Back in March, my favorite writer on the Internet; Federico Viticci, writing for his publication Club MacStories, talked about, as a part of his series on his Obsidian Set Up, how he was simplifying thought capture with a Shortcut he created called; On My Mind. If you aren't a Club member and are interested in such things, I high recommend visiting the MacStories website and consider becoming a member.

I have used Federico's Shortcut and found it to be very helpful, especially the voice component of it. I have also been thinking about what it would be like to create a workflow that is similar to his but not exactly a full-blown Shortcut. Here's what I've come up with...

I, like Federico, created a file in my Obsidian vault where my thoughts go. I call my file the, Thoughts Technology Dashboard. Whenever I have something "on my mind" that I want to off-load, I put it in this file. Federico's Shortcut uses an app called Actions to meet the audio needs of what he's doing. I'm in the middle of decluttering my iPhone XR of apps that I do not actually need or use often so I got rid of Actions. How was I going to create a workflow similar to Federico's Shortcut?

Obsidian allows you the opportunity to pin files. It also has a Start/Stop recording feature. It didn't take me long to figure out that by putting both of these features together (if in fact I wanted to record myself instead of write) I could, in essence, re-create what Federico is doing with his On My Mind Shortcut. I've also installed the "Nature Language Dates" Community Plug-in. That plug-in allows me to insert the date and time when I actually write in this file, so I can keep track of when I off-load these ideas. Note: The Start/Stop recording feature creates a timestamp of the recording.

So, there you have it. My workflow might not be as fast or efficient as Federico's Shortcut but I think it gets me what I need. And, it was fun deconstructing the shortcut to think about alternate ways to capture my thoughts!