Bear + Obsidian — Weekly Review Routine

I’ve failed to find single tool — but I’ve found amazing combination

Bear + Obsidian — perfect combination

“The Morning Miracle”, “Daily Rituals”, “My Morning Routine”. These books get into topic of daily rituals quite deeply. I’ve established few habits and weekly review is one of them. Definitely, it’s not a daily habit, but every week I sit down, sum up my previous week and plan the next one.

I’ve been using countless apps to tackle weekly review. Starting from simple todo list ( Things, Todoist, Remember the milk ), through writing apps ( Bear, Notes ), to knowledge base systems ( Evernote, Notion, Trello, Obsidian ). I was trying to find a perfect tool. The one to solve all my problems. I’ve failed.

Now I’m using both Bear & Obsidian to handle weekly review.

What do I mean by weekly review?

My current week is planned in Bear. For each week I plan tasks for 4 contexts:

• DayOne ( all stuff related to company )
• Growth ( all stuff related to my personal growth, books, workshops )
• Family ( all meetings, home work, family activities )
• Health ( diet, workouts, appointments )

For DayOne context I try to focus on a single project. I choose 3–5 tasks to accomplish during the week. Sometimes there are few paper-work tasks regarding company. But I try to focus on 1 big thing.

Growth context is always challenging. It used to grow from week to week. I was adding more books, more courses to complete. Definitely, that’s not a good idea. Knowledge doesn’t grow linearly 😜. Now I plan 1 book per week. Also I’m going through only 1 course at a time. I spend more time on thinking and note taking.

Family context is easy. Home work, activities with wife & kids, meetings with friends.

Health is usually the same. Keeping an eye on diet and workouts.

Weekly review routine

1. Review previous week plan
2. Move plan from Bear into Obsidian
3. Write down previous week summary
4. Move back to Bear app
5. Change title to next week ( i.e. 2021 Week 28 )
6. Remove everything that was done
7. Check if any task that wasn’t completed still is valid
8. Go through Todoist tasks and copy everything that is crucial for upcoming week
9. Check calendar for any upcoming meeting ( usually all upcoming meetings are also in Todoist ) & add those tasks to next week plan
10. Try to assign tasks to specific date

At first I’m reviewing previous week. I look into all stuff I’ve managed to do & think about all tasks that I’ve missed. I’m copying weekly plan from Bear into Obsidian. At the top, I write down short note about previous week. Key points, main ideas, what went fine & what went wrong. I usually write down what was the theme of the week. I find it very helpful. Usually there is 1 thing that I’ve focused on. For a long time, I just copied weekly plan and move on to planning part. But the more I review, the more things I see to improve.

Next I move back to Bear. I keep plan for a current week in Bear. I’m constantly playing with current week’s note and Bear gives great sync. I change title of Bear note to upcoming week ( i.e. 2021 Week 28 ) and I go through plan removing all unnecessary stuff. At first I remove all DONE tasks. Leaving all undone tasks for next week is a trap. There were weeks when I kept the same tasks and just reschedule them. Currently, I approach that more carefully and I try to remove anything that is not crucial. Next I go through Todoist. I clean my inbox and go through each project.

I also go through Google Calendar and copy all upcoming meetings. Usually everything should be synced in Todoist. But Todoist <-> Google Calendar integration works really bad. I need to force resync it usually.

The last thing is assigning tasks to specific dates. It’s crystal clear that I planned too many things when I need to assign dates. Some say that calendar is the ultimate planning tool. There are only as many hours in a day.

Weekly plan is just an overview. On the other hand, I want to keep everything important there: tasks, but also meetings and habits. I want to have nice overview of each week when I get back to them after months or even years 😀.

( I’m also using Todoist as task management. Todoist is also good bucket for all upcoming tasks. Todoist is also my go-to inbox. )

Why can’t I use a single tool — Bear or Obsidian?

For a long time I was searching for a single tool to rule them all. Unfortunately, none of them provided all the required functionality. Now I stick to both Bear & Obsidian. ( Those are also 2 tools I’m using to write, organise & manage my notes ).

Why I love Bear?

• it’s working like a charm
• it’s fast
• sync is working great → I had not a single case to loose note, to sync incorrectly or not sync at all. On the other hand, Evernote is a master of messed up sync. Each and every day I had to redo my note or recheck my tasks
• I’m using Bear on iPhone, iPad & Mac
• writing experience is great
• my notes just looks beautiful

All in all, Bear is a piece of software I need for my day to day work. I use it every time I want to take a quick note, I want to save article & when I want to check my weekly schedule.

Obsidian — sample note

Why I love Obsidian?

• it’s fast
• it works great on Mac
• it gives backlinking
• it uses plain Markdown files, so I’m no longer tied to any particular format ( let’s say there is no vendor blocking )
• it need only a folder as a vault
• it syncs using any available files storage ( Dropbox, Google Drive or iCloud ) -> it also provides own sync service, but I stick to iCloud solution
• it allows me to organise my notes well ( I’m influenced by Zettelkasten & PARA methodologies )

Obsidian is a tool that I was waiting for. Since it relies on simple Markdown files, it’s just fast. It doesn’t have any advanced stuff like Notion ( but Notion is so slow, that I can make a coffee and still I’m waiting for it to index my notes ).

I use Obsidian as my personal knowledge system. This is a place, where I store all my notes with references, links & tags. This is a place, where I gather everything that is important for me.

Bear is just a temporary notes system. I treat it more like an INBOX in tasks software. I put quick notes there and move important stuff to Obsidian if needed.

Did you think about your weekly review?

Let me know if you are doing any weekly review or planning session. I’m curious how others are planning time. I was inspired by many people. I guess that’s how you come up with own system → mix & match different ideas.

The easiest way to get in touch is by Twitter → https://twitter.com/bartekwitczak

Useful resources

• Dominik Juszczyk weekly review → https://dominikjuszczyk.pl/2016/08/przeglad-tygodnia-klucz-do-produktywnosci/ ( Polish only )
• Tiago Forte PARA method →https://fortelabs.co/blog/para/
• How to take smart notes: Sönke Ahrens → https://www.amazon.com/How-Take-Smart-Notes-Nonfiction-ebook/dp/B06WVYW33Y/
• 12 Week Year: Brian Moran, Michael Lennington → https://www.amazon.com/12-Week-Year-Others-Months/dp/1118509234
• Getting Things Done: David Allen → https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280