Using Claude and Obsidian to manage my PM work

Hey, everybody, welcome back to A Better Computer. My name is

Computer. My name is Matt. And

Matt. And today I want to show you what I've been doing at work recently to try to keep on top of all the things I need to track, whether they be big strategic things, projects I need to work on, tactical stuff that comes up day to day, just what I said I would do today, what I said yesterday. Just

trying to keep track of all that is just very challenging at times. And I

found something that's really helped me recently and wanted to share it. So I'm going to show you what I do at the end of the day to give you a taste for kind of what I'm doing.

And then we'll go into the details of how things are set up. Just to be clear, this

up. Just to be clear, this is all test data. This is on my personal computer, on my work computer. My work computer has all data that I cannot show

computer. My work computer has all data that I cannot show you. Um, but

you. Um, but this is all kind of just like placeholder stuff that'll give you the idea. So I

am using Obsidian to view my stuff and I'm using Claude code to adjust it. My work computer, I use cursor, but again, the details don't specifically matter. Let's

just do what I do at the end of the day. So I

day. So I will typically bring up dictation on my computer and just start talking. All

right, I am finishing up the day, so I'd like to archive the tasks that I did today. Anything I didn't do can be

today. Anything I didn't do can be backlogged. We'll do that

backlogged. We'll do that later. And then go through my daily notes, and

later. And then go through my daily notes, and find what I need to do tomorrow, go through my meeting notes, to find what I should do tomorrow, and definitely at the top of the to-do list for tomorrow. I need to talk to Marcus about that video on the affinity suite of

tomorrow. I need to talk to Marcus about that video on the affinity suite of apps. That's a really important thing to

apps. That's a really important thing to me. So put that at the

me. So put that at the top. So there

top. So there we go. gone ahead and dictated that for

we go. gone ahead and dictated that for me. I'm just going to submit, give it edit access, and

me. I'm just going to submit, give it edit access, and now you can see it's reading my to-do list, my daily files. It's going through my meetings and other things that I have, and

files. It's going through my meetings and other things that I have, and we should see in obsidian in a 2nd. These to do's will be

2nd. These to do's will be removed. We have new ones

removed. We have new ones here. And there we

here. And there we go. And we have the

go. And we have the priority. Talk to Marcus about Affinity Suite for Apps video

priority. Talk to Marcus about Affinity Suite for Apps video project.

Cool. So it's going ahead and doing some more stuff here, but you can kind of see basically what I've done is made it so that when I come in tomorrow.

Here are the things that I thought were important based on the meetings I had today based on the things that I put in my daily notes, and the things that I just kind of said at the end, like things that were top of mind. And I find it helpful just to talk this through, talking

mind. And I find it helpful just to talk this through, talking it through to yourself is helpful. But then having to spit out kind of versions of this are really, really

helpful. But then having to spit out kind of versions of this are really, really nice. And so basically, um, I can get rid of Claude at this point, um, we

nice. And so basically, um, I can get rid of Claude at this point, um, we can just stick with Obsidian. For those who don't know, Obsidian

Obsidian. For those who don't know, Obsidian is just a way to look at files on your computer. This is all just a view of the video file on my

computer. This is all just a view of the video file on my desktop. You can kind of see, hide

desktop. You can kind of see, hide the invisible files. Um, notes, notes, uh, series roadmaps, series roadmaps, to do's, right? Like it's just, they're

right? Like it's just, they're just files. And so what this is done basically is

just files. And so what this is done basically is that tomorrow morning, I can just open my computer, I'll see this, and here are the things I said I would do today, and I can start churning through them. If I go through the daily notes, you'll see I

them. If I go through the daily notes, you'll see I have this kind of fresh slate where I can start to put things. And

yeah, that's pretty much it. I can see my backlog

it. I can see my backlog here. These are all the things that I said I would do

here. These are all the things that I said I would do later. Some of these were things we just put off from the to-do list we already

later. Some of these were things we just put off from the to-do list we already had. Here's an archive of what I completed with due dates on all of, or

had. Here's an archive of what I completed with due dates on all of, or the dates that I completed them on all of them. Here's my daily

