Uploaded September 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Mike Schmitz—of The Sweet Setup and the Focused Podcast—climbs the LYT House to chat about everything from his fascinating ability to read so many books to his new Obsidian course—and everything in between. Expect screen shares :)
Mike is the Executive Editor of The Sweet Setup where he helps people to be more productive and creative with their Apple-branded technology. He’s also the co-host of the Focused and Bookworm podcasts and posts his sketch note videos at his personal site (link below).
Mike's notable online areas of value:
Obsidian course (includes the Zero-to-Obsidian workshop): thesweetsetup.com/obsidian
Focused: relay.fm/focused
Bookworm: bookworm.fm
Personal site: faithbasedproductivity.com
🔆 Free Weekly Creative Productivity Insights: linkingyourthinking.com/learn-more-now?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=lyt_house_episode_2
🚀 MASTER OBSIDIAN: linkingyourthinking.com/obsidian-flight-school?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=lyt_house_episode_2
🗺 MASTER KNOWLEDGE: linkingyourthinking.com/workshop?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=lyt_house_episode_2
🌌 GET IDEAVERSE (Formerly the LYT Kit): linkingyourthinking.com/join/ideaverse-lite?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=lyt_house_episode_2
📚 MASTER READING: linkingyourthinking.com/how-to-work-a-book?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=lyt_house_episode_2
📺 SUBSCRIBE TO THIS CHANNEL » youtube.com/channel/UC85D7ERwhke7wVqskV_DZUA?sub_confirmation=1
00:00 - Start
01:45 - How Mike uses a mind map for writing notes
03:09 - Exporting a Mind Node file as a Markdown file
03:31 - Adding links to pages
03:55 - Having action items in the notes
04:16 - Having an emoji system
04:56 - On the Theater of War
06:01 - What Mike does when someone mentions a book
07:13 - On bookshelves being a map
07:51 - Mike’s 3 sentence summary
08:45 - How to Read a Book
09:35 - Reading a book is having a conversation with the author
10:07 - How Steal like an artist influenced Mike
12:15 - The box of crayons story
13:32 - Mike’s Sketch Notes
15:35 - Atom Note-Taking
16:06 - What Mike loves about the local graph
18:42 - Mike’s personal retreat framework
19:21 - Mike’s personal retreat from quarter 2021
0:19:24 - Listing down his core values
0:19:28 - Wheel of life exercise
19:52 - Using radar charts
20:23 - What Mike and his wife ask themselves
21:48 - Mike’s articles that he’s writing
23:51 - Mike’s favorite workflow
0:21:54 - Tracking his articles with a Kanban note
25:30 - Why he uses the tracker plugin
28:56 - A list of all the plugins that Mike uses
32:13 - The logic behind his note structure
33:36 - About his 3 sentence summary practice
34:31 - When Mike processes his notes
35:04 - What David Sparks shared with Mike
35:25 - The real value of playing with your PKM system
35:57 - Single vault vs multiple vaults
37:29 - Mike’s Obsidian course
40:28 - How does Mike keep note-making from a mere mashup of captured texts?
40:39 - One of the big things that Mike got from the Linking Your Thinking workshop
42:07 - The benefit of forcing yourself to sit down and write your thoughts down
43:04 - The benefit of connecting your notes together in one note
43:31 - What to do with your insights
44:23 - Where Mike learned to do sketchnotes
44:55 - Refer to Mike’s article: My Sketchnoting Journey
45:19 - Can Mike demo his drawings
46:30 - Where Mike gets his copy of the Bible with one verse per file
47:14 - Does Mike use book summary services?
48:16 - Obsidian vs Ulysses
48:30 - What bugged Mike about Ulysses and Roam Research
49:09 - Top 3 book recommendations
52:54 - What’s the difference between Mike’s new course and his experience with the Linking Your Thinking workshop?
🐦 TWEET: twitter.com/NickMilo
📖 READ: medium.com/@nickmilo22/my-pkm-story-3763985b7a3e
🎬 LEARN OBSIDIAN: youtu.be/QgbLb6QCK88
🗿 DOWNLOAD OBSIDIAN: https://obsidian.md/
📩 EMAIL: support@linkingyourthinking.com
🖼 SOURCES/BROLL:
🏷 TAGS: #Obsidian #obsidianapp #Obsidiannotetakingapp #LinkingYourThinking
Mike Schmitz—of The Sweet Setup and the Focused Podcast—climbs the LYT House to chat about everything from his fascinating ability to read so many books to his new Obsidian course—and everything in between. Expect screen shares :)
Mike is the Executive Editor of The Sweet Setup where he helps people to be more productive and creative with their Apple-branded technology. He’s also the co-host of the Focused and Bookworm podcasts and posts his sketch note videos at his personal site (link below).
