Ellane ·𐑧𐑤𐑱𐑯

Losing our words is a writer’s worst nightmare. Don’t forget to backup your work.
#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #5amWritersClub

Nice to hear, Terry! I pop in to Bluesky on occasion to check notifications. Mastodon is a the place I use for microblogging, where I can connect with like minded people. Being on socials less in general sounds like a healthy approach.

I haven’t been updating Bluesky lately. Mastodon is currently the best place to see my posts and interact with me on social media. You can also email me at hello at ellanew dot com.

Finding My Old Plain Text Files Reminded Me That Visual Simplicity Isn’t Boring, It’s a Relief PTPL 189 · What to do when pretty headers become visual clutter

(…thread) Includes an evolution from calendar.txt to planner-md as a case study, where I had to define what the file was actually *for*, and make decisions on what did and did not belong there.

Medium (includes blog link) miscellaneplans.medium.com/finding-my-o...

Finding My Old Plain Text Files Reminded Me That Visual Simplicity Isn’t Boring, It’s a Relief PTPL 189 · What to do when pretty headers become visual clutter

This week: Finding my old plain text files reminded me that visual simplicity isn't boring—it's relief for a highly distractible brain trying to stay on task. (thread…)

#PTPL #PlainTextPlanner #PlainText #productivity #minimalism

A 165 year old Giant Sequoia chilling in Tonbridge, the Kingdom of Kent

Churches are rubbish at hide & seek 🙄

PTPL 188 · Tools to help steady your routines, reclaim your attention, and move deliberately toward… Yes, it’s possible to bring order back to your days without reinventing everything

(…thread)

> you can do (almost) anything, but you can't do everything: not today, this week, or this life

> human joy (your own, and that which you share with others) will always be more important than raw productivity

miscellaneplans.medium.com/ptpl-188-too... (Blog post link included)

PTPL 188 · Tools to help steady your routines, reclaim your attention, and move deliberately toward… Yes, it’s possible to bring order back to your days without reinventing everything

This week: Reflections and resources to help you focus on the work that matters instead of overcomplicating your systems. (quotes in the comments)

#ptpl #productivity #mindfulness #MentalHealth

(Blog post link included ↓)

In theory it works in any text editor, but I make extensive use of Obsidian's query language to show me what I want to see, when I want to see it. I use alerts/Reminders for really important stuff, so I can deep dive into things without worrying about being late for the next thing.

Briefly, I add simple metadata to the task itself. To see a task each Monday, I'll add .mo to it. To see a task on a specific day, I'll add due:2025-12-23 or review:2025-12-23.

I'm the first to admit that handling this tasks isn't the right path for everyone, but for now it is working for me.

That's a nice set of tools! Things 3 is fantastic, no doubt about it. Beorg was great, for a while. I found it was a bit much after a while.

I keep my repeating todos in todo.txt format, and surface them via queries. Currently preparing a big writeup of exactly how it works.

Thank you for introducing me to these terms! While I hadn’t heard them before, I am very familiar with what they describe.

I’m naturally inclined toward maximising, so I must work hard at being a satisficer.

The character count is tiny on #Bluesky, so here's a canny trick to fit in just a little more into a single post, when sharing a link.

1. Write your post, add the link
2. Delete the link

That's it! A clickable preview will still be there, even when the text of the link has been deleted.

Here’s an Elephant to Help You Find “Good Enough” When Everything Feels Too Much On personal manifestos and plain text systems that don’t punish you

This week: one idea and one link to reveal what "good enough" can look like when your mind and your schedule are too full to get everything done. Plain text related, but both can apply to any well-balanced life. Be kind to your elephant!

Click through for blog link:

#ptpl #productivity #PlainText

Obsidian’s Page Preview vs. the Hover Editor Plugin Plus tips for using Notebook Navigator, from Elizabeth Tai

I’ve used ⌘-hover to preview internal links in #Obsidian for years, but this week I discovered that it also works on tabs. Holding down ⌘ while hovering over the name of a tab gives a 3rd-party-plugin-free, scrollable preview of that page — with clickable links (!)

