.com/blog/2...
Klara and the Sun: amzn.to/3IrNbrq
// TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
0:43 Main sources of content and my use case for Readwise
2:05 How to install and setup the Readwise Official plugin
5:35 From an ebook or Twitter to Obsidian
8:09 Making permanent notes in Obsidian
12:12 Readwise pricing
// CREDITS
Niklas Luhman photo: www.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/ni...
If you want to learn more about Obsidian, check out my course for beginners, Obsidian for Everyone: courses.nicolevanderhoeven.co...
---
// ABOUT ME
Site: nicolevanderhoeven.com
Mastodon: pkm.social/@nicole
My work at Grafana Labs: • My work at Grafana Labs
// APPS I USE
- Obsidian: obsidian.md
- Readwise: readwise.io/nicole
- Shortform: shortform.com/nicole
- Reclaim: go.reclaim.ai/eg0tgbamp7cb
- Snipd: link.snipd.com/Cx7S/nicole
Napkin: napkin.one/?via=nicole
// GEAR
nicolevanderhoeven.com/gear/
// WANT TO SUPPORT ME?
❤️ Join my Patreon and get my sample vault with templates: / nicolevdh
☕ Buy me a coffee: ko-fi.com/nicolevdh
⭐ Buy Obsidian for Everyone, my beginner course on Obsidian: courses.nicolevanderhoeven.co...
Note: Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means I may get a small percentage when you sign up using those links. To see how I decide what to promote in this way, check out my Ethics Statement: nicolevanderhoeven.com/ethics/ - Věda a technologie
This is the best channel I have ever watched related to obsidian hands down. Everything is explained so simply and clearly that it shows how simple obsidian actually is rather than making everything overly complicated thankyou so much
Nicole, I have ADHD and while I LOVE the idea of Obsidian for capturing information on all my research obsessions, I've been struggling with it since I first learned about it a few months ago. This morning found your channel. OMG. I have learned and understood more from watching just three of your videos that I have from hours of bingewatching of other content on Obsidian. You're a natural educator and I love the way you acknowledge the problems with following a method (like Zettelkasten) when it doesn't actually work for your brain! I didn't know about Readwise, and that is quite a revelation as I'm a Kindle junkie. You are an absolute legend and I've just subscribed. Thank you, thank you, thank you from Queensland, Australia.
Yay, I'm an Aussie too! From Melbourne, though we lived in Beachmere for a while. :) Rochelle, I'm so, so happy to hear that I've been able to help! I'm not a fan of rigid methodologies in general, and I think sometimes it does more harm than good. Funny how well we can complicate the fundamentally simple concept of taking notes.
I'm a Kindle junkie too!! Readwise is an absolute MUST!
Thanks again for reaching out. Comments like yours brighten my day.
@@nicolevdh - always happy to brighten someone's day. Yay! I could hear you were an Aussie but I'm so used to US channels that adding my location is a habit! Lol! Melbourne is my favourite city - I have lots of family there. Keep being awesome and have a beautiful weekend. 🧡
I could not agree more with this dazzling review. I feel exceptionally lucky to have found your channel and you! You just come from such a clear, concise and simple place with how to approach this that it immediately gave me a huge sense of relief after having been overwhelmed at how to build a simple version of this myself. Thanks for doing the heavy lifting and letting us benefit from your work!
I support this comment. I am AuDHD, multipotentialite writer (sorta), indie designer, info junkie, with TOO MANY SCRAPS OF PAPER. Got an iPad to write and do more on the go and already started dabbling w obsidian, but now I need it even more since I can capture my notes digitally. I’m here for this beautiful chaos (meaning organized chaos). And now I need to get everything out of pocket into Readwise. I think. Gah!
This is so helpful, I can't thank you enough. I've been pouring over Obsidian/Zettlekasten videos, and the parts that feel to me the most difficult-"just type in the quotes/your fleeting notes" and "process those notes into your own words/ideas/thoughts"-feel like the most skimmed over. You've pointed me to something (Readwise) that I already feel is going to revolutionize my workflow on the front end, and have acknowledged the hard parts of the workflow on the backend (how to fit processing/connecting into my daily routine, and how to know when to stop!). I'm really grateful.
