What if we used Obsidian for more than just organizing knowledge?
workflows to turn Obsidian into my life operating system.
It guides my life by:
- Seeing how my daily tasks are connected with my higher-order goals and values through my vision board
- Encouraging consistent reflection and planning through daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly reviews
- Clarifying my goals through meaningful objectives through goal notes, which are then made actionable through project notes
- Establishing trackers to visualize your progress on relevant habits and key metrics
On my deathbed, I want to have lived a meaningful life where I worked towards my long term goals and full potential.
I realized two obstacles
I didn’t always feel driven to work on my daily tasks
It’s possible to work towards my goals not in a state of frictionful survival, but one of play and growth towards the ideal life I want to strive towards.
I had trouble remembering and reviewing long-term goals and values
I can’t focus if I’m not sure whether what I’m working on aligns with my vision for the future.
And so, these two obstacles from last year stemmed from my disconnect between my long-term goals and my short-term actions.
Thankfully, I plan on solving this through my alignment philosophy.
My Alignment Philosophy
An alignment philosophy is a system that connects your long-term visions into smaller timeframes like quarterly, monthly, and weekly, all the way until your tangible daily life.
Instead of the traditional view on productivity where you emphasize accomplishments and output, attention-centered productivity emphasizes prioritization and focus.
It’s not about doing more at all costs, but doing less of the things that suck your energy and time.
How can we implement this system in Obsidian? Let’s imagine your Alignment Philosophy as the solar system of your life.
Your values acts as the sun—the central, life-giving source that everything else revolves around.
It offers warmth (fulfillment), light (guidance), and gravitational pull (focus) to keep all other elements in their proper place and aligned with your core values and visions.
The orbits around the sun represent different timeframes for planning and reflection through daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly reviews.
Each orbit has its unique distance from the sun, which is the frequency and scope of the planning and reflection activities.
The daily and weekly orbits are closest to the sun, focusing on immediate tasks and short-term actions.
Their orbit paths are shorter, emphasizing rapid cycles of action and adjustment.
Larger orbits like monthly, quarterly, and yearly only make one rotation after multiple rotations of the smaller orbit timeframes.
Planets are the main focuses in each orbit that have their own gravitation pull (focus):
- The planets in your daily orbit would be your highlight of the day or top 3 priorities
- The planets in your weekly orbit would be your actionable projects
- The planets in your monthly, quarterly, and yearly orbit would be your longer-term goals
Each planet has moons that represent specific tasks or habits related to the planet’s gravitational pull. These moons are influenced by the gravitational pull of the planet (your projects and goals), ensuring they also remain aligned with the focus of your timeframe.
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Potential