Tools for thought are complex, and a common obstacle to using them is the overwhelm of learning how it works.
Obsidian itself has a steep learning curve that (from experience) takes 2-3 months of hyperfocused experimentation before friends find something they’re happy with.
TfT Hacker defines a “workflow” as:
a collection of steps, or actions, that produce a desired result. Common workflows might include morning routines, daily or weekly reviews, processing new notes, repetitive tasks with multiple steps, and other similar multi-step procedures. Larger workflows can even be made up of other smaller workflows.
Reusable Workflows
- Other terms:
- shareable workflow
- workflow walkthrough
- bundled workflow
TfT and productivity communities are usually very generous in sharing resources, materials and templates.
- It’s very common in the Notion community to make a sell ready-made templates.
- Tana is trying to spearhead shareable, reusable workflows through a template library - which I cannot find as of today. TfT Hacker however describes it in this Substack article ^[Read in Omnivore instead: https://omnivore.app/missmansanas/tool-makers-should-help-us-to-easily-share-workflows-18de5135aad]
Example use-cases:
- Language learning: An Obsidian vault that bundles vocabulary cards with the Spaced Repetition plugin for flashcard testing
- Habit tracking: Templating my own daily/monthly note system, bundled with Templater/Tracker/Dataview plugins
Related ideas
- The best way to learn how to use tools is a combination of watching other humans using it + trying it ourselves. It’s the best way to learn anything really
- Digital spaces are not always the best way to learn from others, especially videos which are highly curated and cut down
- TfT Hacker encourages reaching out to tool builders to create a built-in way of publishing and installing reusable workflows