(this is Marta btw at The Spiral Lab, there are two of us!)
Marta, thank you for this comment!! It's very validating as those are things that I struggled with as well. Sometimes it can feel like I'm never going to FULLY process my notes, or even keep up with everything I'm reading/watching/listening to. But hey, I figure if it's at least in my vault, that's already a huge step in the right direction. And maybe it's ok if some things never get further than that.
I am just starting Obsidian and ZK. Just today, with your help, I made my first real connection between two notes. It was just a baby step, but it finally helped me overcome this mental hurdle. So, thank you! The section of this video starting at 8:12 was probably the best example I've seen of processing notes from book so far. Great job!
Thank you so much for your support! Happy you liked the practical bits!
Thanks, Nicole! I'm just getting started and this was perfect for setting up Readwise. I especially appreciate your Obsidian Export settings!!
Yay, so nice to hear that! Glad to help you get set up on Readwise!
Great video on your Readwise workflow. Thank you for taking the time to share your processes!
Thank you! Happy to share something that's been useful for me!
It’s so useful to see your workflow. Thank you so much for sharing this!
Hey Jen, happy to oblige! :) I was unsure about this video - I wasn't sure it was interesting enough for others. So I'm glad to hear you found it useful!
This is super helpful! I love Readwise but have never used obsidian. I can’t wait to set this up now.
Love Readwise! Appreciate you sharing your workflow!
Yay! The Readwise folks are so awesome as well. I'm happy to give them some love! Thanks for the support!
I'm excited to give this a try to have all of my input distilled into one place is monumental for me!
Happy to hear that! Readwise is FANTASTIC. Highly recommend it. I love not having to worry about getting everything in one place.
Absolutely brilliant.
Thank you for this video!! 😊
I love your channel! I hope it grows!
Thanks for the encouragement! I'm happy with how well it's done in a year. :)
Thank you for your video! For me (another ADHD canditate), the Zettelkasten was a revelation, really. Discovering it, I immediately started Obsidian, reading more and taking more notes. It inspired me to finally create a PKM because I could have a vision of how it looks like. To be fair, I probably only use the basics of the frameworks - literature notes and zettelkasten notes in a very basic format, connecting at least one note to another. That's it. It gives me structure and enough freedom to create my own digital garden. Also, I love that you have an ethics section. I think about creating one, too, once I have a website :) thanks again!
Thank you for this bunch of useful videos about Obsidian. I'm trying to improve the organization of my notes leaving behind .doc and .txt files jajaj. It's been such a ride. I can't believe you don't have a ton of views right now. Cheers from Buenos Aires.
Hola Maru, sí, los docs y txts son antiguos ahora, jeje. Markdown es más útil para el futuro. Gracias, amigo! :)
This is great, thanks Nicole. Readwise and Obsidian are great tools but, as you say, one has to put in the time to actually do the processing and the learning. I like how you make sure to do it every day at 9 pm. Something that I need to sort out for myself!
Weer een geweldig filmpje! Bedankt voor het delen.
Bedankt voor het kijken, Bobby! :)
Very helpful... ❤
Old fashion is a strength if anything. Great video !
Thank you! Glad you liked it! :)
Aaawww, 4:15 is so cute ❤. In German, "to verzetteln" means something like: "Doing so many tiny things with a task that are not needed to be done and not important. Because of that, you're not making any progress. It's kinda like making something as perfect as it can be." That's when we say "Ich habe mich verzettelt" "I verzettelt myself". It's kinda hard to explain, but I hope you understand what I mean :)
I think in English, you say: get bogged down.
And now I will go on with the video cause I'm new to this note-taking thing, and I tend to "verzettel" myself with all the possibilities 🙈.
Found you last week and I love your videos :D
These videos are great, Nicole. I've downloaded Readwise and love the export functionality. Question for you, when you have all of the highlights, do you add tags or links within the highlights?