them. Here's my daily notes archive. This is really

notes archive. This is really cool. Basically, the concept, only

cool. Basically, the concept, only back up real quick. The concept of this structure for me is basically I have 2 main files I'm working in most of the time. I have my to do's. These are just the things that I want to do

to do's. These are just the things that I want to do today. These are not

today. These are not long-term things. These are not, this isn't a

long-term things. These are not, this isn't a full project management thing or anything. just for me tracking what I need to do right now. So these are the things I said I would do today. That's

today. That's fine. Um, and then the daily note, these, this

fine. Um, and then the daily note, these, this is where I will typically copy something and paste it in here, and it's not going to look pretty. It's just going to be a message from Slack and email something, like,

pretty. It's just going to be a message from Slack and email something, like, it'll just be things that I want to know and remember and just have access to like have them in text that says, I encountered this text on this day. Um, And so I basically put these all in here. If we go to the Daily notes archive,

here. If we go to the Daily notes archive, you can get an idea for this. The stuff we just archived was from November 3rd. And here's all the things I had here and it just kind of blops them in

3rd. And here's all the things I had here and it just kind of blops them in here. When

here. When we archive the next day, it'll go below this on the list as well. So this is searchable. This is understandable

searchable. This is understandable by the LLM that I'm using to kind of sort things to rearrange things. But yeah,

there's some other stuff in here. You can have like project files. You can create text files, um, with projects you're working on, uh, notes

files. You can create text files, um, with projects you're working on, uh, notes are really important. I find this really helpful. You

helpful. You can put some information on specific people you work with, meeting notes are huge. I am in a lot of

huge. I am in a lot of meetings. So remembering what we talked about, who we talked about it with, what

meetings. So remembering what we talked about, who we talked about it with, what was said. This is really

was said. This is really important. So, um, again, these are just fake media

important. So, um, again, these are just fake media notes, but basically, I am almost always using something to get a transcript and a summary of what we talked about, and I'm saving that immediately after the call finishes. I'm copying the summary or the

finishes. I'm copying the summary or the transcript. I'm creating a new note in

transcript. I'm creating a new note in here. Uh, I have a template setup, um, whatever, but like I just call it, like a

here. Uh, I have a template setup, um, whatever, but like I just call it, like a one-on-one uh with Marcus. And then I would just paste my

Marcus. And then I would just paste my notes.

right? I would just paste the meeting notes here. Um, and the way that I do them with um, I use granola, often

here. Um, and the way that I do them with um, I use granola, often to do this, which gives me a list of who I was with, the time, the name of the meeting. Really

meeting. Really nice. works really

nice. works really well and has a really generous free option, which I'm actually still using, so that's cool. But I just paste that here and

that's cool. But I just paste that here and it's all searchable. Again, research is here, projects, whatever. assets, series templates, let them create a new series or whatever,

whatever. assets, series templates, let them create a new series or whatever, you can have a template for files. Um, so as an example, it's actually go to uh, Ghosty again, um, make a new project file for something about affinity studio apps, right? And so this is going

right? And so this is going to be... not great.

to be... not great.

Um, right? It's not going to be very detailed because I'm not giving it much information, but it is going to go ahead and take this series template and it's going to create an affinity suite. And so here it

suite. And so here it is. And it's, it's,

is. And it's, it's, you know, it's done the LLM thing where it fills out a bunch of info, but you don't have to do that.

When I have done these in the past, I do use a template and then I have it create these files for me, but I am dictating to my computer for like 5 to 10 minutes sometimes, giving it tons of context for what I want, and then it kind of, I kind of just like ramble, and then it, kid, does a pretty good job of sorting it into the structure that I need, finding the key details, and then I go through it and I start editing and changing things, and rewriting a lot of it. But having something to edit is a lot easier than having just a blank page

staring back back at you. So I find this really helpful for kind of starting projects like

you. So I find this really helpful for kind of starting projects like that. You definitely don't want to just give, like, just

that. You definitely don't want to just give, like, just push the slop to production or to whoever you're giving this to, but yeah, I do find it helpful to get something on the page. Um, then I have a fire folder where I put like customers

page. Um, then I have a fire folder where I put like customers who are on fire right now and need really quite a bit of attention.