#ptpl #plainText

Ha, yes!! There are whole businesses based on teaching people creative ways to hem themselves in. Boggles the mind.

The 3 Levels of Plain Text Productivity, and Why Level 2 is the Sweet Spot PTPL 183 · What happened when I quit Obsidian again, 2 years later

…taught me an important lesson about interoperability that I hadn't picked up the first time around.

#ptpl

Medium miscellaneplans.medium.com/the-3-levels...
Blog ellanew.com/2025/11/24/p...

The 3 Levels of Plain Text Productivity, and Why Level 2 is the Sweet Spot PTPL 183 · What happened when I quit Obsidian again, 2 years later

Two years ago I embarked on a challenge: to only access my digital notes with TextEdit and iA Writer on my #Mac. It was an enlightening and a frustrating experience!

Two days ago I decided to revisit the #plainTextExperiment by temporarily putting #Obsidian away again. What happened next…

Yes, I also use a regular digital calendar for sharing events with others. I gave up Google for the most part some years ago, preferring to stick with Apple Calendar these days.
Check out this thread on Mastodon if you’re interested in reading more pkm.social/@ellane/1155...

How to Climb Out of Task Resistance What finally setting up the spare bed taught me about the things we keep putting off

…The big takeaway from this is that no app or system can take away the emotional resistance you're feeling toward a task. Acknowledging that resistance and letting it speak has to come first.

#PTPL #productivity #procrastination

How to Climb Out of Task Resistance What finally setting up the spare bed taught me about the things we keep putting off

Connecting one stubborn task to my core values changed everything. Sometimes you need to feel the why before you can do the work. (thread…)

#PTPL #productivity #procrastination

Medium miscellaneplans.medium.com/how-to-climb...
Blog ellanew.com/2025/11/10/p...

Helping someone assemble Instagram posts as a booklet.

My New Task Dashboard Passes the Most Important Test It makes work easier without becoming the work itself

Read on Medium, or on my blog. In the works: a detailed resource on exactly how to set up a plain text time and task management system that can work in any text editor.

Medium miscellaneplans.medium.com/my-new-task-...
Blog ellanew.com/2025/11/03/p...

My New Task Dashboard Passes the Most Important Test It makes work easier without becoming the work itself

Creative task avoidance can look like productivity. This week I look at how to spot it, and give a sneak peek of my new Obsidian plain text task dashboard — the crafting of which was *totally not* an avoidance mechanism! I hope!!

#productivity #obsidian #plainText

𐑲𐑥 𐑕𐑪𐑮𐑦 𐑿 𐑥𐑦𐑕𐑑 𐑘𐑹 𐑑𐑮𐑱𐑯. 𐑕𐑳𐑒𐑕 𐑚𐑦𐑜 𐑑𐑲𐑥 𐑢𐑧𐑯 𐑔𐑦𐑙𐑟 𐑮𐑲𐑒 𐑞𐑨𐑑 𐑣𐑨𐑐𐑩𐑯𐑯.
𐑲 𐑢𐑳𐑯𐑛𐑼 𐑢𐑪𐑑 𐑢𐑟 𐑜𐑴𐑦𐑙 𐑢𐑞 𐑞𐑨𐑑 𐑛𐑮𐑲𐑝𐑼 𐑓 𐑞𐑧𐑥 𐑑 𐑛𐑵 𐑞𐑨𐑑? 𐑣𐑿𐑥𐑩𐑯𐑟 𐑸 𐑕𐑳𐑗 𐑒𐑪𐑥𐑐𐑤𐑦𐑒𐑱𐑑𐑩𐑛, 𐑥𐑳𐑤𐑑𐑦-𐑤𐑱𐑼𐑛 𐑒𐑮𐑰𐑗𐑼𐑟.