Zettlekasten 2.0! Great video, lots of useful information 😀
Thanks! Happy to hear that. :)
Hi Nicole, thanks for the great input. Question: Coming from RemNote where it is possible to link annotations/highlights with the PDF in question, is there any possibility in Obsidian to achieve the same behavior (click on linked highlight in your notes → automatically jump to the corresponding area in the PDF)? I've tried various plugins (annotator, ...) but none of them provided the same experience. I've noticed the links "View Highlight" at 0.52 in the video so I was just curious if that's what I'm looking for. Thanks in advance!
Thx Nicole
Glad to help! :)
I have been getting into Obsidian, and have benifite from a lot of your videos. Also, just subscribed to Readwise. I really like the look of how your hightlights come into Obsidian. I found info in the blog post about this, and have copied over your settings. Amazing. Thaks.
Hey! I did make minor adjustments to the default settings, but nothing major. Just to make sure you are looking at the same thing, do you have a timestamp from the video of what you liked? Or can you describe further?
@@nicolevdh thanks for replying. My original comment was I have no idea what changed, then I changed it to found the info on blog boat, then I edited it to say, but I can't get the carriage returns between highlights, then I tried just putting them in to box. All good now, and my highlights look great. Thanks. It was the bit at 4:08 I was referring to.
Well, I'm glad you figured it out, Gordon! :) Readwise is awesome.
@@nicolevdh Thanks. It is. And after a week of trying Obsidian, I'm realising how powerful it is too. Thanks in no small part to CZcamsrs like yourself. so thanks.
@@nicolevdh I dabbled with it years ago, but Obsidian was the bit that was missing for me in terms of what to do with stuff I put into Readwise.
Thank you very much for this video, it's gold!
My main question would be: what do you do with the readwise imports with the TVN tag after you looked at them? Do you remove the tag? Do you delete the whole note? (If you delete, wouldn't readwise just re-import it the next time it syncs?)
Is it possible via a plug-in in obsidian, to have it auto-tag readwise excerpts by, for example, searching for matches of existing keywords?
E.G. your book that mentioned A.I. if it found “A.I.” in the text and you had a tag for A.I. it would auto add it to the parameter list thingy at the top of the post?
It’ll be nice to see how you use tags in your flow, great videos!
Hey! I know this is a late reply, but I still wanted to say that I have put this on my list of videos to do! :) Thanks for the idea.
thank you
You're welcome, Mica! :) Glad to help!
Hi Nicole, thanks for the video! What is your workflow for exporting podcasts into Readwise? I am just getting started with Obsidian and really appreciate your effort put into these videos.
Hi Pooja! I use Airr with Readwise: www.airr.io/ Thanks for the note of support. Glad to help you! :)
Very fair to explicit Readwise pricing and all that follows. I find Readwise idea very very super keen and cool, but I have 2 troubles: I read on Kobo (something is going on here as far as I know) and, second, I would use it for my hobbies and not for work so the month subscription is a bit of a faff... I'd prefer a 1 time purchase instead. Thx for sharing your flow.
Fair enough! We all have different prices we'd be willing to pay, so I can totally understand if it's beyond what you would want to pay. Personally, I use it enough that it's worth it for me. I also do have a Kobo, but I never really figured out an automated way to bring in highlights from there, and I do most of my reading from my Kindle anyway. Sorry I can't help!
Thanks!
You're a gem! Thank you, Michael!!
@@nicolevdh Your content is worth far more than that. I've been binging for weeks, just a small payback for all you contribute to the PKM community, etc. All the best.
I wonder if you experience this...I feel like I over highlight. Some books have 100+. I love highlighting not just facts and key points but lines that have lovely poetry since I am a writer. Do you go through and pair down your highlights in either Readwise or Obsidian or do you just do that by deciding which quotes to take atomic notes on?
Hi Nicole, really love your content! Do you know if the cheaper version of readwise works for what you showcased in this video?
Happy to hear that! :) Yes, absolutely! Readwise Lite is enough to do what I did. Readwise Full adds tags, notes, and their spaced repetition reminders. Those are all cool, but not essential IMO.
@@nicolevdh Thank you so much, I'll test it out this week :)
Thanks for this! Do you know how to include Chapters in the export?
Thanks for watching! I'm sorry, I don't! I think by default, Kindles record the "location", which is not related to chapters, unfortunately.