I'll put notes here so I can just kind of like remind myself what's going on here very quickly, but most of the time I'm doing the rest of my work, and then I'll just, I'll kind of make it smaller now. Like, this

is more like what it normally is. Um, you know, I just have, here's my to-do list, whenever I need to have a free moment to like do something, I go through here and be like, okay, well can I knock off the list? Let's do this, I got this, this and this.

Great. And then it's just a text file. So it's easy enough to add things to different

file. So it's easy enough to add things to different categories. You can just, okay, it's

categories. You can just, okay, it's text. You can delete

text. You can delete it. It's not as good as a dedicated task manager or whatever, but like, it's

it. It's not as good as a dedicated task manager or whatever, but like, it's pretty good. Um, and the daily note and

pretty good. Um, and the daily note and stuff. But I think the thing that makes it really convenient is like, if

stuff. But I think the thing that makes it really convenient is like, if at the end of the day, I had to, um, like, cut these and paste them into the archive, that would be a real pain. Whereas right now I can just say, archive my completed

pain. Whereas right now I can just say, archive my completed tasks.

Right? Just do

that. And I don't typically do this in the middle of the day. You don't really need to do

day. You don't really need to do that. But like, I

that. But like, I don't need to move them. I just told the computer to do it and it did it in a couple seconds. And that's very very

seconds. And that's very very nice. So yeah, this is the general idea for what I'm doing

nice. So yeah, this is the general idea for what I'm doing here. I will let me know if you're interested in

here. I will let me know if you're interested in this. I may do a deeper dive into exactly what's going on here, but it's helped

this. I may do a deeper dive into exactly what's going on here, but it's helped me. This idea of having this to-do's in this daily

me. This idea of having this to-do's in this daily file. Again, sometimes I'll even have them side by

file. Again, sometimes I'll even have them side by side. Maybe make it a little

side. Maybe make it a little bigger. Um, and so I can kind of see, um, my

bigger. Um, and so I can kind of see, um, my notes and my to-do list at the same time, right? Do I even need the file system over

right? Do I even need the file system over here? Maybe I could shrink that

here? Maybe I could shrink that down. Right? Like you can you can get creative with

down. Right? Like you can you can get creative with it. Obsidian is hugely

it. Obsidian is hugely customizable. But yeah, it's working

customizable. But yeah, it's working in text is liberating. So I don't know if I'll do this forever, but right now, it's really helped me just, again, wrap my hands around what I have going on, what I'm responsible for. And yeah, maybe this will, this wasn't like a full tutorial or anything, but maybe it'll give you in some ideas for how you could maybe use text files to manage the stuff you're working

on. And, uh, yeah, use LLMs to help you sort it to generate things, um, to

on. And, uh, yeah, use LLMs to help you sort it to generate things, um, to keep things up to date. Oh, I didn't even mention. A critical thing

mention. A critical thing here. A critical thing here is this claude

here. A critical thing here is this claude file. So I have told Claude, basically, reference

file. So I have told Claude, basically, reference this. This

this. This is what tells it how this whole thing works.

So when I say mark my to-do, my archive my to-do's, it knows that the key files are to-do's, which is a central action tracking for these items and notes archive is where things get, or not daily notes, uh, to do archive is where they're moved from to-do.md for reference when they're

to-do.md for reference when they're completed. I have a backlog one for

completed. I have a backlog one for backlogging. So all the structures here, you

backlogging. So all the structures here, you can use the LLM to help you build this file. But

file. But yeah, this kind of started with literally just a to-do list and meeting notes, and I've kind of grown from there with this sort of information. again, this is all

information. again, this is all placeholder. But yeah, um, let me know if this is

placeholder. But yeah, um, let me know if this is helpful. If

helpful. If you'd like to see more of a deep dive as to how I'm using this longer term. But yeah, that'd be

term. But yeah, that'd be interesting to share. So there

you go. Have a good day. Bye bye.

day. Bye bye.