I’ve been meaning to share an update about my progress on the Obsidian for Minimalists course. I made a few different Building in Public blog posts under the Entrepreneurship category back when I was developing the Calmer Notes course. I’m adding this blog post, and any other future blog posts going behind the scenes of the course development, to this category. I always like reading about the story behind the project from fellow creators, so I wanted to check in with a building in public update myself.

The challenge of being a part-time creator

First of all, thank you so much to those of you who have reached out to express interest in the Obsidian for Minimalists course and to find out when it will be launching. I know that most of my readers are very busy people, juggling jobs, parenting, caregiving, side projects, writing, small businesses, indiehacking, volunteering, and all kinds of other things in their very full lives. Like you, I’m trying to squeeze in work on the course into the slim margins of my own life. Some days those margins are slimmer than others, and some days those margins are entirely non-existent.

Over the past few months, I’ve been working on the Obsidian for Minimalist course in fits and starts. That’s not the way I prefer to work on projects. I much prefer when I have a chance for uninterrupted progress in a long stretch of time, like an entire day or weekend dedicated to a single project. Since large pockets of time are in very short supply in my calendar these days, I’ve been going against this preference, trying to make the most of small pockets of time when they do come up. It’s reassuring to see that there is still progress being made on the course, despite my general lack of large pockets of time. It’s a reminder for me that even though big chunks of time are likely most efficient (because I can batch tasks, keep one train of thought, and get more done per hour), these smaller portions of work and time really do add up.

So if you’re someone like me, who feels like you can only make progress on a big project when you have long stretches of unimpeded time, hopefully this can be a small piece of reassurance to you that the small pieces of progress do add up. It’s definitely reminder that I needed for myself.

What tools am I using to create the Obsidian for Minimalists course? Inside my tech stack

More practically speaking, if you’re curious to know the tools I’m using for course development, they’re (perhaps appropriately!) fairly minimalist:

  • I am creating the written and visual course material within Obsidian itself, in a separate dedicated vault.
  • I’ve been using various emojis, as well as the Iconize extension for Obsidian, to help visually categorize course material. Especially when I’m working on the course in small pockets of time, this helps me to see at a glance which portions are completed, which portions are in the midst of being built, and which portions haven’t yet been started.
Here’s a screencap of a portion of my sidebar within the Obsidian for Minimalists Obsidian vault. I’m using the ✅ emoji for completed modules, the 🚧 emoji for modules in progress, and ⛔️ emoji for modules I haven’t yet started creating.

When will the Obsidian from Minimalists course be available?

I wish so much that I had a clear, definite answer to this question. My best guess is that it will either be available in Q4 of 2023, if things go surprisingly well, or Q2 of 2024, if they don’t. A large chunk of my time is already spoken for in Q1 of 2024, so if I’m not done course development by the end of 2023, it will have to take a back seat until a bit further into the new year.

[Edited to add – Obsidian for Minimalists officially launched in December 2023! 🎉 ]

I wish that I had a more definite answer. There’s a big part of me that would much rather not share anything about the status until the course is completely done and ready to launch. But this is the reality of being a part-time solopreneur trying to fit a side project into a full (and at times, overflowing) daily life with other commitments. I wanted to share this uncertainty to help, in some small way, to normalize this piece of the puzzle for other solopreneurs and creators. Unpredictability is normal, however much we might wish that wasn’t the case. We do what we can, with the time and energy and attention and space that we have, and that is all we can offer. And this lesson (which I’m still learning myself) definitely applies to projects beyond solopreneurship, too.

Rest assured, Obsidian for Minimalists is coming, even if its arrival time is still a bit uncertain. Thanks so much for following along in this journey, and for all of your support over the years. I feel really blessed to have such a lovely community of readers and students. Thank you all!

PS – I chose the above image because I thought it fit the Obsidian for Minimalists aesthetic, but also because today I’ve been working on both the course and this blog post with a vase of white hydrangeas on my desk. I don’t usually buy fresh flowers, but these have really been a lovely addition to my workspace. So maybe I should add “white hydrangeas” to my tech stack above. :)