@Nicole, i was just wondering if the direct highlights being imported from readwise are kept on a separate vault (lets say, source vault) and then the info you extract from them in your own words is in another vault (main second brain vault)? :) am new and would appreciate the acclaration! thanks!
You can set it up that way, yes. Personally, I just keep them in the same vault, but in a different folder (so that I know what I've written and what others have written). Having them in the same vault means I can link to them more easily.
what software do you use to make your pdf highlights and get them into readwise? I'm referring to when you are talking about the research paper. either way great video, very helpful, thanks.
Hi! I use Readwise -- they have a product which is still in private beta but it should be released soon. It's called Reader: readwise.io/read
Among other things, it lets you import PDFs and highlight them just like you would web articles, and then the Readwise Official plugin gets them into Obsidian. :)
Hello, is there a way to upload books to kindle that were bought directly from the owner's website (not the kindle store)? Thank you
This is probably an Amazon question, but yes, you can Send to Kindle (there is an email address in your Amazon account settings) for certain file extensions, like .pdf, .mobi, and .epub (and I'm not sure if there were others).
So you don't speak English natively do you? I mean you got really EXCELLENT articulation and grooving that even us non-Americans can follow your pace effortlessly.
By the way, I'm a singer / musician who is so very picky to audio by difinition. Your vocal and talking style are just flawless (sounds like you're a singer too lol). I also like the intro and outro music you put in this vid. You really got a good taste besides all the knowledge you have and share.
p.s. I'm listening to you through a good pair of monitors yet still find your sound enjoyable.
Thank you! You're right-- I'm not a native English speaker! My native (first) language is Filipino (Tagalog). Good ear! I'm very happy that you are having no difficulty understanding me. :)
I really appreciate your comments about the audio and vocals! I am not a singer, but I have definitely invested in decent audio gear. Thanks so much for commenting and watching!
Well, I guessed you were Nordic (as you mentioned "Dutch" in this video). The fact you're Filipino surprises me even more. So we're both Asian now lol.
And no, by only listening to you I could not even tell that you're actually not an Indo-European linguist.
Hi Nicole, many thanks for this great explanation. Would you be so kind to share you're Readwise format setup so I can use this as well :). I got some troubles getting the metadata at the top of every imported file.
Bedankt alvast ;)
Groetjes Erwin
Hey Nicole, what is that Theme you’re using on the demo?
Hey Lloyd. :) It's the dark version of the community theme called Sanctum. It's my current favourite!
Your Obsidian content is really great, thanks. I use Readwise with Snipd podcasts. (Exporting snips to readwise, then to Obsidian. Snipd AI does a great job at hightlighting AND adds AI generates «key takeaways:» is there a way to automatically make the text «key takeaways:» into a dataview annotation?
Also, can i add a template to the import in Obsidian ?
The goal is a few things:
-to auto-create the annotation "key takeaways" for a lot of notes, in addition to podcasts.
-to put a dataview section containing "key takeaways" at the top of all notes
-to be able to extract "key takeaways" into other notes
Thank you! I also use Snipd with Readwise! Hmmm, I haven't tried that myself, but you could look at changing the Readwise export format settings for Obsidian - maybe there's a way to isolate the key takeaways there.
Hi Nicole, Thank you so much for all your in depth videos. I am enjoying them a lot and learning from you immensely. I wanted to ask you about your custom formatting at ReadWise, for inputting metadata into Obsidian... how did you change that exactly? I might find a way to replicate that, but just checking in case you shared that somewhere. Thanks again! R
Hey Ricardo! Glad you like the videos! If you already have Obsidian and Readwise connection enabled, you can set the format for it here: readwise.io/export/obsidian/preferences
I do have the exact format that I use available on my Patreon (patreon.com/nicolevdh) but no pressure. I only made minor changes to the default and I think it's better for each person to tailor it to their own preferences, anyway. :)
@@nicolevdh thanks for the answer. Honestly, the value you add on each video to my experience in Obsidian is making me consider joining your Patreon. I'll keep exploring by myself first. Thanks for tons! Gracias!!
De nada, Ricardo! Y también puedes escribir en español en el futuro. :)
I’m curious about if you break those permanent notes down further or if this is as granular as you go. I’m trying to figure out how atomic I want my notes to be
Do I create atomic notes in Obsidian?
