I’m not going to waste your time. If you don’t want to read or you can’t read far enough into this piece for details, the three apps that have been largely responsible for building my life so far are…
- Obsidian
- Todoist
- Cold Turkey Blocker
If you’ve got a second or two to spare, you can hang around and hear why they were so important — what I use them for, why they’re better than other options.
We’ll start with Obsidian:
Obsidian
This is the app that ignited my interest in knowledge management and creating content.
After I’d finished sixth form exams, I wanted something that was going to help me manage my knowledge throughout university. Something that would help create meaningful work, rather than just prep me to regurgitate facts in exams.
I tried different apps, from Notion to Tana and more but eventually, I settled with another offering.
From the outside, Obsidian seemed clunky. Why would I want offline files, loads of extra plugins and a very basic core application?
But it turned out that Obsidian was almost everything I could have asked for. The fact that I’ve stuck with it for so long in a field where I’m constantly tempted to change apps is a testament to how effective it is.
I’m writing this article in Obsidian, I’ve managed two product launches and a live workshop in Obsidian and I keep my Zettelkasten of linked ideas and thoughts in the app too. It really is everything in terms of my personal knowledge management.
Obsidian is not the be-all and end-all though. If it was taken away from me then I’d survive, but it wouldn’t be easy. And you know the reason that I would be able to survive? Because of the knowledge management principles that I’ve been able to build through working in Obsidian consistently for some time.
I happily pay for the sync services and the upgraded license to this app. But even though I love Obsidian so much, I refrain from managing my tasks in the app. That’s what the next app on this list is for…
Todoist
For all the talk about Obsidian and a digital note-taking app, I’ve been using Todoist for a lot longer.
Unfortunately, this hasn’t always been productively — when I was a younger student who didn’t need to manage tasks, I kept fiddling the app so that I could distract myself without feeling like I was getting no work done.
However, as with knowledge management in Obsidian, there came a time when I had a legitimate need for a task management solution, and Todoist was ready and waiting for me.
I use a similar organisation structure for my tasks across Todoist as I do for my files across Obsidian. This keeps things consistent and makes the two apps work well in conjunction with each other. I can check what tasks I need to do to drive a project forward in Todoist and then hop over to Obsidian to work on the meat of the project there.
But sometimes I get distracted from the work that I want to do. So I need to force myself in the right direction to get anything done. That’s where Cold Turkey Blocker comes in.
Cold Turkey Blocker
I’ve come from a very distracted beginning on the internet. Video games, social media and all kinds of apps disguised as being productive have got in the way of me doing my work in the past.
It’s all too much to cope with in my head — I can’t consciously avoid two hundred different websites at once.
This is where CTB comes in. It’s marketed as ‘the toughest website blocker on the internet’ and I’m inclined to agree. It’s perfect as I can load the distracting websites and apps into it, set a block and then go about my work, safe in the knowledge that I can’t distract myself with the sites chosen no matter how much I want to.
I have the blocker configured in a very certain way. It includes three different blocks every day — one until 10 am, one until 1 pm and one until 5 pm.
The list that unblocks at 10 am contains some of the necessary but distracting sites that I have to use throughout the day. It helps to stop me from hopping on to email when I boot up my computer, instead open Obsidian and get some writing done.
Most business-based social media and online shopping sites open up after 1 pm, meaning that I have a little more freedom. The most distracting sites come unblocked after 5 pm because a lot of my focus has been depleted by the evening anyway.
I have these blocks uneditable for two weeks, after which I analyse them and see if any changes need to be made, before locking the blocks for another two weeks.
There is a list of blocked sites that I have blocked permanently as well. It includes things like TikTok, the Mac App Store and a few others. If I have anything to do with these sites then I write down the task, wait until the next two-week interval finishes and then see if I still want to go on the site.
Seems a bit extreme, I know, but it’s worked for me (and that’s all that matters in personal productivity). By blocking distracting sites like this, I can get my writing done with only a little friction. My willpower is saved for making other beneficial choices throughout the day that can’t be so easily controlled by a piece of software.
So those are the three apps that I use every single day, and the ones that I’ve been using longer than others.
Combined, they’re responsible for upwards of 95% of the valuable work that I’ve shared on the internet. If you can find a couple of apps that do what you need them to do, then stick with them. It makes things a lot easier.
Thanks for reading!