Tag: Workflow

I have written in the past about how I use the Dataview plugin in Obsidian to create tables and lists from content. Lately, I have also been looking into the DataviewJS functionality. Here, rather than SQL scripting, you can use the full power of JavaScript to create even more advanced automations.

In this article, I will discuss how to use DataviewJS to create multiple headings and tables in a row from a single Dataview embed.

I am using Dataview in Obsidian to create some light automation in Obsidian, similar to what you could do in something like Notion. There's an inline syntax for settings fields.

In our university, we have regular meetings with all students plus staff and faculty, where we discuss the progress of each research project. For this, I have been taking notes, weekly, summarizing the progress of each project I am co-advising.

The way I do so has changed a couple of times over the time. I used to use paper handwritten notes, but then switched to digital handwritten notes when I bought my iPad.

Recently, since I moved most of my note-taking to Obsidian, I moved most meeting notes to Obsidian. In this article I will discuss how to automatically manage them with the help of some plugins like Dataview.

Today I want to showcase one of my most favorite automation workflows I am regularly using on my iPad.

When preparing regular events or projects in your task management, it might often be helpful to create templates for frequently occurring tasks.

For example, if you need to prepare some materials for every group meeting, why not have a preset or a mock-project from which you can copy-paste an instance every time you need it. This way, you won’t forget some small task which might be forgettable yet essential.

In this article I’ll go over the process to create templates for new OmniFocus projects, and how to connect it to calendar events for more conveniently creating new projects based on new calendar entries in one click.

Both for my day job as a researcher, as well as for this website, I often prepare papers and articles by first writing an outline. In an outline, it is easy to structure articles, re-arrange sections or subsections.

One of my favorite apps in the past has been OmniOutliner. It can export documents to text, XML, word, and others. Unfortunately, it is missing an exporter to Markdown. Luckily, there is OmniJS, the automation scripting language developed by OmniGroup.

In the following, I will showcase one way to use OmniJS, by creating a Markdown-like document from an outline, and exporting it to another app. The scripts works on both iOS and macOS.

Capturing new tasks is an important habit needed for successful use of a task management software. Many tasks in daily life involve incoming or outgoing emails as it is a main tool of communication with supervisors, business partners, and colleagues.

There is a convenient feature called Send-To-Inbox, which is supported by many task management applications. The idea is simple: Every email sent to a specific email address will be added to the task management as a new task.

In this article, we will discuss how to set up such a workflow, go over a couple of interesting use cases and in the end talk about how this feature can be used for automation.

When using a multiple of productivity apps, the number of inboxes can get overwhelming. An email from a supervisor and a related task in a task managing app. Each app serves its own purpose, but a variety of apps cause noise. This causes the stigma, that productivity geeks are busier with handling their workflows than handling their work.

So, how to avoid such situations? Automation is one way to solve this. There are more situations, where automation helps making workflows more efficient.

The following will give an overview of apps and utilities worth mentioning when talking of automation. A more hands-on approach with screenshots and examples will be part of future setup articles.