Hi Nicole, super explanation on the subject. Can you elaborate a bit on how you structure those notes you are processing? For example, you import a "book note", then you create a "internal book note" / how does it fit into your Obsidian structure?
Hey! Great question, Geert. It kind of depends on how in depth I want to get with a book note. The simplest version is that I import it as Readwise/Title , and then as I process it, I just add links to it from other notes for concepts in the book I want to add to. If I want to be more thorough, then I would import it as Readwise/Title, then create a note Book/Title (which is where I summarize the book, for example), and then link to it from other notes.
Book and Readwise are folders in my system. Hope that helps! :)
@@nicolevdh Hi Nicole, thanks a lot. This helps. I am still struggling with the structure in the notes :)
I heard from someone that readwise uses its own format, and that as soon as you stop paying for their service, you won’t get access to any of the notes instead of keeping a markdown format… is this still the case ?
Are you talking about the plugin? The Readwise Official plugin saves your highlights as Markdown files. Markdown is a standard text format. Even if you stopped paying for Readwise, they would have no way to delete files on your local computer.
It works with Readwise Lite? Thank you
Yes, this process does work with Readwise Lite.
Great video, thank you. I love your channel. I have some question...
While reading on my Kindle, I usually highlight:
1 - keywords, that is 1 word here and 1 word there, or sometime 2 or 3 words at a time. Some of those keywords are important notions of the self-help book I'm reading while some other are simply English words I do not know (I'm not an English native speaker).
2 - full sentences grasping an important key message of the book.
Sometime I'm adding a quick note when one sentence gives me an idea for future content.
Now I have said this, here is my question: Would it not create a mess if I use Readwise to import all of what I described above?
In other words, should I change the way I'm reading to ONLY highlight FULL sentences so as to make the Readwise to Obsidian process more effective? What's your view on this?
Or can you just use checkboxes in Readwise to decide which highlights and which notes you want to import in Obsidian and which ones you don't want?
I don't believe you can set a minimum number of words that Readwise imports to your Obsidian, but I wouldn't worry about it. I do the same thing you do for languages I'm learning, and so the resulting note does end up having a lot more highlights, some of which are consist of a single word and others of a few sentences. I don't see it as a problem. When I process those notes, most highlights go to different other notes in my vault anyway, so I don't mind that the "source" note (the Readwise highlights) is a bit messy. :)
I say highlight what's useful for you! I highlight single words or phrases all the time, and then I end up putting those in a separate note that contains words/phrases in a language I'm learning, along with their meanings. :)
@@nicolevdh Thank you for the reply.
Can you use Readwise? I understand they won't allow you to export your highlights and notes, right?
Expect to see other comments from me on your other videos ;-)
Thank you for the video! As you mentioned, CZcams is a huge source of knowledge nowadays - I'm curious about how you save those thoughts from videos to Obsidian!
Hey Wiktor, I use a free browser extension called Yinote! But thank you for the prompt to make a video about this. It's a great idea! :)
Thanks! I’d been musing about this exact issue - what sort of layer or filter to employ between raw content and Obsidian. I’ve only just started watching your video (on my iPhone on a bus ride through SF) and have a feeling the Readwise solution is just what I’d been looking for! Will continue the video at home where I can follow along on my desktop. Ciao! And thanks as always for such engaging videos.
@@lnebres I really recommend Readwise! I've spoken to a few people from there as well, and they are a very laidback bunch of people. I've been using Readwise longer than I've been using Obsidian, actually. Thanks for the support, and let me know what you think of Readwise! :)
@@nicolevdh Have you checked out Memex? I would love to hear your opinion about it!
@@stamatispsarras Hi! Sadly, I have not! There doesn't seem to be an automatic way to have Memex highlights show up in Obsidian, though. Or am I missing something?
Nicole what’s yours workflow for CZcams videos
I've been using Yi-Note while waiting for Reader to get video processing out, but recently I started trying out the Timestamp Notes plugin!
You have a eyeliner this day (cute)
Merci !
Thanks a lot. This was very helpful. Gratitude 🙏