Mike's notable online areas of value:
Obsidian course (includes the Zero-to-Obsidian workshop): thesweetsetup.com/obsidian
Focused: relay.fm/focused
Bookworm: bookworm.fm
Personal site: faithbasedproductivity.com
🔆 Free Weekly Creative Productivity Insights: linkingyourthinking.com/learn-more-now?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=lyt_house_episode_2
🚀 MASTER OBSIDIAN: linkingyourthinking.com/obsidian-flight-school?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=lyt_house_episode_2
🗺 MASTER KNOWLEDGE: linkingyourthinking.com/workshop?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=lyt_house_episode_2
🌌 GET IDEAVERSE (Formerly the LYT Kit): linkingyourthinking.com/join/ideaverse-lite?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=lyt_house_episode_2
📚 MASTER READING: linkingyourthinking.com/how-to-work-a-book?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=lyt_house_episode_2
📺 SUBSCRIBE TO THIS CHANNEL » youtube.com/channel/UC85D7ERwhke7wVqskV_DZUA?sub_confirmation=1
00:00 - Start
01:45 - How Mike uses a mind map for writing notes
03:09 - Exporting a Mind Node file as a Markdown file
03:31 - Adding links to pages
03:55 - Having action items in the notes
04:16 - Having an emoji system
04:56 - On the Theater of War
06:01 - What Mike does when someone mentions a book
07:13 - On bookshelves being a map
07:51 - Mike’s 3 sentence summary
08:45 - How to Read a Book
09:35 - Reading a book is having a conversation with the author
10:07 - How Steal like an artist influenced Mike
12:15 - The box of crayons story
13:32 - Mike’s Sketch Notes
15:35 - Atom Note-Taking
16:06 - What Mike loves about the local graph
18:42 - Mike’s personal retreat framework
19:21 - Mike’s personal retreat from quarter 2021
0:19:24 - Listing down his core values
0:19:28 - Wheel of life exercise
19:52 - Using radar charts
20:23 - What Mike and his wife ask themselves
21:48 - Mike’s articles that he’s writing
23:51 - Mike’s favorite workflow
0:21:54 - Tracking his articles with a Kanban note
25:30 - Why he uses the tracker plugin
28:56 - A list of all the plugins that Mike uses
32:13 - The logic behind his note structure
33:36 - About his 3 sentence summary practice
34:31 - When Mike processes his notes
35:04 - What David Sparks shared with Mike
35:25 - The real value of playing with your PKM system
35:57 - Single vault vs multiple vaults
37:29 - Mike’s Obsidian course
40:28 - How does Mike keep note-making from a mere mashup of captured texts?
40:39 - One of the big things that Mike got from the Linking Your Thinking workshop
42:07 - The benefit of forcing yourself to sit down and write your thoughts down
43:04 - The benefit of connecting your notes together in one note
43:31 - What to do with your insights
44:23 - Where Mike learned to do sketchnotes
44:55 - Refer to Mike’s article: My Sketchnoting Journey
45:19 - Can Mike demo his drawings
46:30 - Where Mike gets his copy of the Bible with one verse per file
47:14 - Does Mike use book summary services?
48:16 - Obsidian vs Ulysses
48:30 - What bugged Mike about Ulysses and Roam Research
49:09 - Top 3 book recommendations
52:54 - What’s the difference between Mike’s new course and his experience with the Linking Your Thinking workshop?
🐦 TWEET: twitter.com/NickMilo
📖 READ: medium.com/@nickmilo22/my-pkm-story-3763985b7a3e
🎬 LEARN OBSIDIAN: youtu.be/QgbLb6QCK88
🗿 DOWNLOAD OBSIDIAN: https://obsidian.md/
📩 EMAIL: support@linkingyourthinking.com
🖼 SOURCES/BROLL:
🏷 TAGS: #Obsidian #obsidianapp #Obsidiannotetakingapp #LinkingYourThinking
