How I use Readwise.io and Obsidian for note workflow
Researching on a daily basis within the technical industry can derive large amounts of unorganized data. About a year ago, I decided to revamp my entire note/research workflow for something more automated and retention proof, resulting in efficiency.
I recently thought it might be helpful to share my note taking workflow in the event someone else might find it helpful, or even share any ideas of their own workflow. A few pinpoint desired functions existed for me; searchable notes, ebook knowledge retention, blogging ideas, and manageable bookmarks. We’ll walk through each of the flows and their application(s) I exercise for my collection. Below, I will show how I use various content resources with Readwise.io and Obsidian for my note workflow.
Readwise.io
https://readwise.io/
I leverage Readwise.io as my data collector. Everything flows to and from Readwise.io (see diagram).
Readwise.io can ingest from almost 30 input types, ranging from Twitter to digital book reader highlights. I use Readwise.io as a companion for a few primary purposes; ingestion for my ebook readers highlights, annotation and notes from Youtube training, and to highlight content from a web browser intended for blog notes. I also send highlights from Raindrop.io, my bookmark manager, for general note references. Readwise sends all of these sources to my note writing application of choice, Obsidian, which does require a Full subscription for syncing to a note app (Roam, etc). I’ve really enjoyed Readwise.io, and for that reason I feel solid products like Readwise could use (reasonable) financial support to stay available and feature-rich.
Another feature of Readwise which I find helpful is the ability to display random highlighted content on a daily basis, almost like digital flash cards. I use this feature when studying for exams or certifications, so when I highlight material in ebooks for example, that material will be used for testing my recollection of the material.
For users of Evernote, Notion, Logseq, Roam, or Remnote, Readwise currently has the ability to sync with your note tool of choice. Additionally, Readwise allows the ability to export to CSV or markdown files.
Obsidian
https://obsidian.md/
Obviously I’ve made it clear that Obsidian is my note taking and recording application of choice. A number of years ago, I was a huge fan of Evernote until I once migrated to Microsoft Onenote, then I met Obsidian. Obsidian is commonly termed “your second brain” where the notes are composed in markdown language. The benefit of native markdown is that you are not locked into a proprietary note taking system (like Evernote or Onenote), offering the ability to either transfer the markdown files to another markdown based system, or upload the raw file content into another other system.
Obsidian customization is largely driven by the community where many developers offer custom Obsidian plugins. Readwise offers their own plugin for Obsidian in order to fetch and sync the contents in a Readwise account to Obsidian for this workflow.
All of the notes ingested from Readwise are automatically created into a folder titled “Readwise”, and within Readwise are two folders, Articles and Books. Obviously all book highlights end up in the folder titled books, and everything else is synced within the Articles folder. Everything we’ve reviewed will end up in one of these two folders. I either leave the content where it is or relocate appropriately given the role of the note.
O’Reilly Media
https://www.oreilly.com/
As a professional in emerging technologies such as cyber-security, coding, certification studies, and miscellaneous tools, I need a solid solution for the latest book topics to read. O’Reilly Media (formerly known as Safari) fits that bill. For a monthly or annual fee, O’Reilly offers various levels of content based on the subscription type.
When reading ebooks from a mobile device or a web browser, I’m able to highlight content I wish to send to Readwise.io, then to Obsidian, in order to retain the information in my own personal, searchable silo. Also, recall that this highlighted material can be used for testing your content retention!
Amazon Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/
We all know what Amazon Kindle ebooks are and where to find them! I usually go to Amazon Kindle for books I wish to read for personal exploration or entertainment. Much less highlighting happens here in terms of Readwise workflow, but sometimes there are ebooks which are technical in nature and are not available on O’Reilly. In that case, I use the highlighting option in the Kindle app, mimicking the highlighting feature in O’Reilly.
Web based highlights using the Readwise.io browser extension
When searching for material on the web in a browser, I use the Readwise extension for highlighting. Like ebook highlights, these highlights also get ingested into Readwise.io then to Obsidian. I only use this feature for blog post content because these highlights will arrive into Obsidian, where I can edit the material to compose a post. For all web based content not intended for a blog post, I execute Raindrop.io.
Raindrop.io
https://www.raindrop.io
Hello, my favorite bookmark manager. Smile. I’ve been through a few bookmark tools over the years and have been using Raindrop for a couple of years. Like Readwise, I’ve chosen to subscribe to the Raindrop paid plan. It costs about $30 annually but I find the features to be valuable enough to justify the cost.
The features I find most valuable in the paid plan is permanent library, full text search, and nested collections. Permanent library allows the ability to automatically save the bookmarked site, even if the site goes offline or changes. Full text search allows the ability to search for any content on the site itself, similarly to a search engine. There are many other offers Raindrop provides; if you’re in the market for a bookmark manager, Raindrop might be a solid fit.
For the majority of my web research highlighting, I highlight within Raindrop which ingests into Readwise, then to Obsidian in this workflow. I do not edit these highlights in Obsidian, and is why I chose to use the Readwise extension rather than Raindrop; they stay permanent in Obsidian.
Annotate.tv
https://annotate.tv/
If you’re like me, Youtube is a solid source of learning some subjects you may not be too familiar with. Most of the videos I view are recorded presentations or procedures, and I often wish to take notes as I view the recorded material. Annotate.tv allows the ability to capture the closed captioning from the video or the ability to type your own custom notes as the video is viewed. All of these notes are synced with Readwise then also sent to Obsidian in this workflow.
A free plan is available from Annotate.tv and the monthly paid subscription is about the same price as a monthly cup of coffee. They do offer a lifetime subscription for a one time payment of $120 (at the time of this writing), so if a user intends to use Annotate.tv for more than a couple of years, a lifetime subscription may make financial sense.
Airr
https://www.airr.io/
Airr is an app for download to a mobile device to record notes from podcasts. I’ve included a link to Youtube which offers a great explanation of it’s functionality and use case. These notes also forward to Readwise and then to Obsidian like the other workflows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej1i1sMbPh0
Highlighted PDF files
When I have PDF files I use for research, I highlight the PDF file and send it to Readwise. Readwise offers the ability to upload the highlighted PDF to the Readwise interface or email the document to an email address Readwise offers. Obviously, these highlights also get synced with Readwise and Obsidian.
Conclusion
We reviewed how I use Readwise and Obsidian for my note workflow and various other applications to automate the note taking process. If you have any other perspectives or ideas for this type of data flow, I’d enjoy hearing them!
If you found this post helpful, please consider buying a stranger a cup of coffee the next time you are at the cafe