𐑣𐑴𐑐 𐑿 𐑢𐑻𐑯𐑑 𐑤𐑱𐑑 𐑓 𐑕𐑳𐑥𐑔𐑦𐑙 𐑦𐑥𐑐𐑹𐑑𐑩𐑯𐑑.

𐑛𐑦𐑕𐑩𐑚𐑦𐑤𐑦𐑑𐑦 𐑕𐑩𐑐𐑹𐑛 𐑢𐑻𐑒𐑼? 𐑒𐑨𐑐𐑦𐑑𐑩𐑤𐑩𐑕𐑑 𐑓𐑬𐑯𐑛𐑱𐑖𐑩𐑯𐑕 𐑹 𐑯𐑪𐑑, 𐑞𐑴𐑟 𐑕𐑻𐑚𐑩𐑕𐑩𐑟 𐑸 𐑝𐑲𐑑𐑩𐑤. 𐑲𐑥 𐑒𐑳𐑮𐑩𐑯𐑑𐑤𐑦 𐑤𐑻𐑯𐑦𐑙 𐑞 𐑕𐑲𐑯 𐑤𐑱𐑙𐑜𐑢𐑦𐑗 𐑨𐑤𐑓𐑩𐑚𐑧𐑑 𐑚𐑦𐑒𐑩𐑟 𐑲 𐑓𐑰𐑤 𐑕𐑑𐑮𐑪𐑙𐑤𐑦 𐑨𐑚𐑬𐑑 𐑚𐑰𐑦𐑙 𐑦𐑯𐑒𐑮𐑵𐑕𐑩𐑝 𐑝 𐑐𐑰𐑐𐑩𐑤 𐑣𐑵 𐑕𐑴 𐑪𐑓𐑩𐑯 𐑓𐑰𐑤 𐑦𐑒𐑕𐑒𐑮𐑰𐑑𐑩𐑛 𐑝𐑲 𐑕𐑩𐑕𐑲𐑩𐑑𐑦 𐑨𐑟 𐑩 𐑣𐑴𐑤.

𐑯 𐑦𐑑𐑕 𐑴𐑒𐑱 𐑞𐑨𐑑 𐑘𐑵 𐑛𐑴𐑯𐑑 𐑯𐑴 𐑘𐑹 𐑒𐑨𐑮𐑽 𐑐𐑭𐑔 𐑘𐑧𐑑. 𐑢𐑳𐑯 𐑷𐑔𐑧𐑯𐑑𐑦𐑒 𐑕𐑑𐑧𐑐 𐑨𐑑 𐑩 𐑑𐑲𐑥, 𐑘𐑵𐑤 𐑜𐑧𐑑 𐑞𐑺

How I Get Instant Access to the Four Text Files That Run My Life Living life distraction free, thanks to these simple iPhone Shortcuts

There is something powerful about knowing that when I see a particular piece of information, be it a repeating task or calendar event, *I* put it there. Not some repeat-every-second-week button in an app. *Me*. I trust my manual system more than I trusted apps to get it right.

How I Get Instant Access to the Four Text Files That Run My Life Living life distraction free, thanks to these simple iPhone Shortcuts

Simplify your planning with easy, fun #iPhone shortcuts to four #Obsidian files. Stay on top of notes, tasks, calendar, and daily goals without complex apps. (thread…)

Medium medium.com/@miscellanep...
Blog ellanew.com/2025/10/06/p...

𐑲 𐑤𐑳𐑝 𐑞𐑦𐑕. 𐑚𐑿𐑑𐑦𐑓𐑩𐑤𐑦 𐑦𐑒𐑕𐑐𐑮𐑧𐑕𐑑 .

Inktober 2025 - Index - Ellane W My second attempt at Inktober. All drawings done with a fine nib fountain pen in black ink, with my non-dominant hand.

Whelp, it's #Inktober already here in #Australia ! This year I'm sketching and inking each drawing with my non-dominant hand. Always wanted to be ambidextrous; this is helping.

Here's my index page ellanew.com/2025/10/01/i...

…and here's a shortcut to day 1, Mustache ellanew.com/2025/10/01/i...